Domes Aulus Elounda All-Inclusive Resort, Curio Collection by Hilton — Hotel in Municipality of Agios Nikolaos

We stayed at this hotel for our honeymoon; arrived on 24/05/2024 and departed on 04/06/2024 (11 nights). This hotel is located in a lovely area but I would say that it does not offer a 5* experience. This is a long review but I hope this can give people a clear outline of what to expect.||There are a few things guest should be mindful of when considering booking: ||1. Cool Living ||We booked a Sapphire Zen Suite with a private pool. As this was our honeymoon we decided to go “all out”. Booking this room gave us “cool living” which we understood to be exclusive access to a separate pool area and the restaurant (evening time only) which is located at the top of the hill by the pool (called the Greco Levante) ||This was not the case. I found the “cool living” package to be pretty pointless as there is nothing to identify you as having the “cool living” package (I.e a band or a requirement to scan a card when entering the pool area at the Greco Levante). As a result guests who had not paid for “cool living” were using the pool area and it did get quite busy. ||Further, be aware if you do have “cool living” you are limited to being guaranteed 2 bookings at the Greco Levante restaurant only. Other guests are guaranteed 1 booking. This is not made clear when you book. As we were there for 11 nights this meant that we would have to book elsewhere for the other 9 nights. I thought this should have been at least proportionate to the length of your stay - it seemed unfair that we had paid more for our room to have the cool living but it did not matter if you were staying for a week or 2; you were still limited to 2 guaranteed bookings per stay. I think this needs to be looked at and when I raised this with reception we were told by 1 person it was 2 guaranteed booking and another person that there is 1 guaranteed booking. This caused some confusion which was a little frustrating. ||2. Pools ||Please be aware that the main pools and the shared suite pools / private pools are all freshwater pools. They were freezing despite having really lovely weather during our stay. Once you get in the pool you get used to it but it is really really cold. There is a heated indoor pool in the spa but we did not use this; it’s not that big but gives you an option. ||The main pool area near reception has a pool and a jacuzzi which does not work. The floor of these is black in colour so I don’t know how you can tell if it is clean or not. ||The pool at the Greco Levante was cleaned daily. Our private pool was not cleaned during our stay but there is a net provided as you will get bugs in the pool especially overnight. ||3. Restaurant bookings ||Please please please book your restaurants as soon as you arrive! Do not leave the concierge until you have done this as you will not get a booking !! ||We arrived late on the Friday night and there was not availability for the Yellow Sea sushi restaurant, the amphitheatre or the Greco Levante restaurant until the following Monday. ||The restaurants available to all guests are: ||Yellow Sea - sushi restaurant |Amphitheatre - this is “street food” style (2 trucks) serving pizzas and traditional Greek gyros / souvlaki. |Greco Levante - as stated above cool living guests are guaranteed 2 visits and non cool living guaranteed 1 visit. Tuesday is a Cretan night, Saturday is a fish night and Sunday is an Asian night. ||There is also a buffet restaurant located above reception. ||4. Food ||We were lucky enough to arrive when the hotel was not at full capacity. We knew someone who had visited the week prior and they told us to book the restaurants as soon as we arrived. We managed to try all the restaurants but I am aware that there are guests which did not manage to book which is disappointing. My honest review is as follows: ||A) Yellow Sea sushi restaurant - the best. Really enjoyed. Great service and lovely food. Yes the service is quick but they are serving sushi which doesn’t take a long time to make once the preparation work is done. A must try if you visit even if you are not a huge fan (I am not but my husband is and I really enjoyed). ||B) Amphitheatre - we visited once. I ordered the pizza and my husband ordered the chicken gyros. The food is served as and when it is cooked so expect food to arrive at different times if you are in a group. Staff told us this when you arrive which was not an issue. Pizza was really lovely. My husband was provided with the wrong meal and staff apologised and he was provided with the correct meal. ||Please note there is no bar in the amphitheater area. It is there but was not open during our stay. Therefore the only drinks offered during the evening are soft drinks, wine or beer. I did not realise this and when asked for a drink I asked for a Malibu and Coke to be told the bar was closed. As a 5* hotel this was a little disappointing. ||C) Greco Levante - table service. Bar in full use and service great. Would recommend the Asian night this was really excellent food - the duck was exceptional. ||D) the island buffet restaurant- this is really really awful. As we could not get a reservation for our first two evenings we ate here and it was awful. FLIES EVERYWHERE!! Lukewarm food, not much choice and just generally really underwhelming for a 5* hotel. Don’t bother eating here. ||5. Transfers ||The bus transfer from the airport takes over 2 hours (2 hours 20 when we arrived and 2 hours 35 when we went home). If you can book a private transfer / taxi as it will take around 55/60 mins. A local taxi driver informed us that it is around €90 for a taxi to and from the airport. Save your sanity and pay for the private transfer as the bus is AWFUL !!! ||6. Location ||The hotel is located in Elounda and is sort of built into the hill. The views are unbelievable. The area is really lovely, safe and quiet.||The hotel is on a hill as mentioned in other reviews. It’s a killer to walk up but there are golf buggies which the porters will take you to your room (and pick you up if you call down to reception). There is also a shuttle bus that runs from the top to the bottom on a 30 minute rotation. You are given a timetable on arrival so I would suggest taking a photograph of this to keep on your phone so you don’t have to stand around waiting. ||When we first arrived it was quieter in the hotel so we could get to and from our room quite quickly but we did have to wait sometimes 15/20 minutes towards the end of our stay. ||A taxi to Elounda is €7 each way. It’s about a 25 minute walk. Lovely little town with some nice gift shops and some restaurants. Highly recommend Oilo for great food. A taxi to Plaka is €10 euros each way; highly recommend the ocean restaurant for superb sea food and service. ||Agio Nikolaos is €16 each way in a taxi (about 10/15 mins). Great town lots of lovely shops and places to eat. There is an archeology museum which is only €6 each entry (concessions available) which is really interesting. We only found out as we were leaving that the hotel does a trip on a Thursday to this area so could be an option if you were thinking about visiting. | |7. Staff||One thing I can say about this hotel is that the staff work so so hard. They do not stop. There were a number of people complaining about various issues and you can see that the staff (waiters / waitresses and porters) are aware of this and really are trying everything that they can to give everyone a great experience. There was simply not enough staff to number of guests and the management are aware of this when we raised it. It appears that there were some new faces as we were leaving but the hotel had become so so busy I am not sure that the staffing ratio was proportionate to the guest numbers to allow for a 5* experience. ||A special thank you to George (Porter), Greg, Christina and the lady who served us at the Greco Levante (really sorry I did not take her name she had dark curly hair). They all made us feel super welcome and really all work so so hard. ||8. Spa ||The spa is okay; clean and small. The sauna was not in use. ||9. Gym||The gym is 24 hour; just scan your card to get in. Great facilities, air conditioned and water available. ||10. Entertainment ||If you are looking for entertainment this hotel is not the place for it. During our stay, there was a DJ two nights a week which plays in the main bar / reception area. The timetable referred to a live singer between 7pm- 9pm on Wednesday in the amphitheatre so we booked dinner here so we could listen. There was no live singer. Atmosphere generally quite flat in the evenings. ||11. Beach ||Lovely beach area just across the main road from the hotel. Lots of loungers and parasols which are fixed. shingle style beach. Small horse box style bar serving all drinks from I think 10:30 (from recollection; I might be wrong). Beach really clean and toilet facilities there are also clean. There is a handy “grab and go” fridge with soft drinks and cans of beers which you can access. There is also a fridge with snacks including baguettes, salads, panini s and fruit salad. ||Be aware that whilst this is an adult only hotel, there were people with children using the loungers (not sure if they paid or not). ||12. Our experience ||We arrived late on Friday night (around 11pm). We were greeted immediately by a porter and a golf buggy which took our luggage up to reception. We were impressed by how efficient this was. Check in was simple and you are provided a pack with all the times of food service and the entertainment timetable which the lady from concierge went through with us. ||As we were on our honeymoon we were told our room would be decorated with rose petals and we would be provided with a fruit bowl and a bottle of sparkling on arrival. There were no flowers and a chopped up bowl of strawberries which were soggy were provided. ||Our agent had specially asked for us not to be placed in a ground floor room. We were taken to our room which was ground floor with absolutely 0 privacy. Please note room 601 has a private pool which is completely shaded and is right next to the hill which people are taken up and down on the golf carts. You literally have to close all the curtains and blinds to have a shower without someone looking in and if you are sat on the balcony be prepared for everyone to look in; you end up saying “hello” or “morning” to every person walking past they are that close to you. We raised this with concierge who asked if we minded staying in the room for the night as it was late so that reservations could deal with this the following day. We did so as we were both shattered from a day of travelling. The following day we were told that we could not be moved until the Sunday so we ended up staying 2 nights in a room which was not private and the pool had no sun so it was like an ice bath and not usable. ||We were moved on the Sunday to a different room which had more privacy and a pool which actually had some sun on it. The pool was cold but usable after the sun had been on it for a few hours. The pool was not cleaned during the 9 nights we were in this room and we had to clean it ourselves. Housekeeping on the whole very good. ||There was an issue where we had breakfast in our room (part of the honeymoon) and housekeeping removed the tray and left this outside on the floor for a whole day. when we returned there were so many ants as it had been sitting in the sun. We told reception and it was moved immediately. ||Overall||On the whole the hotel is very clean. The staff work really really hard but it does not offer a 5* experience overall. We visited in late May / early June so perhaps slightly out of peak season, but there are things which let down the overall guest 5* experience as noted above.||The holiday was not cheap but this is more of a 4* hotel in my opinion. There are better 5* hotels (with the full 5* experience) elsewhere and for the same/less cost. ||The hotel has the potential to be fantastic. The area is beautiful and staff really try their best. We discussed our concerns with the manager before we left and he is aware that there are issues with the hotel. I understand they are trying to iron the issues out and hopefully they have made some...

We stayed 2 weeks in August. The location is nice, small village and hotel is 15 mins taxi drive distance to the main places like supermarkets, main street, restarurants, hospital etc. Welcome was fine, check-in was fast. Early check-in was arranged for us since our plane landed before noon and arrived at the hotel during noon but not sure if its standard or because we have Hilton Honors membership. We stayed at the CoolLiving, had access to the CoolLiving Lounge and free Alacarte Restaurants. We stayed at the top room type which is the one with a private pool. Unfortunately, the decoration was not luxurious. It’s not Hilton class. The worst bed and furnitures I have seen in a Hilton room. We asked to change the room due to extra soft, not comfortable mattress, damaged and non-functional room door lock and uncleaned closet and it’s displaced led lights. They changed our room in 1 hour and the second room was OK and these issues were not existing. However the room and decoration in general was not OK. There is no dining table in the room to sit and eat. There is one small make-up desk with mirror with only one chair. The is no coat hanger in the room. One closet space enough for only one person even though there is enough space in the room for a bigger closet, a small dining table and a coat hanger in the room entrance. There is also no full-length mirror in the room which is a necessity in a 5 star holiday hotel room. The service quality and hospitality was moderate. Had to wait long for a drink, food service or waited long for a clean table. Alacarte Restaurants were fine except street-food style restaurant. The menu is lack of hot or cold starters and there is no salad. You can only order kebab, pizza or pasta dish. Pizza and pasta is fine but kebab is the worst greek kebab I have tried. Its frozen meat ball like some meat cooked in a standard way but definetely not a greek kebab. The main restaurant is also lack of real greek cuisine. We have stayed 2 weeks and they didn’t serve any dolmades, real greek kebab, gyros or real greek cuisine cold or hot mezes. They serve cheap meals suitable for the British cuisine (the biggest population of guests are from UK) and I guess the quality of the meals served is low due to this situation. The desserts were also not good, I didn’t finish any dessert I tried. We went out to a real greek restaurant nearby the hotel just to taste real greek food at least for one night before we leave. It was wonderful and it is a shame that hotel is not serving real greek food. Meals during lunch at the CoolLiving lounge area was better in general comparing to the main restaurant but again, it was lack of real greek cuisine tastes. We booked a five hours private boat trip including meals, drinks and snacks. However no food or snacks served during the trip. When we complained about this after we returned, they told us that we were misinformed about the boat trip and there is no food or snacks service included to the type of private trip we booked. Instead of apologizing or offering a compensation , the manager told us that this was the cheapest private boat trip available in the list and it would be much expensive if the food would be included. I have never experienced such approach at any Hilton I stayed. We had to spent 5 hours, on the sea, under the sunlight starving without any food and then manager told us that the food would be expensive. Makes no sense. They informed us that the captain would plan the trip according to our preference. Although we asked the captain to spend more time for swimming, he only stopped twice for 30 mins (in total 1 hour) to let us swim. We also complained about this but again no apologize or compensation offered by the hotel. After this trip I got sick and spent six hours at hospital. I would expect that they would apologize or offer a compensation. During our check-out, the service was poor, they didn’t ask if we enjoyed our stay. In overall, the hotel is not a five stars quality and definetely not a Hilton quality. I wouldn’t recommend and...

Domes Aulus Elounda was a mixed experience for me. I expected a 5 stars resort and frankly, it is not. I understood there is something called Cool Living section - I have no idea how to get there or what is better there, since no one informed us, but we had a room with a shared pool and it was not 5 stars. It was 4 stars maybe. The room and the bathroom are both very small, not like in the photos. The bathroom was dirty on some places near the shower and the lower side of the bed was dirty, too. The shared pool is very small, not like in the photos, and it's shared for two rooms. It had leaves and insects in it everyday. We called for someone to clean it, they did, but leaves were falling in it non stop, as well as insects. And the water was very very very cold. The main pool of the hotel was so dirty that its bottom was not even visible clearly (and it's not deep). The smaller pool near the main one had visible dirt (a lot) at the bottom. Also, the sunbeds at the main pool were always, everyday, fully occupied, so we didn't stay on sunbeds there. Also, everywhere on the area it is full of wasps. We couldn't eat outside at the buffet restaurant because of too many wasps. Also, you can't smoke outside, on the terrace, at the buffet restaurant. The food was ok, not amazing. Full of potatoes and pasta, which is alright, but almost non existent seafood - only in two days we saw some fish filet, which was alright... Not as good as expected. The food is not diverse, and there aren't many options to choose from. Also, the waiters were very nice, but clearly their managers told them to always take your plate the moment you finished eating. At some point, I felt a bit weird since someone was constantly watching to see when you finish eating. Also, the a la carte restaurants are NOT 5 stars at all. Like... At all. They are mostly fully booked, but one night we ate at one of those a la carte restaurants. We couldn't smoke there, as well. Also, the food was made in some food trucks, like in street food. It wouldn't have bothered me if that would have been the only minus. But... They say this is an a la carte restaurant and yet, the only things in the menu (and I'm not even joking) are pizza, pasta and a few salads. And two cakes, and I took one but they were not wow. I mean, my parents are not chefs and they make better food and cakes.

Also... The entertainment. Oh... Where should I begin? Only 2 nights they brought a DJ and let's say his parties were energetic and we danced and had fun. But the rest of the nights... This was not entertainment. They had a movie night which we didn't want to attend because those were black and white movies. A night with a DJ plus saxophone which was... Probably the most boring party I ever saw, but I am not ever sure that was called a party. And a Greek night, also not very... Dancing friendly. Also, every night the music at the main bar was very slow, not at all bar friendly and it didn't feel like entertaining at all. More like... Let's see how long it takes for those people to just leave.

Also, it is very steep and sometimes they take you in some golf cars to your room - pay attention there, you can fall from those. Other times they take you with a normal car. But we also found a road where we could go by feet. It is alright, but if you have mobility issues or something it might get uncomfortable, so maybe pay attention to that, too.

Also, the mini bar from the room was empty apart from a bottle of water or something. It was nice though that we arrived at night and they prepped a sandwich for us. But... Even though you could take things for the minibar everyday, the options were limited to soda or water. Not beer, not wine, not some snacks to eat. Nothing. I went to less stars places and they still gave you a snack in the minibar. So... Yeah. There's that.

This being said, the views were spectacular. And the employees were very nice and friendly. Especially the guys from the bar - amazing cocktails and great friendly attitude. So.. They do deserve 5 stars, but the...