Navagio Beach is a beautiful secluded beach on Zakynthos island , with a photogenic shipwreck that’s surrounded by turquoise water and dramatic, winding cliffs.
This travel guide will explain how to get to the best Navagio viewpoint for photos, how to visit the beach by boat and see it up close, which tour packages to use in Zakynthos, and everything else you need to know before you go!
Where Is Navagio Beach?
Navagio Beach is located on the northwest corner of Zakynthos island in Greece.
Zakynthos island is easy to reach from Athens, and there are daily flights and ferries. The distance is only about 240 kilometers (150 miles) as the plane flies.
If you’re looking for more information about how to get to Zakynthos island, you can find that in my complete travel guide for Zakynthos.
How To Visit Navagio Viewpoint
If you’re mainly wanting to see the iconic postcard view and take photos of it, you can do that from the Navagio viewpoint, on the cliffs high above the beach. This is where all the great pictures of Navagio are taken, rather than on the beach itself.
You can drive to the Navagio viewpoint yourself with a car, or book a day tour package that includes transport to the viewpoint along with several other sights in Zakynthos.
It’s a tame 45 minute drive to the viewpoint from the main town in Zakynthos, and the paved road is mostly in good condition, although it turns into gravel at the very when you reach the parking lot.
there are very long lines to take pictures at the Navagio viewpoint, so you may have to wait in line for up to an hour during the summer months.
That’s largely because, only one small platform on the cliffs is open due to the authorities being worried about rockslides at the cliff. Lines are shorter in the morning, but you’ll still have to wait.
The new viewing platform is surrounded by metal railings. You can barely see the shipwreck, and you need a wide angle camera lens to take any decent pictures of the scenery because the platform is so close to it. With a normal lens, forget about it.
Overall, it’s a silly setup and I hope they come up with a better solution soon. to have such a beautiful view by tall fences on almost all sides.
The sun and heat makes it even worse! Bring a hat and maybe an umbrella.There are canteen trucks in the parking area snacks, and souvenirs, as you’d expect.
If you visit the Navagio viewpoint in the late afternoon, the eventually leave and you can take pictures all along the cliff, without people or fences the view. Just be and don’t go too close to the edge. Your safety is in your own hands here.
After the leave, you can walk through the fence and along the cliff , until you reach a Greek flag about 400 meters from the main parking area. It’s almost like a short hike, because the ground is very rocky and uneven, and there’s no shade at all from the sun.
This whole cliff at Navagio used to be open to the public,
It’s an amazing view of Navagio, and we were joined by dozens of other people relieved to see it without fences. If you walk far enough, you can even see a second beach at the bottom of the bright white cliffs.
The water is incredibly blue. The pictures on this page are not photoshopped! Believe it or not, I didn’t add any saturation at all.
Since the viewpoint is located on the west side of Zakynthos, it’s a great place to watch the sunset, and you can use a wide panoramic photo to capture the beach together with the sunset.
Keep in mind, it’s not possible to reach Navagio Beach from the viewpoint. There’s no path to go down to the beach, because the 200 meter cliffs are too steep. The only way to walk on the beach is with a boat tour, and that’s explained later in more detail.
However, the viewpoint is still one of the best sights in Zakynthos, so you should definitely add it to your itinerary!
How To Visit Navagio Beach
Even though the best pictures of Navagio shipwreck are actually taken from the steep cliffs above, it’s also fun to get in a boat and go see the beach at eye level.
Boat tours to Navagio Beach generally depart from the nearby harbor at Porto Vromi. You can show up there and try to arrange a boat rental on the spot.
Navagio tours usually give you about 1 hour at the beach, which is plenty of time to disembark, see the shipwreck, and take pictures of it from all angles. Even though Navagio looks like a white sand beach in pictures, it’s actually covered with small white pebbles.
