Daios Cove Luxury Resort & Villas

A sprawling modernist complex carved into the hillside above a secluded bay on the island of Crete may seem like the sort of place a Bond villain hides out. But Daios Cove Luxury Resort, for all its sleek good looks, is a rather more welcoming sort of place. For one thing, it’s family-friendly to a fairly extraordinary degree; an adults-only escape it most certainly is not. And life at Daios Cove is supremely easy. The ratio of rooms to pools is approximately two to one, and you don’t have to be a mathematician to see that when your resort comprises some 300 rooms, that’s a lot of pools.

It’d be a stretch to call the Deluxe Sea View rooms “humble,” but things only get more lavish from there, adding plunge pools or proper swimming pools and expanding into suites and full-sized villas, self-contained residences with up to three bedrooms. The advantage of being cut into the hillside is that every room in every category faces the sea — the only question is how much space, and how big a pool, you decide you need.

The accommodations would be enough, but they’re not quite all Daios Cove has to offer. There’s a large outdoor pool, in case you don’t like your own, as well as two indoor pools, part of the spa’s extensive offerings. There’s also a beach down there at the bottom of the hill, where you can embark on just about every waterborne activity imaginable. And back up on the resort’s terraces are a handful of restaurants and bars where the local seafood is put to good use on your behalf. Safe to say you’ll lack for absolutely nothing while you’re here.