Hi there, I am looking to go to Sani Beach Club in May, and have read a lot of reviews saying that prices are very expensive, can anyone advise on costs over there and how much spending money I may need for me and my wife, I do like to have a few beers in the evening.

Please could someone out there advise on costings in Greece, I am now booked to go in May to the Sani Beach Club.

This is from our stay in August. Note the bit about your wallet!!!!!!!!

Author: Mike (---.range86-129.btcentralplus.com)
Date: 09-04-05 23:24

We returned from a brilliant week at the Sani Beach Club on 11th August. 2 things you need to bear in mind - this is not for the old or infirm due to the nature of its siting - it is set on a hillside and there are steep hills and steps everywhere. However, having said that, an electric buggy service runs 24 hours a day, so wherever you need to go - ie bungalow to reception/pool/beach or visa versa, just ring reception and ask - the service is very good. Secondly, this place can seriously damage your wallet !! We had a standard bungalow with 4 beds - 3 in main area and another bed up a ladder, rather like a top bunk bed (kids will love it). Beware drinks/sweets etc from mini-bar - they do not come cheap. On arrival you are given a `credit card` with which you can purchase anything from the bar, restaurants and even the mini-market. However, in practice you end up not using it - you just sign the `bill` that is presented to you. We spent well over 300 Euros during the week (granted we had an expensive grandaughter with us !!). Beware however, if you order a round of drinks, you are presented with the bill (in a folder with a pend) - if you remember you had forgotten to order something you are then presented with a second bill. The first bill shows the total for the first order, the second will show the additonal item, but the sub-total on the second will be the amount of the original bill plus the drink you forgot to order - ie you will have one bill for, say, 10 euros, and the second one for 13 euros. Not that I am not saying you would get charged for both if you signed them both, but we always `disposed` of the first bill just in case !!
Apart from that:
Accommodation - brilliant
Pool - brilliant (watch out in main pool - deep end is 3 metres !!)
Beach - brilliant (very shallow, 99.9% sand)
Main restaurant - pretty good
Grounds - brilliant - lawns immaculate and everywhere spotless
Staff - couldn`t do more for you
Nationalities: Mainly English, some Italians & Spanish and quite a lot of eastern Europeans.
Sunbeds (poolside) - no problem - but beware, put your towels on them at, say, 07:00 and you will find them gone if you go back at 10:00 - not by other guests, but by the staff !!! The rule says no towels before 09:00 - you can stretch it to after 08:00 but don`t complain if you find you towels nicely piled in the corner when you return. We never had a problem with sunbeds except from late in the morning. Up until 11:00 there were generally some available.
Sunbeds (beach) - can`t speak for them as we didn`t use them - if we wanted to go into the sea we just walked down to the beach (all of 50 metres or so from the pool)
Would we go back - hell yes - tomorrow if I could afford it.

Thanks Mike, this is great, exactly what I wanted to know, I am glad you enjoyed the holiday, puts my mind at rest to hear some positive feedback, I am going with the wife, for our anniversary, no kids yet. I to was expecting to take a couple of hundred, can you tell me if it is better to change money over there? Once again thanks for the info.

Hi Sunit, change your money over there. Although we didnt stay at Sani as we usually stay with our Greek friends, we did make the mistake of taking Euros over with us. Previously, we used to take UK pounds to change into drachmaes, but for some reason we thought there would be no exchange booths now that it is the Euro, but of course there are ! Not so many as before, but I think I tended to forget it is not just Europeans who holiday in Greece! We got 1.42 here with no commission, and over there we got 1.5 after commission taken off. Of course it changes rate like it does here, but in general you get more there, and certainly no less. You get more for cash than travellers cheques. Jane

Thanks for the advice Jane, when are you thinking of going over, if in May (I know its a long way away) hopefully we could meet up, be nice to have a little company, thats if you go to Sani Beach Club.

Sorry Sunit, we have been this year in June for three weeks and not sure when we will go next year yet as we have had to shut our shop down and need to sell off the stock etc! We have been going over 25 years, and lived there for three summers, so we know the area well. However now we no longer rent a house there for the whole year we usually stay with our Greek friends, or one of their relatives, or for many years we stayed at the Pallini Beach.

Sani area is lovely, although of course we knew it when it was more isolated. Having said that, we have never stayed there and it is a beautiful area to visit. Quite quiet and remote and a fair distance from any of the villages, but lovely for peace and quiet, and the best sea and sand about.

Have a good time. I am envious, I want to go back NOW !

Dear Mike, can you give me any advice on tipping, and/or whether the staff expect it?

Is anyone going/has been to Sani in May, if so does it rain alot? Just want to be prepared.

You can never tell nowadays anywhere in the world whether it is likely to rain more or not. When we have been to Halkidiki over the last 25 years we have very rarely had rain at all, from April to October, but the last few years have seen an increase. Having said that it is usually warm enough that it doesnt bother you and can be quite a relief when it is very hot.

We went in May two years ago, and unfortunately I spent the whole week in bed with a back problem. It was absolutely boiling hot outside, at that time the apartments we were in had no air conditioning and we were just so hot we didnt know what to do with ourselves.

With that in mind, and the change of weather patterns worldwide, we would never to go Greece (or indeed most other eastern European destinations) unless we had air con. Now that is a definite change from when we were over there for three years until 2001, we very rarely used the airconditioning until June, or after early Sept.

So, to sum it up, you can never tell. May can be a bit of a strange month in Greece, either very very hot, or mild and some rain. Me, I would be optimistic every time and assume it will be a nice warm month with little rain. I have never been to Halkidiki when it has rained more than a few hours at a time, I may have been lucky but then again as I have been going for over 25 years there must be more than a little luck in there somewhere !

What I would say is don't bother checking weather forecasts on line or whatever. It makes you panic, and it is rarely accurate. The forecasts usually focus on Thessaloniki, and the weather can be different on the actual peninsula from one end to the other, never mind 60 miles away in Thessaloniki.

Just enjoy, I am sure you will

Jane

We went to the Sani resort in May of this year. weather was lovely around 26 degrees, had one day of rain in 1 week so not too bad. Hope you have as good a time as we did!

Sarah, reading other treads, people are saying that there is a awful lot of wasps, are there many around May?

dont know about may sunit, but i was there in september and there were loads. i hear you should be ok tho.

Hi we are getting marred in apirl(22nd)and want to go to sani resort for our honeymoon (26th),we have a son all ready he will be 2.and just want to know if sutable for small children and what the weather is usally like.
the other place we fancy is paphos in cyprus.any body got any coments would be so gratefull for some help (travel agents waste of time!!!)

Hi Claire, as you can see above I am going on 4th May to the Sani Beach Club, this will be my first time so don't know much about the resort, apart from all the good reviews, I have been to Paphos some time ago, and it is beautiful, but expensive. if you need more info on sani resort then visit [www.saniresort.gr], I hope this helps on your decision, and have a nice time wherever you decide to go.

Hi Sunit thank you so much for your reply,On a closer look we can come to the 5+*sani resort for the same price as a 3*hotel in paphos so what would you choose!!!!!!and i think we will be going on the 1st or 8th May.SO we will see you there.......

We stayed at the Sani Beach Hotel from 29th September to 13th October. I will try and give you some idea of the prices. With our evening meal we had a glass of white wine and a large beer (local Mythos) and it cost 6.90 euros, I am sure you can work that out. In the evening we would have a round of a large beer and a cocktail in the hotel bar and it would cost 11 euros. Lunch, a snack, would be about 5 euros if you eat in one of the hotel bars. The creperie at the marina, however, did a nice toasted sandwich which was cheaper and their crepes are very reasonable too. We stayed there for two weeks and spent about 800 euros in all with lunch, drinks in the evening, hiring mountain bikes, using internet cafe etc.
I hope this is of help to you. If you want to ask anything else, please do not hesitate to do so. Sani is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been but I think I chose the wrong time since the weather let us down and there were lots of wasps about (my nightmare!!!) I know everyone has different ideas and standards but I liked it.
Regards,
Angie

Hi Angi, I don't think you chose the wrong time really. Wasps in Halkidiki tend to come in different years at different times. We lived there three years, and I can honestly say that only one of those years was exceptionally bad for wasps, and I hate them too !

As for the weather, I am afraid weather patterns are changing worldwide, and I dont think you could guarantee any particular time nowadays. We always had good weather in Sept and Oct, with only a couple of showers to speak of. In fact when we were there from April til October we could count the number of times it rained on one hand for the whole season.

Now, well we went this June for three weeks. We had a good three weeks, but we did have three days that were overcast and a couple of days when it rained, and that has never happened to us in June before in 25 years of going there.

So dont let it put you off, sometimes end of September is nicest because it is still warm but not so many people about.

Glad you liked Sani. We have never stayed there, but we always used to go for a swim at the local beach and a drive around those lovely houses. I would think it is a lovelyplace to stay, but we are now disappointed because of course it is now getting quite built up to what we were used to. Having said that, we went to the Blue Dream beach bar and sat there for an hour fussing a gorgeous dog and looking out over that lovely beach and sea, so all is not lost.

Jane

Hi Claire, good to hear you have made a decision, which travel agent are you booking with, we booked with first choice, flying from Gatwick. I will be going to celebrate our 4th wedding anniversary, so hopefully everything goes well, which hotel out of the four there will you be staying in?

Hi, can anyone recommend any excursions, ie shopping or sightseeing, or is there anything that isn't worth bothering with or not worth the money.