Athena Royal Beach, Paphos

Author's product rating:   

Value for Money	Good
Quality of Rooms	Average
Standard of Service	Excellent
Quality of Facilities	Excellent

Advantages:	beautiful, great choice, calming
Disadvantages:	rooms a little small

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

This hotel had everything we wanted for our honeymoon we were extremely impressed!

We booked this hotel as, after looking through so many brochures and reading many reviews, we decided that this one had the most positives about it and we weren't disappointed!

The hotel is in Paphos, Cyprus, but is not right in the centre of the resort. It is on the main road from the resort but set back a bit and on the beach so we weren't at all affected by the noise of traffic- which is nothing like in England any way! It is about a 10 minute walk along the sea front to the centre of the resort and only a few minutes from a few bars and restaurants so it is ideally situated if you want a quiet place but within easy reach of the facilities of the resort.

The hotel itself offers many facilities including a gym, beauty treatment room, conference facilities, a mini 'cinema', gift shop, 3 places to eat, entertainment in the evening, direct access to the beach, huge swimming pool and more.

There was never any problems with there being enough sun loungers, there were always plenty which is rare as other hotels I've stayed at you have to be quick to get one! But here there are many and they're not all around the pool they are spread out across the lawns which are extremely tidy and well kept.

Food at this hotel is amazing. We could not fault it at all. Breakfast was a buffet style but unlike what we've experienced before, you can have freshly made omlettes and pancakes and bacon is fresh too. They have freshly baked breads out of all different kinds. Every morning I had about 4 courses for breakfast with cereals, crossiants, fried food and pancakes! Fresh orange you made yourself with the oranges and you could also be served some amazing chilled champagne! An excellent start to the day! You could eat your breakfast inside in the cool, clean restaurant, or you could sit outside underneath the balcony so that it was shaded or out on the patio in the morning sunshine! So much choice!

Day time meals were lovely with there being a pool side cafe bar which had a BBQ several times a week and offered the usual kind of lunch time foods such as sandwiches and kebabs!

Evening meals were fantastic! You Had the choice of two restaurants- a very intimate a la carte restaurant with rose petals on the table and personal waiter assigned to you or the general restaurant which was served in a buffet style but with a theme. We had two evening meals in our 10 day stay and wished we'd had more but we were often out and about in the evening. The themes we had were Italian and Greek. The Italian theme consisted of lots of pastas and pizzas and lasagne with a huge selection of different kinds including vegetarian which is very generous for the Cypriot culture followed by about five different desserts to choose from. The Greek night had lots of dips and salads followed by kebabs and some amazing chicken and again about 5 choices for dessert. This restaurant is upstairs, directly above the morning restaurant and you could either sit inside or outside on the balcony facing the sea.

The bedrooms were not large but had everything you wanted and were kept very clean. We paid extra to have a seaview and I'm glad we did as it was lovely to be able to hear the sea every morning when we woke up. The balcony was very small though and not very good for sitting around on as we felt it was always in the shade with the balcony above shading it a little. The ensuite bathroom was very clean and modern. We couldn't fault it at all. Rooms came with fresh fruit and a small bottle of the hotel's red wine which was a lovely touch.

The hotel staff were extremely friendly and polite. they speak little English which adds to the charm of this hotel. They were more than willing to go out of their way to help us and to ensure we enjoyed our stay. They made a poster and stuck balloons on our door once they knew it was our honeymoon!

In the evening the bar area has typical entertainment with caberet acts and dancers but they are very classy, not like what you'd get in blackpool that's for sure! The bar offers some great cocktails and the staff were extremely friendly and you also got a free bowl of nuts too! always good!

The other facilities such as the gym, cinema, beauty rooms we did not use but upon looking in they looked very clean, cool and the staff were very welcoming.

This was a brilliant hotel to stay in for our honeymoon as it had that edge to it which meant it was special- champagne for breakfast, overly helpful staff etc.

We would love to go back there if we could ever afford to again! It cost around £1,800 for 10 nights and bed and breakfast. This did also include our flight and transfer too. The evening meals were 30 euros each not including wine and cocktails at the bar were about 6 euros each which with todays exchange rate is similar to british prices.

The hotel is exclusively for adults and so if you do have children it's sister hotel further down the road- The Athena Beach Hotel- is the place to go for you!

This was an amazing place to go and I cannot praise it highly enough. Staff were more than willing tobend over backwards to help ensure our stay was as enjoyable as possible and the facilities were spotless.