My first stay at Mitsis Selection Blue Domes was a September site inspection, the year before we started selling it from London. The taxi turned off the airport road, the white domes rose above the pine trees with the Aegean behind them, and I had a Greek-postcard moment. Cliché, yes. But the right kind of cliché. And that, in a sentence, is what this hotel does well.

What I will tell you here is not the marketing version of the hotel. It is what I tell guests when they ring the office asking whether Blue Domes is right for them, and what I tell my friends when they ask where to go on Kos.

What this hotel actually is

Mitsis Selection Blue Domes sits on the south coast of Kos, near Kardamena, with a long sandy beach in front and the Aegean stretching towards the volcanic island of Nisyros on a clear day. The hotel is large. Properly large. But it is built low against the pine forest and the dunes, so it does not feel like a thousand-room wall on the sea. The architecture leans into the Cycladic look: white walls, blue accents, the famous domes.

This is a premium Greek all-inclusive resort, not a budget AI property. The word "Selection" in the name matters. It is Mitsis’ more refined sub-brand, with better rooms, calmer pools and more attention to the small things. You are paying for that, and on the right week you feel it.

If you arrive expecting Turkish ultra all-inclusive — twelve à la carte restaurants, an aquapark, premium imports flowing at the swim-up bar — you will be disappointed. Greek all-inclusive does not work that way. If you arrive expecting a clean, calm, well-run resort with good food, decent wine, beautiful views and the kind of Greek hospitality that takes its time, you will probably leave booking it again.

The rooms — which one to book

This is the section I wish more guides spent time on, because the room category you pick changes the whole holiday.

The standard rooms are fine. Comfortable beds, strong air-conditioning, modern bathrooms, a small balcony. You will sleep well. They are also not what the hotel is really named for.

What I send my guests towards, when the budget allows, is one of the Selection-tier rooms with a proper sea view and a usable balcony. The difference is not just the view. It is the morning. You wake up, you open the door, you take the first coffee outside, and you watch the colour of the sea change as the light comes up. On a Greek-island holiday, this is half of why you came.

Two practical things, from my desk to yours:

• If you are travelling with one or two children, ask us about the family rooms in the Selection wing rather than two connecting standard rooms. The layout works better, the noise carries less, and you are not sharing one balcony between four people who all want to use it.
• If you are travelling as a couple and you want quiet, ask for a room set back from the main pool deck. The pool starts at breakfast and does not stop. Lovely if you are in it. Less lovely if you are trying to read on your balcony at ten in the morning.

Food and drink

You will eat well at Blue Domes, but the way you eat at this kind of hotel matters.

The main buffet is the heart of any Greek all-inclusive resort, and Mitsis does this competently. There is a wide spread, fresh fish two or three times a week, and a Greek section that is actually Greek rather than just feta on iceberg lettuce. I would still tell you that the à la carte restaurants are where Blue Domes shows what it can do.

Book the à la cartes on the day you arrive, not the morning after. In high season the popular evenings fill quickly. The Italian and the Asian are the two I recommend first, and the Greek-themed evening if you can get a night where the live music is playing outside on the terrace.

For drinks: the house wine included in the AI plan is drinkable, the local beer is cold, and the basic cocktails are honest. If you are a serious wine person, paying a small premium for better bottles on a special night is worth it. Outside meal times, the pool bar is the one I tell guests to use. The lobby bar is too quiet during the day.

A small Greek note. The coffee. Greek coffee, the proper kind, is small, strong and served slowly. If you want a real Greek frappé in the afternoon — the iced, foamy summer coffee most of us drink — the pool bar will make it for you the right way. Ask for "metrios" (medium-sweet) and you will get the version Greeks have been drinking on terraces for sixty years.

The pool, the beach, the daily rhythm

The pool complex is the engine of the resort. It is busy by nine in the morning, especially in July and August. The sun loungers near the swim-up bar are the first to go. If that matters to you, the unwritten rule is to be down by half past eight.

The beach is the better answer, in my view. It is long, soft and sandy, and you can walk a good way along it without hitting another resort. The water is shallow for the first thirty yards or so — excellent for families and for average swimmers. If you are a stronger swimmer, walk a hundred yards down the beach and you have proper deep water, more space, and fewer people.

The daily rhythm is calm by Greek-resort standards. The animation team is present but light, not the constant programme you find in some Turkish ultra AI resorts. The Greek night is the social high point of the week, with music, dancing, and the kind of evening where guests who swore they would not dance sirtaki are dancing sirtaki and laughing about it the next day. Even the British guests. Especially the British guests.

The spa

Mitsis takes the wellness side seriously, which is partly why the Selection brand exists in the first place. The thalassotherapy programmes — sea-water-based treatments, a real Greek wellness tradition with roots in Hippocrates himself — are the ones I would book a day or two in advance. There is also a good standard treatment menu, a hammam, and a serious gym for the traveller who refuses to stop training on holiday.

If you are coming for a wellness-leaning week rather than a pure beach-and-buffet week, build the spa in early. You get better appointment times and you will use it. Half the guests who tell me afterwards that they "didn’t get round to the spa" left the booking until day four and then could not get the slots they wanted.

For families, for couples

This is a resort that genuinely works for both, which is rarer than it sounds in the all-inclusive world.

For families, the strengths are the long sandy beach, the gentle water for younger swimmers, the kids’ pool area, the children’s club for the smaller ones, the family-friendly buffet timings and the simple feeling of safety that a well-run premium resort gives you. We send families with children of any age here, but it is especially well suited to families with children aged roughly four to twelve.

For couples, the strengths are the calmer Selection rooms, the quieter pool corners, the spa, the à la carte evenings, the sunset terrace and the size of the resort itself. A property this size means you can have a busy bit when you want one and a quiet bit when you want the opposite, all without leaving the grounds.

For small groups of adult friends, it works too — especially for groups who want a Greek wellness-and-beach week with good food, a flexible rhythm and enough day-trip potential to keep things interesting.

What I would change

A few things, because credibility matters and a column that only praises a hotel is a column you should not trust.

In peak August, the resort is at its busiest, and some of the calmer corners feel less calm than they do in shoulder season. If you can travel in May, June, September or early October, you get the same hotel but a quieter version of it. The sea is still warm in September, and the prices are friendlier too.

The lobby area can feel slightly underused during the day. Not a problem exactly. Just not a place to spend time. The action is at the pool, the beach, or the spa.

Connectivity is good in the room buildings and at most reception areas, less reliable in some of the outdoor zones. Bring a paperback for the sun lounger. You will probably read more than you planned, and that is no bad thing on a Greek-island week.

Practical tips before you fly

A few things I always tell guests before they leave the UK:

• Book the à la cartes on arrival day. The good slots go fast in high season, and the staff at reception are happy to help. You will thank yourself on night four.
• Aegean evenings are cool, even in July. Bring one light layer for outdoor dinners. A pashmina or a linen jacket is enough.
• The airport is roughly a 15-mile drive from Kardamena. Private transfers are easier than a midnight taxi-rank queue, especially with children.
• Kos Town deserves a half-day. The harbour, the Hippocrates plane tree, the old town in the early evening. We can build it into the trip with a driver if you want one.
• A boat trip to Nisyros, the volcanic island opposite Kardamena, is a strong day out when the weather is settled. You walk inside an actual volcanic caldera, eat a long Greek lunch on the way back, and remember why you booked a Greek-island holiday in the first place.
• The Asfendiou villages in the mountains above Kardamena are where I send guests who want a different kind of Greek afternoon. Older Kos. Slower. A taverna lunch. A view down to the sea.

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General guidance only; hotel programmes, restaurant inclusions, room categories and destination conditions may change. Last updated: May 2026. This article is reviewed by the GoToBeach product team on an annual basis or whenever a meaningful operational change makes a refresh necessary.