Alykanas Beach Grand Hotel
Alykanas Beach Grand Hotel by Zante Plaza is a four-star all-inclusive resort right on a calm sandy bay at Alykanas, a quiet village on the northeastern coast of Zakynthos in the Greek Ionian islands. Families come for the beach: soft light-coloured sand and water that stays shallow and calm a long way out, with the sand right in front of the hotel.
On this page
Is it worth it?
The quick read before the detail: who it suits, what's in the all-inclusive price and the facts to skim first.
Alykanas Beach Grand Hotel is a mid-market, four-star, all-inclusive resort in a quiet village on the northeastern coast of Zakynthos, with the sand right outside. The price covers three meals a day, snacks between them, soft drinks through the day and alcoholic drinks from mid-morning to late evening. What families come for is the beach, soft sand that shelves gently into calm, shallow water, an easy one for paddling with a toddler. It's a compact resort rather than a big complex, and there's no waterpark, so if slides and a packed activity programme are what the children want, a larger Zakynthos resort will suit you better. Guests rate the location, the staff and the housekeeping highly and see it as good value for the price; the common gripes are evening noise in the pool-facing rooms, a weak snack bar and the lack of a separate evening bar.
Best for
You want a calm, sandy, shallow beach right outside the hotel, a relaxed all-inclusive in a quiet village and a short airport transfer with a baby or toddler.
Maybe not for
You want a waterpark and big slides, a lively resort with nightlife on the doorstep, or a kids' club you know the hotel itself runs.
Best ages
Babies and toddlers, for the shallow water and the calm setting. There's a Baby Club and a children's pool, though older children have less to fill a day.
What stands out
The beach. Soft sand and calm, shallow water on a sheltered Ionian bay, right in front of the hotel.
What to check
Whether you can use the kids' club, since a tour operator runs it rather than the hotel, plus the cot for a young baby and a garden-side room for an early sleeper.
Where is it?
Right on Alykanas Beach in northeastern Zakynthos, about 20 to 25 minutes from Zakynthos airport and 9 miles (15 km) from Zakynthos Town.
Quick facts for families
The resort and its setting
Where it sits on the island, how the site is laid out and what the Venus Block annex means for a family.
The hotel sits directly on Alykanas Beach on the northeastern coast of Zakynthos, about 9 miles (15 km) northwest of Zakynthos Town. Alykanas is a small, low-key village, and the resort centre with its shops and tavernas is a short flat walk of about 400 m. The island's club scene is over on the opposite coast at Laganas, so evenings here stay quiet, which is the trade-off you make by choosing this side of the island.
It's a four-star, all-inclusive resort run by Zante Plaza Hotels and Resorts, and the official description notes recently renovated rooms and public spaces. The all-inclusive package covers three meals a day in the main buffet restaurant, snacks between meals, soft drinks from 07:30 to 23:00 and alcoholic drinks from 10:00 to 23:00.
The resort itself is compact: a main beachfront building where the restaurants, pools and facilities all sit, plus a separate annex called the Venus Block about 90 m away. The Venus Block is the value option, with the cheapest rooms, but it has no pool or facilities of its own, so its guests walk over to the main hotel for every meal and everything else. That 90 m is easy enough on its own, but doing it at each meal sitting with a toddler and a pushchair is worth picturing before you book a room there, so it suits older, walking children more than babies.
Every restaurant and bar
The buffet and its mealtimes, the snack bar, the beachfront extra and how the bar and evenings work.
The main buffet restaurant is where all three included meals are served, with indoor and outdoor seating and a show-cooking station where dishes are cooked in front of you. The dinner menu changes daily around a theme, and families single the food out for its variety and freshness, it's the part of the all-inclusive guests are happiest with. High chairs are available. Breakfast runs 07:30 to 10:00, lunch 12:30 to 14:30 and dinner 19:00 to 21:30, with an early breakfast if you ask. In peak periods the restaurant can get fuller than there are tables at dinner, so it's worth arriving near opening time when it's busy.
Snacks are served between meals, from 11:00 to 12:00 and 15:00 to 17:00, and ice cream and fruit are part of the package too. The snack bar itself is the weakest bit of the food: guests describe it as bland and much the same pizza and sandwiches each day, with only a few options on the drinks dispensers. Down on the sand there's a kiosk where you can take your all-inclusive meals by the sea.
Bocca Beach House is a separate beach bar and restaurant on the sand in front of the hotel. It isn't part of the all-inclusive package, so food and drinks there cost extra, though hotel guests get them at a discount. It's the option if you fancy a café-style or à la carte meal by the water rather than the buffet.
The bar sits inside the restaurant building rather than being a separate place to sit out in the evening, and a few guests miss having a proper bar of its own; it can also be short-staffed at busy times. Reviewers also describe the range on offer at the bar, both the alcoholic and the non-alcoholic drinks, as limited rather than varied. Cocktails are included, if not made with premium spirits. Evenings bring a programme of theme nights, a Greek night, a Latin night, live rock music and a karaoke and DJ night, run poolside and finishing around 23:00.
Gluten-free and lactose-free menus are available on request rather than as a standing part of the buffet, so if anyone in the family is coeliac or has a real intolerance, contact the hotel before you book rather than assuming the buffet will cover it. A few guests have also found the everyday menu repetitive and the vegetarian choice limited.
Rooms and suites
Every room type, which suits a family with a baby or toddler, the two pools and the calm shallow beach.
The resort has six room types, from the entry-level Superior rooms up to a two-bedroom family room and a stand-alone Holiday House. The table below lists them all. One thing to flag on sizes: only the Holiday House has a size confirmed by the hotel. The figures shown for the Superior rooms and the two-bedroom family room come from a tour operator that works with the resort, so take them as a guide rather than a firm figure, and no size is published for the Deluxe Suite or the Venus Block room.
| Room | Size | View or position | For families |
|---|---|---|---|
| Superior Room Side Sea View | 25 to 27 m² (reported) | Side sea view | Balcony, with a side view of the sea |
| Superior Room Garden View | 25 to 27 m² (reported) | Garden | Balcony or terrace on the quieter garden side |
| Deluxe Suite Side Sea View | Not published | Side sea view | A step up from the Superior rooms |
| 2 Bedroom Family Room Garden View | 45 m² (reported) | Garden | Two separate bedrooms, so children can sleep apart from you |
| Holiday House | 90 m² | Not specified | The largest unit, a villa or cottage style |
| Double Standard Venus Block | Not published | Annex, 90 m from the main hotel | The cheapest room, but a walk to every meal |
For a family, the room that makes the difference is the 2 Bedroom Family Room, which has two separate sleeping rooms, so a baby or toddler can nap and go down for the night behind a closed door without keeping you out of your own room. The Holiday House is the largest and most spacious choice. The Superior rooms are the standard doubles in a sea-view or a garden-view version, and every room across the resort has a balcony or terrace, air conditioning, a TV and Wi-Fi.
One thing worth knowing before you arrive: a "double" here is usually two single beds pushed together, sometimes with a gap in the middle, which is the standard setup rather than a mistake. If you'd rather a proper double, ask for it when you book. A baby cot is available on request, though one recent guest found the cot mattress too thin to be comfortable putting their baby on, so if you have a young baby it's worth checking the cot on arrival, and a travel-cot mattress overlay is cheap insurance to pack.
The Superior rooms that face the pool get the evening entertainment through the walls until around 23:00, and one guest mentioned bins being moved near midnight. If yours is an early sleeper, ask for a room on the garden side, away from the pool. The hotel lists a lift, but one family reported none in their part of the resort, so lift access can't be assumed for every room block. If you're travelling with a heavy pushchair, ask at booking whether your room block has one. A few one-off notes from recent guests round this out: some loose floor tiles in one room, some sound carrying between bathrooms, and in one case kitchen smells drifting in through an open window near the restaurant. These are single reports rather than a pattern.
The pools and water features
The resort has a main outdoor pool with free sunbeds around it, a separate children's pool with small slides for younger children, and an outdoor Jacuzzi, listed among the free facilities rather than as a spa extra. The hotel doesn't publish the pool sizes or depths. Pool towels are charged for, unlike the sunbeds. In high summer the poolside sunbeds fill up early, by around 09:00; the hotel discourages reserving them with towels but doesn't enforce it consistently, so if a lounger by the pool matters to you, be down early. It's a compact beach resort rather than a waterpark one: big slides, a heated pool and an indoor pool aren't among the listed facilities, so families set on water-play attractions tend to look at the larger resorts elsewhere on the island.
The beach
The beach is the strongest reason to come. Alykanas Beach runs right up to the hotel, so there's no road or walk to reach it. The sand is soft and light-coloured, and the bay shelves very gently, so the water stays shallow a long way out and stays calm, this sheltered northeastern coast doesn't get the winds that churn up the Aegean islands. For toddlers and young children paddling at the edge, it's about as easy as Greek beaches get. Sunbeds on the beach are free. The sea is warmest in August, around 26 to 27°C, and stays swimmable from about June to October (see the weather section below).
Right next to the hotel's stretch is a commercial beach club that hires out sunbeds. Through the afternoon it plays amplified music, loud enough that some guests have found it too much, though it stops around 18:00. It's outside the hotel's control, but worth knowing if you're hoping for a quiet beach through a baby's afternoon nap. The hotel doesn't list watersports hire of its own; boat trips run from the nearby port, about a 20-minute walk along the beach, rather than from the hotel.
The beach is part of the wider habitat of the loggerhead sea turtle, and you might occasionally see one offshore, though they favour quieter nesting beaches further south. The protected sea daffodil, a white coastal lily, also grows along here, a small bit of nature-spotting right outside the hotel.
Babies and toddlers
The Baby Club, the kids' club and its important catch, and everything else that fills a young family's day.
There's a Baby Club that runs activities for the youngest children and lends baby equipment to parents. It costs extra, and the hotel doesn't publish a price or a list of what's on offer, so ask the hotel what it includes and what it costs. A UK tour operator lists it for children up to about three, so check the age with the hotel when you book.
The kids' club comes with an important catch. It's run by a Czech tour operator, Fischer, and not by the hotel, which the hotel states plainly. If you book through Fischer, it runs six days a week with morning, afternoon and evening sessions, about 35 hours in total, small groups of around seven children and Czech- or Slovak-speaking staff, for reported ages of about four to eleven. The programme covers water games, sport, English lessons, beach yoga and treasure hunts. If you're a UK family booking through Jet2, TUI or direct, you're not a Fischer guest, and whether you can use the club at all, and on what terms, is something only the hotel can tell you, so ask before you travel rather than assuming it's there for you.
There's a children's playground, though it sits outside the main building and gets muddy in wet weather, so it's less use on a rainy shoulder-season day. A soft play area is listed too, though one guest felt it wasn't really set up for the under-ones. The evening programme includes a mini disco for children. The buffet's variety means there's usually plenty a weaning baby can eat, though the hotel doesn't offer specific baby food such as jars or purées.
On resortThings to do
The official facilities list names a single programme, Day Activities & Night Animation, covering the daytime activity schedule and the evening entertainment as one listed facility rather than two. In practice that means the poolside theme nights covered above, Greek, Latin, live rock and karaoke and DJ, plus the children's mini disco each evening; the site doesn't publish a separate timetable for what runs earlier in the day. Indoors there's a pool table and air hockey, worth knowing given the resort has little else to fall back on if the weather turns. The site also has barbecue facilities, a co-working space and car rental. Reception runs a ticket service if you want to book a day out. The official facilities list doesn't name a gym, tennis, a sports academy, watersports hire or mini-golf, so if an activity-packed resort is what you're after, you'll find more at somewhere like Domes Aulūs Zante or Atlantica Eleon.
The Heaven Spa offers massages, including hot stone and aromatherapy, along with facials and body treatments, and there's a sauna and spa centre. None of it is part of the all-inclusive package, and there's no published price list, so ask at the spa for treatments and costs. The usual Zakynthos day trips can be booked through reception too: the boat trip to Shipwreck Beach, the Blue Caves, turtle-watching evening boat trips, Zakynthos Town and island cruises.
A day at a sister hotelDay trips to the sister hotels
If you fancy a change of scene, the all-inclusive package comes with a Day Pass to four sister Zante Plaza hotels around the island: Klelia Beach, Exotica Hotel and Spa, Keri Village and Spa and the Zante Plaza Hotel and Apartments. You spend a day at one of them using your all-inclusive package there. It needs arranging in advance with reception rather than just turning up, so plan it a day or two ahead.
Off the parkThe area and days out
Alykanas village is a 400 m walk away, with tavernas, cafés, mini-markets and gift shops, low-key and an easy flat stroll. Its slightly larger neighbour Alykes is about half a mile (1 km) on, with a longer beach and a small harbour, and the salt flats between the two villages draw a bit of birdlife. A local bus stops about 150 m from the hotel and runs into Zakynthos Town.
Zakynthos Town, the island capital, is 9 miles (15 km) away, about 20 minutes, with the Venetian castle up at Bochali, a Byzantine museum, a long seafront and the main port where the excursion boats leave. From there or from Porto Vromi you can reach Shipwreck Beach, or Navagio, the cliff-backed cove with a stranded ship that's only reachable by boat, about 11 miles (18 km) away. The Blue Caves at Cape Skinari, the island's northern tip, are reached only by small boat from Skinari or Makris Gialos, and make a half-day trip rather than a quick stop. The Bay of Laganas on the south coast, about 12 to 16 miles (20 to 25 km) away, is the Mediterranean's main loggerhead turtle nesting area, with supervised evening turtle-watching trips to Gerakas beach or other sites run by ARCHELON, the Greek sea turtle conservation society. Tsilivi, 5 miles (8 km) south, is the island's main family resort town and a livelier day out if you want one.
Loves and gripes
What guests rate and what frustrated them, how it stacks up against the other Zante resorts, the journey in and the weather.
What families love, and the gripes
The same four things guests write about most are also where Booking.com's own sub-scores come out highest: location at 9.3 out of 10, staff at 8.8, value for money at 8.4 and cleanliness at 8.2.
What families love
- The beach and its calm, shallow water, the thing guests rate highest.
- The staff, warm and helpful, often named in reviews.
- The housekeeping, with rooms and shared areas kept notably clean.
- The variety and freshness of the buffet food.
- The value for the price paid.
- Being able to use the pools, restaurant and showers after checkout if a later flight leaves you waiting.
Common gripes
- Evening entertainment noise in the pool-facing rooms, until around 23:00.
- The cot mattress, flagged as too thin by one family with a baby.
- The snack bar, bland and repetitive.
- No separate bar to sit at in the evening.
- Doubles made up as two singles pushed together.
- Sunbed pressure at the pool in August.
- Afternoon music from the beach club next door.
- Wasps in September and October.
- Little to do indoors on a wet day.
- Lift access that can't be assumed for every room block.
- One-off reports of bites on extra beds and a sewage smell near the lift.
How it compares
Within the Zakynthos family shortlist, Alykanas Beach suits you if you want a genuine village beach over a big managed resort. Domes Aulūs Zante is a five-star with a much deeper children's programme and a crèche from four months old, at a higher price and on the opposite coast. Atlantica Eleon near Tsilivi has a waterpark, the choice if slides matter most, though its beach is sand and pebble. Lesante Classic and Lesante Cape are five-star luxury and cost a good deal more. Caretta Beach is the other waterpark option, with more for older children, but has no beachfront of its own and runs a bus to the sand. What sets Alykanas Beach apart in this group is the calm, sandy, shallow beach right outside the door.
Getting thereGetting there and when to go
You fly into Zakynthos International Airport, about 9 miles (15 km) from the hotel, roughly 20 to 25 minutes by taxi or about 40 minutes by coach. Direct charter flights run from most major UK airports through the summer. One quirk to know: the airport closes to flights between 22:00 and 05:00, because a turtle-nesting beach lies on the flight path, so if your charter is timed late at night or very early, check it falls within the hours the airport operates. You can book a private taxi transfer through the hotel's own booking site, or take the local bus, which stops about 150 m away; the hotel also runs a shuttle for a surcharge. If you're arriving by sea rather than by air, the hotel is about 25 minutes' drive from Zakynthos Harbour in Zakynthos Town, following the signs to Alykes and Alykanas, or a longer drive from St Nicolas Harbour at the island's northern tip via Volimes and Xygia Beach. Coming from the Greek mainland, the Levante Ferry crosses from Killini to Zakynthos Town, from where the same road route applies.
The resort is open for the summer season, typically May to October, and the core family months are June to September. For young children, June is a good balance, warm at around 30°C, dry, with the sea about 22 to 23°C and fewer crowds. July and August are hottest, into the low thirties, and busiest, so shade and early starts matter. September stays warm and quietens down, though wasps become more common. May and early October are cooler and wetter shoulder weeks.
When to goWeather, month by month
These are long-term monthly averages for Zakynthos, and they apply directly to Alykanas on the island's sheltered eastern coast. Rainfall stays low right through summer, only 3 to 5mm across July and August, before rising to around 60mm in September and roughly 95mm by October as the season winds down. Sunshine holds at ten to twelve hours a day from May to September and drops to about seven by October. The warm, low-rain window for a family is roughly June to September.
| Month | Daytime high | Overnight low | Rain | Wet days | Sea temp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May | 25° | 14.5° | 14 mm | 3 | 19° |
| June | 30° | 18.5° | 14 mm | 1 | 23° |
| July | 33.5° | 21° | 3 mm | 0 | 26° |
| August | 33.5° | 21.5° | 5 mm | 1 | 27° |
| September | 29° | 18.5° | 58 mm | 4 | 26° |
| October | 24.5° | 15° | 95 mm | 6 | 24° |
Typical monthly averages from weather-station records. Sea temperature is the open-water figure, so a sheltered bay can feel a degree or two warmer. The hotel runs through the summer season, typically May to October.
Good to know
Getting in. Greece is a standard Schengen destination and there's no UK government advisory against travel. Your passport needs to have been issued less than ten years before you arrive and to be valid for at least three months after you leave; a passport renewed before October 2018 can fall foul of the ten-year rule, so check it. UK visitors can stay visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180. Amounts of €10,000 or more in cash must be declared on entry. The EU's new Entry and Exit System is coming in, though Greece has said it won't be taking UK travellers' biometric data at the start. Rules can change, so check gov.uk before you travel.
Health. A UK Global Health Insurance Card, the GHIC, covers medically necessary state healthcare, but it isn't a substitute for travel insurance, so take both. The emergency number is 112, or 166 for an ambulance. Island medical facilities are more limited than on the mainland; Zakynthos General Hospital is about 10 miles (16 km) from the hotel and the nearest pharmacy is 500 m away. Bring any prescription medicines in their original packaging with a doctor's note.
Practicalities. Check-in is from 14:00 and check-out is 11:00, with an express option. There's free secure parking and free Wi-Fi throughout, though the Wi-Fi is the thing guests rate lowest. Rooms have a safe, and there's luggage storage, currency exchange on site, laundry for a charge and rooms adapted for guests with disabilities. Greece uses the euro and 220-volt sockets.
Questions
The things families ask most, the ratings as a rough steer and where to see the photos.
Can we use the kids’ club if we book through a UK operator?
Maybe, but you can't assume it. The club is run by the Czech operator Fischer and set up for Fischer's guests. If you've booked through Jet2, TUI or direct, email the hotel before you travel and ask straight out whether you can use it and what it costs, so you know before you're relying on it.
Is there a cot, and is it any good for a young baby?
A cot comes on request, so ask for one when you book. One recent family found the mattress too thin, so check it on arrival, and if your baby is small it's worth slipping a travel-cot mattress into the case as a backup.
Which room should we book with a baby or toddler?
The two-bedroom family room, if the budget allows, for a separate room to nap and settle the children in. Whichever you pick, ask for the garden side rather than a pool-facing room if you have an early sleeper, and skip the Venus Block annex, which means a walk over to the main hotel for every meal.
When is the best time to go with little ones?
June or September. Both are warm enough to swim and short of the July and August peak for heat and crowds, and June has the edge of coming before the wasps that turn up from September.
Anything to watch with the flights?
Zakynthos airport shuts overnight, from 22:00 to 05:00, so a late-night or dawn charter can't land or take off here. Check your flight times fall inside those hours before you book, especially if you're pinning a nap or bedtime around the journey.
Is the beach really all right for a toddler?
The water shelves in very gently and stays calm and shallow a long way out, which is what makes it good for small children. The one thing outside the hotel's control is the beach club next door, which plays music through the afternoon, so for a quiet nap on the sand the morning is calmer.
Ratings and reviews
As a rough steer, and current as of mid-2026, guests rate it 8.1 out of 10 on Booking.com across more than 800 reviews, 4 out of 5 on TripAdvisor across roughly 1,250 reviews and 4.3 out of 5 on Google across about 1,000. Booking.com's own sub-scores break that overall figure down: location 9.3, staff 8.8, value for money 8.4, cleanliness 8.2, facilities 8.1 and Wi-Fi 7.7, its lowest score. The scores agree on the picture: a well-run, well-located resort whose weaker points are its facilities and Wi-Fi rather than the basics.
See the Alykanas Beach Grand Hotel photos
Open the Alykanas Beach Grand Hotel photo gallery →Useful links
- Alykanas Beach Grand Hotel: the resort's own site for rooms, the all-inclusive package and the children's facilities.
- GOV.UK Greece travel advice: entry rules and safety updates before you travel.
Last updated 12 July 2026.
