

A seven-night half-board break, flying from Gatwick on August 20, starts at £3,910 per person, via Sovereign (01293 324 691 ).

Options include the five-star Sani Club, where 22 restaurants and a spa wait in the shade of a pine forest. Kassandra, the westernmost of these three out-stretched fingers, is a case in point, bejewelled with five-star enclaves where summer slips by in a haze of soft sand and white linen. Greece has plenty of delightful accommodation of its own – not least in Halkidiki, the trio of peninsulas which hang down into the Aegean from the mainland region of Central Macedonia. A week’s stay starts at £3,700 a head, with flights, via Scott Dunn (020 3811 4892 ). These include Amanruya, a fabulous spa retreat of just 35 “pavilions”, each with a private pool. The former Halicarnassus of the ancient world spreads out along a gorgeous bay, a 15th century castle monitoring the waves – but is at its most elegant in the luxury resorts which adorn the top of the peninsula on which it sits. One of the prettiest towns on the Aegean, Bodrum has also earned a reputation as one of the most chic destinations along Turkey’s “Turquoise Coast” – the 620 miles of seafront which shape the south-west corner of the country (roughly between Cesme in the north and Alanya in the west). A seven-night full-board stay for a family of four, flying from Leeds-Bradford on August 17, starts at £6,196 in total, with transfers. Phokaia Beach Club offers everything you would expect of a child-friendly holiday enclave – three pools two restaurants a watersports centre bikes for hire. Family holiday specialist Mark Warner (03 .uk) has a footprint in Foça, a resort town 40 miles north-west of the regional capital (the city of Izmir Turkey’s third biggest). The same splendid state of affairs can be found in Turkey, where Izmir Province shapes much of this vast country’s west coast.
