Domes Aulus Elounda All-Inclusive Resort, Curio Collection by Hilton

Firstly I’m astonished at the number of 4 and 5 star reviews for this property; simply astounding. This is NOTHING like a 5 star hotel or experience and I’m astonished HILTON puts its name to it! We arrived after a 3 hour minibus transfer after midnight and were greeted by very friendly front desk staff. We completed the formalities and were taken to our room in 300 block in an electric buggy; thank goodness as the rooms are literally on the side of a mountain. We had missed the buffet (at the time we did not realise that that was a good thing) and were were told they’d left a sandwich in the room fridge. A nice touch - I’m gluten free so didn’t eat it but appreciated the thought. A 5 star hotel would have checked dietary requirements though snd my partner was vegetarian do did not appreciate the ham on every slice. The room was very small but had a lovely sea view we discovered in the morning. We woke in the morning to discover we had slept in an oven as the air conditioning had not worked to cool the room. I asked at reception to have an engineer look at it. 3 hours later nothing had happened snd the room was unbearably hot. Asked two more times and asked to speak to the Manager who I see answers all the feedback in here but does not think it is his job to speak to his guests. He’s clearly too important for that! Definitely not a HILTON experience. After 9 HOURS and three complaints we eventually got moved to a similar type room but with a less good view. The bathroom in this one was tiny and you had to stand sideways in the shower. I’m not sure who designed it or who they thought would be using it but as a slim male with a 32 waist having to stand sideways I cannot imagine what most guests did to get washed. As many people have observed, the food in the buffet restaurant was of a poor quality and you constantly had to ask for items to be replenished. Again not a 5 STAR experience. It was also lukewarm. We got the opportunity to book 2 a la carte experiences. We cancelled one of them in the Yellow Sea restaurant which is effectively a veranda off the main bar which is a walk through, after reading the menu. We did go to y to he Amphitheatre which is a roof too space with nice views but this was NOT an B a la carte experience. Firstly, no GF options, and secondly all you could have was pizza and stuffed outta bread. Effectively street food! I couldn’t quite believe it. The pizza was good ( not that it would be difficult) and the pitta things were well, very poor indeed. I was completely deflated. The whole experience was an expensive week away and I thought with if being HILTON and 5 star it would be great. What an utter disappoin**ent. Never, ever again. Given the number of previous poor reviews and all the learning management has apparently been listening too and responding too I do have to wonder what improvements have been made. The food it seems is as bad as ever, the lovely staff are as charming as ever, the broken su

Tranquility, peace, great food and excellent Customer service - tomorrow ends my week long adventure in this amazing resort. I'm gonna keep it brief as 4 Staff members have been outstanding this past week. Number 1 Mary, a host/ worker in the main buffet restaurant... 2 is Andreas who has been the main Barman in their Blu Bar, 3 is Elena who is main bar waitress in Blu bar. Last but certainly not least Nikols, who has run their beach based bar throughout my trip. Exceptional staff - 5* recommends for them alone

Wow where do I begin This hotel is so amazing with amazing views and the room is absolutely spotless The staff are the bestest we ever ever met on our hundreds of trips abroad over the years A massive massive thank you to two special members of staff who are unbelievable they are GEORGE the buggy porter amazing man Vadillo Syla VADILLO SYLA VICKY guest relations manager who was just unbelievable she went above and beyond to make our holiday one of the best for my birthday Just a shame that one man with his wife and daughter embarrassed me on my birthday night in the restaurant by asking us to be quiet 🙈🙈 the waiters were just singing happy birthday to me. That’s all Well back to hotel it’s a fantastic hotel and please everyone go to Plaka ❤️ The food was fantastic but most of all the amazing staff. Pauline Tony ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ If you have problems just ask and all will be taken care of

I gave them 5 star rating for everything, what a great location, great property, Amazing staff, Amazing service and hospitality. I a to callout few staff name who were totally outstanding. Mr Manolis the Restaurant manager, Maria from reception who were friendly and welcoming throuhout. Ms Vassieiki who took care of our all rooms needs Efi and Olion. We went there as two families and had a very relaxing and overall wonderful stay. The pool and beach area was where we spent most of our time. It was exciting to see that the beach bar was well run, with the fridge stocked up with snacks and drinks. We also hired a boat from the beach area to explore the bay which is well worth it. The views from the hotel were outstandingly beautiful and waking up to the sunrise each morning was amazing. The buffet food was good but not 5*, it felt a little repetitive and varied in quality. The sushi, street food however, was the best we had ever had and recommend it to anyone staying. They also put a fruit platter in our room while we were staying. One thing that bothered us was not being able to have a bottle of wine in the room, or at the table we could only ever have a glass (which varied in size) and you have to pay at least €26 to have a bottle in your room. It seemed a little odd for an all inclusive. Overall we had a great stay and would happily stay here again!

I would like to express my sincerest appreciation for the outstanding service provided by Nino the lifeguard during my stay. His exceptional kindness and professionalism were truly remarkable. Nino’s diligent work ethic and attentive supervision at the pool area made a significant difference in ensuring a pleasant experience for the guests. I believe that recognizing and promoting such outstanding staff members like Nino will further enhance the reputation and quality of service at the hotel. Thank you for considering my feedback.”

Views for miles! Loved the location of the Hotel. Service was incredible. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly. Food was excellent and plentiful. Good choices even in the buffet restaurant. Good a**osphere on DJ night with everyone up dancing. Overall an excellent stay.

Following my recent disapointed reveiw of the food at the Domes Aulus being unable to edit my previous post I have found a picture of the lovely processed hamburger my partner was given in which you can judge if this is acceptable for any human consumption.

We recently spent a few magical days at Domes Aulūs Elounda and I want to share our incredible experience with you. From the moment we arrived, we felt like we were at home. The hospitality was unmatched, with the manager George and the reception team treating us like family.I must say that the Domes Aulūs Elounda team is the best I have ever encountered at a hotel. The resort itself is beautiful, built on a hillside overlooking the Cretan Sea. There is only one small drawback: the hotel did not have a wide variety of activities. However, this did not stop us from having a great time.

We organised private transfers from Heraklion which takes about 1 hour and cost €78 each way, I recommend this over the coach transfers as I spoke to several others who said it took over 2 hours on a packed coach. Upon arrival at the hotel we were met by extremely welcoming staff and due to arriving late afternoon they got us straight into the restaurant for some food before the afternoon snack bar closed to ensure we had been fed before checking in. Once we had checked in we were taken up to the room in a buggy (room 607) to the cool living section around the middle of the resort. We had booked the zen suite with private pool in cool living and the first impressions were WOW! The view from our room was nothing short of breathtaking and we had a panoramic view of the sunrise which was also incredible. We had asked when booking to have an open top room for more sunlight but had been given one undercover, while in the peak summer I get this would be preferable, at this early stage of the season it’s not ideal as we lost the sun after 9.25am in the morning and it defeated the object of having a room with a pool where you can’t sunbathe. I raise the concern and half way through our stay they managed to get us a room with an open top and this made so much difference getting the sun until gone 1pm meaning we could enjoy sunbathing in private. The second room however had a broken pool pump and it was already dirty and by the 3rd day I had asked 3 times for maintenance to come and fix the pool which eventually was done the afternoon before we went home meaning we have not been able to use it as my wife is pregnant and we didn’t want to risk using the pool due to how dirty it had got. It shouldn’t have taken 2 days for that to be fixed in a 5 star resort, when you pay the extra to have a pool and you can’t use it, it’s very disappointing. The rooms also felt like they just were not maintained to a high enough standard. Bolts missing from a deckchair, sink in the toilet was leaking underneath, lights in the room not working and flickering, damaged furniture and marked walls. It needed a really big amount of TLC to bring it up to standard for the money you pay. Another negative is the evenings and the “entertainment” and a**osphere. The main bar downstairs there just wasn’t any to put it politely, it felt very disconnected and just awkward in the evenings, they didn’t have areas like the bar in the amphitheatre open which would have lovely in the evening, we were all in the inside bar downstairs that felt more like a hotel lobby than a nice place to sit in the evening. While a lot of my review sounds negative you might be wondering why I still gave it 4 stars? The reality is the views are quite simply stunning from both our room and the cool living pool/ bar at the top of the resort. The staff are so helpful and accommodating and couldn’t help enough during our stay. The food on the whole was extremely good with only a few meals feeling a b