…and I thought I may as well share a few observations. After all, that is what the internet is here for, right?
Holidaying with a toddler
Make no mistake, it is bloody hard work. This was our first foreign holiday with our 21 month old, 2 weeks in the Cypriot springtime (better weather than a Geordieland summer!).
High points - playtime in the pool and on the beach, walks and adventures in the sun. Low points - embarrassing behaviour at mealtimes in the hotel restaurant, no quiet time for mum and dad, bedtime for everyone at 8pm because the cot is in the same room, constant fear of exposure to aforementioned sun.
Once you accept that you will not have a holiday like you had before the sprog was born, it’s just about bearable. I was worn out after about 4 days and tearing my hear out after a week, although towards the end things improved, probably because we hired a car and saw a few different places.
Avanti Hotel, Paphos
Kept very clean, friendly and efficient staff, rooms fairly basic but well maintained. Not on the seafront but perhaps an advantage because it was less windy one street back and there was a well landscaped pool. Buffet ranged from acceptable to poor, the chefs should really look beyond the freezer section of the cash and carry and get some proper ingredients in. Cooked breakfasts actually put me off bacon for a week because it was totally bizarre, crusty around the outside and then dessicated under the hot lamps for a couple of hours. I would say the same about the eggs too, however the coffee and cake was fine. Evening meals were quite a wide selection of meat and fish although vegetarians would struggle, generally a pasta and sauce was the limit. Some were quite good (I had a very nice lamb stew, some decent cuts of grilled meat and a bizarre but tasty pork-in-yorkshire-pudding thing) others looked inedible (often from being overcooked and dried out under the hot lamps).
Hawkers/Scratchcards
There is an epidemic of dodgy scratchcard promotions around the tourist area of Paphos. When we visited they targetted couples, one of whom would win a bottle of wine, one of whom would win the “grand prize” of a holiday, cash or electronics. Obviously you won’t win the cash or the camcorder, and the holiday will be a timeshare booking (at best) or a way of getting your credit card details for later misuse (at worst). We were almost suckered into a 90 minute timeshare presentation but having a baby in a buggy is a great excuse for escaping. Just say NO. The OFT know all about these scams too - http://www.oft.gov.uk/oft_at_work/consumer_initiatives/scams/bogus-holiday
Just a quick word of advice to restaurant hawkers - if you stand outside your cafe asking me to take a seat and have a drink I will definitely NOT take you up on your offer.
Car Hire
Did you realise you can use the internet at your hotel to book a hire car through Holiday Autos (or a similar service) back home? We did and saved at least 1/3rd off the “special deal” our rep offered us, with better T&Cs to boot.
Do check your car throroughly though, even though Europcar were our supplier in Cyprus, they gave us a Ford Focus with a broken drivers seat. Not safe, so I insisted on a replacement, which they were arranged very promptly and was a much better car, a Nissan Note. However in all likelihood that Focus is still on the rental fleet and still has a drivers seat that wobbles like a jelly. Having hired about half-a-dozen times abroad now, we have already rejected two!
Driving Standards in Cyprus
Pretty terrible I’m afraid. I don’t really mind the Mediterranean driving style (drive as if anything will pull out in front of you at any time, and use your horn whenever possible), however in 4 days of car hire we witnessed two heavy shunts. One was a car carrying far too much speed along the front at Limassol and ploughing into the back of a stationary 4×4. The other was an elderly driver taking his Honda 4×4 up and over the bonnet of a BMW and nearly rolling over in the centre of Paphos. When you have a baby on board this is frankly terrifying because you know that in the next four days it might be you that gets hit.
The poor driving standard is compounded by a significant number of battered old cars and pickups on the road that do not appear to have any brakes. Plus mobile phones are in use at all times (including by the driver of a JCB who came onto our side of the road around a junction) and red lights appear to be taken as an advisory.
The roads themselves are actually very good, much better than most of the roads on the Greek islands we have been to in the past. The dual carriageways that link the major towns are almost traffic free and the speed limits are very much respected, thankfully.
Villa developments
Much of Cyprus is scarred by excessive new villa developments. Every hillside around Paphos is cluttered with them. Most other areas seem to have large developments too. Every other shop is an estate agents office. Frankly it is horrible, I really don’t see the appeal of living on one of those estates, but maybe my tastes are different to most.
Highlights
Our best days out were a drive up into the mountains to Omodos and along the coast to Limassol.
Omodos is a pretty hillside village with a lattice of narrow traditional streets and a monastery. It is also the home to an excellent little restaurant called “The Kanoi” where I had a delicious Moussaka and my lady had the best toastie on the island. The air up there is fresh and clean and the views on the drive up are spectacular. The pass from near Pafos is twisty and narrow in parts, the highway down to Limassol is fast.
Limassol has a long promenade that could almost be on the French Riviera (albeit with a little bit too much concrete and litter). There is a very pleasant park at the easterly end with lots of play facilities, they also let small children hire electric cars to drive around the paths, which they proceed to crash into everything in sight! Watch your ankles. Walking back into town there are two main shopping streets which intersect. Agiou Andreou has some interesting and unusual boutiques towards the eastern end (which is also incredibly untidy, the glamorous stores rub shoulders with vacant properties and building sites). The pedestrianised area is full of tourist trap stores selling dodgy lace and “branded” goods. Anexartisias has most of the mass market stores and seems a popular place for young Cypriots to be seen.
Not-so-high-as-the-guides-would-have-you-believe-lights
In old Paphos itself, the harbour is a pleasant place for a walk although the cafes are over-touristed. Nearby is a proper supermarket, a Debenhams and a Peacocks, although the local tourist supermarkets are not overpriced. Take the 11 bus from the tourist area (€1.20 one way) They are in the process of pedestrianising more of the front and laying a coastal path all the way to the hotel district which is another pleasant walk - very popular with buggies!
The archaelogical site in old Paphos does have some impressive floor mosaics but personally speaking I had seen enough antiquities by the age of 15 to have lost any sense of wonder at them. I also have doubts about how original some of the sites are, some mosaics and also the fort do appear to have been reconstructed a bit more than the information suggests. Also it is no longer free on Sundays, despite what your tourist guide might say.
The number 15 bus (€1.35 one way) takes you up to Coral Bay. This is a nice bay with a small amount of sandy beach and a few hotels. There is only one restaurant which is reasonably priced for drinks and toasted sandwiches outside and seems to do a good trade in fish inside. I should point out that the bus stop is at the top of the car park, beyond the barrier, we waited at the bottom and missed the bus back!
A confession…
I drafted this post almost two months ago and forgot about it - maybe some of this info is already out of date! Anyway, to sum up, Cyprus has hot weather but much of it has been spoiled by holiday developments for UK punters. My grandparents sed to holiday in Limassol 20 years ago - I would love to be able to see what Cyprus was like then…
