Family villas in Halkidiki

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. Halkidiki is three peninsulas an hour south of Thessaloniki: Kassandra, the lively first leg with the big resorts; Sithonia, the wilder second leg where pine forest runs down to small coves; and the Athos coast, the quiet third leg beside the monastic peninsula. The sea is shallow, warm and calm on almost every beach, the season runs from May to October, and the villas sit in villages rather than gated compounds.

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 Halkidiki are Pefkochori, Hanioti, Sani and Afytos on Kassandra; Nikiti, Vourvourou, Neos Marmaras and Sarti on Sithonia; Ouranoupoli and Ierissos on the Athos coast, with beaches such as Sani, Possidi and Paliouri on Kassandra; Kalogria, Karydi and Kavourotripes on Sithonia. 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.

July and August are full and hot; June and September have the same sea with half the crowds. 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.