Everyday, Luxury Travel, Greece

Daios Cove Hotel Review: All-inclusive family-friendly luxury in Crete, Greece

November 5, 2025

My mission continues to discover very best family-friendly luxury hotels in the world – places that are perfect for our two children but also pleasing to us parents with high standards and who are used to top notch hotels! I wasn’t quite ready for our European summer to end and fortunately prices in October are significantly lower even in half term. I’d been recommended Daios Cove in Crete as a brilliant luxury hotel that is also accessible to families – plus it came up in my research time and times again. A good deal on the British Airways website clinched things and we were booked to go!

Of course, travelling in Europe in October can be risky and I was checking the weather everyday in the lead up but the risk paid off and we had beautiful weather about 90% of the time. Day time is still warm enough to swim and sun bathe and while evening is chilly, we still didn’t need to layer up.

The Concept of Daios Cove

Built into a private cliff top, Daios Cove in Crete is architecturally stunning with a design that blends seamlessly into the landscape. The way the resort is wrapped around the cove means there’s stunning view of the Aegean sea from every angle. There’s 290 rooms, suites and villas at the hotel with the brand new ‘Collection’ set of rooms being the most premium. ‘The Residents Club’ allows guests to enjoy the freedom of all-inclusive dining and drinks – which also includes all snacks and room service! I’ve stayed in some larger resorts recently so Daios Cove feel like a smaller more chic, boutique alternative.

If you are coming from the UK the flight is around 4 hours and the closest airport is Heraklion, from there it’s around an hour transfer.

Daios Cove is known for being a family-friendly hotel, and though I’ve certainly stayed at hotel with more extensive facilities for children, I certainly found the resort to be conducive to family togetherness time!

Hotel Design and Our Room

The hotel design was inspired by water and earth and the rustic brick work blends into the cove with the resort sprawling across the hillside. The concept is all about natural materials; wood, marble and stone to create a minimalist look that is still luxurious in feel.

Inside the design is luxurious and elegant, with references to Cretan style art work on the walls calling on the hotel heritage. The interior design still prioritises comfort and allows the view to be the star of the show. One of my favourite spaces was the bar, Crystal Box which had the most gorgeous aesthetic that still didn’t take away from the amazing view.

The outdoor part of the bar was minimalist in decor but with a beautiful view.

The restaurants embrace an indoor / outdoor style with an easy flow between the two so that views and location really enhance the overall experience.

I alway think it really important that a hotel’s grounds are beautifully kept, and that’s certainly the case at Daios Cove plus there are beautiful flowers everywhere.

One downside of the sprawling nature of the hotel is that if you are on the far side it can be a long walk to reception and the restaurants but I believe a buggy service is provided. We were relatively close but still have a bit of a walk with lots of stairs.

The different levels of the hotel are accessed via funicular and as there was only two of them, they were relatively slow. The boys thought they were fun though. The funicular doesn’t go all the way to beach so it is reachable only by several flights of stairs and as there is no toilet at the beach – its even more of a pain. So with that being said I think accessibility at the hotel is an issue if you’re disabled, elderly or with a buggy.

I’ve always prioritised having a really good room, even more so now that I have children, and this room truly shone! We had booked a suite in ‘The Collection’ the hotel’s best selection of rooms… and we had a premium one bed suite with sea view and private pool. As you can imagine, Oscar’s eyes lit up when he saw the pool and he said it was the best part of the holiday. The pool is even heated though it is still a relatively chilly 25 degrees.

For a small fee a safety gate can be added to your terrace and honestly this was priceless for peace of mind. It’s really screwed in and installed properly so we didn’t begrudge the fee.

The suite was beautifully designed and featured a large bedroom, lounge area (which opened to a sofa bed) plus two bathrooms which any family of four would love – I loved this freestanding bath too.

A cot was added to the room and there were welcome amenities both for adults and children. The mini bar includes a few drinks and snacks but the team was happy to stock it with drinks as part of the all-inclusive. We also loved the fact that room service was included and as we’re terrible at getting to breakfast in time we had it in the room nearly everyday – which we loved. In fact, we really liked the room so much that we spent a lot of time there!

Experiences and Activities

Unlike other bigger resorts, there’s only one main pool at Daios Cove and though its a beautiful pool with an amazing view, it did get rather crowded and it was impossible to get a sunbed if you weren’t there first thing. This meant we didn’t use the main pool much during our stay. The kids or baby pool was a little disappointing too as it was only a tiny corner of the main pool.

There’s an adults only pool which was very peaceful and helpfully located right by the pool bar.

And the spa had two indoor pools, one of which had dedicated children’s hours.

The beach is really beautiful and decent size (I do find some hotels have a token beach) but we had the same issue with all the sun beds being taken (apart from on the one day when the weather wasn’t so great).

In terms of activities there are a few different water sports available – Oscar loved the Crazy Couch and the pedalos and there other motorised watersports.

If you want to get out of the hotel, there is a programme of local excursions (which are chargeable) such as a visit to Spinalonga Island but as we’ve been before we decided against it.

One of the main aspects of the hotel to enjoy is the spa called Kepos by Goco – the real jewel in the crown. It’s 2,500 metres squared with a full wellness area (vitality pool, thermal suite, treatments). There’s high-end spa treatments with cutting-edge wellness technology such as cryotherapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy and infrared sauna. Large picture windows in the spa allow for the gorgeous view to flood through as in the rest of the resort. The gym has all the best equipment and there’s also a pilates studio and hair and beauty studio. The spa is over 16s.

One thing I did find a little unusual was that you had to book and pay to use the facilities such as the sauna and steam room but as we were in a suite we had a free hour to enjoy the facilities and they are very impressive.

Entertainment-wise there is live music the bar in the evenings for adults. The kids club run little parties and one night there balloon making and face painting on the beach and another night there was a bubble party at the kids club. They also run a kids movie night. I did think that the kids evening entertainment and parties was a little underwhelming compared to other hotels I’ve been to.

Childcare / Kids Club

Daios Cove offer a Children’s Club for aged 4 – 12 included in the price of the hotel and a Crèche Club for age 4 months to 4 years at an extra charge with either the morning or afternoon session bookable. I was extremely impressed by the nursery staff who were lovely – its run by UK childcare experts Worldwide Kids Co who have qualified nursery staff meeting UK standards. The boys went to kids club most days for a few hours in the afternoon – though Noah had a few tears on the first day, by the end he was running in happily hardly looking back. I will say though the kids club spaces weren’t too impressive compared to other kids clubs I’ve been to as they were just singular rooms with toys. The playground was also very underwhelming.

The blue room is the kids club and the purple room is the creche. There is a separate kids club if you book through Scott Dunn which had a bigger space but as I didn’t experience it there’s not much feedback I can give on it. There’s a separate games room with table tennis, pool and video games.

We also had babysitting from the kids club staff for two night and we were very pleased with them!

Food

As part of the Residents’ Club we were staying on an all inclusive package. Personally I love going all-inclusive nowadays as I find it takes the hassle and stress out of family holidays. Nearly everything on the menu was on the all-inclusive with the only exceptions being whole fish and premium steak. There was a huge wine list that was on the all-inclusive including Veuve Cliquot champagne (not served in all the restaurants) plus a separate more premium list. The half-board option offers credit towards the restaurants.

Daios Cove is home to five restaurants. The half-board option offers credit towards the restaurants. Pangea is the buffet-style restaurant serving international food including a grill corner. I’m not a big fan of buffets but we usually try it on the first night when we want something quick and easy. The buffet is obviously an easy way to feed kids quickly but there is an adult’s only area if you want a more sedate experience.

Taverna is the hotel’s Greek / Cretan restaurant with a beautiful view overlooking the cove. The restaurant was beautiful and had a lovely relaxed feeling with delicious local food. We enjoyed beef tartare, octopus, calamari for starters and enjoyed sharing the half chicken for main course. The pasta with dusky grouper and courgette was my favourite dish of the holiday and the roasted lamb with lemon and butter was good too.

Ocean Restaurant is the hotel’s most fine dining restaurant and has a more indoor setting near the pool. It’s been designed with the input from Ducasse Conseil and serves a mix of Mediterranean with Cretan food. The ambiance felt very romantic but it was still accessible to kids. Here we enjoyed tuna tataki, crab and lobster cannelloni and beef tartare, main courses were dishes such as rossini beef fillet and seabass. The crispy chocolate praline with carob biscuit was a brilliant treat for dessert.

Ocean also serves a family-friendly a la carte breakfast.

The Beach House is a rustic beach front space with Mediterranean-inspired dishes here the seabass ceviche was a favoruite!

The above restaurants all fully catered for children with the a la carte restaurants including a full children’s menu which was pretty much the same in every venue. The boys enjoyed pizza, nuggets and chips (we all LOVED the chips!), pasta, Greek salad, burgers and the usual kids food! High chairs are provided as well as children’s cutlery. There’s even a baby / toddler menu.

RHO is the hotels raw concept and is for over 14s only – it’s only open for dinner and we went there for a date night. We had seabass tartare, beef carpaccio and lightly cooked beef and fish. The pineapple themed dessert was light and refreshing.

In terms of bars, there was the Crystal Box mentioned above and the Ocean Bar near the adults pool. This was also served by an ice cream truck with Alain Ducasse ice cream – as it was included on our plan we were there every day as you can imagine! Noah particularly was a big fan.

Room service was available on the all inclusive and we had it for breakfast nearly every day. The mini bar was also included and it contained a few snacks and drinks but could be stocked with which ever wines you fancied from the list!

In terms of our overall feeling about the food – we found it a little hit and miss plus some of the portions were very small. I would also advise you to book in advance, I had booked restaurants for every night but we spoke to a few families who hadn’t and were unable to get a tables at the times that they wanted.

Service and other things to know

Though Daios Cove is definitely in the luxury bracket I thought service could have been a bit more friendly and often seemed less than slick. For example when we arrived there was some confusion over check in and we were left waiting around for a welcome drink. When it finally arrived it was only flavoured sparkling water. Don’t worry I didn’t throw a diva fit over the lack of champagne and hot towel! As many hotels have nowadays Daios Cove has an app, I personally find this extremely useful for managing the itinerary, booking restaurants and room service. However, unlike other hotels I’ve stayed in recently, there’s no direct what’s app to the concierge.

Final Thoughts

Despite there being some negativity in this post I actually loved Daios Cove; the setting was beautiful, we loved our room and it was great to stay in a smaller more boutique-style hotel again. However, I would manage expectations around how much there is to do for kids at this hotel and the lack of space around the main pool and beach. It’s also vital to know about the inaccessibility if you’re coming with a pram or someone with accessibility requirements.