Ikos Dassia

Sudipta Quabili

Ikos Dassia is not a perfect resort - but we had a wonderful time regardless. In terms of positives, the resort stands on two tentpoles: the location, and the service. Almost everywhere you look in the resort, you are met with the breathtaking beauty of Corfu and the Ionian Sea. The resort takes full advantage of this by featuring open air spaces in many of the restaurants and common areas. The service was second to none. Not only were the staff attentive, but our requests were handled with astonishing speed. Our concierge was also in constant contact with us, making sure every part of our stay was to our liking, and arranging for customizations and special surprises in line with how we wanted to spend our vacation. In terms of areas for improvement, the one that was most noticeable to us was that this resort seems almost exclusively geared towards families. My husband and I visited at the end of our honeymoon and we did not find the facilities very suitable for couples visiting without children. While there were adult-only areas, these often felt like an afterthought and not very secluded. Thankfully, we booked a suite with a private pool - something that is imperative if you are a couple staying here as it was hard to find seclusion from families in the main pools and beach areas. There was also very little in terms of entertainment and activities geared towards adults. The food also didn't wow us as we expected it to. While there are quite a few restaurants to choose from, in our experience, they all seemed to play riffs on the same dishes, just with slight alterations (e.g., almost every menu featured some sort of braised beef and sea bass). While the dishes were presented beautifully and you could tell that the ingredients were fresh, they often lacked flavor and seasoning and were not executed as well as they should have been. The Tesla drive was also one of the low points of our stay. A Tesla Model Y is not at all the ideal car for driving the narrow streets of Corfu - especially if you are not accustomed to rural European roads. An option to have a smaller car would have made this experience a lot less stressful and more safe. Lastly, while we felt the value proposition of the resort matches the prices they charge, the resort lacked a sense of luxury. While the surroundings are gorgeous, the interiors of the resort felt very standard. The staff and the landscape do most of the heavy lifting in bringing the "wow" factor as the furnishings and general layout of the resort don't bring that sense of grandeur one would expect from a 5 star property. There were few top shelf liquor offerings, and the bars were relegated to the main lobby and pool bars without any unique concepts. We definitely felt the lack of a grab-and-go coffee shop or bakery that comparable resorts usually feature. And while we booked a "Deluxe" room, there weren't special lounges or restaurants reserved for Deluxe guests at this property aside from a strip of beach and a pool area. All that being said, we still had a wonderful stay at Ikos Dassia. We cannot say enough great things about the staff as they really went above and beyond to make our stay special. We would be delighted to return to Ikos Dassia, or visit any other Ikos property, and hopefully see them only improve while maintaining their strengths.

Marie

Pro The service was really good and friendly. I especially want to mention Kassiani here who was very friendly and attentive, it was always a pleasure when she was around at the sky pool :) Other positive things: 30 minutes to Kerkyra and a free shuttle service. Upon request you can get a golf cart to pick you up and drive you to the other building. The pools seem to be very clean. The hotel is very pretty, as well as the beach. The sea building side of the beach has more stones going into it, so getting into the sea is smoother in the sky side. A pool buddy is around to open the umbrellas and get you a towel. There is one big pool, one adult pool and one spa pool at each of the two buildings. (and a special pool for deluxe guests) There is also a small warm whirlpool next to the sky pool. The big sea building pool seemed to be the warmest pool aside from the whirlpool. You can get food at any time of day. The WhatsApp concierge service that you can book restaurant reservations for you for example. At the end of the menu you also gave some vegan options listed separately. Changes to dishes can be made easily. Most cocktails with alcohol can also be ordered without alcohol. Neutral Planes are rather loud but that didn't bother us. Areas to improve: The sun chairs are wet in the morning - probably due to cleaning with a pressure cleaner the night before. In October it took a while for them to dry. Even the chairs at the pool bar including cushions were wet. The water served at the restaurants tasted fine in the beginning but after some time the water had a noticeable smell / taste of chlorine. This then again changed back to normal after a few days. The nozzle of the tea kettle wasn't properly washed most of the time. Chicken was pretty much always overcooked / very dry. Food is good for all inclusive standards but not on any Michelin star level as they advertise with Michelin star chefs who probably have little to do with the actual day to day. The clothing and jewelery shop and the spa are all way too expensive. A dress 280 euro. This is personal preference but I would prefer the piña Colada not to be made as a slushy with crushed ice. The cocktails are alright, made from scratch but most weren't up to my preference. The passion fruit cocktail way too sweet for instance. Some cocktails like the piña Colada don't appear on the menu but are available. Also in different version like strawberry piña Colada for example. The burger that you can get at the pool had a really subpar beef patty. The burger in the grill house was very thick. Maybe offer a leaner version by default or inform how thick it is. The bacon could use some improvement. Probably just buy a different kind of bacon. This one tends to just get chewy. The milk foam when you get an iced latte at the beach bar at the sky hotel is really good. Depending on where you get your cappuchino / latte, the quality of the foam changes drastically. The worst being at the breakfast buffets as it comes from a machine that does all at the same time.

Pat Norton

We had a great break. The options for meals was amazing and worked well for adults and kids. A football academy on site was a great asset with an energetic 7 year old and a quiet play area outdoors and indoors in the day. Having a variety of restaurants scattered around the hotel made it very special with such a variety of food and water sports for those who liked that. Would recommend this for adults and children.

jo wheeler

Absolutely fabulous hotel. The staff were all amazing; friendly, helpful and attentive. The location is great and the resort is very modern with great restaurants and lots to do, we did a sunset cruise, watersports, diving and sports activities and all were well run and fun. The Sports team were particularly engaging, my son had football coaching with Napoleon, he is a great coach; very knowledgeable, enthusiastic and easy to get along with. My son loved it. I would definitely recommend a family holiday.

Max

Lovely experience overall. All of the restaurants we visited had amazing food and good service. There’s always something to do here - there are so many activities on site, a lot of which are included for free, on top of the multiple pools and bars, I’d definitely recommend.