We paid £289 each + £30 each room upgrade for two weeks Mid April to Beg May, late morning and early evening flights, booked through Libra internet site in early February 04. (Wish more people would put what they paid, how and when they booked. If I could get it cheaper I want to know for the next time I look).

All future prices stated are CYP (Cyprus pounds), the £ sign is used to indicate this.

Hotel / Apartments and Ayia Napa

We were a little disappointed with previous posters who rated the accommodation as being very good. It is at best average. If you don't include the expensive hotels near Nissi beach you could claim the hotel relative to the other hotels is good.

The rooms were just so old. Thankfully the maids did a good job of keeping it clean, 5 times a week, but the bed sheets, towels, seating area appeared over used. The self catering claim is false, 2 hobs, a sink, a fridge and a few cutlery and crockery is a joke.

Another false claim was the number of occupancy, we were in a one bed apartment which should sleep 4 but there didn't appear enough space to comfortably sleep 4.

The hotel offers air conditioning, TV and a safe box all for a fee. We did not use the air con unit but we had the TV for a week at a cost of £8 which only had a few channels that appeared to change often. It did have BBC World, and Eurosport was on occasionally. The safe box we used at a cost of £8 per week. I found this charge particular distasteful, I could understand a deposit required and I can understand a charge for air con and TV that use electricity and have to be maintained but a charge for a safe is very tacky.

The situation of each apartment is ugly, with the exception of a few (we didn't get one) resulting in not favourable views from the balcony.

The location of the hotel is excellent. The hotel is a short walk to a route to the square (take left out of hotel), the route being a large number of bars, we only did this once at night and the majority of bars were empty (at midnight), the bars towards the square were much fuller but the atmosphere was a little intimidating with the endless number of touting. Heading right out of the hotel takes you onto Nissi Ave where you have the option of going left or right. Left takes you more into the centre, on this route there are a number of shops, pubs and restaurants that were very appealing. At the end of the road you then have the option to go up to the square (left) or right to the marina and beach, all the time having shops, bars and restaurants everywhere. Right at the end of hotel road takes you to the better beaches, along the road are again a number of shops, restaurants and bars. This road takes you to the more expensive hotels and the atmosphere is more family orientated with many more nationalities, again the majority of places were empty and we did not eat down this end but these places are far enough away from the real noise and only really ok if you've got kids or mature in years, otherwise you may feel the entertainment offered by some a little crass.

The problem with the Euronapa hotel is that it appeals to all ages of people. We went in April hoping the youngsters would not be there yet, but they were, thankfully not many in number but enough to often annoy you in the early hours of the morning. We were woken two or three times each night. Unfortunately we had the teenage couple from hell above us, stomping around and making their noise. Actually there was a week in between where there was no night time noise and we had decent sleeps. The heavy wooden doors make one hell of a bang for the discourteous guest.

The hotel pool and pool area was pleasant (especially when the youngsters weren't there), again full credit to the staff for keeping the area clean, there were enough sun lounges with nice padding and sun umbrellas. The situation of the pool was also good (ie all the pool area was in the sun all day). The pool bar was acceptable.

The hotel bar was ok, it looked newer than the rooms and had a large screen TV that often showed the football. There is a games area which is above pretension.

The people were mainly English with a few Irish and Dutch, there was the odd family where the kids were taken out of school (thankfully they were ok) the customary group of lads and smaller groups of lasses with the remaining majority being couples of all ages. If anyone has a Dutch school timetable can they let me have it, the Dutch were surprisingly very annoying, thankfully we only had to endure them for two days.

One of Ayia Napa's strengths has to be the beaches. Nissi beach is excellent, it is the best beach we have visited in Europe. It is pretty small so in mid season I can imagine the beach being crowded but it was just right when we were there. We visited it many times along with Macronisos which is pretty far out but quieter (there are some tombs here). There is an excellent walk from Macronisos to Nissi beach that goes through Lantra beach. The other Ayia Napa beaches were not in the same league as these beaches. The walk from the hotel was ok for us, we did it there and back once (the other days we had a car) but others may find it difficult in the heat.

The weather is what the weather is. During our visit it was mostly good, but most evenings required more than just a T-shirt.

The quality of food was remarkably good. Everything appeared to be fresh and that effort had been put into the preparation. This goes for all places we ate including the usually dreaded hotel food, but even this was acceptable. McDonalds was also the quality you would find at home. We ate out most nights, and our criteria for choosing a restaurant is how busy is it. We like them to be busy. Unfortunately some restaurants that looked nice had no people eating so we missed out. The cost was usually about £18 - £23 for two meals and wine. It was nice to see the wine was not marked up extortionately, about £4 - £7 a bottle. We found a good Greek taverna on Nissi Ave and tried some of their Greek food. We liked the Kleftico and Stifado, the meze was hit and miss. We thought the Greek Fetta cheese was good, but their Halloumi cheese not so good.

On the whole the prices were similar to home (although be careful in Larnaca airport, very expensive). Drinks Coke, Sprite etc and chocolates were a little more expensive in the shops but the alcohol in the bars was acceptable. Between £1.30 - £1.50 for a bottle of Keo or Leon (Keo is good, got a bit of a taste like Budweiser, Leon is light and tasteless a little like Rolling Rock) and between £2.00 - £2.50 for imported bottles. Cocktails are £2 - £3 with many places having half price happy hours.

Outside Ayia Napa

We hired a car for a week, not bad at £80 for an air conditioned Toyota corolla (it was old 65k k/hr and had a few dents, pre-booked on internet). Everyone appeared to have a hire car, we visited Cape Greco, Protaras (3 times), Pernera, Paralimni, Larnaca, Nicosia, Famagusta view and a small number of trips in Ayia Napa all on one tank of petrol.

Nicosia is worth the trip, only about an hour, hardly anyone on the motorway until we hit the A1 which leads to the capital, and then not many. Watch this road, we did it twice and I was surprised by the number of mobile speed cameras. Protaras was nice we would holiday here, nice beach (not as nice as Nissi and on a bit of a slope). Larnaca was a bit of a dump, beach was like muck.

Tour Operator

Yet again delayed both going out and coming back. Went with Libra this time instead of our usual cheap MY Travel and we weren't surprised to be delayed 5 1/2 hours going and 2 hours returning. Libra use Excel airlines which are on par with other tour operator airlines, the staff are generally pleasant and the crew are capable but you are still left with a feeling of having just shopped in Aldi. You promise yourself never again but when next time comes you're not prepared to spend the extra on what is no more than a glorified coach trip.

The plane journey going Excel Airways management vexed us to disbelief when our original 2 hour delay was increased to 5 1/2 hours while we were sat on the plane waiting for clearance, the airline choose to remove us from the aircraft so that this particular aircraft could be used to carry passengers from Gatwick to Egypt. Unbelievable! We were sat ready to take off to Cyprus and management decided to take us off our plane so that it could be flown to Gatwick (we were at Manchester) to carry passengers to Egypt. Excel arranged for a stand by Thomas Cook airline and crew to take us to Cyprus. You can read it again if you want. I wish I was privy to the information that resulted in such an unbelievable decision.

We spend hours of research arranging the best flight times with our holiday (were not the ones to accept early morning departures) and we never leave on time.

We don't generally interact with tour operators other than to ask which coach to get on to the hotel.

Conclusion

We would recommend Ayia Napa and even Protaras. We would recommend Euronapa for the youngsters (It will be luxury for you) and only in low season for other guests. The Euronapa won't see any investment anytime soon so will only get worse, but the employees do keep it clean. We don't recommend Libra since they use Excel Airways but would book with them again if the price differential to other tour operators made it worthwhile.

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Euro Napa Apartments - Ayia Napa

Operator and Date: (Sunset Discounts) Sunset Holidays - April 2004