Daios Cove Resort & Luxury Villas

I stayed at this hotel for nine nights in one of the larger room categories. Room The room itself was excellent — spacious, recently renovated, beautifully designed, and very comfortable. Unfortunately, the cleanliness upon arrival was extremely disappointing. The bathroom, especially the toilet area, had not been cleaned properly, and there was a considerable amount of hair on the floor. It genuinely looked as though the floor had not been washed before my check-in. For a hotel of this category, this is simply not acceptable. Restaurants & Food One of the advantages of the hotel is the number of restaurants available on the property, which gives guests several dining options. However, despite having multiple restaurants, I found the menus quite repetitive. Many dishes were very heavy, with excessive amounts of oil, fat, and sauces. After several days, the food became rather monotonous. I was also surprised by the limited possibility of ordering simple, high-quality seafood separately. I would have appreciated options such as lobster, prawns, or other fresh seafood prepared in a straightforward way. There was also no proper burger option available, which would have been a welcome alternative during a longer stay. Restaurant Service Overall, I would rate the service in the restaurants as below average. There was, however, one outstanding exception: Dimitra at RHO restaurant. We had dinner at RHO twice, and Dimitra provided by far the best service I experienced anywhere in the hotel. Her professionalism, attention to detail, kindness, and genuine care for the guests were exceptional. Her service was truly 10/10. If the hotel management reads this review, I sincerely hope Dimitra receives the recognition she deserves. She performs her job exceptionally well and is a wonderful example of what high-level hospitality service should look like. I am very grateful to her for making both of our dinners at RHO such a pleasant experience. Gym The gym is well equipped, with a very good selection of machines, and the view from the gym is beautiful. Unfortunately, cleanliness was again an issue. Several of the machines and pieces of equipment were noticeably dirty, and the gym did not appear to be cleaned to the standard I would expect from a hotel of this level. Overall Experience Overall, the property itself is beautiful, the rooms are attractive, and there are some very good facilities. However, service standards and cleanliness need significant improvement. After spending nine nights here, I unfortunately do not see myself returning. For a hotel positioned at this level, I expected much more consistent service, better attention to cleanliness, and a higher overall hospitality standard.

My wife and I spent four nights in a Collection Junior Suite Sea View room which included “residents club” amenities. The room was fine; modern, decent size, with a barely heated (maybe gets up to 79 Fahrenheit?) small pool with a nice view. We were overall fairly disappointed in the resort. The hotel was at stated capacity, but considering most of the rooms were apparently taken by families with 2-3 young kids each, it felt like we were at a crowded higher-end Disney resort. The chairs at the pool were all taken by 9:00, and at the beach before 10:00. The value of the all-inclusive residents club is diminished as even getting a cup of coffee at breakfast required a lot of patience, we gave up on having lunches after waiting an hour for a table the one time we tried, and were actually told that they has no available dinner reservations anywhere at the resort for all 4 nights of our stay. None. We complained to our travel agent who was able to get us dinner reservations (not sure what options we had, as the closest town in a 35-40 euros each way taxi to a nearby town); it’s “amazing” that you can be told there are no dinner reservations at a resort, especially for people on a meal plan. It seemed obvious that they were unable to keep up with the size of the crowds, and it greatly diminished our enjoyment. Maybe we just came a bad week as the resort was overrun with families with young kids. We went from Daios Cove to the JW Marriott near Chania, about 3 hours West. If Daios Cove is a 5 star resort, then the JW Marriott is a 7 star one. They were also at capacity, but it felt like we were at a private retreat. There’s also a new Rosewood being built near Daios Cove; fortunately there are great options for resorts in Crete. Daios Cove wasn’t one of them, at least not when we visited.

This was very close to being a 5* review. Pros: Daios Cove is an absolutely stunning resort. The hotel is really beautiful, extremely clean and the beach and the scenery is fantastic. I stayed with my wife and my 15 month old baby. The hotel feels luxury but it is also very baby friendly. For example, they have a specific room for families when eating breakfast and dinner at the Pangea buffet style restaurant. This meant we could relax when our baby was making a mess and making noise because everyone was in the same boat. The rooms and the little ‘streets’ are just lovely. We loved going for walks after dinner through all the streets. It felt like we were walking in some luxury private estate. The food - brilliant. Choice of 4 restaurants for lunch and dinner. Very good quality. The staff in the restaurants and by the pool were very attentive and friendly. I thought the staff at the beach house in particular were very friendly and made a big effort with our baby. Very relaxed. Cons- I must stress that the Pros heavily outweigh the Cons. This is an amazing hotel. Price of drink- we went full board. I think it was an extra €1000-1200 for all inclusive. Given we were there with our child, we didn’t anticipate having too much alcohol that would justify us going all inclusive. However, €22-26 for a cocktail, €20 for a gin and tonic €16 for an aperol spritz €10 for a beer just seemed extremely excessive. That €1000-1200 euro was quickly spent! Accessibility- whilst our room was lovely, we had about 30 steps to negotiate with a pram which wasn’t ideal especially when they knew we were coming with a baby. Kids entertainment - this was not an issue for us but there did not seem to be any evening activities suitable for a toddler (under 4) for example a kids disco etc. maybe not that sort of hotel but it issomething I would bear in mind if we were to return in the next 2-3 years. Tv- the tv in our room was a bit crap. Would expect a smart tv at a 5* luxury hotel. Late checkout- our return flight was at 11pm which meant our airport transfer didn’t collect us until 7.30pm. Check out was at 11am. We had requested if we could have our room for longer given the hotel was nowhere near capacity. We were told that the best they could do was to give us until 12.30pm (no use whatsoever) or pay a further €150 for us to have use of another room. I thought this was totally unreasonable given we had already spent €1000s at the hotel and given we had a baby, having room was important. Maybe it was naive of me to expect something would have been sorted automatically given we booked through Jet 2. At the very worst I would have expected a basic late check out fee of say €30. Not €150! Despite our protests we had no choice but to pay the €150. They did give us a complimentary lunch (although they do that anyway for people leaving late). Overall, I couldn’t recommend going to Daios Cove enough. I can’t emphasise how beautiful it is and I do think I will be back. I would probably go all inclusive next time.

Daios Cove is an unforgettable experience that amazes with creativity, attention to details, elegance, peace, and class. To me, everything was perfect during our stay. The location is beautifully designed and the amenities check boxes that I didn't even know exist. The rooms are spacious and have plenty of storage for all belongings to be comfortably arranged. But there are two things that really stood out to me (apart from the clean and sandy beach, infinity pool and delicious cocktails). The quality of the food at both breakfast and dinner but especially the presentation at dinner. I've never experienced such variety in a hotel. And the best part were the desserts - cakes that could put every baking show to shame. The food was simply on a Michelin star level. The second thing was the staff and the excellent customer service. Every single person working at the hotel is on a professional level beyond any comprehension. Running smoothly a big complex with so many demands cannot be easy but the management is doing an absolute brilliant job. Special thanks to George Setekaouri, Panayotis and Despina for their extra hospitality and care. Our stay was extra special mainly because of all the great people that were looking after us and making sure we enjoy every second of our stay - Chara, Eva, Kamil, Kallistratos, Katerina, Princess, Bernie. Manos and all the other boys. George from the beach bar. This was definitely one of the best experiences I've ever had.

Booked via EasyJet Holidays who lost this resort under their Luxury Holiday Collection . EasyJet Holidays website is very misleading. It refers to “…may incur additional charges…”. I also doesn’t make it clear that with Half Board, guests can only access the buffet restaurant and that attending any of tbe other restaurants incurs a significant additional charge. Hotel staff on reception were stony-faced, arrogant and somewhat unapproachable. By contrast beach staff, servers, and housekeeping were all very pleasant and welcoming. As someone that has stayed at many 5-star hotels, I wouldn’t judge Daios Cove as any more than 4-star. The prices charged for anything in this hotel were ridiculous and on par with what you would expect to pay in London or New York. For example a very mediocre burger at the Beach House was €30. It seemed like from the moment of arrival that the scene was set that whatever you did at this hotel was going to sting you. There was definitely a two-tier approach to guests with those in “Residence Club” (all inclusive) being treated far better than those that had only paid Half Board (only = £5k/ couple/week which isn’t cheap). In my opinion EasyJet Bolidays have missold this offering.