Domes Zeen Chania

Excellent hotel, built into a hillside. Reception at the top and the rooms (bungalows) on several levels running down to the poolside and restaurants. A short walk from there (30 secs) takes you to the private beach area. Designed in a wooden based/ eco fashion - the rooms are well designed and comfortable. The larger ones have private pools as well. Pool area is well served and pool is 40 m long. Staff team is very good, very polite, helpful, young and knowledgable. We did half board and food was very good with a good choice and vary day by day. Good poolside service. Our room was on level 5 and just 30-40 seconds walk from the restaurant and pool area. Hotel is 12-15 mins drive from Chania and we also walked in - just 30 mins walk alongside the beach into the old town in Chania. Enjoyed a restful 10 days in late October/early November - leaving as they closed down for the winter season. Definitely one of our hotels on the go again list.

Domes Zeen Chania is as good as the photos look. The design including bungalow and pool area are comfortable and stylish. Breakfast is brilliant - with a great buffet range. But the real stars go to the staff. They are all superb - friendly and very helpful at all times. Zoe who checked me in was fabulous - putting me at ease, proactive on helping me book transport and a great sense of humour. She wasn’t corporate check in formality which I found refreshing! Also a big shout out to the woman who checked people in for dinner at the Beach House/Club (I didn’t get her name but she was there Tues 21 and Thurs 23). She went out of her way to make me as a solo traveller comfortable amongst mainly families at that particular time. Which I greatly appreciated. For Beach House/Club dinner (I didn’t try Gallina) remember that starter portions can be big and the food, while tasty doesn’t have the wow factor for the price. That said, it’s convenient and everyone makes you feel taken care of. I’d definitely come again. The Red Jane Bakery and old port /other restaurants are in walking distance (not on doorstep but very doable). Thank you kind staff of Domes Zeen!

I've been a lot of places in the world and stayed in a lot of nice hotels, but wow, this one is near the top. The design of this hotel is suites carved into the mountain. Each room has its own pool and the rooms are huge and so sharp. You can get a golf cart to take you up to the lobby level, which we used often. The amenities include fabulous Cretan toiletries, robes, slippers, water, snacks and a bottle of local alcohol. Don't miss the free shoe shine, which I had been saying I needed to do when I get home and didn't see it until I was leaving. The large pool was just gorgeous and the breakfast buffet had everything. The staff was always smiling and helful especially our concierce, Marina (gosh I hope that was her name). My only regret was leaving! I'm not sure if I'll get back to Crete but if I do, I'm coming back here.

Stayed 10 days at this resort. Beautiful terraced complex built into a remote hillside overlooking the coast with Chania town and harbour within 20-25 min walking distance along the part costal pathway. Accessed by car via a most unexpected narrow ‘track’ road in what appears at first to be in no man’s land - until you finally see the complex in the distance. Very warm welcome on arrival. Usual check-in but refreshments offered while you go through the process of passport checks, T&Cs, allergy declarations etc. Luggage in the mean is taken care of while you are escorted to your bungalow. Which for us was a family room (only room available at the time of booking with TUI) with private pool at the end of 4 flights of steps. Buggies we learned later were available to call upon for a taxi to your rooms upon request. Loved the bungalow in terms of size and facilities and materials but not so much the design (central bed), dark decor (concrete and dark browns and greys) or lighting (no lamps with soft/warm lights only ceiling and hanging lights) which whilst in keeping with the creators vision, was a bit dull for us. Private pool area was our favourite place, very well furnished with robust, comfortable loungers, parasol and tables. Especially at night when the poolside lights came on creating a lovely ambiance. We sat out first thing with coffees and later with drinks. Full Wi-Fi available (throughout the complex and extended to the beach areas) so you could listen to your music and private enough not to disturb anyone. The pool itself was quite cool. Not so bad in all day sun and not so different from that ‘first wade’ into the sea. Divided into more of a dipping pool for adults, enough for some fun and modest exercise and a great paddling section for younger children. Fresh water so none of the chlorine - birds visited regularly for a drink and bath. Housekeeping services 3 x per day from replenishment and cleaning and an evening turn down service. Towels were very plentiful both in the bungalow and pool area as were fresh slippers and complimentary bottles of water. The staff were absolutely amazing - everywhere on the complex. Everyone very warm, friendly, helpful and extremely competent and obliging. Housekeeping services were excellent. So onto the dining experience. We did half board, breakfast and either lunch or dinner. We visit Greece every year and have always enjoyed 4-5 star resorts with buffet dining and Al a Carte as an ‘option’. But at this resort with the exception of breakfast it is all Al a Carte, choosing from selection of soup or salad starters then mains and dessert. There’s a wine list and there’s a chilled bottle of water waiting at the table. Whilst what the menu offered was beautifully presented and delicious, we were disappointed in that pretty much everything contained either one or more ingredient of butter, cream, yoghurt or cheese or a dressing of some sort. Replicate that across the entire menu and that’s a very rich combination, even for a 5-7 night stay. We longed for the occasional ‘clean’ salad that we didn’t have to ask for a dressing to be left off or accompanying vegetables other than just a single broccoli spear or grilled slice of courgette. Great that it was all locally sourced produce and the portions were decent but the meat/chicken content not so much. Twice we opted for the room service kids menu requesting adult portions of bolognaise (which was absolutely wonderful), burger and nuggets. After days of working with the very helpful catering team pre-ordering, being advised on what menu options we should avoid (and thereby reducing the menu options for us further) we decided to cut our losses and eat out. And that would definitely be a recommendation for us to anyone staying at this resort. There are hundreds of wonderful restaurants in Chania town serving fantastic fresh delights of like whole sea bass, stews, kebabs, pastas, salads with fresh bread and accompaniments and all very reasonable prices. And not everything is drowned in diary or dressings. This is Greece for goodness sake - you just don’t need to do this with food. It’s beautiful as it is! Every meal we were served came with complimentary raki, ices, honey cake and even with a wine or beer - less than €50 for two. We couldn’t get a glass of anything under €14 at the Domes resort (€8 we were charged for water at the table). On the whole we thoroughly enjoyed our stay and a huge shout out to Cristos - amazing guy. Thank you Christos for all your help, bless you. The Al a Carte dining experience was not for us - had we had known it wasn’t buffet dining we would have only done B&B.

Fantastic holiday at Domes Zeen, Chania. So relaxing and beautiful, I loved all the vegetation around the grounds. Enormous pool, beautiful at night with the palm trees reflected in it. We stayed in a tropical bungalow. Very spacious, lots of storage. Enormous bed, extremely comfortable. Minor points but the light switches by the bed were a bit awkward to access, and as others have said the sharp wooden corners on the bed were a bit hazardous. Also the low hanging lights at the side of the bed were easy to knock. The drinks were very expensive. Fantastic staff, everyone lovely and so helpful. I will definitely come back another year. In thirty years of travelling to Greece and using Tripadvisor for recommendations the best hotel by far.