Lesante Cape Resort & Villas

When Lesante Cape was built from scratch on the hillside at Akrotiri, 408 of the olive trees already growing there were kept, and the hotel went up round them as a village. It has what a village should: a cobbled square with a kafeneio and a taverna, a chapel, and a small folklore museum, which holds more history than the buildings around it. The suites step down towards the Ionian in honey-coloured stone under timber pergolas, and many have grass growing on the roof, so a terrace higher up looks over its neighbour's meadow to the sea, and to Kefalonia and the Peloponnese beyond. In some suites the stone carries on indoors as the wall behind the bed, under a ceiling of pale beams. The private beach is pebble, about 40 steps down.

Recommended for families, from toddlers to teenagers, and for couples who would rather have a village round them than a corridor. The kids club takes four- to eleven-year-olds and is included, the teenagers have a club of their own, and there is a children's pool and babysitting; the grown-ups have an adults-only pool and the Armonia spa, and an indoor heated pool for days the Ionian looks less inviting. The resort's yachting desk takes guests on private yachts to the island's coves, and there is diving, and swimming with Caretta caretta, the loggerhead turtle. The pool and the rooms look out to sea, a view guests praise. Zakynthos Town is 1.5 kilometres by road and Bochali, for the sunset, a short drive; Tsivili beach is about 1.2 kilometres on foot. Once a week the Village Taverna has live Greek music and dancing, and the folklore gets out of the museum for the night.