In Halkidiki, a family-owned estate has spent decades perfecting the holiday where nobody has to compromise.
The new luxury traveller brings the whole family
The most well-heeled travellers in the world have stopped leaving the children at home. Virtuoso’s 2026 Luxe Report, drawn from advisors around the world, ranks family travel first and multigenerational family travel second among the biggest trends of the year. The catch is obvious to anyone who has tried it. A six-year-old, a sixteen-year-old and two adults who would quite like a quiet dinner rarely want the same thing at the same moment. Few resorts manage all four. Sani is one of them.
Five hotels, one very large playground
Sani sits on the Kassandra peninsula in northern Greece, inside a private 1,000-acre reserve of pine forest, wetland and long, pale beaches. It is family-owned, and it shows in the details. Five hotels share the land: Sani Beach, Sani Club, Porto Sani, Sani Asterias and Sani Dunes, each with its own tone. Asterias keeps things hushed and suite-only.
At the centre is the marina, a horseshoe of restaurants, bars and boutiques that forms the social heart of the resort. Around it, the programmes read like a wish list for a child with a strong opinion: tennis at the Rafa Nadal Tennis Centre, football with the Sani Football Academy and Chelsea FC, and survival skills at the Bear Grylls Survival Academy, where the dress code is mud. The very youngest have Sani Explorers, which covers everything from a crèche to a Teen House, with Babewatch on the beach and babysitting for the evenings. At the Rafa Nadal Tennis Centre, the resort says, coaches use the Academy’s methods, mental training included, and test every player first, so a seven-year-old and a seventeen-year-old each land in the right group.
Spoiled for choice
We came as a family, my ten-year-old twins among us, asking what every parent asks of a luxury resort: is this place made for us? Within a day, the answer was yes. Ten pools, 25 restaurants, bicycles for every errand. Each morning opened like a menu with no wrong order, and the holiday never once turned into a schedule. My favourite detail was the concierge, always one WhatsApp message away.
Where the grown-ups go
Parents, meanwhile, are far from forgotten. The dining is serious enough to make a child’s tennis lesson feel like a gift to everyone, and the Sani Festival adds a cultural season to the holiday. Guests clearly agree: according to the resort, more than four in ten stays last season were repeat visits. Alexander Schneider, Chief Operations Officer of the Sani/Ikos Group, explains why:
“What truly sets Sani apart is the harmonious interplay of all these possibilities, combined with the warm hospitality and personal care of our teams. It is this combination of individual freedom, valuable time together and carefree luxury that makes Sani so special for families and brings them back year after year.”
A trophy cabinet worth the detour
At the 2025 World Travel Awards, Sani was named World’s Leading Family & Beach Resort for the seventh year in a row. At the European awards it has held the title of Europe’s Leading Family Resort every year from 2019 to 2025.
In February 2026, Junior Magazine’s Travel Awards gave Sani the Platinum award for Best Eco Family Resort. Sustainability here is more than a badge: the reserve is protected land, and the resort has made its green credentials central to how it presents itself. Children can search the forest with magnifying glasses, paddleboat out to the seagrass beds and learn why the wetlands are a sanctuary for birds, so sustainability is something they get to practise.
The verdict
Luxury, resort and family have rarely made an easy formula, and I arrived with that scepticism. I left, like my children, delighted and surprised. Serving several generations with a single product is the defining test of luxury hospitality today, and Sani passes it with the things that are hardest to copy: choice without chaos, space without distance, and teams who make scale feel personal. For the family segment, it is a benchmark.
Good to know
- Season 2027: Late April to 30 October.
- Getting there: About 45 minutes’ drive from Thessaloniki airport.
- Children: According to the resort, kids and babies stay free at Porto Sani, Sani Beach and Sani Club (under 12 at Sani Beach and Porto Sani). Sani Dunes offers 85 percent off for the first two children under 12.
- Disclosure: Mariya Donat stayed at Sani Resort as a guest of the resort.
- Book: sani-resort.com
