Family villas in Sithonia

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. Sithonia is the second leg of Halkidiki, the one people come back to. Pine forest runs down to small coves, the road loops the peninsula past Nikiti, Neos Marmaras and Porto Carras on the west, Toroni and Porto Koufo at the tip, Sarti and Kalamitsi on the east and Vourvourou with its islands in the north. Villas are spread out, quieter and closer to nature than on Kassandra.

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 Sithonia are Nikiti, Vourvourou, Neos Marmaras, Toroni, Sarti, Kalamitsi and Agios Nikolaos, with beaches such as Kavourotripes, Karydi, Kalogria, Lagomandra, Tristinika and Orange Beach. 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.

Sithonia fills in July and August; June and September are the locals' months, with warm sea, open tavernas and easy parking. 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.