Sani Beach Club

Get glamour and family-friendly in this popular holiday resort

Ann Legge and her hubbie Brian spent half-term week with their children Jane, 5, and Harry, 3, at the Sani Beach Hotel, one of five hotels at this luxury resort on the Kassandra Peninsula, Greece.

Our holiday kicked off with the luxury of a private transfer from Thessaloniki airport. At the hotel entrance smiling porters took our bags and led us into the hotel's stunning interior – all gleaming marble, fine antiques and a huge balcony overlooking the sparkling Aegean Sea.

What's special about Sani Resort is the way it blends opulence and serene glamour with a happy, kid-friendly vibe. The English-speaking staff are cheery and helpful, and our two-bedroomed, family suite boasted sleek modern décor and a balcony overlooking the sea, with views of Mount Olympus beyond.

On our last night we hired a hotel babysitter and had a romantic meal at the amazing cliff-top restaurant, Ouzerie, at the Sani Beach Club, which is another of the resort’s family-friendly hotels. Then we caught a live music show at the open-air theatre, had cocktails on the beach and reflected on the best family holiday we'd ever had.

 "What's the attraction?"

Children are no longer "merely tolerated" by hotels, instead hotels have identified that "parents don't want to compromise on style and prefer not to be corralled in the furthest corner of the dining room." The Independent puts together a list of some of the best family orientated luxury hotels with kids clubs, "family friendly rooms, children's meal times, baby listening services, babysitting and, for older children, plenty of facilities and chances to find new friends."

Beach Babes

Surrounded by shallow sea on the outskirts of a nature reserve, The Sani Beach Club is aimed at families. Services include "the Ofsted-registered Melissa's creche and complimentary kids' clubs as well as beach buddies who will take care of children on the beach while you go for a dip." 

Ciao bambini!

Chia Laguna Resort is set "on the stunning Dunedi Campana Beach on Sardinia's south-western coast." It is a great choice for families. With "children's clubs from May to September; there are tennis courts, sports, playgrounds and a "Bimbi" restaurant for children." 

Easter Bunnies

Martinhal Beach Resort & Hotel "has been a popular choice since it opened in 2010." This Easter the Martinhal is putting on an egg hunt and "dozens of activities." Between 1-15 April, we are "offering a price of £999 per adult for seven night's accommodation in a two-bedroom self-catering garden house with lunch or dinner each day and up to two children staying free with one meal per day. Some activities also included. Flights extra."

Hotel Villas

A great family option is resorts that offer villas or apartments. In Crete, the Daios Cove has "introduced new two- and three- bedroom family vilals near Agios Nikolaos. 

Borgo Egnazia "is a swanky resort hotel...built to resemble a traditional Puglian village that offers rooms and townhouses."

Aphrodite Hills resort "has a large choice of apartments and villas.

Who said that?

"The most effective kind of education is that a child should play amongst lovely things" – Plato.

"The pursuit of truth and beauty is a sphere of activity in which we are permitted toremain children all our lives" – Albert Einstein

"The best way to make children good is to make them happy" – Oscar Wilde

Sunshine and starlings in the pool at a Greek resort on a 1000-acre eco reserve

By Stephanie Cross

Sat squarely on Greece's Kassandra peninsula, one of three fingers of land reaching into the Aegean, just south of Thessaloniki, it is a 1000-acre ecological reserve, fringed with white beaches and home to wildlife-filled wetlands.  As its acreage will attest, Sani is huge. It is made up of four distinct hotels: Sani Beach Club (the family one); Sani Beach Hotel ('the classic'); Sani Asterias Suites (the boutiquey one) and Porto Sani Village (the well-being option), where I'm based.

Stepping in to Porto Sani Village is my first step towards relaxation. A complex of small, blue, freshwater lagoons are filled from breakfast time onwards by delighted children, their parents spectating from loungers or the laid-back poolside bar. Accommodation is arranged around this central oasis - tasteful but rather anonymous family suites in sandstone villas and the whole place resembles an ad for utopia: glossy wood and marble, cream and beige décor.

Sani's marina is at its heart, a horseshoe of restaurants, bars and diminutive boutiques selling designer clothes and jewellery. Shoals of well-behaved children on hired mountain bikes cruise the waterside here and in the evenings the whole place assumes a bustling, affluent cosmopolitan vibe. The resort's most popular alfresco eateries are located around the marina, and no stay at Sani would be complete without sampling the Greek and Mediterranean fare at Tomata voted among the 25 best restaurants in Europe in 2005. I can also vouch for an evening cocktail at the elegant but chilled Sea Breeze beach bar, from where the view of the apricot sunset fulfils every romantic cliché.

But it is Porto Sani Village's USP wellbeing that I'm here to experience. There's no shortage of it on offer either. At the Spa Suites I'm talked through a compact little catalogue of treatments, settling finally on a 40-minute 'Anne Semonin Stress Zone' massage and another 45 minutes of reflexology. Both are very nice indeed. In fact, after an unashamedly sybaritic afternoon in candle-lit, aromatic and very Zen surroundings, I decide that I could happily subscribe to utopia Sani-style.

A resort-wide programme of activities changes by the week, with shuttle buses and buggies speeding guests through the eucalyptus trees and herb-scented landscaping. A typical week offers art classes, zumba, and water polo, with film screenings and open-air theatre performances each evening. There are clubs for kids and teenagers, a watersports centre, and a range of optiona excursions and cruises.

But it would be shame to overlook the riches on Sani's doorstep. As well as its 230-acres of wetland, the resort boasts stunningly beautiful hiking trails. The most picturesque one runs for 9km along pine-forested cliffs that fall away vertically to tiny, deserted beaches accessible only to sailors. (Those wishing to fulfil their private-beach fantasies can rent a boat from the marina.) The views of the Aegean here are breathtaking blue-glass water, leopard-patched with seaweed and the only sound, the pulsing rasp of cicadas. I can't help thinking that as a prescription for wellbeing, you'd be hard pushed to find better.

Of course, Sani is no eco-retreat: beach and poolside staff dole out a never-ending supply of brilliant white towels and sprinklers work overtime on the emerald grass. But my conscience is partly assuaged by Sani's Green Programme - water recycling, tree planting, a solar energy initiative. And it's good to know that Sani's glorious wetlands are safeguarded from development, too. Of all the memories that I take home, the sound of that buzzard's cry - thrilling in the sun-stunned, golden evening - will be the one that endures.

Western & Oriental offers seven nights in a Marina Junior Suite Room at Porto Sani Village on a half-board basis from £682 per person, including flights from London and private transfers.
 

Carole Annett & Louise Parker Bowles

Set in the family-friendly surroundings of Sani resort in Halkidiki in northern Greece, the Sani Gourmet Festival is an annual celebration of Greek gastronomy. Every May, acclaimed chefs from Greece and around the world are invited to the resort to create inventive Greek menus that champion local and seasonal produce. The result is a 1-day-long feast of tasting menus, workshops and culinary presentations that combine traditional flavours with contemporary techniques.

Events take place across the resort’s numerous restaurants. Chefs delight in surprising guests with their creations – such as ‘crunchy red mullet’ grouper burgers or orzo with langoustines (served with local rosé) – while also educating those interested about the diversity of Greek cuisine.

In 2012, the festival revolved around the notion of New Greek Cuisine and the concept of the ‘100-mile diet’. Chefs were tasked with using only produce grown within 100 miles of Sani resort’s 1,000-acre ecological enclave, in the hope of stimulating the local economy and showcasing the flavours of the region, while also encouraging ecologically sound practices. Dishes ranged from traditional Greek fare, such as stuffed vine leaves, fish soup and gyros, to dishes with a modern flavour, such as lemon-crusted bass freshly plucked from the Aegean.

The next Sani Gourmet Festival takes place from May 10-19, 2013.

Western & Oriental offers seven nights based on two sharing, including flights and private transfers.