Ikos has become something of a legend among parents looking for a luxury family holiday. Beautiful surroundings, multiple restaurants, childcare, sandy beaches and almost everything included — but with a price tag to match. We stayed at Ikos Dassia with our baby to find out whether the reality lives up to the hype.
There are family-friendly hotels, and then there is Ikos.
Few hotel brands have built quite the same reputation among parents for making travelling with young children feel easy — while still promising the sort of five-star experience you’d actually want to have pre-children.
And on paper, Ikos Dassia in Corfu sounds pretty close to the dream. Multiple restaurants and pools, a sandy beach, kids’ club, babysitting, entertainment and drinks delivered to your sun lounger, all without having to reach for your wallet every five minutes.
The catch? It’s expensive.
So our question wasn’t really whether Ikos Dassia was good. At this price, it should be. We wanted to know whether it really delivered the ultra-luxury experience we’d heard so much about — and, crucially, whether it was worth paying the premium when travelling with a baby.
The answer is a little more complicated than we expected.
The Teeny Guests Scorecard
Room & Sleep ★★★★☆
Our room was lovely and comfortable, but this was one of the first areas where we found ourselves considering the price we’d paid.
The room was spacious, modern with a large balcony terrace. We opted for a room with a sea view.
The only frustration was that some of the baby equipment wasn’t already waiting for us. The hotel knew from our booking that we were arriving with a baby, yet we had to request a baby bath (the room only had a shower) and they then brought this, along with a changing mat to our room. We then had to wait for them to arrive, and were confused why they didn’t just included these in our room when we checked in as standard.
It’s a relatively minor detail, but at this price point, those are exactly the details we’d expect to be anticipated. Travelling with a baby involves enough luggage and logistics already; true luxury is having someone think about those things before you have to.
Teeny Guests rating: ★★★★☆
Food & Mealtimes ★★★☆☆
Food was one of the things we were most excited about before arriving at Ikos Dassia — and ultimately one of the areas where we felt the experience was most overhyped.
The concept is brilliant. Rather than eating from the same buffet every night, there are multiple à la carte restaurants to choose from, which makes the experience feel much closer to a traditional hotel holiday than a typical all-inclusive.
With a baby, however, you need to be organised.
It wasn’t particularly clear to us initially that some restaurants were only open for certain meals on certain days, so we’d strongly recommend downloading the Ikos app and getting on top of restaurant reservations early. Having so much choice is fantastic, but having to plan your meals in advance does take away slightly from the effortless all-inclusive experience.
Every restaurant we visited had highchairs and we always felt comfortable eating with Jack. That said, the highchairs themselves were the familiar plastic IKEA variety. They’re perfectly functional — arguably some of the easiest highchairs in existence to clean — but when you’re paying this much for a holiday billed as ultra-luxury, we’d expected some of these smaller details to feel a little more elevated.
We’d also been particularly sold on the fact that there was a weaning menu available for babies. In reality, this was disappointing. The options were essentially variations of chicken, fish or vegetables blended into a very loose, soup-like consistencies. Jack wasn’t interested in them at all, and they weren’t what we’d imagined when we’d read about dedicated weaning options before our stay.
As for the grown-up food, we certainly didn’t eat badly. There was plenty of variety and we loved being able to choose between different restaurants. However we felt the food in particular didn’t quite live up to the enormous hype surrounding Ikos.
Perhaps that’s the important distinction: we thought the food was good for an all-inclusive, but we weren’t convinced it was exceptional food full stop.
And at Ikos prices, we expected exceptional.
Teeny Guests rating: ★★★☆☆
Family Welcome ★★★☆☆
This was probably the biggest surprise of our stay.
In terms of facilities, Ikos Dassia is phenomenally well set up for families. But we found the actual service less family-focused than we’d expected.
The staff were perfectly pleasant, but we didn’t experience much engagement with Jack or feel that having a very young baby prompted anyone to go particularly above and beyond to make our stay easier.
The missing baby bath and changing mat when we arrived was one example. Another happened during dinner at one of the more open-air restaurants. We became conscious that Jack was getting cold and noticed several portable heaters around the restaurant, so asked whether one could be moved to our table. We were told no and saw a heater moved elsewhere instead.
It wasn’t a major incident in isolation, but it contributed to a wider feeling that the resort was brilliantly equipped for children without the service necessarily feeling centred around them.
There was also one aspect of the service that left a particularly sour taste.
We completed a mid-stay feedback survey and raised a few things that hadn’t gone as smoothly as we’d hoped. Afterwards, a manager approached us during dinner on two separate occasions to discuss our feedback.
During those conversations we were offered a discount or money off our bill, which we understood to be linked to resolving our concerns and not subsequently leaving a negative review. We can’t speak to the hotel’s intention, but we came away feeling under pressure to leave a positive review.
We found the whole experience uncomfortable. As guests, we’d much rather have felt that our concerns had simply been listened to and addressed without any discussion around what review we might choose to leave afterwards.
At a resort with this reputation — and this price tag — we’d expected genuinely exceptional, intuitive service. For us, it was one of the areas that didn’t quite deliver.
Teeny Guests rating: ★★★☆☆
Getting Around ★★★★★
This, on the other hand, is somewhere Ikos Dassia absolutely excels.
Getting around with a baby could hardly have been easier.
The resort is incredibly flat, with proper pathways throughout, making it wonderfully straightforward with a pram. We particularly appreciated the pathways laid across the sand on the beach, meaning we could wheel the pram down rather than having to carry Jack and all of our paraphernalia across the sand.
It’s exactly the kind of seemingly tiny detail that becomes disproportionately important once you travel with a baby.
The beach itself is sandy, too, which made it much more practical for Jack than the rocky beaches we’ve encountered at some other European hotels.
The whole resort also felt very safe and secure, with good security throughout. It’s somewhere we felt completely comfortable wandering around with a baby.
Teeny Guests rating: ★★★★★
Play & Facilities ★★★★★
This is where Ikos really starts to justify its reputation as one of the ultimate family resorts.
There are multiple pools, including child-friendly options, alongside the sandy beach. There is a kids’ club, plenty of child-friendly activities, an entertainment programme in the evenings and babysitting available.
More importantly, having children around feels completely normal. You’re not trying to squeeze a baby into an environment that wasn’t designed for them.
There’s even a shop on site selling nappies and other baby essentials — another small thing that can feel enormously reassuring when travelling with a little one.
We also found the poolside service excellent. Being able to settle by the pool and have drinks brought over without repeatedly packing everything up or taking a baby backwards and forwards to a bar is exactly the kind of convenience that makes a holiday with a young child feel like an actual holiday.
For sheer family infrastructure, it’s difficult to fault.
Teeny Guests rating: ★★★★★
Grown-Up Appeal ★★★★☆
This is perhaps the hardest category to score.
Ikos Dassia is unquestionably a beautiful resort. It doesn’t feel like the stereotypical family all-inclusive, and that’s a huge part of its appeal. There are lovely pools, a beautiful setting, a proper sandy beach, multiple restaurants and the freedom to order a drink without wondering what it’s going to add to the bill.
And there is something wonderfully indulgent about knowing that you don’t really need to leave the resort at all.
But if we remove the extraordinary convenience for families and judge it purely as a luxury hotel, we aren’t sure every element quite reaches the level its price suggests.
The food didn’t wow us. The room was nice rather than extraordinary. Some of the smaller details didn’t feel particularly luxurious. And most significantly for us, the service didn’t have the warmth or personal touch we’ve experienced at other five-star hotels.
Ikos’s greatest luxury, we realised, isn’t necessarily traditional luxury at all.
It’s ease.
And depending on what you want from your holiday, that may actually be more valuable.
Teeny Guests rating: ★★★★☆
The practical bit
Best for: Parents who want a genuinely easy, luxurious-feeling holiday with a baby or young child and don’t want to spend the week worrying about logistics.
Think twice if: You’re primarily choosing Ikos because you’re expecting exceptional fine dining and deeply personalised five-star service to justify the premium price.
The best thing: The sheer ease of being there with a baby. Buggy-friendly paths, a sandy beach, pools, childcare, entertainment, baby essentials and excellent poolside service are all in one place.
Would we return? We’d certainly consider another Ikos — particularly while travelling with young children — but we’d think carefully about the price. For us, the value lies much more in the convenience and family facilities than in every element feeling ultra-luxurious.
Teeny Guests verdict
Ikos Dassia might be one of the easiest luxury holidays you can take with a baby.
And we don’t say that lightly.
So many of the things that make travelling with a little person difficult have effectively been engineered out. It’s flat and exceptionally buggy-friendly. There’s a sandy beach. There are multiple pools and restaurants. There are highchairs everywhere. There’s childcare, babysitting, entertainment and activities. You can buy nappies without leaving the resort. You can sit beside the pool and have someone bring you a drink.
It feels safe, secure and remarkably easy.
For those reasons, we would absolutely recommend Ikos Dassia for a holiday with a baby.
But is it the flawless ultra-luxury experience its reputation — and price — might lead you to expect? For us, no.
The food was good rather than exceptional. The much-promoted baby weaning options disappointed us. Some of the details felt surprisingly basic. And while the resort itself couldn’t have been much better equipped for families, the service didn’t always make us feel particularly looked after as a family.
That’s the contradiction at the heart of Ikos Dassia: it’s exceptionally family-friendly, without every aspect necessarily feeling exceptionally luxurious.
So, is it worth the money?
If what you’re really buying is ease, there’s a compelling argument that it is. When you’re travelling with a baby, being able to arrive somewhere beautiful and know that virtually everything you could need is already within the resort has enormous value.
If you’re paying the premium because you’re expecting extraordinary food, flawless personalised service and elevated luxury at every turn, we’d temper your expectations.
For us, Ikos Dassia delivered brilliantly on the family holiday. It just didn’t always deliver on the hype.
Teeny Guests 