Porto Sani — Attraction in Kassandra Municipality

We stayed in Porto Sani during May half-term week as a family of four. 2 adults, 13 and 11 year old girls. Our third time travelling there at this time of year. Weather a bit more mixed than previous years, but overall a wonderful stay with the incredible Sani service unabated. ||We have been to most of the IKOS’ and whilst it is a different experience not being All Inclusive (and we still love IKOS), Sani delivers a lot more in terms of quality and variety of restaurants, with the service standards being a level above IKOS which I think is due to the fact that so many of the key staff have been there for 10-15 years and just have a unique quality of customer experience. ||Mr Sakis is back in charge of Porto as well as having responsibility for Dunes, Club (which he has turned around) and the new road between Dunes and Club featuring some “food trucks” which seems a great lunch food and drink concept and was soft opening as we left. It will be interesting to see how this area develops in what was the old (non-Sani owned) campsite in the trees. Sakis remains a force of nature, his eyes are everywhere driving a quality from attention to detail and taking the time to talk charmingly to guests across all the areas he is responsible for. His leadership really makes a difference to the overall quality and feel of the resort. ||Porto is very ably run by Ethemis who. As ever, ensured we had a great stay with his usual care and warmth and attention to detail. We were also pleased to see Kostas on reception. ||Sergio our concierge really looked after us ever, taking the time to contact us in the lead up to our arrival and jumping on any request we had plus checking in regularly through our stay if there was anything needed. A huge help in making the stay relaxed and comfortable. Our friends who were travelling with us left a child’s toy in the resort and Sergio went the extra mile by locating it and shipping it back to the UK. Exemplifies the Sani experience. ||Special mention to Chris the F+B manager - the breakfasts at Elia were amazing and amongst others Riad and Edmundo gave the highest levels of service, but were so kind with all the children and ensuring they had everything they needed. The Peurto restaurant at Porto had great food when we dined there and we had a mixture of the dine-around supplemented with some great a la carte options. ||Dennis and his team worked tirelessly as ever around the Porto pool area looking after us. He has a great team and the interactions with them make you feel so welcome during the day. Some great Greek Malagouzia and cocktail recommendations. Despite being half-term week no real issues with sun beds. Christina from the pool bar deserves a special thanks for working non-stop. She was on her feet all day / everyday not just on food and drinks but sorting out towels, sunbeds and umbrellas (when I kept failing with them). ||With the weather being mixed we made good use of the spa. The steam room was closed for most of the week waiting some new parts and whilst I am sure this is being quickly fixed I think the spa area could benefit with a bit of a revamp - maybe adding some features like the cold water plunge area at Odisia. Neither the jacuzzi or power water jet was working on the adult pool area and no one could really tell me why or if it was going to be fixed. Small items but details which make a difference at that price point. I definitely had the best massage of my life in the Porto Spa courtesy of Alexandra. She was so professional and obviously trained to an incredibly high standard. I’m a bit of a wimp with massages but she persuaded me to grit my teeth to get some knots out of my calves from cycling and did her best to sort my wrecked back out. She’s intelligent and has great knowledge of different techniques. My wife who is the opposite of me and likes a massage a hard as she can get also agreed it was her best ever massage as well. ||I rented a road bike for the week from the incredibly helpful and friendly Yiannis and Chris in the bike shop. They deal with such a flow of customers but always have time to help when I wanted an adjustment to the bike or borrow extra water bottle holders, inner tubes etc. The roads down along the peninsula Sani is situated on are stunning. A loop down one side and back up the other is around 100km, but there are lots of 40-60km loops to try on quiet roads through the most stunning forests and flowered banks with lots of short, sharp climbs to burn off breakfast. I hope Yiannis gets some support for some new road and gravel bikes as those are showing their age and there are very few available compared to the MTB’s. If you aren’t a fan of cycling outside the resort Yiannis has got three cyclocross style routes built in the Sani Forest which are clearly signposted (they begin just before the hill going up to Sani Club). Each loop is 5km long and lead off each other so you can ride from 5-15km and great fun for older kids and adults. I just need Yiannis to have a little bar area in the bike shop so you can have a post ride expresso watching the Giro de Italia next year! With the Chelsea and Rafa Nadal affiliations maybe there is room for a really friendly and recently retired bike pro to lead some rides a few times a year? ||There were new food items on both the Elia a la carte breakfast menu and the pool bar menu at lunch - the Salmon Poke bowl was particularly good. They have made an effort to try to add some different lunch options with a quesadilla, bau bun and gyoza choices as well. I completely appreciate that for a resort this size and the demands on the kitchen at lunchtime a lot of the food has to be prepared. However, I do feel there is a lack of options for 10–14 year olds who have probably moved on from chicken nuggets or pasta with hidden veg on a plastic plate with a plastic fork each day but don’t necessarily want the chilli, chipotle, coriander etc on some of the dishes. The staff helped where they could but given a 12 year old is classed as (and charged as!!) an adult, having a few items that would appeal to teenage girls in particular who want something healthy but not full on adult flavours would be recommended. ||The only negative is the seemingly inflation resistant lunch and dinner allowances - €12.50 for a child and €25 for an adult. When a pitta cut into 4 strips with a blob of humous and a few carrot sticks is €14 or a kids mini burger is €16 it seems incredibly mean not to have moved up the allowances to at least cover the average cost of one dish per person on the lunch / pool menu. Most of the adult lunch options are well over €25 and if you want to share a salad as well you are probably looking at another €30-40 per family at lunch before shelling out €6-7 for a small glass of Diet Coke. It just doesn’t feel “full board”. ||It might have been our misconception but whilst Dennis’ pool teams service standards were as incredibly high as ever there just seemed much fewer pool staff so when people left sunbeds the old towels didn’t get cleared to free them for other guests, or you were constantly having to break into the towel hut yourself. I’m not convinced about the push to order via the app either. I guess that works for some people but I preferred talking to the staff through the day and it was a lot easier to put in specific food / drink requests. ||Whilst we have always found the food at IKOS excellent, the difference for me at Sani is the ability to eat at over 20 restaurants and the mix between dine around (using your full board payment) or a la carte. We did a mixture of the two with some stunning a carte meals in the chilled Ibiza vibe Beach House (was great to see Giannis who looked after us so well) and Alvia the new Fish Restaurant in the Marina which has replaced Tomato (same manager however). It was a shame Besouvelous beach bar isn’t open for dinner in the evening any more - having a steak there as the sun went down was missed, but Ouzeri up in Sani Club remains as legendary as ever. As well as outstanding service to compliment the views there are some new items on the menu so the effort to freshen these up is appreciated by returning guests. ||Our children are 11 and 13 and the size and scale of Sani gives them a lot more options to find their own freedom, whether that is taking themselves off to the creperie or patisserie with their friends of the same age or enjoying Tree Tops or getting lunch when they want, or just wandering around the marina - it’s the ability to have some independence whilst remaining in a safe and secure resort and mixing family and personal time we enjoy. ||We are booked to return next spring and look forward to more...

This was our sixteenth stay at Porto Sani. As the children have grown up on holidays here but whilst they have become older, the resort has done a great job at evolving and ensuring that there is lots to offer older children too. ||||Porto management remains exceptional. Sakis as General Manager prioritises the experience of all guests through the build of a strong team whilst also ensuring he is at the front line too - speaking to guests at breakfast, in the hotel bars and checking that all is well. He treats guests like family and really brings the Sani experience to life. Efthimis and Maria as the Hotel Managers ensure that Porto operates in safe hands, with both being visible and available to help with anything that the guests need. Special thanks to Efthimis for the time that he has spent with the children and ensuring that they are always having a wonderful stay. Knowing that Efthimis is here continues to be a big pull on us returning again next year. Thanks also to Eleni who regularly checked in with us to ensure we were having an enjoyable stay and it is great to see her rising through the ranks at Sani. ||||Ioanna was our personal concierge both prior to and during our stay. Everything that we needed was booked in advance, she ensured that we had the best possible stay and we would be keen to make our next booking via her again to ensure that we get the same exceptional service.||||On our last visit, we found the housekeeping a little disappointing on occasion. This time, it was back to the usual high standards that we had experienced during other stays. Thank you to all the housekeeping team!||||We spent most of our time around the pools, especially the newer areas by Elia restaurant. We find these pools quieter and with more space than at the original pool areas. An added bonus is that we are looked after by Dennis and his team, including Christina, Elli and Orge. Most things at Sani are consistently excellent but the service at the pool this year has exceeded excellence. Dennis and the team have been the best pool service team that we have experienced in our sixteen visits to the hotel - always present, one step ahead, positive and delivering exceptional service.||||Aside the pools, we all enjoyed time at the Spa this year and had some amazing treatments. Our 12 year old also had her first experience at the Spa which she found completely magical. The Spa Manager, Maria is such a positive character and made sure that we all had the best experience - a big thank you to her and her team for making us all feel||so relaxed!||||We had breakfast at Elia which, being smaller, we found to be a slightly calmer experience than Artemis. The range and quality of the food was excellent and the team always served us well - special thanks to Amando, Chris and Riad for ensuring that we always had great service and extra thanks for Amando who always seemed to know what we needed before even ordering it - that is a very special gift! Maybe one or two more tables being held for groups of 5/6 would be good as we did wait a few times to be seated because larger tables were occupied by smaller groups. ||||The new link to Sani Club was a great addition and has made the whole resort feel more connected. Maybe there could be some reflection on how the heavy presence of bikes and e-scooters can be used alongside groups of guests walking around the resort. This is one aspect of the resort that does make it feel less luxury.||||Across a fifteen night stay, there will always be small things that could have been better but Sani always works hard to resolve those swiftly. Thanks to Sakis, Efthimis and all of the Porto team for...

Our holiday at Porto Sani was simply magnificent! Not a single fault, really, just 100% perfection. This was the best holiday and the family loved it!

50 minutes from the airport (SKG) in a super cozy taxi was just the start of great things to come.

Porto Sani – Immaculate. Clean, not a single leaf on the floor or in the pool. Luxurious resort with luscious green grass always being tended to by lovely gardening team. Great restaurants on site and 3 minute walk to marina too where you can find shops, further restaurants and a mini market for your essentials – very well priced.

Rooms – World class. Housekeeping great job, clean, spacious and cosy. Lovely outdoor space too. Pools are heated and warm and bar service attentive.

Plenty of activities and free! Sunset cruse, tree top climbing, archery etc. It has it all.

The whole ambience was superb.

The team:

Alexis. Took on 1-1 service. He gave his mobile number form day 1 and was on hand to be there for us always including booking restaurants and activities. Very friendly and so happy to have met him. Very personable and great customer interaction. Even on his day off he was still assisting us! What a true dedicated gentleman who really cares. And then he stayed after he had finished on the last night to say bye to the kids! How cool!

On another note, my son left his jumper and Alexis personally took it upon himself to return the jumper for my son and didn’t let us pay for the postage either! That is just so amazing and kind from Alexis and really shows how great the team are here at Port Sani. Really nice humble lovely people who go out of their way to make the guest’s experience the ultimate!

Chris in brown blazer equally superb. Very kind and helpful and got on so great with the kids – they loved him so much.

Kostas was amazing too. Very helpful and went out of his way to help us with anything.

Riad. Oh my god! Out of this world. Really interacted so well with the kids and us. Amazing character! His efforts were awesome. Really connected with the kids, just like Alexis did.

Thodoris another kind gentleman. So kind and helpful. Very passionate re dining and service.

All thanks to Pavel. When the hotel manager (Pavel) is so down to earth and kind, then rest assured the team will be too!

Special thanks to the Lima restaurant chef who stayed longer to make sure we had eaten well. He personally came out and wanted to say a big thank you to him. Also the restaurant underneath (Greek) – world class with equally great food.

Hats off to everyone mentioned. The whole of Pavel’s team were awesome. Cannot wait to return!

God bless you all at Porto – be safe always and happy and see you soon!

Mr and Mrs Mander, Arjun and...