Filoxenia Hotel
Filoxenia is an all-inclusive hotel in quiet countryside on the inland edge of Tsilivi, the main family resort on Zante, one of the Greek Ionian islands. It’s run by the Margaris family, who have kept hotels on the island since 1972, and the draw for families is space and calm at an affordable price: two-bedroom family rooms with a proper second bedroom, two pools plus a children’s pool and a non-party setting a short walk or free shuttle ride from a shallow Blue Flag beach.
On this page
Is it worth it?
The quick read before the detail: who it suits, what a booking includes and where to set your expectations.
Filoxenia is an affordable, calm, all-inclusive base for families who want space rather than a big resort programme. Its real strength is the 2 Bedroom Family Room, which gives you a separate bedroom with a door to close for naps and early nights, and it’s noticeably cheaper than the beachfront luxury resorts nearby. The catch is that it’s set back about 1.5 km from the beach, reached on foot or by the free daily shuttle, and there’s no staffed kids’ club or crèche of any kind, so days are self-directed around the pools, the playground and the soft play. There are no slides or waterpark here either. A couple of practical things to weigh before you book: a lift is listed but guests report it doesn’t reach every building, and the Wi-Fi is a genuine weak point. If you book direct through the hotel the airport transfer comes in free, which is worth knowing.
Best for
You want space and calm at an affordable price and a two-bedroom family room with a second bedroom you can close for naps and early nights, and you’re happy to walk or take the free shuttle to the beach.
Maybe not for
You want a staffed kids’ club, a room on the beach or a lively resort with slides and a busy daily programme.
Best ages
Babies upwards, though with no structured childcare the days are self-directed around the pools, the playground and the indoor soft play.
What stands out
The two-bedroom family rooms with a door between the bedrooms, and staff whom guests single out by name for being good with young children.
What to check
Lift access to your specific room if you’ll have a buggy, and what airport transfer your booking includes.
Where is it?
Countryside on the inland edge of Tsilivi on Zante, in the Greek Ionian islands, about 1.5 km from the beach.
Quick facts for families
Countryside on the edge of Tsilivi
Where it sits, who runs it and what the setting means for getting around with a pram.
Filoxenia sits in quiet countryside on the inland edge of Tsilivi, at 37.80263°N, 20.873466°E, set back from the seafront rather than on it. That’s the deliberate trade the hotel makes: you’re about 1.5 km from the beach, with the resort centre a little closer, which keeps it calmer and noticeably more affordable than the beachfront luxury resorts nearby, at the cost of a walk or a shuttle ride to the sand. It’s a four-star all-inclusive hotel run by the Margaris family, who have owned hotels on Zante since 1972 under the Diana Group name, and the rooms were refreshed for the 2026 season, a change 2026 guests consistently praise.
It’s a low-rise complex of several buildings wrapped around the pool area. The newer Premium and Deluxe rooms sit alongside an older block that some guests find dated, so the room you’re given makes a real difference to how fresh the hotel feels. The hotel lists a lift, but guests report it doesn’t reach every building, so if you’ll have a buggy or heavy cases, ask the hotel to confirm lift access to your room when you book. Getting around otherwise means walking or the free daily shuttle, and it’s worth knowing that the walk to the beach is hard going with a pram in the peak summer heat. For the wider island, its beaches and when to go, see our Zante guide.
Every restaurant and bar
The buffet and its mealtimes, what’s included, the bar and how it reads for a fussy young eater.
Filoxenia keeps food straightforward. There’s one main buffet restaurant serving buffet meals at every sitting, with baby and high chairs on hand. Breakfast runs 07:30 to 10:30, lunch 12:30 to 14:30, a snack buffet 15:30 to 16:30, tea, coffee and cakes 17:00 to 18:00 and dinner 19:00 to 21:30.
Local drinks are included from 10:00 to 23:00, covering draught beer, local wine and spirits, soft drinks and water, with tea, milk and filter coffee for hot drinks. There’s an ice cream selection through the afternoon, from 10:00 to 18:00. Not everything is included, though: cocktails, room service, the pool table, massage and nail treatments, à la carte meals in the snack bar, mini-bar goods, laundry and use of the room safe all cost extra.
The food is generally well regarded, varied day to day, with several reviewers making a point of crediting the kitchen team for the effort behind it, the salad bar singled out more than once and several 2026 reviews calling it excellent. The exception is for fussy young eaters: a couple of families found the day-to-day choice of rice, potatoes and meats in sauces harder going for a toddler, with the salad bar and bread the reliable fallbacks, so it’s worth packing a few familiar snacks. Tour operators describe vegetarian and gluten-free choices at the buffet, though the hotel doesn’t set out formal allergy catering, so if your family has a specific dietary need, contact the hotel before you travel.
For drinks and daytime snacks there’s a bar and a pool bar, with local spirits and family entertainment in the evenings. Two things come up in reviews. The all-inclusive drinks and food stop at 23:00 rather than running through the night, which caught one guest expecting round-the-clock service off guard. Some guests also report the included drinks as low quality, though plenty of others don’t raise it at all.
The rooms
The four room types with their official sizes, then the pools and the beach.
There are four room types, and none has a kitchen, so this is a straightforward all-inclusive stay rather than self-catering. The table has each type with its official size in square metres.
| Room | Size | Sleeps | What you get |
|---|---|---|---|
| Premium Room | 29 m² | 3 | Two single beds and a sofa bed, or a king and a sofa bed, with a garden or pool view and the standard amenities. |
| Deluxe Room Pool View | 29 m² | 3 | A guaranteed pool view on an upper floor, with bathrobes and slippers, a Nespresso machine and a bottle of wine on arrival. Aimed at couples more than families. |
| 1 Bedroom Family Room | 29 m² | 4 | A double sofa bed in the living space rather than a separate room, plus a private terrace straight onto the pool, a kettle and a fridge. |
| 2 Bedroom Family Room | 45 m² | 4 | Two separate bedrooms with a door between them, a king in the main one and two singles in the second, plus a sitting area, a kettle and a fridge. |
For a family with a baby or toddler, the 2 Bedroom Family Room at 45 m² is the clear pick. It’s the only room with a fully separate second bedroom and a door you can close, which is what makes nap times and an early bedtime workable without tiptoeing round the rest of the evening. The 1 Bedroom Family Room is more affordable at 29 m², but its second bed is a double sofa bed in the open living space, so a sleeping child stays in the same room as everyone else. The Deluxe Room Pool View’s extras, the bathrobes, Nespresso machine and wine on arrival, are aimed more at couples than families, though its guaranteed pool view and upper-floor position may appeal.
Every room has individually controlled air conditioning, a 32-inch TV, Wi-Fi, a fridge, tea and coffee making, a hairdryer, a walk-in shower, a safe and a furnished balcony, and all are non-smoking. The air conditioning is included with no restricted hours; the renovated rooms have the most reliable cooling, so ask for one if that matters in the summer heat. Cots are free for children under two in the parents’ room.
Pools and water features
There are two outdoor freshwater pools and a separate children’s pool, the three pools guests often mention, set on a sun terrace with free sunbeds, umbrellas and pool towels from the front desk. The pools are described as clean and rarely full, with plenty of loungers. One guest found the children’s pool always in shade and so quite cold, which is worth knowing on a hot day. There’s no splash pad, no slides, no heated or indoor pool and no waterpark here, so it’s a simple set-up; families after slides do a day trip to the Tsilivi Water Park, covered below.
The beach
The nearest beach is Tsilivi Beach, about 1.5 km away, a 20 to 30 minute walk or a ride on the free daily shuttle the hotel runs down to the sand. The shuttle doesn’t run in the evenings. Tsilivi Beach is a long stretch of golden sand, around 1.5 km, with clear, shallow water that reaches a good way out and shelves gently, the kind of gentle profile that suits a toddler paddling, and it held a Blue Flag for 2026. Watersports like jet skis, parasailing and paddleboards, and boat trips to Shipwreck Beach, the Blue Caves and the turtles, run from the beach through independent operators rather than the hotel.
Babies and toddlers
What’s here for young children, what isn’t and what the wider area adds.
The single most important thing to know is that Filoxenia has no kids’ club, mini club or crèche of any kind. What there is instead is an outdoor playground, an indoor soft play area and a games room, all unstaffed, for you to use with your own children rather than a childcare service. Babysitting is available on request for a fee, though the hotel doesn’t publish the hours, cost or arrangements, so ask when you book. Cots are free for under-twos in the parents’ room, and there are baby and high chairs in the restaurant. Children aged two to eleven are charged half the adult rate. One family who stayed with a two-year-old found the staff good with him and helpful, which chimes with the wider praise for the team.
On resortThings to do
Beyond the pools, the playground and the soft play, there’s a games room with a pool table, table tennis and table football, plus a five-a-side football court. Aerobics and aqua aerobics classes run too, and bikes can be hired on request. A daytime animation programme runs alongside some entertainment most evenings, including a mini-disco, with the usual mix of bingo, live music, karaoke and quizzes. What isn’t here: there’s no spa centre, only a beauty treatment on request, no gym, no tennis courts and no watersports at the hotel itself. The Diana Group’s spas belong to its sister hotels, with no confirmed arrangement for Filoxenia guests to use them.
Beyond the resortThe area and days out
Tsilivi’s resort centre is a short walk away, a little nearer than the beach, and it’s the island’s main family resort town, with tavernas, shops and a family feel. The Tsilivi Water Park is a short drive away, with a racing slide, black-hole and ring slides, a lazy river and a pirate-ship splash area for younger children, the day out for the slides the hotel doesn’t have. Tsilivi also has the island’s only bowling alley, and the family-owned Callinico Winery and Museum nearby offers free admission and a tasting, with a Venetian-era guard tower just north of the resort for a quick look.
Zakynthos Town, the island capital, is about 3 km away, with its hilltop Bochali castle, museums and the port where most excursion boats leave. Those boats reach the island’s two headline sights, Shipwreck Beach, or Navagio, and the Blue Caves, both reachable only by sea. On the south coast, supervised evening boat trips go turtle-spotting in the Bay of Laganas, home to the loggerhead turtles whose nesting beaches are the reason for the airport’s overnight curfew.
Loves and gripes
What families come back praising and what frustrates them, how it compares, the journey and the weather.
What families love
- The staff, praised by name and noted as good with young children.
- The cleanliness of the rooms and the grounds.
- The newly renovated rooms.
- The three pools, clean and rarely full.
- The calm, non-party setting.
- The spacious two-bedroom family rooms.
- The value for money against the pricier resorts nearby.
Common gripes
- The 1.5 km walk to the beach and centre, hard work in the summer heat.
- No kids’ club, so little that’s structured for children.
- Patchy Wi-Fi, weakest in the rooms.
- Wear on the older, unrenovated block.
- Noise in some rooms, depending on their position.
- A children’s pool that runs cold in the shade.
- The all-inclusive stopping at 23:00 rather than running later.
Across the review platforms Filoxenia scores consistently well. TripAdvisor puts it at 4 out of 5 from more than 1,500 reviews, ranking it around 83rd to 87th of the 325-plus hotels listed for Zakynthos and Tsilivi. Booking.com’s own guest-review breakdown gives it 8.8 out of 10 overall, ranked 132nd of 166 Tsilivi hotels, with cleanliness (9.3), comfort (9.4), staff (9.5) and value for money (9.1) among the highest subscores and free Wi-Fi the clear outlier at just 5.0. Expedia rates it 8.2 out of 10 from 41 reviews, Google reviewers give it 4.2 out of 5 from 452 reviews and loveholidays’ own median across 1,392 reviews is 4.5 out of 5. The picture across every platform checked is the same: a well-regarded, comfortably above-average hotel, roughly four to four-and-a-half out of five or high eights out of ten, with staff, cleanliness and value the strongest recurring themes and Wi-Fi the one quantified weak point. It’s a hotel families are mostly happy with, as long as they book it for what it is.
Against the alternativesHow it compares
Filoxenia sits at the value end of the Tsilivi market, and against the island’s bigger family names the trade-offs are clear. Domes Aulus Zante is a five-star beachfront resort with a staffed kids’ club and crèche from four months; Filoxenia is far cheaper, has no club and sits 1.5 km inland. Atlantica Eleon Grand pairs a beachfront setting with a waterpark and a mini club for fours to twelves, neither of which Filoxenia has. The Lesante Cape and Classic hotels are luxury-tier, with staffed clubs and villas, where Filoxenia is the budget way to get family space. For waterslides on site, Caretta Beach Resort has its own waterpark; Filoxenia competes on price, calm and room space instead. If walking straight onto the sand matters, the beachfront Alykanas Beach Grand has the edge, where Filoxenia needs the walk or the shuttle. Within Tsilivi itself, its real differentiator is that fully separate two-bedroom family room and the quieter, set-back position.
The journey and the seasonGetting there and when to go
Zakynthos airport (ZTH) is about 8 km away, with UK charter flights through the summer season. The airport closes to flights overnight, roughly 22:00 to 05:00, to protect the turtle nesting beaches, so if your flight is timed close to those hours, check it falls within the permitted window. Book direct through the hotel’s own site and a free private airport transfer is included; if you book through a UK tour operator, check what transfer your package covers, as it’s separate from the beach shuttle. There’s no general minimum stay, though a five-night minimum applies to one specific Deluxe offer.
The hotel is open from 1 May to 31 October. June and September are the easiest months with little ones, warm and dry with the sea around 25°C in September and fewer crowds. July and August bring the peak heat and the busiest weeks, and that inland walk to the beach is hardest then. May has a cooler sea and October is the wettest month.
Month by monthWeather
Zante has hot, dry summers and milder, wetter shoulder months. September stays warm with a warmer sea than May, and October is the wettest month of the open season as it closes.
| 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 is open 1 May to 31 October.
Good to know
The practical details, the Wi-Fi to plan around and the travel and health basics for Greece.
Check-in is from 15:00 and check-out is 11:00, with early check-in on request and late check-out for a fee. There’s on-site parking, a doctor on request and currency exchange, with laundry and ironing available for a fee. Room service, use of the room safe and car hire are all available at extra cost, and pets are allowed on request up to 5 kg. The currency is the euro.
Wi-Fi is free throughout in theory, but it’s a genuine weak point: Booking.com’s own guest-review breakdown scores it just 5.0 out of 10, against 8.3 to 9.5 for every other category, and it’s patchy or absent in some rooms; see the questions below for the workaround. The hotel doesn’t publish any information on accessible or adapted rooms, so if step-free access is essential, confirm it directly before booking.
The FCDO doesn’t advise against travel to Greece; its Greece page was last substantively updated on 20 April 2026, covering the EU’s new Entry/Exit System (EES). UK visitors need a passport issued less than ten years before arrival and valid for at least three months after they leave, and can stay visa-free for up to 90 days in any 180. Greece isn’t currently collecting EES biometric data from UK travellers, so there’s no advance action needed on that front. A UK GHIC or EHIC covers necessary state healthcare, though it’s not a substitute for travel insurance; in an emergency call 112 or 166. The island’s main hospital, Agios Dionysios, is in Zakynthos Town about 3 km away, with a medical centre and a pharmacy in Tsilivi village.
The questions parents askQuestions
Is there a kids’ club?
No. Filoxenia has a playground, indoor soft play and a games room, but no staffed club or crèche, so plan on entertaining young children yourselves. If a structured kids’ club is a must-have, the beachfront resorts in the comparison above are a better match.
How do we get to the beach?
The hotel runs a free daily shuttle down to Tsilivi Beach, about 1.5 km away, and it’s roughly a 20 to 30 minute walk otherwise. The shuttle doesn’t run in the evening, so if you want dinner or a sunset on the seafront, plan to walk back or take a taxi.
Is the airport transfer free?
Only if you book direct through the hotel’s own site, which includes a free private transfer. On a tour-operator package the transfer depends on what you’ve booked, so check the details rather than assuming it’s covered.
Will we manage with a buggy?
A lift is listed but guests report it doesn’t reach every building, and the rooms sit across several blocks. Rooms are allocated in advance, so ask the hotel to note a renovated room with confirmed lift access when you book if you’ll be pushing a pram.
Can we rely on the Wi-Fi?
Not in the rooms. It’s free throughout on paper but patchy in the rooms, and several guests only got a usable signal after asking reception for a booster. If you need to be online, plan to use the lobby, where it’s strongest, rather than the room.
Will a fussy toddler eat at the buffet?
Usually, with a bit of planning. A couple of families with young children found the everyday hot dishes heavy on meat and sauce for a picky eater, and the snacks between meals thin on options a child would pick. The safe fallbacks are the fresh, plain parts of the spread, so build meals around those and pack a few familiar backups for the days nothing else appeals.
Which room is best for a baby or toddler?
The 2 Bedroom Family Room. It’s the only one with a separate second bedroom and a door to close, so a baby can nap or go down early while you carry on. It’s the room families want, so book it early. The 1 Bedroom Family Room is cheaper but its extra bed is a sofa bed in the open living area, so a sleeping child stays in the same room as everyone else.
Is there a minimum stay?
Not in general. A five-night minimum applies only to one specific Deluxe promotional rate, so if you want a shorter break, book a standard rate rather than that offer.
Can they cater for allergies or a coeliac diet?
The hotel doesn’t publish formal allergy or coeliac catering, and tour operators only mention general vegetarian and gluten-free choices. If someone in the family has a specific dietary need, contact the hotel directly before you book rather than relying on the buffet to cover it.
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Useful links
- Filoxenia Hotel: the hotel’s own site for the latest on rooms, board and facilities.
- GOV.UK Greece travel advice: entry rules and safety updates before you travel.
- Zante with little ones: our guide to the wider island, its beaches and when to go.
Last updated 13 July 2026.
