Ahead of my visit, I had questions. Lots of questions. And after posting about my trip on Instagram, I was inundated with even more questions. Because Sani is so sprawling with so much on offer, planning your trip can feel overwhelming. I was warned by regulars that preparation is key, especially in peak season, so definitely do your research and ask around before your trip to ensure you make the most of your stay.
Sani is made up of five hotels spread across 7 kilometres of Carribean-esque blue flag coastline. There’s Sani Beach: the main hotel in the resort’s hub, which is perfect for those who love being right in the action. Sani Dunes is a recently revamped former adults-only hotel that now welcomes kids (although it doesn’t have a kids club) and has an incredible location right on the beach. Porto Sani is the perfect fusion of child-friendly and luxury. Then there’s Sani Club, which is further out and ideal for those looking for a more tranquil experience, and Sani Asterias – an uber luxe, money-is-no-object beachfront hotel that’s just had a total revamp.
Restaurants are spread across the hotels and the port – and the main kids activities and water sports are based at Sani Beach. No matter which hotel you’re staying at, you can walk between each in around 20 minutes to experience the resort’s pools, restaurants and activities – and there are golf buggies and complimentary shuttle cars everywhere too. Thanks to its sheer size, private beaches, Michelin-starred restaurants, high-end boutiques and private marina, Sani feels like a luxurious microcosm, offering frazzled families with excitable children huge variety within 20 minutes’ walk.
We slept at Sani Dunes – a former adults-only hotel that now welcomes families. Less chaotic than Sani Beach and Porto Sani, Dunes is ideal for parents craving the luxury set-up of a pre-baby holiday. First impressions count at Dunes, which houses the largest heated lagoon-style swimming pool in Greece, snaking across 3,500m, plus its own exclusively serviced beach.
Interiors give a nod to the calming presence of water – and rooms are fresh, calm, breezy and spacious, which makes piling in with your brood all the more manageable. A lot of hotels claim to be child-friendly by chucking some crayons on the table at dinner, but Sani goes the extra mile – and then some. The website encourages you to “pack light, because we can supply everything you need” – and it isn’t false advertising. Our children sleep notoriously badly in travel cots but our fears were alleviated by the full-sized wooden Stokke cot for baby, and plush sofa bed for our toddler waiting in our room. You can also request high chairs, changing mats, bottle sterilisers and warmers, white noise machine, tiny clothes hangers, Gro clocks, baby monitors, pushchairs, potties and toilet seats. Five minutes into our arrival, we received a Whatsapp from the hotel’s concierge asking if we needed anything. A few messages later – and much like a Deliveroo service for exhausted, out-of-routine parents – baby toiletries and a BabyBjorn Relax bouncer arrived at our door.