Zakynthos

A white sand cove where a smuggling ship ran aground in 1980 and stayed, ringed by cliffs and reachable solely by water. Rockfall risk has led to a ban on landing, so boats circle at a distance offshore, and a clifftop viewpoint looks down into the bay.

Sea caves cut into the cliffs below Cape Skinari at the far north end, where the water turns a glowing blue inside. Small boats leave from Agios Nikolaos harbour, and the colour peaks while the morning sun slants in from the east.

A small island in Laganas Bay shaped like a turtle from above, where loggerhead turtles really do lay eggs in the sand. The whole bay is a national marine park, so boats slow down, and on the beach you step around the nests marked in the sand.

A key loggerhead nesting beach, closed from dusk until morning. Umbrellas may go only in the marked zone at the back, and the information hut at the entrance explains the turtle protection work.

Within the Venetian walls on the hill above town, the grounds have turned into a pine wood park. From cafe terraces on the square of Bochali village below the castle, the harbour and town lights spread out, and many people come up in the evening.

Dionysios Solomos, who wrote the Hymn to Liberty that became the Greek national anthem, was born on this island, and his tomb lies on the museum's ground floor. The church and buildings on the same square were rebuilt to their old form after the earthquake.

The church of the island's patron saint, one of the few buildings that stood through the 1953 earthquake. A silver casket holds his relics, and on the feast days in August and December they are carried in procession through town.

A lighthouse on high cliffs at the southwestern tip, above white sea stacks called Mizithres. Facing due west, its cliff edge cafe seats are taken first around sunset.

A narrow inlet biting into the western shoreline, with no sand, so swimmers climb down ladders from the rocks. Deep and clear, the water shows the bottom, and the one taverna above doubles as the car park.

A small cove on the northeast coast where sulphur springs rise between the rocks and turn the sea milky. It smells of rotten eggs, yet locals swear it helps the skin, and people cling to the rocks to soak.

On Solomos Square, holding Ionian school icons and carved church screens. Most were pulled from the rubble when the 1953 earthquake brought down nearly every church on the island. Facing the gilded screens, you can picture those interiors before the quake.

A village high on the west coast cliffs, with a large memorial cross at the seaward edge. With an open western horizon it draws an evening sunset crowd, and a few tavernas perch at the brink. Railings are mostly missing, so keep back from the drop after dark.

A 15th-century monastery on the Navagio road in the northwest, its gate guarded by a fortress-like stone tower. As abbot here, the island's patron Saint Dionysios hid and forgave his brother's killer. It slots neatly into a trip to the Navagio lookout.