Zakynthos, Ionian, Greece

Smuggler's Cove Cliffs

Smuggler's Cove, also known as Navagio (Greek for shipwreck), is the most photographed beach in Greece and sits beneath sheer 200-metre limestone cliffs on the northwest coast of Zakynthos. The cove holds the rusted hulk of the MV Panagiotis, a coastal freighter that ran aground in 1980, but the beach itself is on land and not a dive subject. Diving is conducted off the cliff faces immediately east and west of the cove, where vertical walls drop straight from the surface to 30 metres and beyond, with the visibility of the Ionian Sea regularly exceeding 30 metres. The walls are heavily fissured and host dusky grouper, Mediterranean moray, common octopus, scorpionfish, slipper lobster and the occasional brown meagre, with ornate wrasse, painted comber and damselfish on the shallower shoulders. Currents are typically weak to moderate and the site is exposed to north and west swell, so diving is restricted to calm summer days. Boat access is from Porto Vromi or Limni Keriou.