I'm an animal lover and share my house with my 5 rats (and my husband). My hobbies are learning lang...
I'm an animal lover and share my house with my 5 rats (and my husband). My hobbies are learning languages, tap dancing, figure skating, snowboarding and scuba diving.
Member since:02.02.2001
Reviews:30
Members who trust:11
Although I'd been through Limassol the last couple of times I visited Cyprus I'd never stayed there for a holiday. I have to be honest and say that it doesn't really compare with the beauty of Paphos or Protaras but I liked it anyway. Limassol (called Lemessos by the Cypriots) is the second largest town in Cyprus so, although there are a lot of nice bars, clubs and restaurants for the tourist it is principally a big, busy town with a large fishing docks where you can board luxury liners for short breaks to Egypt, Israel, and the Lebanon
at very reasonable prices.
Colin and I had decided that we would spend most of our time diving during this holiday and we intended visiting the wreck of the Zenobia which was only an hour's journey away in the town of Larnaca. Anyway, that’s another opinion.
The three of us (my mother was there too) had booked our holiday with Argos Holidays, to stay for 2 weeks at the Geo-Tanya Complex in the main tourist area of Potamos Yermasoyias, just outside the old town of Limassol. The Geo-Tanya Complex is made up of several different hotels and we ended up in the Tassiana 2, self-catering apartments, which didn’t have its own swimming pool. This meant we were obliged to go to the Geo Tanya Apartments across the road to use the pool. I don’t think this is explained very well in Argo’s brochure and we were a little disappointed on arrival at the hotel. However, the hotel staff were very nice and always willing to help so that kind of made up for things. We also had an amazingly large balcony, which was almost the size of the living area in our apartment (if you ever book up for the Tassiana 2 ask for room 26 – the rest have tiny balconies!)
We spent the first afternoon looking for a local agent to arrange our excursions with and found West End Travel beside the BP station on the main road which stretches the length of the resort of Limassol, just a few minutes walk from Woolworth’s. This agency is run by an English woman who sells all the excursions at 2 or 3 Cyprus Pounds cheaper than all the other agencies. She also has a shop in Paphos. We booked trips to the Troodos Mountains, The Baths of Aphrodite and Coral Bay, Nicosia, The Lefkothea Evening Cruise and the Watermania Waterpark all costing around £C6.50 (there are approx. 88 Cypriot Cents to the £1 sterling) except for the waterpark which cost £C10 for entrance only, and the evening cruise which cost £C17 including a buffet dinner. The Argos representative in our hotel was selling the trips for almost double what we paid and was using the same travel companies for the excursions as West End travel.
Our day out at the waterpark was amazing. I’d never been to a waterpark before and I wasn’t sure I would enjoy it but I didn’t want to leave. The waterpark is in the Fasouri area of Limassol, about 10 minutes away from the old part of town. It cost us £C8 each way for taxis. West End travel did an organised trip there twice a week for £C13.50 but unfortunately we couldn’t go on these particular days so we had to make our own way there.
The park has changing rooms, lockers, a gift shop and several eateries. The rides include a wave pool, large open slides you take an inflatable on (either singles, doubles or triples), a mat racer slide, the probowl and many others. The probowl is the weirdest one. You go down an enclosed tunnel at breakneck speed and are then hurled out into a bowl, which you slide round and then drop through a hole in the centre into a deep pool. I can only describe this sensation as similar to being flushed down a toilet! Meanwhile people can blast you with small water cannons from above. There are several aqua tube slides and I discovered that the best way of going down them on the inflatable is backwards. Sometimes you’re twisting round in the tubes so much you completely lose any sense of direction and feel as though you’re in the spin cycle of a washing machine. The whole place is just excellent for a day out. I wish we’d had the time to go again.
The Lefkothea Evening Cruise was another highlight of the holiday. The boat leaves the docks at 8.30pm and gently cruises round the coast of Limassol while you eat your buffet dinner in the lower decks. After that you go to the upper decks and are entertained by Anastassias, a singer who has appeared in the Eurovision Song Contest. He’s very good in a cheesy kind of way and looks a bit like Freddy Star but he really knows how to get the crowd going. Later on in the evening 2 Cypriot traditional dancers appear and get everybody up on the floor to have a go. You arrive back at the docks around 1am.
There are many good restaurants and pubs in the area of Limassol. Our favourite restaurants were the Lebanese one called the Semiramis, across from our hotel, and an Indian one called the Taj Mahal which was just 5 minutes walk from the main street. The best snack place we found was Donald’s, a small kebab shop, where you could get a really tasty chicken donner for £C1.80. The Stepps Irish bar was great as well.
Although I wouldn’t say Limassol was the nicest place I’d stayed in I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it as there is a great variety of things to do and it makes an excellent base as it’s very central to all the main tourist sites.
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Great review, I’m travelling there myself in May and will definitely be wanting to visit the water park after reading your review.
graham2002 05.09.2002 15:01
well done you have done your homework on limassol and i commend you for that many go on holiday and cannot remember anything . i am saying this to you as i lived in limassol for 18 years and worked in the hotel industry so my comment is not just hot air i think you wrote a good opinion.
belinda9 14.11.2001 21:01
Never yet been to Cyprus, but one day I hope to go.
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Oct 1st, 2001
very helpful by (100%):
