Domes of Elounda, Autograph Collection

Our stay at Domes of Elounda, Autograph Collection was truly exceptional and exceeded our expectations in every way. The resort felt elegant, exclusive, and incredibly relaxing. The setting is spectacular, with breathtaking views over Spinalonga and Elounda Bay. The view comes at the cost of steep hills, but shuttle buggies are widely available and convenient. Our accommodation was beautifully appointed, spacious, and extremely comfortable, with every detail thoughtfully considered. The service throughout our stay was outstanding — the staff were warm, discreet, attentive, and genuinely committed to making our experience special. The restaurants on site were another highlight. There was an excellent variety of dining options. Makris, under MICHELIN-starred Chef Petros Dimas, with beautifully presented dishes, high-quality ingredients, and wonderful service. Vilebrequine La Plage at the seafront with excellent choice of Mediterranean cuisine and fresh fish and sea food. CORE, with traditional Greek cuisine at a street-food setting. Breakfast with plenty of high quality options and barista coffee drinks. Plenty of options to choose across pools, private beach with calm and shallow waters. A truly memorable experience. We left feeling completely relaxed and very well looked after, and we would absolutely love to return.

​We recently stayed at Domes of Elounda. While the resort setting is beautiful, several service issues let it down: ​Dining & Breakfast: Breakfast was lukewarm at times. Restaurants varied. The Makris was fantastic. Others ok. ​Room & Housekeeping: The hot tub water was dirty, and room tea/coffee was never replenished despite asking twice. ​Operations & Safety: Charging for beach water felt tight for a 5-star resort, and there was rubbish on the sand. Lifeguards were repeatedly seen wearing headphones and watching their phones while on duty. ​Departure: Staff interrupted our final day to check a mini-fridge they couldn't locate, and departure communication felt chaotic and transactional. ​Management was polite post-stay

My wife and I have just returned from a 1 week holiday at Domes of Elounda. We had booked a 1 bedroom residence suite with private pool (mountain view) and was pleasantly surprised on arrival that we had been given a free upgrade to a 2 bedroom residence, which had the most amazing sea view, incredible pool, 4 sun loungers and it was just truly incredible. The 2 bedroom residence can best be described as a luxurious single floor semi-attached villa in a hotel setting. We were so impressed with the amount of wardrobe and storage space in the bedrooms and then further storage space in the main living area, and the bonus of a small kitchenette which we found extremely useful. We stayed in room 803 and the housekeeping team were amazing every day, and a special thanks to Margareta who did our evening turn down service each night. The hotel is located on a very large piece of land, and golf carts whisk you around as it was a considerable distance from the 2 bedroom residences to the reception and where the adult pool and walkway to the beach was. However, a quick call to reception and within 5 or 10 minutes later, a golf cart would then take you away to wherever you needed to go to. We had breakfast at Antonios restaurant each morning, which we had read from the reviews in advance of arriving was the better option of the two choices, and overlooked the main pool. It is a shame that there is no egg station but you were able to ask for an omelette or eggs benedict, which we took advantage of on a number of our visits and was cooked fresh, even though it isn't clearly advertised as being available. We ate at the main buffet located by reception on a couple of the nights and whilst adequate (and has amazing sea views), there isn't a huge choice particularly if you are used to the Turkish all-inclusive hotels. We had two delightful meals at Antonios Italian, and we also ate at the Core which we enjoyed the food apart from the fact that this restaurant uses plastic wine glasses (which we take exception too when we are drinking £70+ bottles of wine!) The main buffet restaurant and Antonios Italian used normal glassware so not sure why the Core uses plastic glasses instead. We also went to the Greek night at the Core which was good and had a lovely meal, apart from plastic glasses again. It is worth noting that wine is very expensive in all the hotel restaurants including the local Greek wine. Expect to pay upwards of £50 for a bottle. Not surprisingly, alot of people were drinking just bottled water. One thing we felt lacking was lighter food options at lunch time everywhere including the beach snacks. If you want something simple like a toasted cheese and ham sandwich, forget it! We hired a car on one our days and were able to visit a delightful village, and also stock up on some lunch options as we didn't want two big meals on top of breakfast each day. We used the hotel beach twice which we enjoyed. It isn't the biggest of beaches but there were ample sunbeds, plenty of shade or sun options depending on your preference, and nearer the small pier, you could safely walk out into the shallow sea where it was very sandy. Unsurprisingly for a 5 star hotel, cocktails everywhere onsite including the beach bar are expensive and we found the drinks menu poorly organised, and lacking your typical well known cocktails. That didn't mean you couldn't order it but what they listed, most we had never heard of, and they didn't give any description of what they contained which was odd as you order via your phone. The concierge team throughout the hotel were amazing and were very helpful during our stay. We used the Haute Living lounge which was a nice option. One thing that was surprising was that the main pool was not heated, and nor was the pool in our residence. There was never any issues with sunbeds at the main pool. It felt like only 10 percent of the beds were in use so there so much choice. Few people seemed to use the pool probably because it was too cold for most people! Instead, the beach seemed to be where most people hung out, possibly because the sea water was quite a few degrees warmer than the pools and the delightful views. We got used to the temperature of our residence private pool and used it every day, and we probably would have made more use out of the family pool by Antonios if it had been warmer. We did go for dinner at Plaka on one evening, which was a short 5 minute taxi drive from the hotel, and there was so many restaurants to choose from but you can easily miss the road that takes you down to sea front where all the restaurants are bunched together. We had a lovely meal there and it was nice to experience something outside of the hotel for a change, and there are a few gift shops to browse too. I also used the hotel spa on one of the days and had a wonderful 90 minute massage. The spa itself was lovely and I thought it had excellent facilities including steam room, sauna, therapy pools etc. The massage wasn't cheap but that is a common theme with this hotel. Overall, we had a wonderful time and very much enjoyed our time at Domes of Elounda. Whilst this review includes some areas that could be improved, don't let this put you off if you are wanting a quality luxurious hotel in Elounda.

Big hotel, spread out up the mountain. Highlights, view over Spinalonga, access to beach, beach bar, staff, main pool, distance to Plaka, golf carts, accomadation. Good dj and singer in main bar. Average, buffet restaurant, main bar, drinks in main bar, atomosphere in main bar. Lows, adult pool area no shade, dual window in men and ladies toilet, weired, main bar dead 9.00. Staff, Thanos, Dimitri, Vasillis, Ivoka, Iluya. Beach, Lambis, Tannistas, ladies with caps.Main bar, small waiter. Enjoyable visit and experience.

Lovely relaxing stay My husband and I have just returned from this hotel, we stayed for 1-week. Our room was 110 very near the main building which we found very useful. We had a sea view suite with outside pool. We were in 2 levels, with two sets of stairs which we found a bit awkward. We would have preferred our room to be on 1 level it felt disjointed, I guess this would have worked well for a family situation. Our pool was very cold, we only dipped in it twice as it really was too cold. So, a waste of money. I don’t feel that it’s needed as the beach is lovely and there are several other pools. We loved our days on the beautiful beach. Food and Restaurants We booked half board. We found the breakfast buffet plentiful all you need and more. The main breakfast area was very busy, we enjoyed going to Antonio’s much calmer, same food. It took a while to organise ourselves regarding nighttime eating.. you are required to book even the buffet - which is unusual. We did not enjoy this experience, although staff were lovely, it could be busy and the food albeit nice, quite cold! We realised we could go to the other restaurants at an extra cost which we did and enjoyed them all. Although the extra costs can mount up. We also ate in Plaka, the nearest village 5/10 minute walk from the hotel, we enjoyed having somewhere to wander to. All the restaurants were enjoyable. We also ventured into Elounda, taxi fares around 10 euros. Elounda was pretty and worth a visit. The hotel had a few experiences free of charge, cooking demo by Costas which we enjoyed and a visit to a local olive oil farm. We enjoyed this too. The highlight of this hotel is the location, beach and the STAFF, we enjoyed our week very much but a few tweaks would make it a be more of a ***** star experience. We felt our room was dated and a bit scruffy in places, it definitely needs a tidy up. It was clean and we had all we needed, a few mire luxury touches would also make it feel more ***** star. We do travel a fair bit and do appreciate good food and comfort, not quite there but that said we enjoyed our week.