The first impression of the hotel was one of cleanliness, The public rooms are well kept, and although one or two of the bar/lounge seats are showing their age, i.e. sagging seat cushions, general wear, in the main the public rooms are well maintained. There is no entertainment in the winter months, with the possible exception of Christmas.
The same can be said of the bedrooms, which are well maintained, rooms cleaned every day, even Sundays, bed linen changed twice a week, towels changed daily. The best rooms are the rooms to the rear of the hotel, which have views over the town and lower Paphos, and distant views of the sea. The front rooms however, are a different prospect altogether. These rooms overlook the main road up to the market, and there is constant traffic climbing the hill, until very late at night, and no other view than the shops opposite. There is a TV, with a number of English language channels, but nothing other than Sky News (repeated every 15 mins), or old American movies. No other English broadcast channels. There are however, no facilities for tea making, no kettle, no fridge to keep bottled water or other drinks. So bring your own mini kettle, and the makings. But you must ensure all your cups; kettle and makings are locked in your case when you are not in the room. THIS IS MOST IMPORTANT AS OTHER GUESTS HAVE TOLD ME THAT THE HOTEL WILL CONFISCATE SUCH THINGS IF THEY ARE LEFT OUT IN YOUR ROOM. Personally, I find this outrageous, if it occurs, as such materials are your possessions, and the hotel could be accused of theft if this occurred. But this is Cyprus, so who knows Best not to give them the opportunity.
Downsides:
The biggest no-no with this establishment is the food. The breakfast, unless you are a food masochist, is uneatable, Cold food is not refrigerated. The so-called bacon is sliced spam-like meat loaf, liberally sprayed with some sort of bacon flavoring, and is frankly unfit for purpose as "bacon" I refused to eat this. In the same container will be found the "sausages" These consist of small sized (tinned) frankfurters, which if you examine any tin in a supermarket will be found to be made from MRM (mechanically recovered meat, if you don’t what this is, look it up!) Again I refused to consume such muck.
The eggs are either hard boiled eggs with shell, or scrambled in a watery liquid. However, to be fair, the staff will, is asked, provide a couple of fried eggs. Best meal is fried eggs on toast. The first week, the orange (juice?)(Squash?) was so watered down as to be undrinkable. It improved the second week, after complaints.
I cannot comment on the lunch-time fare as we did not partake of it.
The evening meals were in general, very poor. On the second week the main course on the menu was Pork, at least four times in a 5 day period. We ate out most of the week. The pork was either identified as "Roast Pork", Pork Aphelia (supposed to be cooked in a red wine!) or hidden as "Chef's selection of local dishes", followed next night by "Roast Pork! On the rare occasions we had Roast Lamb; it turned out to be very cheap pieces of mutton, accompanied by what the hotel euphemistically calls: “Mint Gravy", not ordinary gravy, and separate mint sauce. Leave you to work that one out!
The second choice was usually chicken, and swimming in some sort of unidentifiable greasy liquid.
In talking to a number of other guests, I discovered that a lot of them had been to this hotel a number of times, and I was told that the food then was very good indeed. However, the English chef had left last year, and they all agreed that the food was now abominable, and they would not be returning. My sentiments exactly.
BEWARE This hotel is now taking in large numbers of Muslim Arab Asylum seekers/refugees, from various Arab countries, including: Palestine, Iran, Iraq. They are fed in a different room, and have their own lounge, which is barred to all other guests. But they and their very noisy children are intrusive. We had to leave the pool area one morning, when a number of the men having taken their chairs out on to the balcony outside their lounge, commenced arguing, which then degenerated into a fight. None of the western ladies like to use the loungers by the pool, as the Arab men tend to sit outside their lounge,and gawp at the Western women sunbathing. The children are allowed to run wild around the pool area. One child was seen urinating in the pool!
This is not racial, nor am I prejudiced, but I did not pay a large sum of money to a Hotel to spend my holiday with a bunch of Arab refugees. Christmas breaks here are going to be interesting! (Carols around the tree ect?…)
We were very disappointed with this Hotel, and will not be returning. I could not give it more than 1 Star, and then grudgingly.
Room Tip: Don't bother!
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This review is the subjective opinion of a TripAdvisor member and not of TripAdvisor LLC
27 December 2011
We appreciate all reviews posted by guests who have visited our Hotel and we are pleased to hear that you found our Hotel and guest rooms clean, however we would like to clarify the following issues raised:
Firstly our Hotel is a 3 Star Certified Hotel.
We do not have tea & coffee making facilities or fridges in our guest rooms, nor is this advertised with our Tour Operators or on any Internet sites including our Hotel’s website.
If guests bring their own kettles, we would like to advise that this raises a safety issue as the electrical item will not have been checked by a certified electrician on a regular basis and therefore if faulty could cause an electrical fire within the guest’s room.
We would like to mention that our rooms have not been regulated to take any unauthorized electrical appliances that guest’s may choose to add and in some cases this can cause irregularities to the electrical supply to the room.
All electrical items within our Hotel are inspected on a regular basis by a qualified electrician and certificates are issued by the Company.
A varied selection is offered at all meal times, with Breakfast & Dinner in the form of a self service Buffet, so that guests can try everything offered or choose the food that best suits their pallets. However we are in Cyprus not England and people need to remember that food is cooked differently.
The Breakfast Buffet includes; Local bacon, frankfurter sausages, beans, fried eggs, scrambled eggs/ hard boiled eggs (alternate days), Selection of Cold Meats & Cheese, fresh sliced tomatoes, yoghurt, fruit, honey, 3 types of jam, marmalade, selection of bread, butter, choice of 4 cereals, Hot Beverages from 2 self service beverage machines, fresh filter coffee and there is a Juice machine serving orange, pineapple & grapefruit juice.
At the dinner Buffet there is also a varied selection to suit all tastes with the Chef’s soup of the day, a selection of salads & hors' dourves, hot main dishes with seasonal vegetables, potatoes of the day and a selection of desserts. At the same time there is a Vegetarian Menu or guests can have an omellet of their choice.
Guests on Half Board can also choose to have Lunch instead of dinner and we have a Special Set Lunch Menu for them to choose from with a varied selection on offer.
Regarding the Juice this comes direct from the supplier and is not watered down.
For your information, our Hotel uses the best quality New Zealand Lamb NOT mutton and the Pork Afelia, which is a Cypriot Dish is cubes of pork cooked with wine and coriander.
Our chef is complimented regularly by both new and repeat guests for the quality of the food served.
As we have previously advised, our Hotel welcomes people from all Countries and Cultures and we certainly will not discriminate or put limitations on the Countries that we will do business with.
For your information the guests referred to are considerate, well educated people that are fluent in English and these guests have not and are not causing a problem in our Hotel.
Finally we would like to say that Christmas at our Hotel has been full of festivities with the Beautiful Christmas Tree, Decorations, Gala Dinners and fantastic entertainment with a Disco, Singer, Bouzouki Player and Greek Dancers. More festivities are to follow to welcome in the New Year.
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This response is the subjective opinion of the management representative and not of TripAdvisor LLC
