Have you been considering a family holiday to Greece? For the last two Summer holidays, Jennifer, mum of one 7 year old boy, has taken their family holiday in Sani Resort Halkidiki, located in the North of Mainland Greece.

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Flying from Ireland to Thessaloniki

Unfortunately there are currently no direct flights from Irish airports to Thessaloniki, Greece, and that is probably why never see too many Irish there! However, despite that, we feel the resort is so beautiful when you get there, the one stopover is worth it.

There are 2 different options – connecting through Stansted or Frankfurt. We opted to travel from Dublin to Frankfurt to Thessaloniki, with Lufthansa. If you book your flights early, you can often avail of sales and early discounts.

Arriving & Transfers

Our flights with Lufthansa meant we landed mid afternoon. Greece is 2 hrs ahead so we landed about 3pm local time. Transfers are provided by Sani Resort for most bookings of stays for more than 5 nights. So, once we had our baggage, we were whisked away to the resort by private transfer. The resort is approximately 45 minutes from airport.

Where we stayed

Accommodation is hotel only in the resort, with a choice of 4 hotels at different price ranges. On our first stay we opted for the Sani Beach Club, but on the second holiday we stayed at the Sani Beach Hotel, as we felt is a better location, closer to Marina.

There is a free shuttle from Sani Beach Club to the marina which runs every 20mins. All the hotels are beautifully decorated and maintained, and very child friendly. The service in all the hotels is outstanding too.

Look out for early booking discounts on the resort website.

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Eating Out

Most of the hotels offer a half-board option only. However, unlike normal half-board, where you dine in the same restaurant every evening, the half-board in Sani Resort is offered on a Dine Around basis – this allows you to dine around in lots of the resort restaurants, from a set menu, or using an allocated allowance (depending on hotel you stay in).

A word of warning if you visit in peak season, is that you need to book the more popular restaurants ahead, by usually a night or two, but guest services manage all this for you. Our favourite restaurants were the Macaroni Italian Trattoria, Ammos at Sani Beach Hotel, Ouzerie at Sani Beach Club. Bousoulas beach bar was our favourite lunchtime venue – stunning views

How we spent our days!

Ultimately this is a beach resort, and there are some beautiful beaches to while away the days! Our favourite was the Bousoluas beach, and this was partly our reason for choosing the Sani Beach Hotel on out second stay, as is located on this beach.

Towels and sunbeds are provided free and there’s plenty of both. There’s a Sani Babewatch facility on most beaches, whereby qualified childcare professionals will watch your toddler for 30mins free of charge. There are also courtesy beach toys on some beaches.

For the Kids

Sani Resort prides itself on being child-friendly, and I have to hand it to them as they do it well!

Their Kids Club is run by UK Childcare Specialists, Worldwide Kids Company and is free. They take kids from 4 months to 11 years, and for the teenagers, there is even a Teenagers Club in high season. The Kids Club is very well run with a good programme of events daily.

There is an excellent playground near Sani Beach Hotel, which our son loved, and you can also hire bikes/scooters to use around the resort.

Our favourite event of the holiday was the White Beach Party at Bousoulas Beach Bar, from 8pm on Wednesday nights. Lots of music and dancing on the beach, and was definitely a highlight of our son’s holiday.

Our Verdict

Despite it being a bit awkward to fly to, we think Sani Resort is well worth the effort, if you enjoy a sun and beach holiday. We will definitely return for another Summer holiday, despite having been twice already. It can get very hot in July & August, so both our holidays have been the end of May/start of June.

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