Did anyone go to Cyprus this summer?

[mosschops30]

How bad was the heat??

I am looking for next years holiday, we normally go to majorca or menorca but its really overpriced for next year, however ive seen some lovely ones in Cyprus that are reasonable.
I love the heat, love lying out in the sun, but i dont want it to be so hot that we cant go out in it and enjoy it.

Has anyone beeni in July/August? And was it unbearable

Its meltingly hot in July and more so in August. All the hotels are set up sp well with poolside shade and constant air conditioning you stop noticing it really.

I didn't go this summer but I've been lots. It got extremely expensive after the euro was adopted and it put me off going. I even think that the flights are too expensive/not flexible enough.

My friend goes every year, with her dc.
She said it was about 40C much of the time.
She also said about it being expensive though.

I went this August and it was between 34 - 43 most days. Spent most of the time beside the shaded pool.

It wasn't cheap though. We stayed here

We went to Paphos in August this year. The coldest day we had was 36. The first couple of days we were there it was really humid but improved after that.

Dd had a ball. She went to club a few times to get away from the mid day heat. She was covered up with t-shirt and hat for several hours over mid day (as well as load of sun lotion) and didn't burn at all. Dh and I just concentrated on getting a good tan. Well I did, he played french boules, shuffleboard etc.

the hotel rooms all had air-con but you will find that some of the hotels don't turn the air-con on until about 9pm in the public areas.

Unless you want to go self-catering, i would go all inclusive as eating out in Cyrus can be very expensive at the moment. There are some really good deals around for all inclusive at the moment as you get the free kids places.

Try and get some where near the coast so that you get more of the "rare" breeze :)

trouble is most AI places are hotels, and there are 5 of us so that means paying for 2 rooms rather than just one apartment which is what we normally do and go SC.

We found Majorca very cheap this year, we were eating out for 4 of us with starters and mains and drinks for about 40 euros a time which we thought was very good

We went in August and had a lovely time. Our hotel was beautiful and fully air conditioned but we did find we couldn't do some of the excursions we wanted to do because it was just too hot for the kids to be wandering around.

It was 40oC pretty much every day we were there. We did do a waterpark and a boat trip which were both good fun but kept us cool.

Our hotel was expensive and supermarkets and we found eating out much cheaper.

We went to Cyprus for several years (Paphos) but as with Alouise we didn't this year as it has become so expensive since joining the Euro. Food and drinks are akin to GB prices, food in shops might even be a bit higher.

It is really really hot in the height of season July/August, one of the years I was there in a heatwave and it was well into the 40's.

I love the place though.

We went at the end of June and stayed in Paphos, just round the coast from the harbour before you get to the Tombs of the Kings. It was hot but not excessively so. We did our sightseeing first thing in the morning then had a siesta and sunbathed later in the afternoon, to avoid the hottest part of the day. We had a lovely time.

If you're a beach bunny then the north side of the island (not into Northern Cyprus) is lovely.

Along the harbour in Paphos most mains started at 11-12 euros. it was possible to get some deals for starters and mains but they were about 16 euros upwards. Not inclusing drinks.

There are some supermarkets in the centre of paphos that aren't too badly priced for food.

My friend always stays near Limassol as her in-laws live there. She said it was a bit more expensive to buy food this year but not ttoo bad if you want to do things such as a bbq.

Thomsons often offer cheap flights. This is what the animation team at our hotel always got as it was cheaper than some of the other airlines. Easyjey also fly there. You will find though that a lot of the flights arrive and leave fairly late at night.

Yes I noticed that most of the flights were late, why is that??? I dont do night flying so thats out the question if we cant get a day flight.
Im not cooking on holiday, we eat out every night.
Might need to look into the hotel thing then

I'm not long back from living in Cyprus and can confirm that the cost of living over there has rocketed. Many OAPs who sold up in UK to move over here are now going back because their pensions no longer keep them.

Eating out is very expensive, unless you chose what we called the 'living room cafes' in which you can get a basic meat meze for about ?10 a head. These places aren't in the tourist areas though, so you would have to travel.

We found it cheaper to book into hotels for the weekend and spend 48 hrs on the AI than to eat out! Used to be able to do that thru the Thomson Website for around £30 a day!

Car hire is quite expensive, about £50 a day and Cypriot drivers are terrifying!!

Cyprus Airlines is fab, better than any of the others we tried, but doesnt do cheap deals. Easy Jet is prob the cheapest, but again, not good timings.

Louis King Jason Apartments in Paphos is cheap and clean for SC (about £15 per night).

If you can afford it, then AI really is the way to go. Louis Phaethon Beach is cheap and clean for AI (and has some family rooms). St Georges (Paphos) is lovely, Crown Resorts Horizon (Paphos) very good and St Raphaels (Limassol) outstanding but all costly.

Oh and the heat is unbelieveable in the summer Jul/Aug - but you'll survive with UV suits, hats and plenty of sun screen if all you are doing is hotel or beach based - however dont expect to do trips etc, depending on the DC they will be pretty awful (we used to just keep DD inside between 11am and 3pm)

HTH

Hi mosschops,

I went to cyprus a few years ago and loved it. We stayed in Pernera Bay, just outside of Protaras.

It was very hot, above 40 every day.

It was also very very expensive.

I would go back but definately all inclusive.

Loved the viva menorca btw

We flew with thomsons. Landed at Paphos just before 9pm and were in our room at the hotel by 10pm. Got back to Gatwick on the way home about 12.30am. There was a later flight as well. I noticed though that the flights to the north and midlands were earlier in the day. Most of them were mid/late afternoon.

We stayed at the Louis Phaethon in Paphos. We had a great time but I know some people complained. But you get that everywhere. It is having a huge renovation this winter and a lot of people we met there are booking again for next summer. The rooms aren't huge but we hardly spent any time in them. We could get car hire though them and that was really reasonable. A lot cheaper than we have paid in Spain or Menorca.

There is also a first choice holiday village in Paphos-the Aliathon. They offer all options of accommodation and they use the Thomson flights so that may be an option if you want to go to that area.

We didn't do a lot of trips due to the heat and the fact we have been there before. Did the water park and the Under Sea Walkers experience. Others did the trip to Egypt and across the border. But dd preferred to be in the pool or on the beach.

we went in the middle of aug,the hottest weeks.it was unbearable to be honest,dd had heat rash and fungal infections because of heat.
we were eating out for about e15 a head,soft drinks only.
we were in a villa and found the weekly shop very expensive,e3.50 for 4 youghuts.the quality of meat is dismal over there,even the local butchers so we survived on tuna fish.we were 2 adults and 5 kids and spent about e500 a week on food.
take all toiletries,shampoo was e6.5 a bottle

geek glad you enjoyed the Viva, wish I could persuade dh to go back.

I have looked at the Louis King Jason actually its one of the ones Ive starred in the brochure.
TBH we dont really do trips, we like to chill out by the pool in the day then meal, kids disco and a few drinkies in the evening.
Only really do lunch in the apartment, never cooking

Louis King Jason is quite nice, BUT is at the bottom of the strip - so lots of rowdy revellers (which was fine when I was one - maybe not so much with a family!)

However rowdy revellers dont tend to go in Aug at the height of the season, so you may be OK!

The only thing that would put me off is the cost of eating out - but there are plenty of places, all within stumbling distance of the KJ (mmmm Fat Mamas Pasta ).

Dont remember a Kids Disco, but then I only went to that one out of season, and Louis Hotels do normaly have an animation team, so you could be OK.

Dont agree with the comment above about meat quality - we never had a problem, and found meat to be one of the only things that was a reasonable price (especially pork, which is goverment subsidised so around ?1 per giant dinosaur chop!).

Yes toiletries and sun creams are expensive - but surely you'd take them anyway?

What sort of budget do you think you will have? We've just managed a 2 week AI in Morocco for 2 adults 2 children for around £2K. Taking what you will spend on food and drinks into account, it may be cheaper to look at AI (not nec in Cyprus if you are concerned about the heat)

Budget of about 2.5k not including meals or drinks

Mosschops, if that's not including meals or drinks then the world is pretty much your oyster!

I would def look at AI in that case - looking now for next year (although we will have one less child) we have found Tunisia, Morocco, Turkey, Sharm and Cyprus, all for around the 2.5K mark

If you get out of the Eurozone your money will go much further. But if you are set on Cyprus the Louis Phaethon is a good bet in Paphos or the Atlantica Oasis in Limassol another.

Larnaca is up and coming and prices slightly lower, Northern Cyprus (Tukish Side) lots cheaper but more of a bugger to get to.

If you do see any hotels you fancy in Paphos or Limassol let me know the name and there is a good chance me or a friend have been there(!)