Domes of Elounda

Domes of Elounda is nothing short of a mediocre hotel pretending to be a luxury location. This wouldn’t be as disappointing if they didn’t overcharge you. For starters all of their pools close at 6pm. This is a very early time considering most people get back from their tours late. Though you can pay extra to have a room with a private pool BUT here’s the catch. Even though you already spent extra to get the room with a pool it’s 100 euro a day to heat the pool. We stayed at a very similarly priced hotel in Santorini and they always kept the private pool heated for us. I guess some places just have class. Even if you pay extra for all inclusive it’s NOT all inclusive. I would understand if the Michelin star restaurant was not included with the all inclusive dinner package. That being said, the pizza restaurant next to the pool is not included. We were not informed of this when the front desk booked our reservation for the restaurant. I guess they just don’t have much transparency. The first meal we ever had here was the dinner buffet. I can only describe this as subpar with a side of rude wait staff. We walked into the buffet and no one was there to get our room number and seat us. We asked the waiter and he said we could just sit wherever. He never asked us our room number neither did they any other time we went into the buffet. So apparently you don't need to pay for all inclusive you can just walk right in and eat at the buffet. We had been sitting for a while and no wait staff had come by so my dad went up to the waiter and asked if we could order drinks he responded “you go sit down you order drinks I serve you drinks we go our separate ways” in a very angry tone. He proceeded to serve us without making eye contact to the point where it was overly obvious. After he served us he angrily threw his serving tray on the podium and huffed off. During this dinner no one came to grab our dirty plates so we just kept stacking them at the end of the table. Granted it was pretty late so maybe the waiter was just tired. The next morning we went to breakfast at the buffet again. The wait staff was good during this time but the food was still subpar. The hotel had reserved a dinner reservation at the poolside pizza restaurant. We believed that this was all inclusive but when we got there they stated that we needed to give them a physical coupon for it to be paid for. I mean a coupon really how tacky for a place that seems to think it’s the epitome of luxury (at least they charge like they do). During this “refined dining experience" the lights to the entire restaurant were flickering and turning off then back on. We were sitting outside where they were playing live music. The live music was very lovely but the wait staff didn’t seem to understand that the music made it hard to hear. At one point someone came over and my elderly grandma asked her for more menus. She kept looking at us for a minute while my grandma asked again three times. (Granted my grandma was pretty loud due to the live music and her not having her hearing aids in but it was the third time she repeated the question to her). The woman then snarkily told my grandma not to yell I can hear you (even though she didn’t respond the first three times my grandma said it at increasing volume). Well I’m sorry but my grandma is hard of hearing. I guess they just aren’t very accessible or understanding towards disability here. During the end of our stay they called our room trying to get us to buy their (I’m sure overpriced) transportation and when my grandma told them we had arranged our own car to pick us up at 12 they very angrily stated that checkout was at 11. Also something to keep in mind this whole review is an accumulation of TWO DAYS. We only actually stayed at this hotel for two days. If this hotel actually charged appropriately for the services you are getting then it wouldn’t be all that bad. So in short if you want to waste your money just for your whole family to feel disappointed and unwelcome then go here.

We had such a fantastic holiday at Domes of Elounda. It’s a really beautiful resort, with amazing facilities and absolutely spectacular views across the sea and towards Spinalonga.

The food was excellent and we loved having such a good variety of restaurants to choose from. Makris was a particular highlight – the setting is gorgeous and we loved the saxophone player, which made the evening feel really special.

The beach was lovely and the watersports facilities were brilliant – a definite highlight for us and great to have so much available right there.

Most of all, the staff were wonderful. Everyone was incredibly friendly and helpful and genuinely couldn’t do enough for us. A special mention has to go to Pavlina, who looked after us on the beach every day. We loved seeing her and she always made us feel so welcome.

Beautiful surroundings, fantastic food, great facilities and genuinely lovely people. We had an amazing time and would happily return.