Daios Cove Resort & Luxury Villas

Very nice, clean hotel! Beautiful resort, i do think they could add some evenings with a party vibe. Food was amazing, we had the residents all inclusive which was absolutely fantastic! I truly recommend taking the residents all inclusive! Service was great and we really enjoyed our stay! The guest experience manager George was such a nice guy! Helped with everything we needed! Such an amazing service from him! We truly thank him for his service!

Pool 8/10 (nice but crowded) Beach 7/10 (crowded) Food 7/10 ( hit amd miss) Staff 8/10 (attentive) Rooms 10/10 (if you stay on renovated side) Gym 10/10 (excellent) Spa 10/10 Kids club 8/10 Location 8/10 Wifi 5/10

An Exceptional Stay and One of My Best Holidays Ever. I’m a massive fan of Crete and love the island. I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to write this review, but Daios Cove truly deserves it. This was one of my best holidays, full stop. A special mention first to the interim hotel manager Kyrillos, who made everything so incredible – the service throughout is genuinely second to none. Rather than comparing this to any other hotel or chain, I’d urge you to judge it on its own merits, because it is truly unique. There is a certain discerning crowd here, but the hotel never feels like it’s trying to be something it’s not. Authentic, ambitious, and outstanding. Rooms & Accessibility We originally had a room that required too many steps (we have a 2-year-old and a buggy), and the team immediately moved us to a step-free room right next to the kids club – perfect. We were Residents club and it was a sea view suite with two rooms! Room service arrived on time every time and is included in the stay, which is a lovely touch. Housekeeping was great throughout. The only minor thing worth mentioning is that occasionally there were small lost-in-translation moments – nothing that impacted the stay, just worth knowing. One tip: request a mid-level room within the lower funicular zone. The upper funicular serves the higher rooms which likely have incredible views, but waiting for it every morning with little ones could get old quickly. Dining & Drinks The hotel app lets you book everything easily, which is a great touch. We ate our way around the resort and here’s the honest breakdown: • Ocean Restaurant – Our first night dinner. Even with young kids, they were wonderfully accommodating, and the kids’ menu is exceptional. Worth noting: the hotel manual lists the full kids’ menu available at all restaurants – brilliant for families. The best menu! • The Beach House – Incredible food and really good service. A highlight. And love eating with bare feet and chilling. • Taverna – Outstanding. One of the best on site. • RHO – We did this as an adult-only dinner and it was really impressive, though I’d rank Ocean, Taverna and the Beach House just above it. • Beach Bar – Great food, great spot. • Crystal Box Bar – Worth a visit. • Top Bar – In the evenings we occasionally headed up here and it absolutely did the job. A lovely wind-down spot. And the Taittinger Champagne on tap during our stay? Exceptional. Highly recommended. Best cocktails: the Mexican Familiar, the Cove 75, and the Peaches Sour. Pools & Beach It’s quite a hilly resort, but that’s part of its charm. There’s an adult-only pool – small but impressive – and the main pool, and we never once felt rushed to grab sunbeds. The beach setup was looked after brilliantly, and there’s also an indoor swimming pool which was a lifesaver on the first couple of rainy days. Fitness & Spa The gym is BXR London branded – my husband absolutely loved it. All modern equipment, an outdoor gym and training space, super efficient and clean. One genuine surprise, and honestly the only real criticism of the stay: you cannot use the steam room or sauna without purchasing the spa package, which is an additional €70. For a 5-star hotel, I’ve never encountered this before – it felt odd not to have access after a gym session or an indoor swim. Worth budgeting for if it matters to you, but it did feel like an anomaly at this level. Kids Club Absolutely world-class. My son under two was looked after every single day and never wanted to leave. My six-year-old thoroughly enjoyed the immersive programme. Even if you don’t want to use the kids club, there’s a playground right next door with open access. My son was also obsessed with the funicular – we rode it constantly. Stand-Out Staff • Thelxi (Reception) • Michalis (Front Office) • Xriakis (Beach) • George (Beach Bar) • Sotiris (Taverna) • Manos (Crystal Box Bar) • Nokios (Taverna) Would I go back? In a heartbeat. Thank you team we had the most incredible stay

Stayed at Daios Cove in July this year with our Neurodivergent Teenage Daughter. The hotel staff were absolutly amazing in supporting us as a family when she was having bad days offering quieter space with no fuss and even accomadating a room change. These gestures went a long way in helping us have a good family holiday when enviromemt changes can be tough. Surrounding are amazing as is the food but all of that doesnt matter if there isnt kindness accompanied ...and there was in abundance. Thank you Daios Cove.

Daios Cove is a beautiful property, no doubt, but there are some very large caveats. This is NOT a place to go as a couple, or with friends. It is nearly entirely families with (multiple) young children. There was not a moment at this hotel (outside of the room) where there was peace and quiet. I went with two friends and out of the 250+ rooms (we all had separate rooms) there were 2-3 other groups traveling without kids. This was evidenced by the "Adult" breakfast area being sparsely populated, and the other guests that were in the area were also complaining about how they did not realize this hotel was so child centric. I wanted to like Daios cove, but saying 90% of the occupants were families with multiple children under 7 years old would be an understatement. The "adult" pool area only has about 5 sun loungers, and it sits directly next to the family pool, where screaming children are abundant- and the fight for chairs begins at 8am. The beach is beautiful, but small, and does not have a segregated adult area, so there are children running and throwing sand in between the beach chairs, which are already quite close together. The dining facilities (there are multiple) are also very hectic given the amount of young children. The beach restaurant is nearly exclusively kids, and while some of the other options are noted as "more adult" that is simply not the case. I found the service to not be great. When we inquired to Guest Relations about where on the property we could have the most peaceful stay, with as few children as possible, we were basically laughed at and told that one of the restaurants was "less child friendly". When we then asked for them to make a reservation at that restaurant, we were told it was fully booked all 3 nights we were there. Keep in mind, this is a remote destination, the restaurants are 100% hotel guests, not people from neighboring towns. There was no effort made to try to accommodate. The gym facilities were pretty solid, and although the Guest Relations team told us the outdoor portion was closed (it wasn't....). The problem was that, despite clear signage stating that no children under 16 were allowed in the gym or spa facilities, there were still many children running around inside. The resort is built into the side of a cliff, so to get up and down there are two funiculars ( diagonal elevators, essentially). They run quite slowly, and often are entirely full when they do stop at your level, requiring wait times of up to 15min. The stair system isn't very intuitive, so even if you capitulate and take the stairs, some levels do not connect to other levels, and there is no single staircase that connects all floors across the property. All in all, the view is superb, but Daios Cove should stop trying to pitch itself as a luxury vacation destination for all demographics, it is exclusively a family hotel.