Greek holiday - mainland? Easy drive of an airport that's easy to fly into. Quiet, beachy, child friendly

[BaleOfHay]

I know - it's v last minute. But I'm trying to find options for 2 adults and a 5 year old. We went to Paxos pre-child and loved it - low key, not resort-y, beaches and pottering and tavernas. Looking for the same now but easy to get to (5 year old) and self catering. I'm just unsure where to start with all the options! Recommendations would be great - either Greek mainland or an island with direct flights from London/Midlands. Help!

Parga?

Halkidiki?

Chania is a lovely place and has a beach, but I'm not sure if you also want extra child friendly activities?

arewethereyetkids.com/visiting-chania-with-kids/

Kos.

Kefalonia

Just been to Corfu with a 3 year old, short flight tome (3hrs), visited Sidari and Kassiopi would recommend either.

So hard to find flights that don't cost the earth! Halkidiki looks doable, but I know nothing about the area

Parga is lovely. If you have a car you can go to the River Acheron which is supposed to run into the Underworld, but is actually just a beautiful woodland walk. Lots of lovely beaches near there, and you can take a ferry over to Paxos.

Alternatively, fly into Kalamata. The coast around there is beautiful and there are lots of lovely coves, but it is hilly/cliffy so you might find it harder with small kids. Pylos is a nice little town and a bit flatter. We stayed at Koroni, which was idyllic but is extremely steeply hilly.

Fly to Kalamata and visit the Peloponnese or Volos for the Pelion.
Bit hot at the moment though!

Fly to Thessaloniki and go to Halkidiki. Although that is proper 'resort'.

We are just back from a trip round the Peloponnese and stayed a few nights at Kakovatos on the west coast.

The beach is amazing, sea was v warm and it was very much not 'resorty'. A few tavernas, couple of hotels, very chill. There seemed to be a lot of similar small towns and villages up and down the coast.

And the drive from Athens airport is easy, the toll roads are great.

I went to parga a lifetime ago, was small and friendly then, lots of Italians visiting. I'm sure it will have grown.