Danai Beach Resort & Villas

Set not on an island but on the Greek mainland, Danai Beach Resort & Villas nevertheless offers everything you’d want from an Aegean holiday escape, set in Nikiti, on the Sithonian peninsula, just over an hour by car from Thessaloniki. The style, as you might expect, is rather more refined than what you’d find on the islands, and space is more plentiful here, which allows Danai Beach’s rooms, suites, and villas to spread out to exceedingly comfortable dimensions.

Suites, in fact, make up the bulk of the accommodations, and with comforts like Bulgari bath products and Nespresso machines — as well as outdoor terraces, marble bathrooms, and a minimum of 35 square meters of indoor space — they’re unmistakably high-end. The best ones feel like self-contained residences, and have direct views out to sea — but really there’s not a subpar room in the house.

There’s an impressive outdoor pool, and a second indoor pool in the spa; there’s also a private beach just a few steps down from the hotel’s terraces, furnished with loungers and umbrellas. Three restaurants range from the high-end French-Mediterranean Squirrel to the more expansive Andromeda and the casual Anithos Restaurant, and they’re joined by a truly vast wine cellar and the Philosophy Seaside Bar, named in tribute to Aristotle, who was born nearby but somehow found the discipline to turn from the idyllic beach to the life of the mind….