Ikos Olivia
Most frazzled parents keen on ultra-easy luxurious holidays will be familiar with Ikos Resorts – the brand had its beginnings in Halkidiki, and this is the second outpost in the region. Ikos Olivia has everything you’d hope to have in a stylish all-inclusive resort, but it’s elevated far beyond your expectations. How? Well, service is noticeably swift and friendly – you will never be waiting to order drinks by the pool or on the beach, thanks in part to QR codes on your lounger, but also thanks to staff regularly checking in. Food at all six restaurants arrives promptly (it’s as if they know how challenging dining with children can be), and is consistently delicious, something that many all-inclusives fall down on. Beachfront Ouzo, fringed by olive trees, is a restaurant to return to again and again, with its menu of prawn saganaki and grilled swordfish with rocket and fennel designed by celebrity chef Lefteris Lazarou. Attention to detail is exceptional – we had several people check in on our son’s dairy intolerance and they made sure there was plenty of vegan ice cream in the restaurant for that evening’s dessert.
There’s oodles of space to roam around, with three pools (two are quieter, where thickly padded loungers are perfectly spaced, and another is a little livelier, where parents hang out in the water with Aperol spritzes while the kids squeal gleefully in the mini splash park). The gardens are pure Instagram fodder, with vivid purple lavender bushes and entire walls of pink bougainvillaea, as are the rooms and suites, which, with their creamy palettes, feel smart and elegant, despite the number of children charging, quite literally, through their doors.
A huge, shaded playground is a lovely spot to let toddlers burn off steam after being committed to a highchair over supper – although you may pop them on a balance bike and whizz over to the mini disco, instead. And with an excellent kids club, with crafts and endless activities, holidaying here with your littles will feel exactly like that. A holiday.
Address: Thesi Rahones, Gerakini, Halkidiki 631 00, Greece
Price: From about £350 per night.
Christopher Kennedy
The Danai
There’s a lovely story about the beginnings of the Danai, which was founded by Ms Danai and her partner almost five decades ago. The couple used to run a gyros shop, and when some travellers were trying, and failing, to find a place to stay, they opened up their home to them. The original home-come-hotel still stands on what exists today – a beautiful, family-run hotel that consists of just 55 suites and villas scattered around the most immaculately, lovingly maintained grounds – think bougainvillaea in five shades of pink, vineyards and sea views.
The family’s younger generations now run the show and are incredibly adept at it. Some guests we meet have been holidaying here for 30 years, and now bring their children and grandchildren with them. The overall feel is grown-up – think swirly marble bathrooms, ceramic lamps, and lots of whites and golds – that warm Greek hospitality shines through in every conversation we have throughout our stay.
Really, though, this is a hotel for food lovers, and perhaps, even more so, wine lovers. Beneath the grounds is a wine cellar – a seemingly never-ending tunnel that makes it the largest in Greece, also housing the largest collection of wines, some 30,000 bottles. The wine list is a Bible-esque folder of recommendations, and five sommeliers work at the hotel – one for every 10 or so rooms. The food here is sensational. There are all the options you’d hope for from a breakfast buffet and then some – not just one type of pain au chocolat but four varieties, each delicious, each different, and baked just minutes ago (you can pop in to watch the process). There are several restaurants to choose from, romantic Mediterranean fine dining at Andromeda to beachside Anithos, which still feels special despite being the most casual of the bunch. You can’t go wrong with any of the dishes here, but the catch of the day, perfectly grilled and filleted, never misses. And then they wheel out the dessert trolley. Utter heaven.
Address: 6JGH+XM THE DANAI, Nikiti 630 88, Greece
Price: From about £460 per night.
Avaton Luxury Beach Resort - Relais & Chateaux
Avaton remains discreetly under the radar to British guests, thanks in part to its location in the small town of Nea Roda, on the least-developed of Halkidiki’s three peninsulas. Staying here means stumbling on one of the loveliest stretches of water in Greece. On a calm day (and there are many of them), the crystal-clear waters of Ierissos Bay are nothing short of idyllic – so flat and still that the smattering of people who know this spot spend hours floating on a lilo in the water, or walking the few metres between plush, padded lounger to sea over and over again.
Families are welcome here, but overall the vibe is more grown-up glam, with couples lounging on sunbeds quaffing XL bottles of wine and San Pellegrino. Service in the restaurant leans towards a more formal style of service: you’ll be seated on one of several terraces with white, wrought-iron furniture and endless sea views. Breakfast is worth dragging yourself out of bed for – there’s a big emphasis on local produce, which you’ll see in the homemade fruit jams, cheeses and dozens of bread varieties. For the sweet-toothed among us, a whole ‘breakfast dessert’ selection includes cakes, tarts and muffins. In the evenings, the fried calamari with white taramosalata, squid ink mayo and charred corn is a dish worth ordering time and time again.
The 56 rooms, suites and villas strung along the manicured lawns, each with a dazzling white colour scheme that’s paired with pops of Barbie pink and lime green. Some villas have private pools – and while that is normally a very nice to have, with a beach this good, you wouldn’t feel unhappy without.
Address: Beach, Komitsa, Nea Roda 630 75, Greece
Price: From about £200 per night.
Ekies Resort
Parents at Ekies Resort have one thing in common – they’re just not ready to fully give up on their pre-children life. Happily, Ekies Resort, located on the pine forest-fringed Vourvourou Bay on Halkidki’s second ‘finger’, retains a lot about what many of us love about holidaying child-free (delicious design and long, lingering evenings of cocktails) with what a lot of parents really need from a beach holiday (family friendly rooms and a golden curve of sand with calm, shallow water). The resort itself has a small footprint, but within that a huge amount is squeezed in, including a curvy pool lined with boho, fringed mushroom-shaped parasols and multi-coloured Acapulco chairs, an open-air gym and breezy cabanas treatment rooms, plus two restaurants.
The first is the place for your simple kid-friendly fare of gyros and spaghetti (grab a seat on one of the beach-adjacent sofas for a relaxed meal at sunset) and the second, Bubo, helmed by Dimitris Pamporis, is for evenings when you’ve booked a babysitter – because you really will just want to sit and enjoy your lightly seared steak and pickled padron peppers in peace.
Room design is smart and stripped back, with white-washed beamed ceilings, cement grey walls, black-steel sliding doors, reeded glass and floaty linen curtains, and various configurations that mean you can sleep up to four children. Shared outdoor spaces, like the bar and restaurant, feel much more fun with sherbet yellow chairs, terrazzo tiles and an EDM playlist. You won’t just find families here of course – but it does skew that way, even outside of the school holidays, when toddlers charge around the paths of the wildflower gardens. Whatever you do, don’t miss hiring a little boat for a beach-hopping excursion, dropping anchor at the nearby islands of Diaporos and Agios Isidoros, where the Aegean is a particularly dazzling shade of turquoise blue.
Address: 5RR3+FH, Vourvourou 630 78, Greece
Price: From about £190 per night.
Condé Nast Traveller UK · সাধারণ
8 best hotels in Halkidiki, Greece from glossy all-inclusives to stylish boutique stays
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