Tsillivi, Zante

Firstly I just want to start off by saying this is the second review I have written on Zante, although this is more specifically about Tsilivi and that I am not just doing it for the money!

The first time we went to Tsilivi we said in the "Alamis Hotel" in Tsilivi in 2003. It was a great place to stay and had everything needed locally so you would never really have to leave the resort. I wont carry on talking about this one ...
...my earlier review "Zante - not the holiday we were expecting"


Resort
Tsilivi is located about half way up the island on the right hand coast. There is plenty to do within the resort and so if you didn't want to go outside of the resort you would not need to.
There are a number of supermarkets and fresh bakeries and gift stores so there is not much of a walk for these. However there is only one chemist ... more

Firstly I just want to start off by saying this is the second review I have written on Zante, although this is more specifically about Tsilivi and that I am not just doing it for the money!

The first time we went to Tsilivi we said in the "Alamis Hotel" in Tsilivi in 2003. It was a great place to stay and had everything needed locally so you would never really have to leave the resort. I wont carry on talking about this one though as if needed you can read all this in my earlier review "Zante - not the holiday we were expecting"

Resort
Tsilivi is located about half way up the island on the right hand coast. There is plenty to do within the resort and so if you didn't want to go outside of the resort you would not need to.
There are a number of supermarkets and fresh bakeries and gift stores so there is not much of a walk for these. However there is only one chemist we could find which was about a 30 minute walk from Tsilivi which isn't too good if you are unwell.
The first time we went there were more restaurants and only a few bars, however this time we were disappointed to find that the place was no littered with English bars pumping out music all day and night and a lot more young groups. I am not being a snob here as I myself am only 23 but if you are not looking for a quite romantic couples holiday it can be a bit annoying.

The beach in Tsilivi itself is lovely however it does get quite busy, the sea was nice and shallow and warm however the water can get a bit rough at times. There are a lot of cafes and bars along the beach many of which will let you use their sunbeds free of charge so long as you buy something from their premises. Otherwise you pay around 6 euros a day for a longer.

What to do?
We had enjoyed this holiday so much we decided to go again in 2005 to the same resort. There is a lot to do here for all ages such as Krazy Golf, a lot of island/boat tours, hiring of cars and pushbikes. I personally would not recommend motorbikes or cycles as the roads are so slippy and the drivers are very daring. Also people with young children seemed very stressed when out walking as at some parts of the pavement are missing and so require you to move on to the road. There is a local bus service which runs to other main towns and although this is on an hourly timetable it is not unusual for them to just not show up! Most of the excursion shops offer the same or similar trips and to be honest we always found these to be cheaper than the Reps we had travelled with and if you have a look round you can actually barter with the reps.

Accommodation
We decided to choose a different hotel as we were paying extra for a pool (so a travel agent told us)in the Alamis which we never really used and so stayed in one without. To be honest any of the hotels in Tsilivi or Planos are close enough for you to walk to the beach, however you need to keep in mind it does get extremely hot and is at night also and air conditioning is an added extra. I would strongly advise any one who is thinking of booking to check out some of the sites such as holiday truths or holiday watchdog to check on the apartments/hotel before booking.

Car Hire
At the start everything seemed ok and we arrived, flights fine, room as expected. However....we decided to get in early and book a car for 3 days which we always do so we can try and get the days we wanted. We went upto the first car rental company on our first day, Theo's Rentals and were told they were booked out for that week so we decided to go with the one over the road. ......BIG MISTAKE . We asked for a car and were offered a quad instead as again there were no cars free on the days we wanted. My partner and I both had experience on Motorbikes and so felt comfortable with a quad and so we decided to do this.
We signed the forms and read the small print which stated any damage would cost us 300e which was normal for cost of the hire companies and we were quite happy as the quad cost less than a car.

The next day my partner went back to pick up the quad which was literally a 1 minute walk from our apartments. He arrived back 10 minutes later and said "I have crashed the Quad". At first I thought he was joking. He explained he had pulled off from the hire company and straight away felt there was something wrong the bloody thing then tipped him off and flipped over, when we took this back the non-english speaking mechanic took the thing for a test drive and stated we had killed it and it would cost us our 300 euros!!!! After speaking to some of the bar staff we were informed this has happened before.
We eventually hired a car from Theo's - who I would strongly recommed which came complete with a map too.

So what has changed?
In just the short space of time since we had last been we had noticed the beach was no longer as clean and the streets were strewn with littler. After walking back from the restaurants for a meal you would have to walk past bins where waste food was just left at the side and the smell was horrific.
The roads were a lot busier and there seemed to be an awful lot of "boy racers" taking over the road.
The 300 euros we had been charged had really disheartend us and so we had to spend more time than we would usually in the resort. We also noticed a heck of a lot more police, I don't think we ever saw one flashing blue light the first time we went...and the icing on the cake was a football match were Greece lost and decided to set fire to a large strip of the main road.
The music was a lot louder and went on a lot longer and the amount of bars had doubled - although this is not a bad thing for some we wanted a quite holiday.

In conclusion...
I would recommend Zante for the heat, beach and bars, nightlife IF that is what you are looking for.....If like us you were after a quite relaxing couples holiday or have a young family I would not recommend this at all.
Zante is a beautiful island so do your research and make sure you pick the correct resort. 

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