They say you never get a second chance to make a first impression. At least, I always believed that long-standing maxim…before my stay at Domes of Elounda last week.
The truth is, on arrival, I thought it seemed really nice…but not amazing. In fact, knowing that Greg had been disappointed about needing to cancel his reservation here, I said to him that my first impression was that he shouldn’t regret it too much. By the end of the week, I was singing a different tune: Crete is gorgeous, the location of this property is amazing, and customer service was everything you could hope for at a property of this caliber. It didn’t hurt that I ended up spending my last two nights there in a villa with both a private outdoor pool with the view below and a private indoor pool, which was probably the best upgrade I’ve ever gotten. In fairness, the Domes of Elounda isn’t perfect, but if my experience is any indication, the people there are willing to go above and beyond to make sure that your stay is. Furthermore, while you wouldn’t book it the same way that I did, this property is still worth it if you play the game differently — more on how awesome it was and how to book it now to follow.
Domes of Elounda, Autograph Collection, basic info
- Location: Crete, Greece
- Hotel chain: Marriott
- Point price: 85K per night standard. Category 8 hotel (85K standard, 70K off-peak, 100K peak). Book 5 nights for the price of 4.
- Platinum Elite perks: Free dinner for 2 at the buffet one time (excluding drinks). Free Spa Thermae experience (not a treatment but rather more like use of the facilities for a sauna / cool shower / relaxation experience). Note that I believe breakfast is free for everyone.
- Resort fee: None
- Closest airport: Heraklion (HER), Crete. The resort is a little over an hour by car from the airport (A rental car is worth considering; the Domes of Elounda has free valet parking).
- Notable because: The location across from Spinalonga is stunning.
Previous posts about the Domes of Elounda
Because this property represented a particular value due to a perfect storm of devaluations, both to Marriott Travel Packages and to this property itself (it went way up in points price). To read more background about how and I why I booked it, see these posts (and for more on how to book it today, see the “hot to book it” section near the bottom of this post):
- Book these now: Top properties going UP in August 2018
- Banking travel certificates for future luxury
Standard Room
While I spent my last two nights in a pretty out-of-control private villa, the first five nights of my stay were spent in a standard room — which is still a far cry from a “standard” hotel room. The Domes of Elounda is all suites and villas, so at minimum you’ll have a separate bedroom and living room along with a bathroom with whirlpool tub and a patio area. I believe each suite also has its own outdoor hot tub as well. Since it was 80+ degrees every day and full sun, we never even took the top off of the hot tub.
Oddly enough, I managed to somehow fail to get any pictures of the living room. However, it looked exactly like the picture on the website (only we had a coffee machine on the corner table instead of a lamp).
Every suite also has an outdoor sitting area. This was the view from ours.
As you can see, the standard room was certainly nice and not at all a bad place to spend a week. If I’m being completely fair, I didn’t think that everything about the room matched my expectations for a top-tier Marriott/Starwood/Ritz property. With brands like St. Regis and Ritz-Carlton all under the same umbrella these days, I think my main hang-up with the Domes of Elounda at first impression is that I was comparing it to those brands (and then to top-tier properties in other brands like Park Hyatt and Conrad). Specifically, we had been comparing it to the Park Hyatt Mallorca, probably because of the geography (both are built into a hillside that requires transport around the resort by golf cart) and because of the fact that we had used a Globalist Suite Upgrade at the Park Hyatt Mallorca to upgrade a 20K points/night standard room at that hotel to a massive suite that ordinarily sells for around $2K per night.
Considering the cash rate price point of the standard rooms at Domes of Elounda, that just wasn’t a fair comparison at all. Still, there were small things that seemed both easily fixable and a little off-brand for a top-tier property like a little plastic chipping from the edges of the whirlpool tub or the hook for the hand-held shower that was too loose and therefore couldn’t be adjusted, etc. The drawbacks were certainly minor — they just didn’t match in my mind with what I’d expect if I had paid 85,000 points per night (though I didn’t — and neither should you when you read “how to book it” below).
On the other hand, the location here is amazing. While you could only see a sliver of Spinalonga from our room, the resort has an incredible view of the former Venetian fortress-turned-leper colony (abandoned in the 1960’s). The full resort is quite big and customer service was consistently on point. I think those other factors contribute to its placement as a top-tier property.
Breakfast
I believe that breakfast is free for everyone at this property (provided you book directly, anyway). There were a wide assortment of breakfast items available on the buffet as well as smoothies and sparkling wine in addition to coffee and juice. It would be hard to walk away hungry. I definitely didn’t take pictures of everything, but this will give you an idea:
Being a total cheapskate relatively frugal guy, I tend to take full advantage of a free breakfast on vacation and load up on calories to sustain me through the day, with one late lunch / early dinner usually all I need in terms of eating out. That strategy worked here as there was a lot of food on hand, but after 7 days the buffet started to feel pretty old. If I were to do it again, especially considering how reasonably-priced restaurants are in the surrounding area, I’d probably go a bit lighter on breakfast and choose something a bit different each day rather than a plate of everything every day. That’s probably a well-known strategy amongst those who often spend 7 nights in one place, but as this was the first time I’d ever spent 7 nights in one hotel, it was a lesson learned for me.
The upgrade
Ahead of arrival, I had received an email from Michael Katenidis, the Rooms Control Manager at Domes of Elounda. It was the typical email that higher-end places send during the week before arrival asking if they can help you make any spa appointments or book any excursions for you, take care of any special requests, etc. I responded to that email to explain that we would need a crib for the baby and to say that we’d love a room with a great sea view if possible since we’ll be in the room while our son naps every afternoon and would love to enjoy the scenery while we’re there. I had a couple of other simple questions as well.
Mike wrote back promptly confirming that they would have a crib ready and answering my questions. Regarding the room, he basically politely said that it didn’t look like they had anything available but would do the best they could. I knew he was right — I was staying Wednesday to Wednesday and the property appeared to be completely sold out on the weekend, with no room types bookable for several days of my stay. I figured there was no harm in asking, but I didn’t have high hopes.
And of course as you saw from the pics above, we got the standard room we booked and it was fine. However, after the weekend passed, and we found ourselves totally in love with looking at the scenery, I figured there was no harm in asking one more time if it were possible to move to something with a more direct sea view. I had run into Mike a few times during our stay and he had been terrific each time, remembering our names and asking how things were going, etc, so I felt comfortable reaching out again. I sent him an email explaining that we were having a great time and didn’t really want to leave. The room had been fine, but I wanted to see if there was any possibility of moving to something with a slightly more direct sea view for our last two nights. He wrote me back a little while later and said he had an excellent option for us to check out.
That was an understatement.
When Mike brought us to the room, we were amazed. We’ve been fortunate to use rewards to stay in some very nice properties around the world. We have never had a room like this. Here’s a video that shows the whole thing:
But if you don’t have the patience to watch the whole video, here’s the quick summary of this Domes of Elounda “Luxury Villa”:
- Full private 2-story villa
- Upstairs included a huge living room, dining room, full kitchen with dishwasher, fridge, stove, microwave, etc
- Huge outdoor wrap-around patio
- Outdoor private swimming pool with full view of Spinalonga
- 2 bedrooms downstairs, each with its own full bathroom with separate jetted soaking tub and standalone shower
- Outdoor patio downstairs
- Private indoor swimming pool with view of the Mediterranean and a heated lounge chair
I’ve seen videos of various crazy suites before — certainly some with larger outdoor swimming pools (though ours was plenty large enough to swim around and the view was incredible). I’ve never seen a room with its own indoor swimming pool. The indoor pool was quite small — but our son didn’t mind one bit.
Here are some pics of the room:
I actually didn’t get a great pic of the indoor pool and heated lounge chair, so if you want to check that out you can skip to the 2:20 mark in the video above. The indoor pool was small, but fun!
We definitely didn’t want to leave that room. While Platinum status ordinarily includes a guaranteed 4pm late checkout, I didn’t expect all that on top of the incredible upgrade. Still, we wanted to enjoy the room as long as possible — which was one of the motivations behind eventually booking that Ryanair flight that I mentioned a couple of days ago (it didn’t leave until 6:50pm). The hotel was gracious enough to offer us a 2:30pm checkout with use of the hotel facilities as long as we needed. That ended up being perfect for us.
Service touches and other pluses
I noted a couple of times above the great service, though apart from the room upgrade I didn’t really touch on how that looked. First of all, people remembered us. In some luxury resorts these days, that seems kind of forced, with someone repeating your name again and again in a way that makes it seem like they just want you to know they haven’t forgotten it. At the Domes of Elounda, I was really impressed with how naturally friendly the staff members were.
Fantastic service started in the first 30 minutes. We arrived relatively late and were served a welcome drink right away as they made copies of our passports and explained the various resort amenities and Platinum benefits.
When that was done, they led us to a golf cart, where they had already unpacked our bags from our car and loaded them onto the cart — no need to even take out our own stuff.
As noted, we arrived fairly late and between a ~3hr plane ride, picking up the rental, and driving an hour plus to the hotel, it was getting late. We were hungry, so the first thing we did once we got settled was to call and order room service.
Less than 5 minutes after we called, there was a knock on the door. The front desk had sent us two plates full of wraps and sandwiches saying that we must be hungry.
There was no way we could also eat what we’d ordered from room service (they had sent a lot of sandwiches), so I called room service back. It was no problem at all to cancel our order. That kind of thing hasn’t happened to me anywhere else in my recollection.
I think the thing that stuck out the most to me on that was that it was from top to bottom. I mentioned above that this is a hillside property with golf carts to help you zip around from one place to the next (you can always pick up a buggy at reception or just call the desk and one is sent to your room promptly). I was surprised at how well the golf cart drivers remembered our room number. When we got upgraded to the villa, maybe it was easier to remember as it’s a room that really stands out. But the five previous nights in a standard room in the middle of the property, I was just surprised when we’d get in the cart and the driver would say our room number before we did. Even the guy who delivered room service to my room said hello by name when he saw me somewhere else on property. Small changes were seamless — when we switched rooms and then went back to the valet for our car later in the day, the room number on our car keys had already been switched for us. That seems simple, but not all hotels do those things well.
One employee in particular, a woman named Linda who was an assistant manager in the restaurant, was so good with our son every morning that he lit up when he saw her by the third or fourth day. On the last day when we left, he gave her a huge hug — and he’s at the stage where he doesn’t yet hug all family members, so I was impressed that he felt that comfortable in such a short period of time.
Speaking of kids, I was very surprised at how family-focused this property is. At breakfast one morning, there must have been at least a dozen tables around us all with high chairs. If you’re looking to get away from kids, that might sound like a drawback — though I actually think this property lends itself well to either group. There was a quiet zone at breakfast (and they mostly kept us seated far away from it). There were adults-only pools near reception and an adults-only restaurant. Because everyone has their own suite / villa, I really didn’t hear much noise around the resort. The family pool is obviously frequented by families and there is a children’s club where you can drop your child off for the day (for a fee), so there are plenty of options for families (and there is enough separation for those traveling without a family).
To give the flip side on that, this might not be the best property to visit with a kid as young as ours (about a year and a half old). I say that because everything seems to be made of stone. If you’ve got a little one that is still finding his/her legs and prone to falling, that can be a little nerve-wracking. If we were traveling without children, I’d have loved all of the marble-like surfaces, but it was less convenient with a baby. I actually had the good fortune to meet up with a couple of blog readers who recognized me at the Domes of Elounda — I really enjoyed the chance to meet a couple of readers and talk about their trips to the Dome as well. One of my newfound friends pointed out that there were also a number of slippery surfaces and sharp corners — small things that one doesn’t tend to notice as an adult but might stand out more with kids. I think this is a great place to bring the family, but I think it’s more ideal for those with kids who are old enough to not be totally reckless (so….maybe when they are 35?).
The property has lots of nice advantages. For example, you can enjoy a workout with quite a view.
And there is a “core” area where they had food trucks and a DJ several nights of our stay. That’s right near the family pool. Another small drawback is the fact that the core area with the family pool and events is a far away from the rooms — you’ll definitely want to take a golf cart and to make sure that you don’t forget anything either in your room or at the pool.
Back to customer service, I think the way a property responds when something goes wrong speaks volumes. We ordered room service for lunch a number of times throughout the week (which I’ll note was very reasonable for hotel room service — apart from a couple of steaks, I think the most expensive dishes were 20 Euros, with plenty of appetizer and entree options in the 8-15 range). One day, there was a small problem with our order — a small piece of broken plastic that made its way onto a dish. It wasn’t a huge deal, but I wanted to make them aware in case there were other pieces of whatever broke. A few minutes after calling room service, the food and beverage manager called to apologize personally. He let me know that he had removed the charges for lunch (totally unnecessary, which I reiterated with him a couple of times) and asked what else he could send us to make up for it. I let him know it was totally unnecessary — that was a really nice gesture, but we were fine (indeed, we ate all of our food as it was really relatively minor). About 25 minutes later, a bottle of sparkling wine, large plate of fruit, and assorted desserts were sent to our room. That was totally unnecessary, but again showed the commitment to getting it right.
How to book it
I booked this hotel with a 7-night Marriott travel package certificate, which I purchased and reserved both before the travel packages devalued and before this property moved up in price from 45K points per night to 85K points per night. Let me be clear: this hotel is not worth 85K points per night. And that was my initial hang-up: neither the cash rates nor the hotel itself felt like what I’d expect at the very top tier of the combined Marriott / Starwood / Ritz echelon. If I went back to this property again, I would almost without question book a cash rate since cash rates are often available under $300 per night and I’d rather MS that than waste 85K points per night.
But the good news there is this: if you’re a manufactured spender, you’re better off MSing cash back for this place than points. As I said, cash rates for a standard room are often bookable for around $300 per night. That means if you’re using a 2% cash back card like the Citi Double Cash, you’re earning enough cash back to pay for a night with about $15K in spend. If you have a card like the Alliant Cash Back card or the Discover IT Miles card that each earn an effective 3% back for the first year, each $10K spent gives you enough cash back for a free night. If you were to MS the same amounts on a card earning a 5x category bonus, you’d only come up with 50K-75K points. It just makes more sense to earn cash back for this property than to use points. Further, you’ll earn points when paying the cash rate, swinging the pendulum further in favor of MSing for cash back and paying the nightly rate.
There are certainly times when demand is greater and cash rates are higher, though even on the most expensive dates, this property just doesn’t offer good value for Marriott points at 85K per night. I’ve pretty consistently found opportunities to get north of 1c per point in the new Marriott Bonvoy program, so I can’t see accepting well under that here.
Would I go back? Yes, I would. In fact, I’m near-certain that we’ll be back in the future. Crete is gorgeous and is for the most part quite inexpensive. We went off-property for meals just about every day and in prime locations directly on the sea, where you’d normally expect to be paying a premium for the view, we just couldn’t seem to spend $50 on an appetizer, two adult entrees, a kid’s meal, and wine. To be clear, I’m sure you could find a way to spend more than that, but we ate well and didn’t feel like we were trying to skimp and it was easy to keep it relatively cheap.
Note that there is also another Marriott property almost directly next door: the Blue Palace is a former-SPG hotel and part of the Luxury Collection. I drove past it several times and it also looks quite nice and also has a million-dollar view of Spinalonga, so you also have another option nearby.
Bottom line
The Domes of Elounda is a beautiful property. It’s built into a hillside, which might make it challenging for those with mobility issues, but the service is so good that I can’t imagine there is a problem that they can not surmount. This was not our first trip to Greece and it definitely will not be our last. We love the food, we love the scenery, we love the people, and we love the fact that most things aren’t terribly expensive. While rooms at the Domes of Elounda aren’t cheap per se, cash rates are certainly more than reasonable considering the prime location and all-suites nature of the resort. I’m the type of guy who typically looks to use points whenever the cash rate pops up over about $150 per night, but I’d come back and pay the cash rate here for a future vacation. And that’s not just because of the upgrade to the luxury villa — though it’ll certainly be hard to forget this place thanks to that.
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[…] 30% off makes them a bit better yet. I visited Crete in Greece earlier this year (for my trip to Domes of Elounda) and waited until the last minute to book. A week or so before travel, prices were sufficiently […]
[…] booked a night at the Radisson Blu Milatos Crete for the day before I was due to check in at the Domes of Elounda. However, I waited to book my flight to Crete and we ended up deciding not to arrive on Crete a day […]
I am here right now. When I booked, the rooms were 60000 points, so for 240000 points I booked 5 nights with the 5th free. The original room assigned to me from the reservation had the outdoor tub and sea view, but a day before I arrived it was upgraded to a king suite with an outdoor private pool with sea view. That room goes right now for more than 1000 euros a night, and the room of my original reservation was almost 800 euros. These prices might be due to that I always had a reservation for 4 people since I am with my 2 teenage children. I never saw the $300 rooms you mention in your review. I wish I could upload pictures here. The place is amazing and everything you describe is exactly the way it is. I would have to add that the beach area, although stunning with flat blue and crystal water, it really has no sand or very little of it. So it is not like a Caribbean beach, but it is stunning and perfect for swimming. More like an oasis than a beach scene. I also think a car is a must. Not sure how much the transfer back and forward from Heraklion would cost, but I am pretty sure the rental almost would pay by itself. Then if you want to go out of the propertiy I think getting taxis would be far more inconvenient. I agree with prices being reasonable for a property of this caliber. Two years a go I went to the sister property in Chania and loved it so much that I decided to come back to the other side of the island this time. I believe the Domus Nouriz is an adult only property. Chania is a bigger city than Elounda or Plaka (the small village near the hotel), so if you were looking for a more “lively” place, the hotel in Chania may be better. This is a much bigger property, more suited for families. Chania had a great night live. I love Greece and agree with you. Fantastic people everywhere, great food, beautiful water, great prices…what’s not to love.
So using Chase Reserve it could be as low as 20K points/night?
Yup, potentially. Someone above mentioned October dates from $192/nt I think, so even less. You lose elite credit/benefits, but as I said I believe breakfast is free for everyone (might be worth double checking on that if you’re going to book through Chase), so in that case you could MS the nights with quite a bit less spend.
we were in crete for a week a number of years ago. we did not stay at this hotel. we loved Crete. So much better than Athens.
I went to Domes with my girlfriend. We had one bedroom cottage with a hot tub outslde. The breakfast was great with free Crete champagne. We did the the special chef dinner on Domes several times and ate in town once or twice. It was one of the best places I have ever stayed in. Highly recommended.
Wow, that looks amazing with the upgrade. Greg may beat you on the race to hyatt suite, but you certainly won big on this upgrade. How much is the luxury suite per night?
I am curious, since this is a Top Tier Marriott property and one I also considered using a travel package to, What other Marriott properties would you say are superior or equal to it that they have in their chain? I understand your comments and am very curious which other properties across their entire spectrum that you think would be superior to this property in your opinion.
Was there much in the way of dining within walking distance? My wife and I normally stay in Heraklion, so the choices are pretty limitless. Also, did you have any sandy beaches that you really liked?
Great review! We had a speculative booking here but canceled in order to use the 7 night travel package on our honeymoon in October at the Sina Villa Medici, Autograph Collection.
I would love to check out this hotel at some point. Looking online, it was hard to find availability into next year (are they sold out that far in advance?). But there’s some dates in Oct 2019 for 192 a night 🙂
Hey Nick! We are still at Domes of Elounda and was probably here when you were. Ashamed I didn’t meet you. Fabulous place and your post is great for other readers. Definitely should rent a car and Americans should acquire an International Driver License as rental agencies will not rent a vehicle due to the fines imposed by the government. I look forward to coming back again. It is such a relaxing place to visit.
Hi Nick, such a timely review. We are currently in Athens and will be leaving to visit the Domes tomorrow for the week. Your review is certainly exciting and we cannot wait. it is my hope that we meet other miles and points in enthusiast while they are. It’s always good speaking about the hobby with like minded folks. Thank you for the intel shared. If you have time, please share with me three things that we must do. We did rent a car.
A couple of tips:
1) LOL’s Laundry in Elounda is pretty cheap and she gets it washed, dried, and folded (ironed if you want) same-day if you drop off in the morning. We ended up doing laundry twice while there (we had been traveling for a week by the time we got there and then always nice to get home with the clothes already clean).
2) Mentioned it in the post, but I recommend taking the boat from Plaka to Spinalonga. It’s 10 EUR round trip, open-ended. There’s a big free parking lot you can’t miss when you come into Plaka (it has huge signs saying free parking for Spinalonga, which led me to think it was an overpriced boat company trying to get your attention before you got further up the road, but it’s the only place in town to get the boat). Greek people are so nice — there was a tavern there where you could use the bathroom. I went to buy a bottle of water. Apparently it was only 50 Euro cents. I only had a 10 Euro note. She looked at it and said to just take the bottle of water for free. Who does that? Yes, we came back and had lunch and it was pretty good.
3) If you have kids, there is a public playground in Elounda right on the beach. You’ll see it — hard to miss. There were tons of kids there in the afternoon / evening, many of whom spoke English well (some tourists, some locals). Our son isn’t really talking yet (not sentences, anyway), but he seemed to enjoy it. I imagine a kid who was 5-6 years old would have loved it. It’s small, but there was enough to keep a lot of kids entertained.
4) Relax :-). Only half joking here. Rarely have we ever traveled so far and done so little, but it was wonderful just enjoying the views. Kristian can probably tell you more about things to do off-property (hope he reads this and chimes in). When we ventured off-property, we mostly just went to Elounda or Plaka to stroll around and eat.
5) The beaches at the Domes and in the town of Elounda are lovely, clear, and calm. At 1.5yrs old, we didn’t have to worry at all about our son getting carried out by a current or anything. We were obviously right next to him, but we were able to let him walk into the water on his own and sit / play because it’s so calm. The floor of the sea is a little rocky/pebbly. I suggest some sort of water shoes maybe. My wife and I didn’t have them but were glad we had them for our son (and while you definitely don’t need them, we wouldn’t have regretting having them for ourselves). It’s shallow for a long way, so you can walk quite a distance in to the water. The beach at Domes is a “Blue Flag beach”, which basically means it has met some special environmental standards for cleanliness. With the number of boats going to Spinalonga and back, I’d have expected to see trash now and then or get the smell of fuel, but not at all at the Domes beach.
6) One complaint from the British couple we met was that food in the restaurants at Domes of Elounda was pricey. We only ate breakfast, room service, and the one free buffet dinner on-property (one freebie for Platinums). I’m not a seafood eater, so the seafood restaurant didn’t appeal to me. The Peruvian-Japanese sounded good, but it was adults-only, so out for us. The other on-property restaurant was Italian, and we were going to Milan for a couple of days after Crete, so we didn’t feel drawn to that. So I can’t speak to the on-property restaurant prices, but things were very reasonable off-property and also via room service.
7) Don’t order dessert at the restaurants in town. Well, I mean, you can. But realize that every place we went brought out a fruit platter and often a couple of pieces of cake or other delicious treat for free after the meal…which was surprising given how relatively cheap the food was in the first place.
8) Watch out for those blue-and-gold Euronet ATM’s. I mentioned them in my post on Tuesday morning. They charge something like a 10-20% fee (presumably with DCC). Look for legit ATMs. I think I used Piraeus bank and there was another one that was a legit bank ATM. While I didn’t use one, I think Alpha Bank used to be Citibank maybe and so that one is presumably reputable? Do your homework before you withdraw and turn down the DCC.
We went to tour an olive oil farm while there. It was kind of interesting, but not a must-do. They had olive oil. It was good. Now I know how it’s made. I think it only cost 3 or 4 Euro, so I don’t regret it, but neither was it a must-do in my opinion.
Everyone says that Knossos in Heraklion is worth a visit. It probably is, but we didn’t end up doing it — somehow the days just flew by relaxing and watching the sea. It’s just that blue. Totally not our style to sit and do nothing, but it felt good.
Speaking of Heraklion, the airport is chaotic. Give yourself some extra time when you leave. From the parking lot where you return the car (use your GPS, don’t count on seeing a “rental car return” sign) to the airport itself, it’s just kinda disorderly. And hot. It’s really hot in the airport. I’ve never seen an airport so crowded before. It gets like 2.1 stars on Google and I can see why.
Speaking of all that, if you’re flying Ryanair, be at your gate *early early*. Our flight was at 6:50pm. We were taking a bus to the aircraft, so the boarding gate closed I think at 6:10pm. That’s not a typo: it *closed* 40 minutes before departure. We started “boarding” (scanning boarding passes and going to the bus) like an hour before departure. Think the flight took off like 15 minutes early. Glad I hadn’t pushed it to the last minute at the airport. I’m not sure if other airlines operate the same way at Heraklion, but I’d give yourself plenty of time. Lines were long everywhere.
We stayed there for 5 nights when it was 45K. After 1600 nights in marriotts it is still the nicest upgrade that i have ever received. The villas are awesome.
Man this is very helpful. Thank you for all the details.
We’ll, BigEasy. My wife and I arrive this Sunday. If you see a short guy wearing a tan T-shirt that conveys extreme monkey-powered awesomeness, that’s me. Feel free to say, “Hi.”
I’ll be looking for ya
So nice to read about your experience at Domes of Elounda. Right now we’re staying at their sister property Domes Noruz Chania and I can tell you that we’ve experienced the same wonderful hospitality you described in this post. We’ll be moving on to Elounda this Sunday, and I’m so excited after reading your post. Thanks for sharing!
It’s gonna be a good time. I’m jealous!
If you loved that 2-story villa, I recommend you check out the Conrad Koh Samui. We booked into a standard room and were upgraded as Diamond members on our honeymoon to a 2-bedroom, 2-story villa. https://conradhotels3.hilton.com/en/hotels/thailand/conrad-koh-samui-residences-USMKRCI/accommodations/K2VVB2.html. It was magnificent.
Looks pretty magnificent.
Oh, one correction to make. There is no fee to drop your kids off at the club.
Interesting. They told us something like 30 EUR for the day I think, which matched what I think it said in the hotel info in the room. I’ll have to double check now…
Maybe we got lucky, but we did two full afternoons and there was no charge nor mention of one.