When I had three small children, a fellow columnist on this newspaper would joke that our holidays should be rebranded as “hellidays”, due to the stress involved being wholly disproportionate to the pleasure paid for.
They were actually halcyon days. What no one warned us of were the fraught vacationing choices lurking down the line when we reached the tense in-between times of the sixth form and student years. We grizzled parents want to spend time with nearly grown-up offspring, while the young have their own ideas of what sort of outing with the parents is acceptable. Add to this fissile mix the pent-up demand for escape after the pandemic, which has left us fantasising about family time and leaving the tensions of untidied bedrooms and arguments about messy fridges behind.
The first requirement, as term ended, was it should be easy for everyone to get to and not cost a fortune in flights, given the rising costs and general cross-generation short attention span. Second, it should be somewhere we didn’t already know.
So off we headed to Crete, which I only knew about as a rugged island with gorgeous views, ruins and wind – and the Daios Cove resort, nestling on a cliff a blessed short hour from Heraklion airport.
We all wanted to stretch a muscle or two after GCSEs/A levels/finals and a gritty professional year on Zooms. So the checklist ranged from a top-notch gym with trainer (me), an excellent spa (me again), an infinity poolside place to read while never actually getting wet (husband), to weight-training and a bar open beyond 1am (students) and a late all-you-can eat breakfast (sixth-form daughter naturally gorgeous to require the weight training, but vaguely interested in a manicure and anti-gravity yoga).
Daios Cove is a bit of an outlier in the Greek resort ecology. It has a single owner, which helps it avoid the sense of rinse-and-repeat of franchised resorts and, accordingly, sets a high standard. Crucially, there is excellent eating and drinking and also the Kepos spa with any self-improvements you might desire. Every day brings a lavish breakfast and a wide enough number of restaurants for a medium-size resort, with a generous surf and turf and a remarkably good poolside menu.
If you can face the upfront hit, the all-inclusive menu gives generous access to some really good wines. Guests pay extra only for pricey fish, big steaks and the like, but the inclusive offer is varied enough not to make this a sacrifice and you will make up the cost on some fantastic fish and vegetable dishes and local wines.
Gripes are few – given Cretan windy weather, the outdoor pool could do with being heated a tad earlier in the year, but that won’t matter till the end of September. The heavily promoted bookings app is, to put it politely, a work in progress – you will end up calling the switchboard to tie down restaurant and spa times. Most service is cheerful and informed – but there are occasional lapses in the main bar, which has a stunning view over the sea in an architecturally smart box design. I am told by my young that it is“even cooler at 3am”.
Daios is not a hugely spacious resort, but prettily placed on a horseshoe cove with a funicular for those with pushchairs or a dislike of stairs. Having tried a few larger Greek locations, we all liked the buzz of the beachside gathering place and the excellent poolside food. The great vegetarian offering too is a rarity at any price. A cove beach is never going to be wide, but has a good amount of umbrellas and attentive service, watersports folks will like the Cretan breezes.
For landlubbers, the spa staff are downright fantastic – it’s definitely the gold standard. A big draw is the chic outdoor BXR gym, franchised on the London boxing gym model, which means you can bring your new fitness plan home – and then forget to follow it up. There’s ample yoga, gyrotonics, plunge pools and large saunas and no one seems too busy to stop for a chat or to advise on a stretch, technique or injury. If Crete’s changeable weather lets you down, it is perfectly possible to spend an entire day doing sports and treatments.
Top tip: find the family something to celebrate and tip off the Daios team. The spa ladies were in on the secret of a surprise massage and manicure for the daughter’s 17th birthday, notwithstanding our patchy English-to-Greek discussion of the wisdom of black gel nails, after which we both dozed off in a joint massage. This definitely beats clearing up after a sixth-form bash in North London.
Most days, the boys hung out with Aritistidis, one of the brilliant trainers in the outdoors gym, who managed to interest two 20-somethings in self-care and meditation, as well as thumping each other in the boxing ring. Having turned up with a vast arrange of quirks and injuries, we all left feeling healthier, despite the many evening treats. At the simple but nicely appointed houses, our bespoke wine order is delivered at sundown, consumed in the reassuring knowledge that the offspring are somewhere around, with late dinner on the horizon.
Family life without the stress and someone else in charge of the schedule and the cooking turns out to be pretty great. By the time we left, I think the children actually liked us.
