Xigia beach is towards the north of
Zakynthos (Zante) island on the east coast. It’s roughly 25km from the islands capital
Zakynthos Town and on a normal day that would take about half an hour to drive.
As Xigia has natural spring waters filled with collagen and sulphur it’s renowned as a top-notch therapeutic hot spot and is the perfect place for a relaxing, healing float.
The beach itself is not the best on the island, it’s small, just 35km wide, is mostly pebble under foot, it’s surrounded by huge cliffs which whilst beautiful cast shadows over large parts of the beach and has a distinct eggy smell caused by the sulphur. On top of that there’s no taverna on the beach, there’s no water sports, minimal space for sun loungers and it gets deep quickly making it challenging for weak swimmers. It can also get pretty busy, particularly when a coach or boat trip arrives.
That said, you don’t come to this beach, of all of Zakynthos’ beaches for those reasons, you come for it’s unique natural spring and to try and soak up some of that goodness for your skin.
Although there’s no taverna on the beach itself, there is a small kiosk where you can place an order that then gets lowered down in a basket to the beach. There’s also a toilet on the beach so it’s not completely devoid of facilities.
Getting to Xigia beach is straight forward, it’s right off the main coastal road that leads you round the east coast. There’s a decent, privately managed car park by the taverna that sits above the beach. It costs 3.50€ no matter how long you stay so it's great if you're there all day but not so great if you're just visiting for an hour or so. If the car parks full or you don't want to pay then you’ll have to park at the roadside but that’s not too much of an issue.
