Family villas in Greece

A family villa is not just a big villa. It has at least three bedrooms so nobody sleeps on a sofa, a kitchen you can actually cook in, an enclosed garden or terrace, and a beach nearby that is shallow and safe. Our villas are hand-picked across Greece: Halkidiki and its three peninsulas an hour from Thessaloniki, Crete from Chania to Heraklion, Santorini and Mykonos in the Cyclades, the Ionian islands and the mainland coast. Every listing is one we have visited or vetted, booked directly with the owner and backed by a local concierge.

Every villa on this page has three or more bedrooms. On each listing we note what matters with children: cots and high chairs, a fenced pool or a shallow end, distance to the nearest supermarket, pharmacy and playground, whether the beach is sandy and shallow, and whether the village has tavernas where children are welcome at nine in the evening, which in Greece is every one of them.

The family favourites in Greece are Halkidiki, Crete, Santorini, Mykonos, Rhodes, Corfu and the Athens Riviera, with beaches such as the shallow bays of Halkidiki, the west coast of Crete, the caldera of Santorini and the Ionian coves. For two families travelling together, look at the villas with five or six bedrooms or ask us about two villas next to each other. For grandparents, we mark ground-floor bedrooms and villas without steep steps.

The islands run from May to October; Halkidiki peaks in July and August; Crete and Rhodes stay warm into late October. School holidays fill the best family villas by March; ask for a shortlist with your dates and the ages of the children and we will answer within a day.