Mandraki Village Boutique Hotel
Mandraki Village is a small, independent boutique hotel in Koukounaries on the south-west of Skiathos, in the Northern Sporades, a cluster of pastel garden buildings on the edge of the protected Strofilia pine forest. Families come for the flat, walkable site, the gardens and pool and a base a short walk from one of Greece's best-known beaches.
On this page
Is it worth it?
Who Mandraki Village suits, what's included and the facts to skim first.
It's a small, independent boutique hotel, a cluster of pastel, low-rise garden buildings, around 40 to 50 rooms across ten categories, rather than a large branded resort. Breakfast is included and that's the only board it offers, so lunches and dinners are yours to sort, at the poolside taverna or out. There's no crèche and no kids' club, which is normal for a hotel this size on Skiathos, so a family comes here to look after their own children rather than hand them over for the morning.
What it does have, and what sets it apart on this island, is flat ground. The site is level and walkable with a pram, where several of Skiathos's other hotels are built up a hillside. There's a children's pool and a playground, and the gardens on the edge of the pine forest draw consistent praise. The most common complaint is that the standard Superior rooms are small, around 20 to 24 m², so a family carrying baby kit is better in the Family Suite, the ground-floor Junior Suite or the two-bedroom villa. It reads as a considerably more modest price than the big all-inclusive resorts. Against the nearby Skiathos Princess, which has a crèche and a kids' club, the trade is supervised childcare for a quieter, flatter, garden base you run yourself.
Best for
You want a small, garden-set boutique hotel on flat ground with a children's pool and a playground, and you're happy to supervise your own toddler and walk or bus to the beach.
Maybe not for
You want supervised childcare, meals beyond breakfast or a room that steps straight onto the sand.
Best ages
Babies and toddlers upwards, as long as a grown-up is doing the childcare; there's no club to hand them to.
What stands out
A flat, low-rise, buggy-friendly site, unusual among Skiathos's hillside hotels, plus a weekly poolside Mamma Mia! night from the hotel's own film connection.
What to check
Book a Family Suite, ground-floor Junior Suite or the villa rather than a Superior room if you need space, and request a cot and any transfer in advance.
Where is it?
Koukounaries, on the south-west of Skiathos in the Northern Sporades, Greece, on the edge of the Strofilia pine forest.
Quick facts for families
What the resort is like
Where it sits, how it's laid out and what that means for getting around.
Mandraki Village sits inland of Koukounaries beach, in about an acre of landscaped gardens on the edge of the protected Strofilia pine forest and lagoon on the south-west of Skiathos. The buildings are low, no more than two storeys, painted in different colours and set around the garden and the pool, so it reads as a boutique hotel rather than a resort village: one pool area, one place to eat and a small shop, not a spread of restaurant quarters. It has no official star rating, though UK tour operators consistently describe it as four-star, a fair steer on the standard to expect. Some rooms are on the ground floor and some are up on the first or second floor of the two-storey buildings, which the rooms section goes through in full.
The whole site is flat and walkable, which the "getting around" section below covers properly because it's the main reason a family chooses this hotel. There's no buggy or golf-cart service and none is needed; you walk between your room, the pool, the shop and the taverna in a couple of minutes, on the level.
The hotel says it's been renovated continuously since a full refurbishment in 2007, and markets itself as updated each year. Its film connection is real and it leans on it: several Mamma Mia! cast members stayed here during the 2007 shoot around Koukounaries, and the hotel now runs a weekly poolside screening of the film, covered in the food and drink section.
Rooms and suites
Every category with its official size, and which ones suit a family with young children.
There are ten named room categories, from a compact double up to a two-bedroom villa. Most are hotel rooms and suites in the low garden buildings; only the villa has a kitchen. The table below is the full line-up with the official sizes, and the guidance after it is which suit a family with a baby or toddler.
| Room | Size | Sleeps | Beds | For a family |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Superior Double Room | 20 m² | 1–2 | 1 double | The smallest room, garden view; space for a cot but not a pram left up |
| Superior Triple Room | 22–24 m² | 1–3 | 1 double + 1 sofa bed | A third bed rather than much more floor space |
| Deluxe Double Room | 24–26 m² | 1–3 | 1 double + 1 single | Newer building, pool or garden view; still a small footprint |
| Accessible Double Room | 25 m² | 1–2 | 1 double | Ground floor with a ramp, built to the Greek accessibility standard; step-free |
| Junior Suite | 33 m² | 1–3 | 1 double + 1 sofa bed | Pool-view balcony; more room than the doubles |
| Junior Suite Ground Floor | 25 m² | 1–4 | 1 double + 1 convertible double sofa bed | Ground floor onto the garden; easiest for buggy access |
| Executive Suite | 28–30 m² | 1–4 | 1 king + 2 singles | First or second floor; the two singles suit two children over a cot |
| Executive Suite with Pool | 28–30 m² | 1–3 | 1 double + 1 single | Its own pool at the door, no fencing described |
| Family Suite | 40 m² | 1–4 | 2 bedrooms | Ground floor, two separate bedrooms; the best single room for a family |
| Pinewood Villa with Private Pool | 90 m² | 1–6 | 2 bedrooms + living area | Full kitchen and a private 16 m pool with no fencing described; best for a group |
For a family, the Superior categories are the ones to think twice about. At 20 to 24 m² they're the smallest rooms, and the single most common complaint in reviews is that they're tight, with one guest describing barely room for the suitcases. They're fine for a couple with a baby in a cot, less so once a toddler and a pram need floor space too.
The rooms built for a family are further down the list. The Family Suite, at 40 m², is the clearest choice: two separate bedrooms on the ground floor, so a baby or toddler can sleep behind a closed door while the adults stay up, with a terrace onto the garden. The Junior Suite Ground Floor opens straight onto the garden as well, which is the easiest for getting a buggy in and out. The Pinewood Villa is the one for a larger group or two families together, with two bedrooms, a living area and, unusually here, a full kitchen for warming bottles and food; it's the only self-catering unit, and its private 16 m pool isn't described as fenced, so it needs the same watching as any open water at the door. The same goes for the Executive Suite with Pool.
Every room has air conditioning, a mini fridge, tea and coffee making, a safe, a full-length mirror, a hair dryer, bathroom amenities, satellite TV, WiFi, mosquito screens and pool towels, with the Greek breakfast included, room service from 08:00 to midnight and a welcome drink and bottle of water on arrival. A cot can be requested in any room whichever category you book; the hotel counts infants as 0 to 2 and children as 2 to 12 on its own booking pages. Only the villa has a kitchen, so every other room is bed and breakfast with a kettle and a fridge and nothing more. One holiday operator also lists an afternoon housekeeping visit in the junior and family suites, until 8pm on request. Check-in is from 15:00 and check-out is 11:00.
Every restaurant and bar
The single dining venue, the weekly evenings and what's there for children.
There's one place to eat on site: White Bar Taverna, by the pool. It runs through the day, roughly midday to midnight, with lighter lunches and salads earlier and Mediterranean cooking with local ingredients and cocktails in the evening. A separate pool snack bar covers drinks and quick bites by the water. High chairs are available. There's no confirmed children's menu, so if that matters check with the hotel before you book.
With a single all-day venue rather than separate restaurants, there's nothing to book ahead the way you would at a large all-inclusive, and room service runs from 08:00 to midnight if you'd rather eat in with a sleeping baby. The taverna was two separate restaurants until an early-2026 refresh merged them into one.
Three evenings a week the pool hosts an event: a Greek BBQ night on Tuesdays, live music on Fridays and on Sundays a poolside screening of Mamma Mia!, the film several of the hotel's guests in 2007 had a part in.
The pools
The main pool, the children's pool and the sand at Koukounaries.
The main pool is a good-sized outdoor pool with the bar and terrace behind it, and there's a separate, smaller pool for younger children beside it. It's a plain pool rather than a splash pad with jets or slides. Sunbeds, umbrellas and cabanas are free at both, pool towels are provided and reviewers tend to say loungers are easy to get rather than fought over.
Two rooms have their own private pools: the Pinewood Villa's 16 m pool and the Executive Suite with Pool. Neither is described as fenced or covered, so with a toddler who's up and walking treat them as water to watch rather than a feature to relax around.
The beach
Mandraki Village isn't on the beach. Koukounaries is 200 m away as the crow flies, which is the figure the hotel quotes, but the walk to the sand is nearer 20 minutes, because the direct line crosses the lagoon reserve and the path goes round it through the pines. It's flat and shaded the whole way, though it's a real walk with a buggy and beach kit, worth planning around rather than treating as a step outside. One family reviewing the hotel found managing the beach without a hire car difficult with small children, so weigh the walk, or the bus, against how often you'll want to move everyone and their gear.
Koukounaries itself is Skiathos's best-known beach: a crescent of fine golden sand about 700 m long, backed by pines and the lagoon, facing south-west so it stays calm and sheltered. It's lifeguarded and organised in season, with sunbeds and water sports, and it's reported to hold a Blue Flag and to have Seatrac equipment for getting into the water. It's also one of the busiest beaches on the island at peak times, being the one everyone knows.
Two more beaches are about 1 km away. Banana Beach is really two coves: Big Banana, the family one with sunbeds and beach bars, and, round the headland, Little Banana, which is Skiathos's unofficial naturist cove, so it's worth knowing which is which before you set off. Mandraki Beach, which shares the hotel's name but isn't its own beach, is a quieter stretch of soft sand and shallow water reached on a pine-forest path, with families tending to use the right-hand end.
Babies and toddlers
What's provided, what isn't and why the flat site is the real draw.
There's no crèche and no supervised kids' club at Mandraki Village. That's normal for a small Skiathos hotel, but it's the main thing to know if you were hoping to hand the children over for a morning: here you're with them throughout. Babysitting can be arranged on request for a fee, set up in advance rather than called on the day.
What the hotel does have for young children is the children's pool and playground, plus cots and high chairs on request. One review noted the playground could do with some attention in places, so don't expect it brand new. The hotel treats infants as 0 to 2 and children as 2 to 12 on its booking pages, and there's a doctor on call if you need one.
If your child needs specific baby food or weaning support, contact the hotel directly before you book rather than assume it's provided. One family also reported being given a cot without a mattress and being told they could ask reception for one; it's a single account, not a pattern, but packing for that possibility, or checking on arrival, costs nothing.
Flat and low-riseGetting around: a flat, buggy-friendly site
The flat site is the practical reason to choose Mandraki Village over some of Skiathos's other hotels, several of which are built up a hillside with steps and levels between the rooms and the pool. Here the ground is level and the buildings are low. For a family that means pushing a buggy between your room, the pool and the taverna without a slope, and a toddler who has just found their feet isn't forever on steps.
For guaranteed step-free access to your own room, three categories are confirmed ground floor: the Accessible Double Room, built to the Greek tourism board's accessibility standard with a ramp and direct garden access, the Junior Suite Ground Floor and the Family Suite. The buildings are only ever two storeys, so the upper-floor rooms are one flight up at most, but if stairs are a problem those three ground-floor rooms are the ones to ask for.
Things to do
What's arranged through reception, and the town and beaches nearby.
Most of what there is to do here is arranged rather than on site. The hotel doesn't have a spa or a dive centre; what it has is a reception that helps book things with local operators: scuba diving, horse riding, water sports, guided hikes, bike rides, walks in the pine forest, yoga, boat hire, full-body massages and private catering, plus weddings and private celebrations. On the hotel's own list this is the "Activity Assistance" you'll see mentioned, which means reception booking excursions for you rather than a supervised programme.
On site there's the playground, the weekly poolside evenings and electric-car charging if you've hired one. One holiday operator also lists a Nintendo Wii in the rooms.
Off resortThe area and days out
On the doorstep there's a supermarket about 50 m away and the hotel's own shop, Skiathos Corner Mandraki, for local Greek food and the bits you've forgotten. The No.23 bus stops 50 m from the hotel and runs into Skiathos Town, about a 20-minute ride; the town and port are 12 km away.
For the rest of the island, the boat trips to Tsougria and the Lalaria arch, the Mamma Mia! day out to Skopelos, the plane-watching by the short runway and the bus network, see our Skiathos guide, which covers it in full. Koukounaries sits in the island's main resort stretch, so all of it applies to a stay here.
Getting there and when to go
The airport, transfers and the weather across the season.
Skiathos Airport (JSI) is about 25 minutes away by car, roughly 14 km, and takes short-haul flights from the UK through the season; our Skiathos guide covers the routes and the famously short runway. A transfer from the airport or port can be arranged through the hotel for a fee, but it has to be requested in advance and isn't laid on automatically. The hotel used to describe this as an 8-seater minibus; the current site simply lists a shuttle service without saying more, but the practical position hasn't changed. Book it when you reserve the room rather than expecting it to turn up unasked. If you'd rather not hire a car, the No.23 bus from 50 m away covers the town, and the beaches are a flat walk, though as covered above that walk is a real one with a buggy and a day's kit. There's parking on site for anyone who does hire a car.
The hotel is open from roughly May to mid-October, though the exact opening and closing dates shift year to year, so check when you book, especially at the edges of the season.
When to goWeather
Koukounaries sits on the island's south coast, and there's no separate climate to speak of on somewhere this small and low-lying, so the figures below are the island's. The warm, dry middle is June to September; May and early October are cooler and wetter at the edges of the hotel's season.
| Month | Daytime high | Overnight low | Rain | Wet days | Sea temp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May | 25° | 13° | 40 mm | 6 | 19° |
| June | 29.5° | 18° | 25 mm | 4 | 23° |
| July | 32.5° | 20.5° | 20 mm | 2 | 26° |
| August | 32.5° | 20.5° | 25 mm | 2 | 27° |
| September | 28° | 17° | 40 mm | 5 | 25° |
| October | 22° | 12.5° | 70 mm | 7 | 22° |
Typical monthly averages from weather-station records. Sea temperature is the open-water figure, so a sheltered bay can feel a degree or two warmer. The hotel opens from roughly May to mid-October.
Loves and gripes
What families rate, what they flag and how it compares on the island.
Guests rate it well: around 4 out of 5 on TripAdvisor from several hundred reviews, currently ranking somewhere around 11th to 12th out of roughly 100 hotels in the Skiathos and Koukounaries area and about 8.9 out of 10 on Booking.com. Those figures move over time, so treat them as a rough read rather than a fixed score.
What families love
- The gardens and the shade, with room for children to run about away from the pool edge.
- Cleanliness and daily housekeeping.
- Friendly staff, and the breakfast, which comes up again and again.
- The flat, walkable site, a real point of difference on this island.
- A relaxed pool area, with loungers easy to get.
- The Mamma Mia! connection and the weekly nights.
Common gripes
- Small standard rooms; the Superior categories draw the most complaints, so book a suite or the villa for space.
- No crèche or kids' club, so the childcare is yours throughout.
- A playground that could do with some attention in places.
- One stay reported a cot without a mattress, worth packing around.
How it compares
On the same island, Skiathos Princess is the one to weigh it against for a family with a baby: it has a crèche from four months, a kids' club and a beachfront position with no walk to the sand. Mandraki Village has none of that structured childcare, but it's flat and walkable where Princess is built up a slope, and it feels the cheaper of the two. ELIVI Skiathos, also near Koukounaries, is a larger, newer five-star with a kids' club from four and several restaurants, though it has no childcare for under-fours either; Mandraki is the smaller, more intimate alternative. Atrium Hotel and Skiathos Palace, both nearby, sit up hillsides with multi-level access, and Skiathos Palace has no children's pool at all, so Mandraki's flat ground is the practical win over those two. Against a big all-inclusive elsewhere in Greece, an Ikos or a Sani, it's a completely different, much smaller scale: one restaurant, breakfast only and no clubs, but personal, garden-set and far cheaper.
Questions
The things families ask most, and where this guide's photos live.
How many rooms does it have, and does that matter?
It's small, around 40 to 50 rooms in low garden buildings, which is much of the appeal. It also means the good family rooms are limited, so book early for a Family Suite or the villa if you're travelling in peak summer.
Is it right on the beach?
No. The hotel quotes 200 m, but the real walk to Koukounaries is about 20 minutes on a flat, shaded path round the lagoon. It's manageable, but if stepping straight onto the sand matters to you, this isn't that hotel.
Which room suits a family best, and can we have a cot?
The Family Suite has two separate bedrooms on the ground floor and is the pick for closing a door on a nap; the Junior Suite Ground Floor is easiest for a buggy, and the Pinewood Villa suits a group. A cot can be requested in any category, so add it to the booking rather than turning up hoping.
Is there a transfer from the airport?
One can be arranged through the hotel for a fee, but you have to request it in advance; it isn't laid on automatically. Sort it when you book, or plan on a taxi of about 25 minutes or the No.23 bus for the town.
Can we get a babysitter for an evening out?
Yes, on request and for a fee, but arrange it in advance rather than expecting it on the night. There's no kids' club or crèche here, so any child-free dinner needs planning ahead.
Is there a children’s menu?
High chairs are there. If a set children's menu or any baby food matters to you, message the hotel before booking and ask what they can do.
When is it open?
Roughly May to mid-October, though the exact dates shift year to year. Confirm your dates directly if you're travelling at the edges of the season, in early May or October.
See more Mandraki Village photos
Open the Mandraki Village photo gallery →Useful links
- Mandraki Village Boutique Hotel: the hotel's own site for rooms, the taverna and booking.
- GOV.UK Greece travel advice: entry rules and safety updates before you travel.
- Skiathos with little ones: our guide to the island, its beaches and when to go.
Last updated 16 July 2026.
