Peligoni, a sailing shack-turned-members’ club, achieves the impossible by turning the crèche into a decidedly chic proposition.
Three words for tired parents planning their one holiday of the year that must, against all odds of air strikes, lost luggage and tantrums over melty sticks, be entirely perfect: The Peligoni Club. Other family resorts promise a “home away from home” ethos, but the draw of the north Zakynthos coastal nook is that guests actually get their own bolthole. More specifically, one of a smattering of sea-view villas dotted among the winding hills at the island’s edge. A stone’s throw away from the beach club itself, groups can pop in and out of the paddle-boarding sessions and happy hours before retreating back to their base, where the whitewashed walls and wicker furniture even make an explosion of Uno cards and Toomies eggs look photogenic.
Even better? You don’t actually have to pack your Liewood and Little Dutch, because the Petit Peligoni service offers rental kits – from the Bathtime Box, comprising Stokke, Munchkin and Nuby essentials, to the Playtime Box proffering enough ELC goodies to entertain all ages – that dramatically cut down the amount of Trunkis being dragged through Gatwick. Special details, like the cute printed bed linen for cots, are thrown in for free. But by the time you set eyes on the canopy-covered crèche looking out on the Ionian sea (with the next door Peli Deli promising rosé upon pick-up), you’ll be booking your return visit.
If Peligoni manages to achieve the impossible by making a nursery look stylish, then the rest of the interiors, from the spa tucked behind tumbling bougainvillea to the daybed platforms snaking up the cliffside (members-only admission to the club ensures there’s no sun lounger politics at dawn), are as curated as social media suggests. Consider it a seaside mash-up of Soho Farmhouse and Oakley Court, but with the benefit of being able to check-out from the Whispering Angel crowd and spritz beside your own infinity pool. Staying at Menta, a sublime villa looking out onto the Agios Nikolaos port, you will struggle to leave the jacuzzi, while the daily replenishments of essentials (sparkling water, bbq lighters) by a stealth member of staff from the Etheria Villas group mean you really are set for the week.
Other points of business that are important for trepidatious parents to note: Peligoni is a 45-minute drive from Zante airport. This reduces the risk of children completely losing it on a lengthy transfer after a fraught flight fuelled by Pringles and Peppa Pig. Peligoni will also bend the on-site rule of kids’ clubs, whereby parents must always be in the vicinity of the crèche, in order to facilitate a shipwreck excursion to a wildly beautiful beach or to charter the club’s Odyssey yacht for half a day. This is not a common occurrence at big resorts. Neither is having your own point person, who will bend over backwards to pick you up from boozy Mikro Nisi lunches, and a nursery care worker, who will magic you a new pack of Huggies when you unfathomably run out of the 10,000 water wipes you packed.
Chances are you’ve been stalking @peligoni after watching a swarm of fashion PRs and journos dive off the club’s famous pontoon last summer, but let this convince you that the family-friendly It-club has substance as well as style. Go forth and see a different side to Zante for 2024.
