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

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

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

Sithonia Sithonia ( el, Σιθωνία), also known as Longos, is a peninsula of Chalkidiki, which itself is located on a larger peninsula within Greece. The Kassandra Peninsula lies to the west of Sithonia and the Mount Athos peninsula to the east. Sithon ...

Chalkidiki Chalkidiki (; el, Χαλκιδική , also spelled Halkidiki, 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 region co ...

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

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

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 principa ...

, 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-American architect An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in conne ...

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

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

. 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 (appr ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

, and

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

sports areas as well as a

vineyard A vineyard (; also ) is a plantation of grape-bearing vines, grown mainly for winemaking, but also raisins, table grapes and non-alcoholic grape juice. The science, practice and study of vineyard production is known as viticulture. Vineyards ...

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

marina A marina (from Spanish , Portuguese and Italian : ''marina'', "coast" or "shore") 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 o ...

in northern Greece, having berths for 315 boats. It also contains restaurants, spa, interior and beach bars and a cinema theater. In April 2020, Porto Carras changed ownership and became a member of Belterra Investments. The resort of Porto Carras is near the traditional village of

Neos Marmaras Neos Marmaras ( el, Νέος Μαρμαράς, ''Néos Marmarás'', , "New Marmara") is a town on the Sithonia peninsula, in the Chalkidiki peninsula, Greece. In 2011, Neos Marmaras had 3,352 permanent residents; however, the summer-time populat ...

; 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 political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

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, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

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, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...

and

E.U. The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

took part in an official dinner, hosted by the then

President of the Hellenic Republic The president of Greece, officially the President of the Hellenic Republic ( el, Πρόεδρος της Ελληνικής Δημοκρατίας, Próedros tis Ellinikís Dimokratías), commonly referred to in Greek as the President of the Rep ...

. There was also held the European Team Chess Championships 2011.

External links

Porto Carras Grand Resort - official website
{{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