Daios Cove

Style

Rocky resort

Setting

Cloudless Cretan cove

Daios Cove in Crete is an ideal getaway for families, with its own sandy beach and spacious villas cut into a craggy cliff overlooking Daios bay. Splash around in one of the 150 private saltwater plunge pools; with five restaurants, a glittering spa and a choice of aquatic activities for Smith Junior (even your four-year-old can learn to waterski), water babies won’t want to leave…

Facilities

Rooms

A total of 271, including 103 suites and 39 villas.

Checkout

11am, and check-in is at 3pm. Both are flexible, on request and subject to availability.

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.

Fitness Center

Free Internet Access

Laundry

Pet Friendly

On-Site Restaurant

Room Service

Spa

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-13s) can be added to most rooms for free, and some rooms will take a second bed, too. Use of the kids club is free for children aged four to 11, and charged for younger tots.

Gallery

Food & Drink

Top Table

Casual family meals are good at Pangea, where the buffet spread is. As evening sets in, settle in by the fire pit at the Beach House.

Hotel Restaurant

Pangea is the main restaurant, set up as a food bazaar in a setting that’s perfumed with fresh flowers. There’s a pasta bar, salad bar and spread of meat, fish, vegetarian and sweet options. Taverna serves casual Greek and Mediterranean plates, super-fresh salads and seafood for lunch and dinner. Smartly styled Ocean restaurant overlooks the pool and is open for breakfast, but in the evening turns to fine dining, dishing creative Italian cuisine devised in collaboration with Ducasse Conseil. Rustic open-air restaurant the Beach House serves seasonally-inspired light bites from its beachfront cabanas; you can expect soba noodles with salmon tartare and grilled tuna fillet with smoked aubergine purée; there's also a selection of refreshingly creative cocktails and freshly pressed juices. RHO is Daios Cove's adults-only dining spot for romantic evenings à deux, serving contemporary Greek plates made with island-sourced ingredients.

Hotel Bar

Crystal Box overlooks the bay, and has a soundtrack of lounge music as a relaxed accompaniment to the champagne and cocktails served here. If you get hungry, you can order from the bar menu, which includes piadas (thin Italian flatbreads), sandwiches and salads. Order refreshing cocktails straight to your sunlounger from the seafront Beach Bar, or snag a bar stool and snack on savoury nibbles while sipping your fruity drinks in the shade. Ocean Bar, by the pool, is even more chilled, with drinks delivered directly to your sunlounger. Athens-based mixologists the Clumsies have dreamed up the Beach House's innovative cocktail list, which includes the honey- and basil-infused Cretan Smash and the gin-laced Green Colada, with avocado, coconut and sage. A tropical soundtrack is provided by in-house DJs – laidback beats by day and house tunes after sunset. Children are allowed in all bar areas.

Last Orders

Breakfast at Pangea is 7.30am–10.30am, and dinner hours are 6.30pm until 9.30pm. At Ocean and Taverna, lunch is from noon till 4.30pm; dinner, from 7pm until 11pm. RHO is evenings only, 7pm–11pm. The Beach House serves from 9am until 11pm.

Room Service

Order snacks and light mains – piadas, grilled vegetables, salami, rocket and parmesan salad, beef carpaccio, salmon with tarragon – around the clock. The children’s menu is also available as room service.

Planes

The closest international airport is Heraklion, 75km away (a 50-minute drive) – Monarch and EasyJet run flights. Chania is 300km from the hotel (around a three-hour drive).

Automobiles

Driving in Crete is less stressful than driving on the Greek mainland, but be prepared for dirt roads and narrow bends on the south of the island. The hotel has plenty of free parking; a valet will take charge when you arrive at the top of the cliff. Agios Nikolaos, the nearest town, is a 12-minute drive from the hotel. If you’re driving from Heraklion airport, follow the signs to Agios Nikolaos for 70–75km. At the first traffic lights before Agios Nikolaos, turn right and follow signs to Ierapetra. Go straight on at the next set of traffic lights. After 10–12km, you’ll see a sign for the hotel on the left-hand side of the road; take the turning by the sign.

Worth Getting Out of Bed For

Aside from lazing on the sandy beach, splashing around in the 100-plus pools, and trying out the five restaurants, there's an indulgent spa, fitness suite and plenty of organised activities, including snorkelling and sailing. Outside the hotel, more of Crete's beautiful beaches beckon...

The Dikteon Andron caves at Psychro, Oropedio Lasithiou, are a stalactite-studded natural palace in the Lasithi Plateau consisting of upper and lower caverns, illuminated to flaunt their calcified wares. Said to be the birthplace of Zeus, over the years it has served as a site of worship, a burial chamber and a tourist attraction. (Little ones will need to be up to the steep 20-minute walk up to the cave.) Crete Golf Club (+30 28970 26000), the island’s only 18-hole course, is right on your doorstep, with a dramatic mountain backdrop and a PGA-approved layout. Practise at the driving range, or tee up a lesson to analyse your putting or swing. Mind-bogglingly old: that’s the chief reason to explore the temple ruins at Knossos, which date back up to 4,000 years. It’s where the minotaur was conceived (don’t ask) and it’s Crete’s biggest Minoan site, spanning 20,000sq m. And before you get too excited, those pillared temples and pretty mosaics are more recent additions, built to give a sense of the site’s former glory.

Earn or Redeem Points with World of Hyatt

This Mr & Mrs Smith hotel participates in the World of Hyatt loyalty program. As a member, you can earn and redeem points and enjoy exclusive benefits for qualifying nights. .