Marathonisi islet is a tiny island that’s roughly 2.5 kilometres off the coast of
Zakynthos. It’s south of
Laganas, east of
Keri and measures just 800 metres long by 300 metres wide.
To get to this little island you’d need to book yourself on to a boat trip that travels round the region stopping at caves and Marathonisi island too. There are also water taxis that leave from both
Keri beach and
Laganas beach, take a few minutes and cost around 10€. Another option is to rent a boat from one of the beaches and make your own way across.
Colloquially known as Turtle Island, due to the fact that this small spit of land is home to the precious, endangered Caretta Caretta turtle species, also known as loggerhead turtles – the island is even vaguely turtle shaped!
There’s a beach and a snack bar on Maratonisi but as the island is often full of boat trippers it does get very busy, particularly in the peak summer months. It’s also worth noting that despite the beach looking huge, it’s often got large sections cordoned off to help protect the nesting turtles and this makes it feel quite crowded at times.
