Chewie

The hotel is wedged, but, your still secluded (sans the beach).

The pools are not out of view, however, you can lower the shades in front of your pool to be private.

the second floor pools have curtains as well.

CALMSP

Mrs CALMSP and I enjoyed Elounda. Here is a quick shot of our room looking out towards the water. (will hope to have my report in the next 2 days or so on the Elounda thread)

jmanirish

Had a stay a few weeks back so thought I should update with my experiences given the limited info in this thread.

I'll start with gold recognition. I'm going to call it great, even though I didn't get upgraded at all. I stayed on points (4 nights with 5th free) and paid the extra points for a guaranteed upgraded room (the upbeat retreat - which had a heated plunge pool). Breakfast in the restaurant was included (buffet, but you can order omelettes from the servers, and there's somebody doing made-to-order fried eggs. Not the most amazing free hotel breakfast I've had, but it was definitely good and the items changed slightly from day to day. Sparking wine was also included - so that helps. Also saw it's only a EUR 5 charge to have breakfast delivered to your room - wow. As a gold member, I also received a voucher for free dinner at the hotel restaurant (Zeen). I've been burned by these before, so we hesitantly went expecting it would be very minimal (plain pasta) and an up charge for anything else. It turned out to be an amazing deal (~EUR 80 worth of for us). You get to choose any 2 appetizers/salads, 2 mains (up-charge only for the rib-eye steak and something else expensive, I forget) - other choices were included, and 2 deserts. Only had to pay for wine / drinks. They couldn't guarantee a late check out (quoted the resort 'loophole') but told us we'd get 'priority' given our status. Night before we were to check out we were told we could have the room until 3pm - perfect.

Pools were great. We mainly stayed at the non-quiet one as our room was right there. Music occasionally was a bit too loud, otherwise fine. Great not having kids at the resort as pool was very nice to enjoy. They kept it at a perfect temperature so we didn't freeze getting in (as I'm used to in many European hotel pools). Beach was also nice with the permanent umbrellas that have a call button if you need service. Food/drinks by the pool were all very reasonable (club sandwich was 8 EUR, tall beer was 5 EUR; mixed drinks got a bit more pricey).

As others have mentioned, there isn't much to walk to in the area. But old town Chania is only a 7-10 EUR taxi each way (we rented a car, but didn't want to deal with parking in old town). Really quaint little town with lots of good restaurants around the water (and reasonably priced). Followed the concierge's suggestions each night, and they were all great (lots of tourist traps also, so make sure to get a recommendation).

I'd say this was a great deal for the points required

SkiAdcock

Thanks for the update. Much appreciated.

Cheers.

ryan182

I just completed a stay at Domes Noruz, really enjoyed it - more so than my last stay in Crete where I was at the Blue Place on the other-side of the island particularly because it was so much smaller and peaceful. I had booked an award stay for an Upbeat Retreat Pool View (lowest category room), I arranged a transfer from the airpot (45EUR) and there was a driver waiting in arrivals. The checkin process was done seated in the lobby area by the bar (that while its clearly a bar with bottles and a menu seems to not function as an actual bar) and was very thorough, I was upgraded to a Wellness Loft overlooking the main pool with a sea view and they then walked me through the property and room describing everything, offered recommendations for dinner and activities. I thought the elite recognition was excellent (I am Platinum via SPG) and they offered free breakfast even though as a resort I guess they aren't required to do so and they also had no problem granting my 4PM late checkout request in addition every member of the staff I interacted with was super nice and helpful. Breakfast was pretty good, they had much the same base ingredients each day but would mix things up in how they were prepared, they had fresh OJ and cappuccinos as well. The bar staff was excellent, I really appreciated how much smaller this resort was than the Blue Palace and the lack of kids was also nice. The beach area had dedicated lounge chairs for guests, as others pointed out there are other resorts there and kids are around but I seldom noticed them, drink service to the beach was done with a button on the umbrella which called a server to come get your order (I made great use of that button!). I only ate at their restaurant for breakfast so cannot comment lunch/dinner, getting to the old town for food was a quick 10-11EUR taxi ride and there are many good options. My only gripe was with some of the guests who would "claim" lounge chairs by the pool with a book/bag early in the day only to return hours later to use them, even though it was clearly in the rules not to do plus common sense (which is a misnomer as its rather uncommon) should tell one this is poor behavior even without an actual rule.

conner11

I am a platinum member and was just offered to pay 50 euros per night to upgrade to the wellness loft - do you think its worth it? Will I just get an upgrade anyway if I don't pay?

ryan182

Hard to say, they did seem happy to upgrade if there was availability but on the other hand the hotel isn't that large and depending up when you're going could be full. 50EUR if on a 2-3 night trip isn't bad, though if on a longer trip that could add up,the loft was nice in that you were a level above the ground and had more privacy on the balcony vs the ground floor rooms but they are not hugely different/better than the standard room

C17PSGR

Any other thoughts on the Chania Noruz vs Elounda? No kids but other than that issue, I'm having a hard time sorting out which one people like better for August.

Sounds like there are some walking options from Noruz. Elounda is way more convenient to the ferry (not sure how to get to Noruz from the Ferry). Not sure which has the better pool and rooms.

jmanirish

Haven't stayed at both, so this isn't a comparison per se. But here's what swayed me to Noruz.

-Flat resort with beach immediately available (we came from Santorini so wanted easy access to a sandy beach).
-Newer resort
-No kids
-More to do in the surrounding area (again, because we came from Santorini and were basically parked at a pool there for a few days).

The Elounda resort looks lovely, but we were very happy with the Noruz. We ended up renting a car from the port and driving. 2 hours but very easy (get your 'international drivers license' - not needed to rent but they said potential EUR 1,000 fine if a police officer wants to pull you over). If you rent from Avis/Budget, the stand is right in front of the port (just make sure you're one of the first few off the boat, otherwise you'll be waiting) and then returned it to the HER airport. If you don't want to drive, believe it was EUR150-EUR 170 each way for a transfer (taxi?).

We only walked around the surrounding area a tiny bit. Otherwise we took a cab into the old town (EUR 7-10 each way) each night and had dinner and drinks, then came back. Some great meals and all very reasonable (especially when considering they were on the water). See my post a few above this for more information on our stay and feel free to reach out with any specific questions.

C17PSGR

Thanks. That's very helpful.

AICML

christianj

@AICML...thanks for the comparison of the Domes Chania and Elounda properties! We just stayed at the Elounda property (and have also stayed at the Blue Palace) and enjoyed it very much. Getting an upgrade to the Residences probably helped! With the Elounda property going up so much for award redemptions, we are likely to try the Domes Chania for our next visit. NO kids is a definite plus for us!

ao40

dcmike

Any Domes Noruz stays during COVID? We're thinking of going in August.

dcmike

I will answer my own question as we decided to go and had an excellent stay. Staff are simply top notch - remembering your preferences, proactively doing things to make your stay better, just doing all they can do to run a top resort. Topes is expensive - we ended up with a half board package that made it very easy to have breakfast and dinner. Both are excellent at the restaurant - you need to make reservations to ensure the restaurant does not get overcrowded. At breakfast, it is a buffet with masks and gloves provided. Selections vary each day, with an omelette station always available.

The two pools are fantastic - one is the "quiet zone" pool, not that the other one was much louder (there is likely normally music there, that has been banned currently due to lockdown regulations in Crete).

Beach is great - fantastic service there as well. You do get a good deal of people walking right in front of you, as the beach is just not that wide.

Overall, a fantastic experience and one I would do again in a heartbeat.

Edited to add a photo - view from the room, over the main pool, down to the beach.