GETTING THERE

AS A zig-zag of lightning split t h e s k y , t h e o m e n s d i d not look good. Zeus, king of the gods, must have got out on the wrong side of bed. His home, Mount Olympus, the tallest mountain in Greece, lay across the water, visible on a clearer day. But by the time we had finished our breakfast at Ikos Oceania resort, the storm clouds had passed us by, leaving normal duty to be resumed by the pool.

The Oceania has been hosting holidaymakers on the west coast of the Halkidiki peninsula since 2006. Last year it relaunched under the Ikos banner with a new five-star, all-inclusive PACKAGE Classic Collection Holidays offers seven nights for two persons sharing all-inclusive from Gatwick from £909 per person in May at the Oceania: and £942 pp at the Olivia. For a family of two adults and two children leaving on July 23, a junior suite for a week at Oceania will be £6,554 and a panorama junior suite at Olivia £7,844. formula. Its sister resort, Ikos Olivia, 20 minutes’ drive to the east, opened last May.

Whenyoutotupthecostof ice-creams and refreshments, cocktails and capuccinos, holiday bills can start to mount. Here you can enjoy excellent amenities and good food and drink in a prime setting and know pretty well what you are going to spend from the outset.

Our ambitions extended no further than a stretch of sunbed escapism over summer and this was not the part of the country for roaming round ruined temples, anyway.

But as a place to laze in comfort, it fulfilled its purpose and our welcome seemed all the warmer in that we had not succumbed to scare stories about Greece’s economic turbulence.

We had soon set up camp by the new adult infinity pool. A second adult pool has since been added and the outdoor pools will be heated this year.

Swimming to the rim, we could draw in the view: over the olive and pine-tops, to the sea where children slid down slides fitted to pedalos, to the shadowy mountains beyond.

Here we could watch divebombing swallows treat the pool as a giant birdtable, so fast that only the ripples revealed that their beaks had touched the water.

We had no need to move as waiters were always on hand to take drink orders and even wipe our sunglasses.

Periodically, we rose for a meditation class — we didn’t expect chanting mantras on a mat to be so demanding; or a massage (spa treatments are not