Cameo
Beach Club

Cameo is the little pine tufted islet you have already seen if you have ever searched for Zakynthos, the second most photographed spot on the island after Shipwreck Beach, tied to the harbour at Agios Sostis by a long wooden footbridge. The bar that occupies it has lived two lives. A decade ago it staged the most famous party nights in Laganas bay, white dress codes and all. Today it trades as something gentler and, we would argue, better: a daytime beach bar with DJ music, a pebble swimming cove, and the single best sunset terrace on the south coast.

On the Zakynthos club directory we rank it first not because it is the most comfortable day on the island, it is not, but because it is the one venue here that gives you something no other Greek island bar can: the keys, briefly, to an island of your own. What that costs, and what it does not buy, is the substance of this page.

The transaction is refreshingly literal. You pay at the gate, a camera clicks, and somewhere between the bridge and your first drink you are handed a keyring with your own face on it, the least pretentious membership card in the Mediterranean. What it admits you to is a few hundred square metres of pine, terrace and pebble, a bar with DJ music at holiday volume rather than club volume, and water so clear over the white stones that the swimming photographs better than most sand beaches swim.

What it does not buy is seclusion, and anyone selling Cameo as a hidden gem is a decade out of date. In July and August the islet operates at capacity from late morning, there is a queue for the famous bridge photo, and the handful of shaded seats are long claimed. The concierge arithmetic is simple: this is the cheapest private island experience you will ever be offered, priced accordingly, and shared accordingly. Treat it as a two hour visit with a swim and a drink, not a base for the day.

The hour redeems everything. Come at five and stay past sunset, when the bay goes copper behind Marathonisi and the day boats have gone home, and the islet briefly feels like what it looks like from the air. The shortfalls are honest ones: stones underfoot in the shallows, so bring water shoes, a bar menu rather than a kitchen, so eat before or after in Laganas, and no quiet corner at midday in peak season at any price. For the full soft sand day Cameo cannot give you, the long stretch at Banana beach on the Vassilikos peninsula is the island’s answer.

The islet sits at the western end of Laganas bay, inside the National Marine Park that protects the loggerhead turtles nesting along this coast, and the small harbour of Agios Sostis beside it still works its fishing boats between the tour departures. A few minutes east the sand begins: the long, busy run of Laganas, the island’s biggest beach, with the turtle islet of Marathonisi moored offshore like a green whale. Swimmers here share the bay with the turtles, which is a better amenity than any bar can print on a keyring.

From Laganas it is a walk of roughly eight minutes along the beach to Agios Sostis, or about three kilometres by road following the Agios Sostis signs, with free parking reported by the start of the footbridge. There is nothing to book for an ordinary visit: cross the bridge, pay the gate, collect your keyring and find your patch of pebble. The two cases worth arranging ahead are private events, the islet hosts weddings and celebrations by direct arrangement, and any evening plans in high season, since programmes and closing hours shift with the calendar.

If you want your visit, an event enquiry or a sunset table settled before you travel, send your date and party size through the form below. We pass the enquiry to the venue to confirm current hours, the entry arrangement and any event schedule for your date, and it costs you nothing.