It took a while to decide where to stay in Zakynthos, and after choosing The Oniro we weren't disappointed. A warm welcome by Nikos at 6am (what a great chap!) led to a week of happy memories. The room we had was great, the best I've stayed in throughout the various Greek islands, clean, smart, a comfy bed and some excellent views. Although didn't tend to hang around the studios very much as prefer to get out an about or go to the beach, the friendliness of Nikos makes me wish we did more, and we would have except Greek night was cancelled and they weren't showing the football match I was after one night, but hey, ce la vie.
The area was very nice, olive palms coating the sides of the roads, hills and beaches close by to lose a few hours or days on. Not that many restaurants in the area itself(3 or 4), although all very good, and it was easy to walk (25mins) or jump in a taxi to Tsivili where you are spoilt for choice.
The half day boat trip to the caves and shipwreck island was pleasant, and it's worth a visit to Zakynthos town to visit the castle on the hill (great views) as well as wander around amongst the shops, museum, churches etc. Be careful of buses though as they don't run that often later in the day, although only 15 euros in a taxi if get stuck.
Anyway, back to "The Dream", it's a cracking place to stay, away from the noise and crowds and close enough for anything you need. Clean, friendly, relaxed and my only regret was not staying for 2 weeks

Spent a great week at the Oniro studios. I would echo many of the previous reviews. The whole place was indeed very clean, much brighter and airy than many similar rated places we have stayed in before in the Greek Islands.

The apartments were a good size for 2 people, with adequate kitchen facilities. All rooms had a balcony or terrace, great for sitting having a beer or two. The pool was again very clean and just the right temperature for cooling down. Next the the pool is the bar which serves snacks such as burgers, salads, omelettes etc, as well as as breakfast.
As with many of the comments the family who run the Oniro are fabulous. Really friendly and nothing is too much trouble. The Greek night they organised was fun with dancing and good food.

The area of Tragaki is pretty quiet but there are a handful of Taverna's giving you a choice to eat each night. There are 3 within 10 minutes walk but Tsilivi less than half an hour walk or there is a bus service for those who want a livelier evening. Quite a large resort there is plenty of choice for bars, restaurants and a few clubs, nothing like the tacky Laganas mind (If you are curious, don't be, its rubbish) Tsilivi has some great beach bars as well as the buzzing bars up on the main street. You can get food until quite late also.

We ate at all 3 of the restaurants in Tragaki and I would recommend all of them. We were given a voucher when we ate in the Amboula restaurant (on the right overlooking the sea) for free sunbeds the next day which we took advantage of. There is a quiet sun terrace and the sea water is lovely to swim in.

To have a look around we hired a scooter for a few days. It was about £50 for 3 days which we booked beforehand. We also booked one of the all day boat trips. The first few hours were interesting where you see the caves and the shipwreck, but after then it got a bit boring as we were on the boat for nearly 9 hours. The sea was quite rough so much so that they issued free sickness pills from the snack bar. I would recommend you go for a half day, or make your own way to the top of the island and hire a small boat.

Generally beer was about 2.50 euros for 500ml bottle of Mythos or Amstell, although the Jolly Roger in Tsilivi is only 2 euros. Meals were anywhere from 5 euros upwards for a main course with the average main course about 7 euros. It is sad that Zante as a whole seemed to be struggling with falling tourism, the were a number of bars and restaurants that were closed down and prices has fallen as a result.

We had a lovely week at the Oniro and I would not hesitate to reccomend it. Another good sign was that many locals came to drink there. An absolute bargain for the £115 we paid for the accommodation for two of us.

Oniro Studios
Amazing, the two of us stayed 9th June 2011 to 23rd June 2011. Nikos and his family (Katerina, Cotas, Christos, Ella and Christos Junior) are incredibly welcoming and the most approachable people, always willing to help.
The studios are gorgeous, very clean (cleaned daily), very modern. The bathroom even came with liquid soap, which we didn’t expect.
The Air Conditioning was 6E per day, we booked independently, however we had hoped the Air Con. Would be included. Safely deposit boxes were also extra.
The TV in the room was very small, with no English channels, but we didn’t come away to watch TV! So that’s ok.
The bar and pool area was lovely, a large Mythos was 3E on draught, very nice. The bar has free Wifi (this couldn’t be picked up from our room though) The bar has a large TV with Sky Sports News and Sky Sports etc.
The Food in the bar was lovely, Nikos’ Club Sandwiches with chips was our favourite, but the ‘Dream Omelette’ and the Greek Salad were delicious too, all very reasonably priced.
Nikos’ English blew us away, it was outstanding and all ‘self taught’ words and phrases such as ‘Spot on’, ‘Done and dusted’ and ‘Mackems’ had us cracked up!
The family’s Wednesday night Greek Night is worth attending, gorgeous food made by all the family, greek dancing and a 60’s, 70’s and 80’s disco after. Thanks for making our stay amazing

Useful Information
Taxi from the airport = 22E (agree this price before you leave or they may try and charge you more!) 10-20 minute drive (depending on the driver!) There are always taxis waiting at the airport, you don’t have to book day or night.
Taxi from Tsivili to Oniro studios = 7E
Taxi from Zante Town to Oniro Studios = 15E
Bus from down the road into Tsivili or Zante Town = 1.60E (fixed price) – run around once an hour until 18:50
Pair of Sun lounges and parasol at Amboula Beach = 5E (all day)

Things to do/Places to eat
We were initially concerned that there wouldn’t be enough places to go as Tragaki is a quiet area of Zante, however it was just right.
Our favourite beach was Amboula Beach, which was about a 10 minute walk. Here there is:
• Taverna Acrogiali - Good cheap Greek food and also Italian dishes, when we were there she had a 20E special of X2 Starters, X2 Main Courses, X2 Desserts and ½ Litre Local Wine.
• Wave Restaurant – Lovely restaurant, friendly relaxed atmosphere right on the sea front, amazing Carbonara (even though not Greek!)
• Amboula Restaurant – Excellent restaurant, again on the sea front, had great lunch time specials which were tasty. Comfortable seats and nice staff.
• Amboula Snack Bar, next to the lounges (which were on a man made grassed area) sold omelettes, chips, toasties etc
• A Supermarket (which was closed during our stay but may open at high season?)
Next to Oniro there was:
• Costas Supermarket -quite pricey, but incredibly well stocked so ideal for little essentials
• Another Taverna on the way to the closer (not so nice) beach, which seemed to be closed all the time.
Near the bus stop (less than a 10 minute walk away) was:
• Another well stocked supermarket
• Taverna Petrinos Kipos – we were desperate to try this gorgeous looking Taverna, however it was closed during our stay (again at Low Season)
• Paradiso Cocktail Bar – Really Nice, quite lively, loud music, reasonable prices, opens at 6pm, Free Wifi access.
• Penelope’s Shop – Touristy shop, selling gifts opened at 6pm, always dead.
To Meraki Restaurant – Probably the best restaurant of the holiday, very picturesque. Nikos kindly drove us here as he said it was too far to walk (it wasn’t as far as Tsivili so we probably could have walked this) and the restaurant owner drove us home (which is a regular arrangement they have with Niko’s family) We thought this was going to be a very expensive meal, but it was amazing value. We had starters, mains, beer and wine and it was 33E, they gave us the wine for free! Definitely go if Nikos offers, we wished we’d gone earlier in our holiday. Because of the rural setting of the restaurant I wouldn’t recommend eating outside, we did had bugs all over us and our drinks, so moved inside, which was gorgeous.

Tsivili
Tsivili is very lively and commercialised, wasn’t really for us, but its close enough to walk (took us 40 minutes walking on an evening, longer in the mid day sun) and far enough away to not hear the noise from Tragaki! It has a wide range of cuisine including Chinese, Indian, Greek, Italian and British. All the owners compete aggressively for business and if people coming out and giving you business cards and shaking your hand isn’t for you, then you won’t like Tsivili!
If you go you MUST visit ‘Two Brothers’ they are mad, its so much fun, they make you so welcome, play tricks on you and give you free nuts and drinks. There was a large beach at Tsivili with water sports etc there.
The main large Supermarket at the far end of Tsivili was very cheap and more like a supermarket at home, we preferred getting our food here rather than touristy supermarkets where butter was 5E!!!
We also enjoyed a day at Tsivili Waterpark, there were about 6 adult type slides and lots for children to do, it cost 14E entry and included lunch! Bargain!

Zante Town
We and the other tourists we spoke to were all disappointed by Zante Town. We went by bus, a bargain at 1.60E, the bus station appears to be in the middle of nowhere, we were quite worried! It actually didn’t end up being too far away. The city in places is run down and suffers from a graffiti problem. The Harbour area is quite pretty, a few of the bars on the front are pleasant. The shops in the town were very very disappointing, except for a really good large Euro Spar we found, which all the locals seems to use (this was very cheap but closed very early!!). Most of the shops in town were ‘Tat shops’ selling the same rubbish, there were 4 United Colours of Benetton shops?! And very expensive clothing stores. There was a nice square with restaurants in it, however we got sick of being hounded to go in restaurants and given business cards and forced to look at menus, it wore us down by the time we reached the end of the square. It was easy to get a taxi back, lots available. We wished we hadn’t really gone, it was boring with not much to do.

My friend and I arrived 24 Sept and stayed to 4 Oct (even though Nikos closed officially on Friday 1 Oct he stayed 'open' for us).
On arrival greeted very warmly and after a lunchtime drink were shown to our room. We'd asked for pool/sea view. We got a view from a lovely little balcony with table and chairs, to the pool and from our door entrance we could look over that balcony to the sea and Kefalonia. We even sat out on the back terrace when all the residents had gone and got the early morning sun rather than go to the pool.
The room had a double bed (mine) and my friend had the sofa bed which was converted to a double bed but you wouldn't have known. The room was light and spacious with hight ceilings. The kitchen area was quite sparse for cooking (that was the only downside). it had one big cooking pot, one small coffee saucepan (baked beans were fine in it!!). Also one frying pan. 2 mugs, 2 glasses, 2 dinner plates, 2 pasta/cereal bowls, one small plate and a drawer with some cutlery. The bathroom was very clean, tiles, sink, shower etc. The shower was the sort you hook up and a simple shower curtain. It was better than my shower at home so I spent longer in it than perhaps I should! Towels, one each of a large and a small one. These were changed every other day (from memory) and the sheets changed a couple of times at least whilst we were there for 10 days. The room was serviced every day, ie bins changed, a sweep.
The pool was great, plenty of loungers and parasols. We didn't really use the bar facilities as we ate on our balcony and had about 3 meals out.
The Dream/Oniro Studios are in Tragaki, this is about a 20-30 min walk to Tsilivi and it is hilly (the whole island is really). We hired bikes for a week from Jonny's - hmmmmm - well my chain came off the first day, not the best of bikes and expensive. We got them for 60 euros for a week for the two. We paid about 2 euros a day on Kos last year! Zante is expensive be warned. On our first day we cycled north to Alkynas beach and that was one ride - hilly and hot - but the beach was worth it for a few hours and then we faced the ride back to our studio. After that we did a day on the bikes to Zante town, again incredible hills there and back but it was cooler (it rained in Zante) and made it easier. After that we used the bikes to get to Tsilivi as and when. The bus is only 1.40 euros but not that frequent.
Tsilivi - it's stretched out and if you like fish and chips, burger and chips there is plenty of choice. If you want wall to wall premier club football then you won't be disappointed but we were. We found Greek food of course but were surprised to be served chips AND rice! There are 3 restaurants near the Dream, take the walk to the signposts Ambouli beach and use the 2 on the right hand side. We only used the first one you come to. The food was ok (but we had been spoilt on Kos as we found an amazing place that was totally Greek and lush) so we enjoyed it but weren't blown away! There is another restaurant between Tragaki and Tsilivi and we were taken up there by Nikos (from the Dream) and returned by one of the chaps at the restaurant. The food was good, the starters are enormous so would recommend mains only or ask for a meze (wish we had!).
Zante: disappointed by the harbour area, imagined it would be more scenic, small fishing boats but it was the big ferries etc. There is a bigger supermarket along the harbour road if you are self catering and need better supplies than the ones in Tsilivi. Also be warned they don't like to give change - they round up to the nearest euro (particularly one woman in the s/market in Tsilivi near the Majestic pub - she's a right misery!)
When we weren't cycling/touring we were reading by the pool or went to the Ambouli beach. We went to the far end of that beach, it's not long but end of season is great and the water is just gorgeous.
Our last day in Zakynthos we decided to hire a little 100cc buggy thing from Theo's Rentals. What fun.................. 30Euros for the day but you have to pootle to the nearest petrol station and can fill up for 12 euros. Watch it though...... Steve at Theo's is very helpful. Warning!!!!!! The jeep has a stop pedal and a go pedal. The handbrake has been disabled (apparently due to kids doing wheelies and ruining the brake). What do you get - a block of wood to put behind the tyre. Off we go at 25 miles an hour heading north to Ag Nikolaos - my God the road is hilly, hairpin bends (this jeep does NOT like them at all). At Ag Nik we took a boat trip out to the Blue Caves (only) - we didn't do the shipwrek as just didn't appeal. This shipwreck happened in the 1980s and was scuppered with booze and drugs. We were told we would have an excellent description of the caves, etc but ended up with a guy who didn't speak a word of English and just pointed and kept putting a white stick in the water to prove it was blue (of course it's the sun's reflection etc we all know that). Nevertheless it was a lovely boat trip in the sun, lovely views and intriguing caves (you don't go in them really). My highlight was seeing a jellyfish which was like a poached egg. You also get a chance to swim for 20 mins. Guess what, we were NOT swimming after seeing that and several others in the water, nor our German friends on board!
Back to the jeep and on our way - time was getting on. To cut to the chase we had just gone through Agios Leon and up a hill and the blasted jeep started playing up. 5pm. Siesta is 1-6pm and NO-ONE was answering the phone. We tried to see what the prob was and I think it might have been the fan belt. Not one car stopped - not one flipping Greek. THANK HEAVENS for Adrian and family our British compats who stopped and asked if they could help. We explained the situation and they realised they were helpless too. Not quite so, as about 10 minutes later they returned and told us that if we could somehow get the jeep turned around on the hill and get it back down into the village the local garage would let us stay there til Theo's came out. Adrian and son and friend duly moved it (Greeks not stopping but driving round or through us) and coasted down with the brake pedal on! I was driven by the rest of the family back down to Agios Leon where we stayed til gone 7pm. We were picked up by Theo (the main miserable man) and got back to base at 8ish. Steve kindly gave us a lift home - thank God we had a bottle of Ouzo in the fridge to polish off! I'm not sure I can really recommend Theo's after that experience. There are other rental places and am told cheaper but it's worth shopping/haggling around. It is worth taking a car to see the island as there are some stunning views over to Kefalonia and inland there are places to explore (it is green and smells of pine etc inland and lovely) but we didn't get the time and we never got to see the southern part because of the jeep breaking down.
The Dream ticked the boxes completely, of that there is no doubt!
The island - sadly did not but the holiday was to chill, sunbathe, read, and do some cycling and we did all of that so that was not disappointing.
If I were to return, I would use the Dream again.