Where to stay in Zante: the best resorts and areas

Laganas has a reputation, and the main strip lives up to it: a mile or so of bars, clubs and fast-food joints that pulses all night in high summer, packed with young groups who came here to dance. If that's what you want, nowhere in Greece does it better.

But the beach itself is a stunner, a long, wide curve of golden sand on Laganas Bay, part of the National Marine Park and a nesting ground for loggerhead turtles, so parts are off-limits at night. Away from the strip, there's a beachfront resort styled like a traditional Ionian village, a family hotel with sea views across the bay, an adults-only hotel close to the action, and a quieter hotel 300 metres from the sand. The airport is only about 3 km away.

Tsilivi, on the north-east coast about 6 km from Zakynthos Town, is the island's best all-rounder. The bay is sandy and shallow, the water is calm and clear, and the resort strikes a happy balance: enough tavernas, bars and water sports to fill a fortnight, none of the excess of Laganas.

It's also where Zante keeps its smartest hotels, perched in the olive groves on the hills behind the beach with views across the Ionian. Pick an all-suite hotel in an olive grove, its adults-only sister next door, a cluster of villas each with a private pool and garden, or a hotel on a sandy bay on the edge of the resort.

Argassi spreads along the coast just south of Zakynthos Town, under the green slopes of Mount Skopos. The beach is narrower than Laganas or Tsilivi, but the resort makes up for it with a lively main road of tavernas and bars, a low-key nightlife scene and a superb location: the town's harbour, squares and Venetian-era churches are about 3 km away, and the wild beaches of the Vasilikos peninsula are a short drive south.

Hotels include a resort in palm-shaded gardens, a modern hotel 200 metres from the beach, a hotel set right on the sand, and another close to the popular Vasilikos beaches.

Kalamaki sits at the eastern end of Laganas Bay, a few kilometres from the party but in a different world. Its fine-sand beach is part of the National Marine Park and one of the places the loggerhead turtles return to each year, so it closes at night and the evenings are quiet and dark. The village has a handful of tavernas and bars, and Zakynthos Town is about 6 km away.

The airport is very close, so expect the occasional plane overhead. In return you get easy transfers and good-value stays: a boutique hotel where every room is designed differently, a hotel 150 metres from the turtle beach, a beach hotel beside the marine park, and a hotel in palm and olive gardens 90 metres from the sea.