Aphrodite Hills Holiday Rentals, Kouklia

~The Resort~
The Intercontinental 5* Aphrodite Hills Resort is set in the rolling hills between Paphos and Limassol on the sun drenched island of Cyprus.
The hotel offers 290 rooms and suites in the stunning hotel many with own balconys, terraces and even private pools!
The rest of the Resort is made up of numerous apartments and villas with communal and private pools. The villas and apartments are all privately owned but are all still let-out around the resort.
The resort is surrounded by rolling hills and golf course. There are many activities at the resort for all the family including golf, horse riding, tennis, mountain biking and a spa for those pamper moments. Being in Cyprus it is of course not far away from a beach and with a name like Aphrodite Hills it is very close to the birth place of Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of Love, very fitting location for our honeymoon then!!
There is a good range of individual restaurants at the ‘Village Square’ offering food from all around the world and local cuisine to choose from with 8 restaurants/eating houses and a Costa Coffee!

~Our Stay~

We stayed in one of the 1 bedroom self-catering apartments the resort has to offer for 2 nights at the end of our honeymoon, as the villa we were staying in was only for 5 nights and we fancied a change and maybe be pampered. We were quite a way from the village square but in the balmy evening air its never too far to have a romantic saunter to dinner – and back!
The check-in was somewhat annoying! When we arrived at 1pm after eventually finding the rentals desk which was hidden at the top of the golf pro shop (a logical place for it of course!) we were greeted by a sign saying they were away from the desk and with clients. So we went for some lunch in the golf club restaurant, delicious club sandwich and massive portions for the money (thumbs up!) we spun out over an hour eating and returned to the desk at gone 2pm to find the sign still there and no-one in sight.
Not wanting to be grumpy holiday makers we went to get an ice cream and a costa while we wrote our postcards in the hope the illusive person might return to the desk so we could get our keys.
Another hour went by and we returned to the desk to find the sign STILL there!! At this point we were getting a little fed up as we wanted to get into our apartment and go for a swim. Eventually someone who appeared to be a cleaner emerged from the staff door to the desk, whom I add I promptly collared for attention. Only to discover someone was sat in the back office all the time!! Not helpful for putting your guests in a good mood unfortunately.
We were eventually shown where our apartment was by a man in a white van.

Our apartment, on the first floor, had panoramic views up to the Troodos hills (and the wind farm) all the way down to the coast and the airport in the far distance.

Being on the Intercontinental resort we were expecting the height of luxury in the apartment as well even though we were remote from the hotel. We had our own parking space in the beautifully kept grounds, in keeping with the whole resort, which was opposite the entrance stairs to our apartment. We were shown to our apartment by a very helpful member of staff who also spoke excellent English, which was good as we know no Greek! As he walked us up to our apartment we were overwhelmed by the view which you couldn’t see from the car park. When we got into the apartment we were sadly quite disappointed. It was sparsely furnished and very basic – something you would expect from Butlins or Centre Parcs. The bed was worse than what was at Centre Parcs!
On the plus side it was very clean and they left a welcome pack of washing-up liquid, dish cloth and 2 washing machine tablets which are essential in a hot country! The washing machine worked a treat but again let down by the fact there was nothing to dry the clothes on other than over the back of plastic chairs on the balcony, one of which was broken.
There was also a very annoying drip coming off the roof onto the balcony. We suspect it was the air-conditioning unit but we could hear it drip drop all night long!
The kitchen was very well equipped except for utensils and there was only 2 mugs.

The TV was adequate however it stated in the manual there was a DVD player and international TV channels….not! instead we had local Cypriot TV to entertain us and no DVD player.

The first night we cooked for ourselves and the kitchen was useable with a very effective oven and massive fridge perfect for all the booze!

Being in Cyprus we were aware of the, excuse the crudeness, no loo roll flushing rules which apply in many places on the island which we found very hard and not hygienic in the slightest. Since we were staying at such an expensive and plush hotel resort we were in the hope that would not apply, which of course it did!

The second night we decided to have a treat and eat out. Loving Chinese food we opted for the Asian Corner Restaurant where the food was utterly delicious. We have eaten at many Chinese restaurants and take-aways in our time but Asian Corner was the best we have ever had. I was sadly let down when it came to desert as they only had banana left, which I don’t like, but they offered deserts from all the other restaurants on the resort, I had tiramisu if you must know! The menu was all quite pricey but well worth it as a special treat.

We didn’t get chance to try any of the activities, not even the swimming pool in the end, but they looked very good and well organised.

The only free wifi is available in the Village Square and once out of the range there is no other wifi service. We saw we could buy dongles for 60euro a week.

We paid 140euro a night for the apartment through Laterooms.com which was apparently on offer. This we considered to be a little on the steep for the apartment which was barely furnished, things missing, an annoying drip and having to bin our used loo roll!!

If you decide to book the Aphrodite Hill Resort I strongly recommend a car just for getting around the resort and in the notes for the villas you are also strongly advised to hire a car and the resort is miles.

We probably wont be returning to the Intercontinental Aphrodite Hills Resort but if we do then we will book into the hotel and not the self-catering apartments again.

~How to get there~

We flew to Cyprus with EasyJet from Gatwick and flew into Paphos airport and hired a car through Sixt car hire.
The hotel is about 20 mins from the airport

~The address and contact them~

The hotel is at 3, Aphrodite Avenue, Kouklia 8509, P.O. Box 62769, 8072 Paphos, Cyprus
Telephone +357 26 828000

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Thanks for reading and rating my review of the Intercontinental Aphrodite Hills Resort. I hope you found it useful in planning your next holiday.

~Naomi~