Need to know
Rooms
A total of 284, including 117 suites and 39 villas.
Check–Out
11am, and check-in is at 3pm.
More details
Rates usually include generous breakfast (buffet and American); the half-board rate includes buffet breakfast and dinner, or you can use your €20 meal allowance (€10 for children) in the a la carte restaurants.
Also
If you’re staying in a suite or villa, you’ll automatically be a member of the hotel's Premium All Inclusive Club. The club includes daily breakfast service, daily lunches and dinners, unlimited drinks and signature cocktails from the bars, one bottle of wine from the specially selected list with every lunch and dinner, free 24-hour room service and minibar spirits. Little Smiths will get a welcome gift and unlimited ice-cream, soft drinks and healthy juices at the pool and beach bar.
Hotel closed
The hotel is closed from December to March.
At the hotel
Private beach, watersports, scuba diving centre, sailing and motor yacht rental, spa, yoga, swimming pools, tennis courts, gym, gardens, five restaurants, three bars, crèche, kids club, hairdressers, beauty studio, boutique, DVD library and WiFi throughout. In rooms: flatscreen TV, radio, minibar, tea- and coffee-making kit, slippers, bathrobes and Olivia Thinks bath products.
Our favourite rooms
For your own private pool, book a one- or two-bedroom sea-view suite from The Collection, which will also have a spacious outdoor terrace with an outdoor dining area. The Standard rooms are big enough to fit a cot and have a pretty, sunny terrace or balcony; active types will like the Wellness Villas, which have a Finnish sauna, Technogym treadmill and oversized round bath tub. It’s worth noting that the higher the floor, the windier the balconies are. Rooms in the 100s benefit from all-day sun.
Poolside
The glittering saltwater infinity pool surveys the bay and is heated to 25°C year-round: if you tire of notching up laps, you can slope off down to the sandy, child-friendly beach. And if you want warmer waters to yourselves, private pools can also be heated to 25°C (€79 a day in suites, free in villas and The Collection Suites) on request.
Spa
Kēpos by Goco, the hotel's glamorous wellness centre has nine treatment rooms, sleek wooden furniture and a tempting spa menu whose treatments feature salt crystals, essential oils, fruit extracts and ‘pearl essence’. There’s a heated indoor saltwater infinity pool with sea views, a second pool with hydro jets, a Finnish sauna, soft sauna, steam room, chromotherapy showers, hyperbaric oxygen and cryotherapy chambers, a hairdresser’s and a beauty studio; both spa pools are adults-only. Book your treatments, hydrotherapy sessions and infrared sauna time in advance.
Packing tips
Bring your binoculars for the ruins and your helicopter licence, so you can arrive in style at the hotel’s helipad. (The hotel also offers a private jet and helicopter service and has a fleet of limousines and chauffeurs.)
Children
Cots are free; one extra bed (for under-12s) can be added to most rooms for free; there's a charge for second beds in some room categories. Use of the kids club is free for children aged four to 11, and charged for younger tots.
Best for
Kids of all ages.
Recommended rooms
The two- or three-bedroom villas each have a private pool and come kitted out with all the parental paraphernalia you could possibly need.
Crèche
The Daios Cove Crèche looks after little ones from four months to four years and is open for morning and afternoon sessions, six days a week (seven in July and August). It's run by a UK company, and all nursery staff are qualified and trained to UK regulatory standards. The crèche has an indoor area stocked with toys and games. There’s also a schedule of organised activities and games, including collage-making and toy races. A little outdoors area with a soft surface is set aside for alfresco games. Prices start at €52 a session. If there’s enough staff to look after children one-on-one, babies will be taken to the pool for a swimming session.
Activities
The Daios Kids Club is for children aged 4–11; it stays open during the same times as the crèche and kids can use it for free. Activities on offer include cookery classes, face painting, mini Greek lessons (a word of the day) or supervised beach trips. Teenagers get their own special area with billiards and air hockey. Staff organise treasure hunts and tennis lessons; one of the tennis courts is sometimes used for five-aside football.
A big draw for parents, the private sandy beach isn't huge but leads into calm, shallow waters of a dazzling hue. There are loungers, umbrellas and beach towels aplenty, and a little beach bar for drinks and snacks (or just wave an arm from your lounger, and a honey mango margarita will be in your hands faster than you can say 'Here's to a happy holiday').
The hotel’s water sports facilities are hard to rival: if you’re eight or older, you can have diving lessons; water-skiing lessons can be arranged for four-year-olds and above; and there’s wind-surfing for the over-16s. Little ones aged four-plus can board an inflatable banana boat that’s whooshed across the waves by a motorboat. Yogis can sign up to hatha yoga and pilates; there’s also a personal trainer to keep the whole family in shape: classes include Anti-Cellulite, Body Sculpt, Fitball training, Abs & Legs, Aquagym and Aerobic Hi-low.
Swimming pool
Kids are welcome at the main pool (though it’s unsupervised); there’s also a special kids' pool for little ones. Villa pools are gated to keep little ones safe, and private pools can be heated to 25°C on request.
Meals
Highchairs are provided at all five restaurants, and staff will happily heat up milk, provide packed lunches, or ask the chefs to modify menu items according to little ones’ tastes. A kids’ buffet (six daily-changing dishes, with past choices including Margarita pizza, spaghetti Bolognese, soup, fish steak, steamed vegetables and Greek salad) is available at Pangaea between 6pm and 7pm (if you’ve left your ankle-biters at the kids club, staff will shepherd them across). The restaurant also has an à la carte menu, with simple options: mini caprese salad, tomato soup, grilled chicken with chips and salad, apple tart and ice cream.
Babysitting
Sitters can also watch your children at the kids club in the evening from 7pm until 9.30pm. For an extra €10 a child, they’ll also provide dinner.
Also
Further afield, Crete is a great place for kids, thanks to its clean, sandy beaches and calm waters. There are plenty of places of cultural and archaeological interest – such as the Dikteon caves and Knossos – when you tire of days spent horizontal on the sand or ferrying shells around for sand castles.
