A Room with a View, please
1 October 2009
I spent August sitting at home in London, joining many in this year’s cult experience of a ‘staycation’ – aka ‘too broke to travel’. By September I was gnawing my passport in desperation to get on a plane, anywhere not further than 5 hours with sun at the end of the journey. So when a kind invitation to visit The Thalassa in Cyprus presented itself I gratefully accepted.
The only other time I had been to Cyprus was on an unfortunate VIP visit a few years ago to visit the larger five star hotel The Annassa. The entire trip was disastrous due to bad weather, not helped by the hotel’s moronic salespersonwho booked us to fly into Larnaca instead of Pathos. This resulted in a three hour drive where the bus driver insisted on stopping at various scenic points each time to show us Aphrodite’s birthplace (was she reborn three times?). I like The Annassa but it was never embedded in my memory as somewhere I longed to return to. I hoped therefore that The Thalassa, the Greek word for “sea”, would improve my impression of the island.
It’s a boutique hotel with stunning views if you get the right room (some overlook the carpark) and good attention to detail. It claims to redefine service standards in the East Mediterranean Region and certainly we were well looked after. The Spa, which is the first holistic spa in Cyprus, was quite basic but nonetheless welcoming, and the staff were friendly and efficient. The hotel is located on a small peninsula overlooking and adjacent to Coral Bay, a stretch of approximately 1 km of beach. The sea below the hotel was incredibly clean and warm to swim in, whenever I bothered to leave my poolside sunbed. My favourite feature of all was the perfect silence of the child free policy (actually they can come and stay after the age of 12 when presumably most parents have taught them how to behave). For a quick week stay in the sun after a crappy English summer it ticked the boxes.
Classic Collection Holidays (Tel: 0800 294 9312) offers seven nights at Thalassa Boutique Hotel & Spa from £997 per person, based on two sharing on a bed & breakfast basis, including return flights and private transfers.
- Kate Lenahan is FQR’s travel editor
October 30th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
I learned a new word. “child free policy”. bah.