Porto Carras (Greek: Πόρτο Καρράς), known as Porto Carras Grand Resort, is one of northern

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

's largest and most famous hotels and holiday resorts. It is located on

Sithonia Sithonia (), also known as Longos, is a peninsula and part of the larger peninsula of Chalkidiki in Greece. The Kassandra, Chalkidiki, Kassandra Peninsula lies to the west of Sithonia and the Mount Athos peninsula to the east. Sithonia is also the ...

Chalkidiki Chalkidiki (; , alternatively Halkidiki), also known as Chalcidice, is a peninsula and regional unit of Greece, part of the region of Central Macedonia, in the geographic region of Macedonia in Northern Greece. The autonomous Mount Athos reg ...

peninsula in

Macedonia Macedonia (, , , ), most commonly refers to: * North Macedonia, a country in southeastern Europe, known until 2019 as the Republic of Macedonia * Macedonia (ancient kingdom), a kingdom in Greek antiquity * Macedonia (Greece), a former administr ...

, Greece. It is about 120 km away from Greece's second-biggest city,

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

. Porto Carras has garnered a reputation as a popular destination particularly among Serbian tourists, who comprise as much as 90% of monthly visitor traffic. Its array of amenities, including luxurious hotels, a marina, a casino, and a golf course, coupled with its proximity to Serbia, have contributed to its appeal within this demographic.

History

Porto Carras was created by

Yiannis Carras John Constantine Carras (; 1907–1989) was a Greek shipping magnate, grandson of captain and sailing-ship owner Ioannis I. Carras from Kardamyla of Chios. Early life John Carras studied economics in Lausanne and subsequently became a princip ...

, a Greek businessman and ship-owner. Originally it was planned with the renowned architect

Walter Gropius Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (; 18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-born American architect and founder of the Bauhaus, Bauhaus School, who is widely regarded as one of the pioneering masters of modernist architecture. He was a founder of ...

, but the construction works started posthumously in 1973. The project brought a revolution to Chalkidiki's

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure, and the Commerce, commercial activity of providing and supporting such travel. World Tourism Organization, UN Tourism defines tourism more generally, in terms which go "beyond the common perception of tourism as ...

. In April 2020, Porto Carras changed ownership and became a member of Ivan Savvidis' controlled Belterra Investments.

Specifications

Porto Carras Grand Resort includes two major hotels, the 5-star Meliton and 4-star Sithonia as well as the bungalow style hotels Marina Village and Kalyva Mare. There are also 45,000 olive trees;

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

, and

golf Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various Golf club, clubs to hit a Golf ball, ball into a series of holes on a golf course, course in as few strokes as possible. Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standa ...

sports areas as well as a

vineyard A vineyard ( , ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines. Many vineyards exist for winemaking; others for the production of raisins, table grapes, and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is kno ...

covering an area of 475,000 m². Porto Carras is home to the biggest private

marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : "related to the sea") is a dock or basin with moorings and supplies for yachts and small boats. A marina differs from a port in that a marina does not handle large passenger ships or cargo ...

in northern Greece, having berths for 315 boats. It also contains restaurants, spa, interior and beach bars and a cinema theater.

Location

The resort of Porto Carras is near the traditional village of

Neos Marmaras Neos Marmaras (, ''Néos Marmarás'', , "New Marmara") is a town on the Sithonia peninsula, in the Chalkidiki peninsula, Macedonia, Greece. In 2021, Neos Marmaras had 3,038 permanent residents; however, the summer-time population has been estima ...

; a tourist destination, busy during the summer period, with many restaurants, cafeterias and tourist shops.

Held events

During June 2003, Porto Carras was the place of the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

Summit; organized under the Greek Presidency, during which the draft

Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...

of the E.U. was presented for first time. The 25 leaders of European Union, along with Turkey's Prime Minister and the heads of

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

and E.U. took part in an official dinner, hosted by the then President of the Hellenic Republic. There was also held the European Team Chess Championships 2011.

Other information

Porto Carras was the recipient of

MICE A mouse (: mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...

's Best Incentive Hotel in 2022 for Greece. Porto Carras offers complementary WiFi to its guests. The WiFi service, alongside the internal booking platform, are provided by Zoottle.

External links

Porto Carras Grand Resort - official website

References

{{Coord, 40, 04, 44, N, 23, 47, 52, E, region:GR-64_type:landmark_source:kolossus-dewiki, display=title Hotels in Greece Marinas in Greece Buildings and structures in Central Macedonia Chalkidiki Greek brands Hotels established in 1973 Hotel buildings completed in 1973 Walter Gropius buildings