First of all, I just want to put it out there that I paid for our holiday to the Vrissaki Beach Hotel and until I got home and thought about what a great time we’d had, I had no intention of reviewing our stay or the hotel itself so this might seem like a bit of an odd review as I probably don’t have photos to match everything that I’m going to say! 😉
(Can you tell I’m not a travel blogger?)
We booked our holiday to the Vrissaki Beach Hotel in Protaras through First Choice holidays and paid £546 in total for the two of us for four nights. I didn’t specifically want to go to Cyprus but this was by far the best deal I could find so we went for it.
Nothing seemed like too much trouble for the staff at the Vrissaki Beach Hotel, starting with check in where we were greeted with a welcoming smile and asked how our journey had been. By the time we’d thanked the lovely lady on reception and explained that we’d had a very smooth journey, she was handing over our room key and a quick form to sign. We were literally sat on the bed in our room within five minutes of our bags being unloaded from the coach which was much quicker than on previous holidays and a great indication of what the rest of our stay would be like.
The room itself was amazing (I may use that word a lot in this post) and was about double the size of some hotel rooms that we’ve stayed in previously. There was a dressing gown and a pair of slippers each in the wardrobe waiting for us and a beach towel each on the end of the beds. The room itself had two beds, a small table and chairs, a TV, a hairdryer, a fridge and a safe as well as tea and coffee making facilities and lots and lots of storage space in the huge wardrobe (you had to leave a deposit at reception to use the fridge and the safe I believe). You can also hire an iron as well but we didn’t bother so I’m not sure how much it was.
The view from the room was simply breathtaking and the balcony was huge with enough space for two sunbeds and a table with two chairs….
Another selling point of the room was the air conditioning which was the best I’ve ever experienced in any hotel – despite temperatures in the high 20’s and sometimes early 30’s, it never once felt warm in our room. It was cool and a welcome relief from the heat of outside.
WiFi is an essential part of any teenager’s holiday and it worked out at 5 Euros a day which is more than I would have liked to pay but less than I’ve seen in many other hotels. We looked this charge up in advance so Miss Frugal could save her own money for this though as I told her I wouldn’t pay for her to ignore me and talk to her friends. As it was, she did brilliantly and was hardly on her phone other than when I was busy relaxing!
You can see from the above photo what the pool area at the Vrissaki Beach Hotel looks like but the picture doesn’t show you just how clean it is – there is someone tidying up all the time and there was never any mess the whole time we were there. There is one umbrella for every two sunbeds and for a 5 Euro deposit you can actually reserve the sunbeds you want for the whole time you’re there!
There’s a pool bar where you can get drinks, slushies and ice cream from through the day (all included in the all inclusive) and also the Bikini bar which you can just make out in the top left of the photo. The Bikini bar is separated from the beach by a boardwalk about two metres wide and serves the buffet lunch and the snacks throughout the day. As part of the all inclusive package at the Vrissaki Beach Hotel you can get cheeseburger and chips, various pasta dishes, a salad or our personal favourite – a ham and cheese toastie.
I loved sitting in the comfy seats in the Bikini bar while Miss Frugal played on the beach within talking distance! Just look how close we were….
The food was lovely although Miss Frugal, who’s normally a good eater, couldn’t find things she liked on two of the four nights so it’s probably not great for picky eaters. In the past, with Master Frugal on holiday we’ve relied on there being some English style dishes and chips as a last resort if there was nothing he fancied but he would have eaten nothing here on a night. It’s not a huge deal though as the snack bar served food he would have happily eaten so we would have got his tea from there a little earlier and he could have topped up on the lovely fruit and cakes they had for pudding while we ate.
I will say that the food hygiene at the Vrissaki Beach Hotel was second to none with a glass window looking into the kitchen, someone frequently checking temperatures of the food and during quiet times, the food was even covered.
The Vrissaki Beach Hotel also has a spa, an indoor pool and a small gym – I can’t really say much about these facilities as we only used the indoor pool once due to the fact it was on a par with an ice bath! The spa and the gym usually had someone in there when we wandered past though so they must have been OK. 😉
Entertainment wise, it was very quiet but that’s what we were after so it was perfect for us. I’m not sure if there’ll be more entertainment throughout the Summer months but there was nothing on while we were there other than a man and his guitar singing Greek music one night at dinner. The hotel is in such a great location, about two minutes walk from the main strip in Protaras that we always went for a wander after tea so any entertainment would have been wasted on us but I thought I’d mention in in case you were looking for one of those all singing, all dancing all inclusive complexes.
To me, the Vrissaki Beach Hotel is a great hotel in a great location for a great price and I couldn’t recommend it highly enough!
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