Hotels don’t get much better than this. All the above rave reviews are well-deserved, and there’s little point in repeating all those glowing comments, except to praise and thank the charming and efficient workforce – from the hands-on management down to the humblest cleaner and gardener. You’re all magnificent! Instead, let me use the space available to make a few points of interest to future guests and some suggestions for improvement to those in charge.
First, your choice of suite. We were delighted with our superior sea-facing one and were glad we did not pay considerably more for the private pool option. These are mostly tiny plunge-pools and, in spite of the hot weather, we never ever saw one being used – not once in 14 days! Also, most of these suites are at ground level and very much in the public gaze, so if you value your privacy, you might feel rather conspicuous. Of course, if you’re keen to show off your classy swimwear, these balconies are ideal!
The all-inclusive deal is excellent value for money, and you should use the opportunity to experiment with new cocktails and the local, excellent wines. The à la carte restaurant Kymata, is in a lovely setting, but the menu never changes apart from one ‘special of the day’. Also the choice is disappointingly ‘international’, when one could have hoped for more Greek/Cypriot specialties in addition to the tasty octopus and fava. Where was the stifado, kleftiko, calamari, moussaka (there was a terrible vegie version) and shrimp saganaki for example? Some of these dishes occasionally appeared on the buffet, especially on the Friday ‘Cyprus Night’, which was a splendid occasion for Grecophiles, with superb live bouzouki music and Greek dancing. On other nights the buffet, although excellent, showed no sign of having any kind of ‘theme’, apart from sometimes an emphasis on Asian or Italian cuisine.
Booking the Kymata restaurant is a pain. You have to phone reception at 9 am prompt to book for a table for the following night. If you phone at 8.55, they tell you to ring back, and when you phone on the dot of 9.00 all the tables have gone! (or if you’re lucky, you’re offered a table too early or too late). If this happens to you, do what we did, and complain. After that, we never had a problem getting a table at the time we wanted. Most AI hotels allow you to make all your restaurant bookings on arrival. This one should.
As not all guests are on all-inclusive terms, there is a laborious process of showing your card whenever you order a drink or meal (other than breakfast) and then signing a bill with a row of zeros at the bottom. The aim is to show you what you have ‘spent’ so you can calculate and sign for a tip. These are then added to your bill on departure. The question is: are they passed on to the staff? One pool waiter told us they were not, and pleaded with us to tip him in cash. We raised this issue with the management, who assured us that all gratuities are shared out among the staff. So who do you believe? No one wants to carry around loads of small change to tip with. It would be sensible for the AI rate to include a service charge, so we could forget about the whole thing – and simply reward exceptional service. Something for the management to think about.
All this carping sounds as though we were guests from hell! I hope not. But this is the flagship establishment of the Constantinou Brothers and deserves to be judged by the highest standards. That’s what they would wish. It doesn’t mean we didn’t have an absolutely wonderful time here. We did!
