Domes of Corfu, Autograph Collection

Great Location and Accommodation with Excellent Customer service, but…. 1. Staff were on the whole excellent, receptive and responsive at all times. The concierge team especially were constantly visible if anything was required. 2. Accommodation is high quality and well cared for with daily drinking water refills. A couple of filtered water fountains would have been appreciated though. 3. Nice sandy beach and great shoreline. Water shoes not needed at all. Nominally private but no checks on who occupied the loungers. 4. Ionian tides very swimmer friendly, probably the best open stretch of water I’ve ever used. 5. Food was fine. (I would recommend the hotel catering team visits Domes of Elounda for tips on how to take it up a notch). The dine around options were high quality but watch out for those extra supplement costs. 6. Extra receptions/events. It was very charming to be invited to a couple of low key guest experiences, however on such occasions upon individual invitations you would like to think the drinks were complimentary….. happy to feedback to hotel management personally on those events. A few minor clouds…. 1. Location. If beach and sea is all you want this place is absolutely perfect with nice sand and beautiful sunsets and gentle tides. However the hotel is remote with only a few buses per day (€2.70 each way) and expensive taxi. (Approx €50 euros to Corfu town although hotel has a service at €25 per person.) There is nowhere to go for a gentle stroll though as it’s perched at the bottom of steep hills with no pedestrian walkways. The remote location also contributes to the lack of pricing competition! There are only a couple of alternative bars, all charging the same. 2. Toddlers….. This is a pricey /upmarket location and you’d be tempted to think it would be mostly adults as like many in our age group we always holiday once school kids are back. However parents with babies and pre-schoolers think the same way! Whilst no children were necessarily badly behaved, there was a constant wail of overheating/ out of routine babies and toddlers at mealtimes, around the pool areas and of course during the night. This is not a criticism as those parents have every right to a vacation too, but I will be reading reviews very carefully next time as the combined cacophony does actually interfere with the aim of enjoying a relaxing meal in a charming location!

Absolutely amazing !!! Our host Christina went the extra mile and made our stay so enjoyable.

Location is 10/10. Beautiful! Good atmosphere. The rooms are very nice, clean and bohamian. We enjoyed our stay very much. A few things to note. We like working out in a gym and the gym is very small and with only a few cardio machines and one set of dumbells. At busy times in the gym we had to wait until something was free. The gym is too small for such a big and nice hotel. The staff was friendly but very slow when we ordered drinks and food. We had to time our orders cause we learned quickly that the wait for orders were too long.

We stayed for 2 nights in early September. Arriving at the ferry port, it was a long and winding drive (45 min / €55) to the hotel which is in a fairly remote location. We received a very warm welcome with several freebies thrown our way including a substantial upgrade, half board (instead of B&B), and 2 free facials! SAPPHIRE SUBLIME FAMILY SUITE: very spacious with separate living area, 2 full bathrooms, multiple wardrobes/storage areas, and a double length balcony overlooking the pool and ocean. POOLS: how nice to see no rush for sun loungers, going out by 10-11am you could still get a decent spot (even though the hotel was full). Pretty standard main pool with 1.3-1.4m depth. There was a small adults pool as well as a couple of swim up pools (for specific rooms). BEACH: not the prettiest but it was an excellent beach for swimming. A wide expanse with powdery sand, no debris, crystal clear water and a very gradual incline such that you could walk in 30-50m. KIDS FACILITIES: limited. No water slides, no kids pool and no shallow sections in main pool. The kids club was better suited to toddlers. For my 9 and 6 year old kids, there was just an isolated games room (Xbox, foosball table, etc). F&B: decent breakfast spread that included bubbles and Bloody Marys. The much acclaimed BBQ night was disappointing - dry meat, no seafood, and not much atmosphere - albeit the plate smashing was fun. Lunches were decent. Our suite gave us access to the lounge which had free snacks, beer, wine and soft drinks available all day. LATE CHECKOUT: one glaring issue was the lack of shower and change facilities post checkout. We had a late departure, and all they could offer was a single shower cubicle for a pre booked 30 min slot (for 4 of us to share), and the slot itself was 2 hours earlier than we had requested. Not sure how they overlooked this in what was otherwise an exceptionally well planned out resort. CONCLUSION: loved this resort. Beautifully designed with earthy colours and hidden nooks, highly specced rooms, a very swimmable beach, and very friendly and professional staff. Late checkout aside, the main shortcoming was the lack of kids facilities and that’s the only thing that may stop me from returning.

Amazing view, amazing food, great entertainment, lovely and friendly staff! 10/10 definitely recommend it!!