Porto Sani
Porto Sani is the all-suite hotel built around families with babies and toddlers within Sani Resort, a 1,000-acre private estate on the Kassandra peninsula in Halkidiki, northern Greece. All 148 suites are family-shaped, guests find the ground flat and easy to cross with a pushchair, and the draw for young families is a full in-suite baby kit, a crèche that takes children from four months, warm lagoon pools with a toddler splash pad and the Carol Mae baby consulting service you won't find at the other Sani hotels.
On this page
Is it worth it?
The quick read before the detail: who Porto Sani suits, how the board and childcare are charged and where to set your expectations.
Porto Sani is the Sani hotel to pick if your children are very young. It's all suites, so there are no cramped standard rooms, guests find the ground flat where the neighbouring Sani Club is hilly, and the baby side is the most thought-through of the five hotels, from the in-suite kit to a crèche that takes babies from four months and a sleep-and-behaviour consulting service you get nowhere else on the estate. The trade-off is money and planning. Sani isn't all-inclusive, so drinks, the crèche, the Supper Club and activities are all paid on top of your board, the rooms look over gardens and pools rather than the sea, and Porto Sani sits at the pricier end of the Sani range. You'll get the most from it if a properly baby-ready hotel is worth paying for and you're happy to book restaurants and childcare ahead.
Best for
You want a hotel built around babies and toddlers, with an in-suite baby kit, a crèche from four months, ground guests find flat for a pushchair and a splash pad, and you're happy to book ahead.
Maybe not for
You want a sea view from your room, an all-inclusive package with drinks and extras covered or a lower bill without paying separately for meals, drinks and childcare.
Best ages
Babies and toddlers especially. A paid crèche from four months, a free club from four and the Carol Mae baby consulting for nought to twos.
What stands out
The Carol Mae baby consulting, exclusive to Porto Sani, plus a full in-suite baby kit and, guests say, flat ground you can push a pram across.
What to check
That your board basis and restaurant bookings are set, and that you've requested the airport transfer, since none of it is automatic.
Where is it?
Behind the marina on the Sani Resort estate, on the Kassandra peninsula in Halkidiki, northern Greece, about 45 to 50 minutes from Thessaloniki airport.
Quick facts for families
What Porto Sani is like
The Sani estate, where the hotel sits within it and how easy it is to get around with a pushchair.
Sani Resort is a single private estate of 1,000 acres, an ecological reserve of pine forest, bird sanctuaries, lakes and wetlands with 7 km of private beach and around 20 km of forest trails. Five hotels share it, Porto Sani, Sani Beach, Sani Club, Sani Dunes and Sani Asterias, and a guest at any one of them can use the facilities across all five. Porto Sani is the family hotel of the group. It has 148 suites, up from 98 after a 2022 extension, and it reopened that May after a €30 million refurbishment, so the interiors are recent. For the wider brand, how Sani relates to its sister group Ikos and what that means for booking, see our guide to Ikos and the Sani group.
The hotel sits behind the Sani Marina rather than on the sea, so the suites look over gardens and pools and Sea You Beach is a short walk away. What makes it work with little ones is the ground: guests describe it as flat, raising this again and again against the hillier Sani Club, easy to cross with a pushchair. To get around the wider estate there are golf buggies, the electric carts the resort itself calls club cars, and a walkable promenade opened in June 2025 that links the hotels through the marina, with Porto Sani on the route. That's separate from the loan pushchair and stroller service listed among Porto Sani's family amenities, which is for your own child rather than for getting around the estate. The resort runs its own 24-hour security and fire cover, and there's 24-hour medical care on site through Euroclinic, one of Greece's main health providers, at a charge.
Every restaurant and bar
Porto Sani's own restaurants, the marina next door and how the Dine Around board actually works.
Sani isn't an all-inclusive resort, so how you eat depends on the board basis you book, and drinks are never part of any package. Porto Sani has its own restaurants, and a short walk at the marina there are more than 25 others across the estate, so a family staying here is never short of somewhere to eat. Children's menus everywhere are curated by the Australian food writer Donna Hay, with food stations offering fish, meat, vegetarian and vegan choices.
Artemis is Porto Sani's own buffet restaurant, serving international dishes with the Donna Hay children's menus, and it's the practical everyday choice with young children: a buffet takes walk-ins, so you can eat whenever a toddler's appetite arrives.
El Puerto is the Spanish à la carte restaurant, on a veranda over the Porto Sani pools, and it needs a reservation. Its menu is shaped by Andoni Luis Aduriz, the chef behind the Basque restaurant Mugaritz, which holds two Michelin stars; El Puerto itself isn't a starred restaurant, but it's the hotel's headline dinner.
Elia is the modern Greek restaurant, served al fresco. It also opens for breakfast, 08:30 to 10:30, and again for dinner, 18:30 to 21:30, with a reservation needed in the evening.
Lima is the Peruvian-Nikkei restaurant, Japanese-influenced Peruvian cooking, open for dinner only, 18:30 to 21:30, on a veranda, and it takes bookings.
Porto Sani's restaurants open for dinner from 18:30. If that's later than a small child can hold out, you can pre-order to sit down earlier, which is worth arranging for an early bedtime. Over at the marina the choice widens a long way, with Greek restaurants like Alexis, Avli and Psaroyiannos, the Ergon Deli, Italian at Macaroni, Japanese at Katsu, an Asian restaurant, a creperie, a patisserie and the Sea You cocktail bar.
How the Dine Around board works
Half-board and full-board guests eat across the resort on the Dine Around programme, which works two ways. Twelve restaurants serve a set Dine Around menu, among them El Puerto and Elia here at Porto Sani. At a further two dozen restaurants across the estate you order à la carte instead, and a meal allowance comes off your half-board or full-board bill. Dedicated children's, vegan and gluten-free menus run through the programme. Drinks aren't included on any board, and the à la carte restaurants need booking, so reserve the evenings you want once your dates are set.
Rooms and suites
Every suite category and which suit a baby or toddler, then the pools and the beach.
Porto Sani is all-suite, with nine categories and no standard rooms. Occupancy is published only for the two Junior Suites, which take two adults and two children under 12; the larger suites carry no stated headcount. What decides whether a suite suits your family is the layout, which is what the table sets out.
| Suite | Sleeps | Layout and outdoor space |
|---|---|---|
| Junior Suite Garden View | 2 adults + 2 children under 12 | Open-plan single space with redesigned interiors and an extended bathroom; garden view. |
| Junior Suite Private Garden | 2 adults + 2 children under 12 | Open-plan single space; pool view and a private garden. |
| Family Suite Private Garden | Not stated | Two Junior Suites joined by an interconnecting door; pool view and a private garden. |
| One Bedroom Suite Grand Balcony | Not stated | A separate bedroom and living area; garden or pool view; grand balcony. |
| One Bedroom Suite Private Garden | Not stated | A separate bedroom and living area; garden or pool view; private garden. |
| Deluxe One Bedroom Suite Grand Balcony | Not stated | Upper floor with a separate bedroom; Sani Marina views; grand balcony. |
| Two Bedroom Family Suite Private Garden | Not stated | Two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a separate living area; private garden. |
| Three Bedroom Family Suite Grand Balcony | Not stated | Three separate bedrooms; garden view; balcony. |
| Three Bedroom Family Suite Private Pool | Not stated | Three separate bedrooms and a private swimming pool; garden view. |
For a family with a baby or toddler, the question is whether you need a door to close on a napping child. The two Junior Suites are open-plan, one big room, which works with a very young baby but gets tight once a cot and an active toddler share the floor and there's nowhere to sit up in the evening away from the sleeping child. The One Bedroom Suites and everything above have a separate bedroom you can shut off, which is the easier layout for naps and early bedtimes. If a two-room layout is what you want but the One Bedroom price is a stretch, the Family Suite Private Garden is the workaround: it's two Junior Suites joined by an interconnecting door, so you get the separation of two rooms at a lower tier. The largest suites step up to two and three separate bedrooms, and one three-bedroom category has its own private pool.
The suites split by outdoor space rather than by size. A Private Garden suite gives you a ground-level garden you step straight into, the easier choice with a pushchair and a child you'd rather let out without stairs, while the Grand Balcony suites trade that for a terrace up above, and the Deluxe One Bedroom on the upper floor looks over the Sani Marina. None of the suites faces the open sea.
Pools and water features
Porto Sani has four pools of its own. Two are lagoon-style pools for general family use, and two more are designed just for children, and there's a toddler splash pad for the littlest ones, all heated, with lifeguards on the pools as well as the beaches. The reviews we read mention a quieter, adult section being available while children are in the Kids Club, though the resort itself lists the two lagoons and the two children's pools without naming an adults-only one, so treat it as likely rather than guaranteed.
There's an indoor heated pool as well, in the Spa Suite, open 08:00 to 20:00. Children under 16 can only use it during Splash Hours, 10:00 to 14:00 and 16:00 to 18:00, and an adult has to be in with them.
The beach
Porto Sani's own beach is Sea You Beach, a few steps from the suites. It's one of seven beaches on the Sani estate, and the resort says all seven hold a Blue Flag, the eco-label for water quality, safety and facilities. Across the estate the beaches share the same set-up: clear, shallow water, lifeguards, sunbeds set at least 4 metres apart and all-day towel and drinks service to your lounger, with adults-only sections on some. At Sea You Beach there's Babewatch, a complimentary 30-minute supervised paddle in the shallows so you can swim, which runs at three of the seven beaches. The one thing to hold in mind is that the suites aren't beachfront, and the sand is a short walk off. The estate's longest stretch, Bousoulas Beach, shared by all the hotels, with its own bar and evening events, is another short walk from Porto Sani.
Babies and toddlers
The baby kit in the suite, the crèche and clubs by age, the Carol Mae consulting and what costs extra.
The baby provision is the reason most families choose Porto Sani over its sisters. The suites can be set up before you arrive, on request or subject to availability rather than automatic, with a Little Guest kit that runs to bedding, a white-noise machine, a cot mosquito net, audio and video baby monitors, a bottle warmer and steriliser, Donna Hay baby menus, a potty and toilet seat, baby toiletries, a BabyBjörn bouncer and a high-end cot, with blackout blinds that guests mention too. Ask for it when you book. Set up in advance, it saves hauling the nursery through the airport.
The one thing you'll find here and nowhere else on the estate is Carol Mae baby consulting, a complimentary sleep and behaviour consultation for children aged nought to two. You can get advice before you travel and a tailored guide for your family, which is unusual for a resort to offer at all.
The crèche, part of Sani Little Explorers, takes children from four months to four years and runs to UK Ofsted guidelines. It's a paid service, and guests report sessions running three times a day. It books up, so reserve well ahead through Guest Relations. It runs at only three of the five Sani hotels, Porto Sani, Sani Beach and Sani Club, not at Sani Dunes or Sani Asterias. The Kids Club, the Sani Explorers, is free for fours to twelves, with mornings and afternoons of nature trails, water games, a Mini-Olympics, arts and crafts, cooking, eco tours, bird-watching and Lego robotics. There's a paid Supper Club where the Explorers staff run a three-hour evening of buffet dinner and activities for fours to twelves, bookable ahead, which buys parents an evening to themselves, and an Ozone Teen Club, a free hangout space for older children with board games and other activities. For the very young there are paid Baby Swim and Sensory Play sessions, a five-session course that ends with a certificate and a gift, and for an evening out the resort arranges private nannies and babysitters at a charge through Guest Relations. Children under 12 stay free at Porto Sani.
Things to do
Because Porto Sani shares the whole estate, the activity list is long, and a good part of it is included. The complimentary side runs to a welcome bottle of the resort's own wine, a daily boat cruise including a sunset one, the Treetop Adventure zipline through the pines, the forest trails, beach volleyball, archery, daily fitness, yoga and pilates, plus West End-style shows at the Garden Theatre five nights a week, along with beach parties and a White Night.
The estate's named academies cost extra and are the reason a lot of older children come: a Rafa Nadal Tennis Center, a Chelsea FC Football Academy on a UEFA-standard pitch, a Bear Grylls Survival Academy, a KTM cycling and bike academy with a pump track, a scuba diving academy and a water ski academy. On and around the water there's sailing, windsurfing, kayaking, paddleboarding, snorkelling and day or sunset yacht cruises. The Spa Suite has seven treatment rooms, five singles, a couples' suite and a manicure-pedicure room, its indoor heated pool and a thermal area with a steam room, a sauna and emotion and ice showers, using Anne Semonin Paris products, with a Junior Spa Menu for ages 12 and up; it's open 08:00 to 20:00, worth booking ahead, with 24 hours' notice needed to cancel. The marina adds boutiques and shopping to all of this.
The area and days out
Porto Sani sits on the Kassandra peninsula, the westernmost of Halkidiki's three fingers, about 80 km and 45 to 50 minutes from Thessaloniki. The nearest village is Afytos, a handsome stone village on a hilltop about 15 to 20 minutes away. Beyond that the usual family days out are the long family beach and promenade at Hanioti, the cool 17°C Petralona Cave for a too-hot afternoon, the Waterland aqua park on the airport road, the Stagira physics park and a dinosaur park, plus the city of Thessaloniki about 50 minutes off for the White Tower, the waterfront and the zoo. Boat trips run along the Mount Athos coast to see the monasteries from the sea. Our Halkidiki guide has the day-out detail in full.
Loves and gripes
What families come back praising and what frustrates them, how it compares within Sani, the journey and the weather.
What families love
- The fit for babies and toddlers, singled out as the most considered of the five Sani hotels for this age.
- The in-suite baby kit, set up before arrival, which guests say exceeded what they expected.
- Warm, attentive service, a recurring high point in the reviews we read.
- The warm lagoon pools and the toddler splash pad.
- The food, which reviewers consistently rate highly for both children and parents.
- The central spot near the marina restaurants, on flat ground guests find easy with a pushchair.
- The Kids Club and crèche, praised for the care of very young children, with pre-booking strongly advised.
Common gripes
- No sea views from the rooms, which sit behind the marina over gardens and pools.
- Almost everything needs booking ahead, from restaurants to crèche sessions, which some find pressured.
- The extras add up, with drinks and the paid childcare and activities all sitting on top of the board.
- It isn't all-inclusive, so the Sani billing surprises families expecting an Ikos-style package.
- It's among the pricier of the Sani hotels.
Porto Sani is consistently well rated by guests, and outside the review sites a thread of UK parents comparing it with the group's Ikos Odissia for a toddler came down in its favour, for the baby-friendly food and the in-room kit. Sani Resort as a whole is a regular award winner too, including a TripAdvisor Travellers' Choice award in 2020.
Within Sani ResortHow it compares
Porto Sani is the family hotel of the five, so the comparison is really about what your children need. It's the one built for the youngest: ground guests find flat where Sani Club is hillier, a crèche from four months, the toddler splash pad and the Carol Mae baby consulting that none of the others has. Every one of its 148 units is a family-shaped suite, where Sani Beach's cheaper rooms are smaller and some have only a shower. The table below is the shorthand across the estate.
| Hotel | Best for | How it differs from Porto Sani |
|---|---|---|
| Porto Sani | Babies and toddlers, a central spot, the fullest baby facilities. | Guests find flat ground, a crèche from four months, a splash pad and the Carol Mae baby consulting; no sea views from the rooms. |
| Sani Beach | A more affordable entry to Sani and older, more active children. | Cheaper, with smaller rooms, some with only a shower rather than a bath. |
| Sani Club | A quieter stay and suites with a private pool. | Guests describe hillier ground, harder with a pushchair, and it sits further from the marina. |
| Sani Dunes | A grown-up feel and older children. | No kids' club or splash park on site, and the quietest mood of the five. |
| Sani Asterias | Ultra-luxury, right on the beach. | Boutique and the most expensive, with no kids' club on site. |
The bigger choice is Sani against its sister brand Ikos. Sani isn't all-inclusive, so at Sani you pay for drinks and many extras, but you get a much larger estate of five hotels to roam and more flexibility; Ikos folds it all into one price and is simpler to budget. Both sit at premium prices. Our Ikos and the Sani group guide goes into how the two brands differ.
The journey and the seasonGetting there and when to go
The airport is Thessaloniki, about 45 to 50 minutes and roughly 80 km away. UK flights run to Thessaloniki with British Airways from Heathrow and easyJet from Gatwick, around three and a half hours. The transfer to the resort isn't laid on automatically: you request it when you book, and it's complimentary only on a direct booking of five nights or more, so otherwise it's an extra you arrange ahead. That five-night figure is the free-transfer threshold and nothing more, since the hotel itself sets no minimum stay. Sani Resort opens around early April and runs to around October, with dates that shift from year to year, so confirm them when you book. April and October, either side of the main season, are quieter, but they sit outside the reliable swimming window, so they're less ideal if a pool-and-beach holiday is the priority with a small child. With little ones the easiest windows tend to be June and September, warm with a swimmable sea and thinner crowds than the July and August peak, when the heat and the resort are both at their fullest.
When to goWeather
July and August are reliably hot, into the low thirties by day, with the warmest sea of the year, and they're also the busiest and priciest weeks. June and September give you nearly the same sea with fewer people about, the gentlest weeks with young children. May is pleasant by day but the sea is still really only for paddling, and October is milder and wetter as the season winds down.
| Month | Daytime high | Overnight low | Rain | Wet days | Sea temp |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April | 20° | 8.5° | 35 mm | 6 | 15° |
| May | 25° | 13.5° | 37 mm | 8 | 18° |
| June | 30° | 18.5° | 31 mm | 7 | 23° |
| July | 32.5° | 21° | 24 mm | 6 | 26° |
| August | 32.5° | 21° | 21 mm | 5 | 27° |
| September | 28° | 17° | 22 mm | 5 | 25° |
| October | 21.5° | 12° | 25 mm | 4 | 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. Sani Resort opens around early April and runs to around October; check the exact dates when you book.
Questions
The things families ask most, the official pages worth a look and when this guide was last updated.
How young will the crèche take a baby?
From four months, which is younger than most resort crèches take. It's a paid service with limited places, so email Guest Relations to reserve sessions before you travel rather than leaving it until you arrive.
Is the airport transfer laid on automatically?
No, it isn't automatic. You ask for it when you book, and it comes free only on a direct stay of five nights or more. A shorter stay or a third-party booking pays for it. That five-night mark applies to the transfer offer alone, not to the hotel, which sets no minimum stay.
Which suite works best with a baby who still naps?
A One Bedroom Suite or bigger. Those put a door between the sleeping area and the living space, so you can settle a baby and still have somewhere to sit in the evening. The Junior Suites are a single open room, fine early on but tight once a toddler is on the move. Short of the One Bedroom price, the Family Suite Private Garden pairs two Junior Suites with a connecting door, so you get two rooms for less.
Is there an adults-only pool?
Not on paper. The resort names two lagoons and two children's pools, with no adults-only pool among them. Guests do describe slipping off to a calmer, adult corner while the children are in the Kids Club, but the resort does not name one, so treat it as likely rather than guaranteed. Ask at booking if a grown-up pool matters to you.
Can we swim indoors when the weather turns?
Yes. The Spa Suite keeps an indoor heated pool for the days the weather turns, open 08:00 to 20:00. Under-16s are limited to Splash Hours, 10:00 to 14:00 and 16:00 to 18:00, and need an adult in the water with them.
Is it all-inclusive like Ikos?
No, and it catches families out. Sani sells a board basis, not an all-inclusive package, so nothing beyond your chosen meals is folded in and you settle up separately for drinks and any extras you use. If you would rather see one price upfront, the group's Ikos resorts are the simpler sums.
See more Porto Sani photos
Open the Porto Sani photo gallery →Useful links
- Porto Sani: the resort's own site for suites, the baby services and what's included.
- GOV.UK Greece travel advice: entry rules and safety updates before you travel.
- Halkidiki with little ones: our guide to the wider region, its beaches and when to go.
Last updated 17 July 2026.
