My Free and Easy trip to Shipwreck Beach from DOTS drama

Since I have written about my Free and Easy trip to Shipwreck Beach (one of the popular DOTS drama location) in Burmese, I will write about it in English on my blog as requested by my non-Burmese friends.

The Shipwreck Beach is also known as Navagio Beach.

1) Location of Navagio Beach

Navagio Beach (aka) Shipwreck Beach is located on the coast of Zakynthos Island, in the Ionian Islands of Greece.

2) How do we get there?

If you want to go Zakynthos Island, first you have to fly into Athens, The capital of Greece. Then you can either go by Local Express and then Ferry OR you can fly directly from Athens to Zakynthos.

I personally prefer flying because it takes only 1hr flight time and boom… You are there. There are two local flight services, Olympic Air (https://www.olympicair.com/en) and Aegean Air (http://en.aegeanair.com/). You can purchase ticket on their website easily.

Going by local bus then Ferry would take a lot of time and it is not very easy to locate bus terminal both in Athens and Zakynthos.

3) Is it possible to go Zakynthos Island day trip from Athens?

Yes. It is.
We went to Zakynthos Island two times in the same trip because in the first time the weather was not on our side and no boat is sailing to Shipwreck Beach.

So we went there again gambling on our luck and made a day trip. We took Early morning 5:30AM flight from Athens to Zakynthos, went to Shipwreck Beach with local tour and take local KTEL bus and Ferry back to Athens departed around 2PM. We arrived back to Athens around 7PM. It was very tiring day trip and we skipped our proper lunch. But it is possible to do that if there is an early morning flight. (Not every day they have morning flight)

(Please Note that it is difficult to find local KTEL bus info on internet in English. For us, we just asked around the local people and found the bus terminal. One day four times departure from Zakynthos to Athens including Ferry ticket)

4) Where can we stay in Zakynthos Island?

When we went there, we didn’t know much about the island and we booked our hotel at Zakynthos Town (also called Zante Town). The month of May is shoulder season for a visit to Zakynthos Island. The Hotel room rate was pretty good comparing to other cities in Greece. Euro 54 per night (around SGD 82)

But we found out later that the Beach town “Tsilivi” is where most of the tourists stay and it is happening with lots of restaurants and souvenir shops. We found it by looking for Asian Food. There are Two Chinese Restaurants in Tsilivi.

If you take Taxi from Zante Town to Tsilivi, 10 mins drive and cost 11 Euro. (It seems like a flat rate).

I would recommend to stay at Tsilivi if you are visiting Zakynthos.

5) Shipwreck Viewing Platform from top

There are two ways you can enjoy Shipwreck Beach. One is from top viewing platform and the other is going to the beach itself by boat.
There is no access down to Shipwreck Beach from viewing platform.

5.1 - You can go to viewing platform by renting a car and drive by yourself. OR

5.2 - You can hire taxi (Based on the info we got, it will be around 80 Euro with waiting time 30mins there) OR

5.3 - You can rent a car and driver like what we did (At first they quote us for total package Shipwreck viewing platform + Shipwreck Beach by boat (Private tour) 75 Euro per person. But due to weather we couldn’t go by boat. So we just visited to Shipwreck Viewing Platform by car first, But we didn’t know they would be charging us by hours. They quoted us 120 Euro for 5 hrs usage of car and driver. After a bargain, they are kind enough to give us with 100 Euro).

The viewing platform is too crowded with those who came with tour group. It is very small and the view from there is not that awesome actually.

There was a trail near viewing platform. I recommend you to walk that trail and get amazing photos of shipwreck beach from the cliff. The trail was a bit rocky and the small tree can scratch your legs. Wear proper footwear to walk the trail. Take selfie stick but be careful not to fall off from the cliff while taking selfie. Safety first! There is no safety barrier and you are not safe if you are not careful.

The scenery around Shipwreck cliff 

6) Let’s go to Shipwreck Beach (By Boat)

All of you are surely want to know how to go to Shipwreck Beach. So here it is.
As I said before Shipwreck Beach is only accessible by Boat. There are no other ways. You can buy local tour package. We bought our tour at Zante town. They normally have two timing for tour. Leaving at Morning 9:30AM and Afternoon 2PM. Each tour takes about 4 hours. The tour includes – Shipwreck Beach (1 hour of time for you to swim there or take photos at the beach), and The Blue Cave (about 15 to 30 mins swimming time is given).

The tour only cost 25 Euro per person for the time we visited. There was a small bar and snack counter on board.

Here we are in Shipwreck Beach

With My Captain Yoo

The Blue Cave with Crystal Clear blue water

7) How much does it cost to travel to Zakynthos Or What are the things to consider when you budget a trip to Zakynthos?

I can only give you some general idea of cost for the time we travel in MAY because everything might be difference price for tourist seasonal time like June, July and August.

7.1 - Flight to Athens from you country (Price vary depending on carrier, transit time and your departure country)

7.2 – One night stay in Athens (If your flight time is not connecting for flight to Zakynthos. Normally local flight to Zakynthos depart at 7:30 PM)
(Room price is based on your choice of accommodation)

7.3 – Return Flight from Athens to Zakynthos (Check flight price from Olyampicair (https://www.olympicair.com/en) or Aegean Air (http://en.aegeanair.com/)

7.4 – Hotel In Zakynthos (Check Hotel.com , agoda.com, tripadvisor.com and etc)

7.5 –18 to 25 Euro per meal for two in MAY (Chinese Restaurant Rice + one soup + one dish + one mineral water bottle)

7.6 - Shipwreck + Blue cave local tour = Euro 25 per person

7.7 - Shipwreck viewing platform by car = Euro 80 to Euro 120

7.8 - taxi from Zakynthos Airport to Town (Arrival and departure)= Euro 15 + 15

7.9 - Other expenses = Euro 40 to Euro 60

7.10 – One night at Athens (Room price is based on your choice of accommodation)

Recreating DOTS famous romantic scene

The entire prices are based on the time that we visited to Zakynthos Island on May 2016. Hopefully, you now have some idea about how to go there and how much would it cost you. But let me tell you, it is extremely worth it. Currently, Zakynthos is not as popular as Santorini. So it is not as expensive as Santorini. But who knows what will be in future. Because of “Descendant of the Sun” k-drama fever, a lot of Asian tourists just like me are starting to flow in. So go now before it is crowded with a lot of tourists.

Oh! And don’t forget to pick a stone from Shipwreck Beach if you want to visit there again. That’s not what I said. It was said by Captain Yoo from DOTS drama. All of my friends do not want an expensive souvenir. They just keep asking me to pick a stone for them from that beach. Pretty handy trick huh!

Have questions? Leave a comment.

But do not ask the questions which is already stated in my post. And don’t ask me to calculate for your individual trip. If you are planning to travel free and easy, you should at least know how to estimate it. Or else I’ll charge you!

Will you become a storyteller?