CYPRUS 2019 - SEAN'S THOUGHTS
St Patrick's Week and May Trips
One of the questions that I have been asked more than any other over my 40 odd years in the business is my favourite destination and I would have to say that the Athena beach in Cyprus and all that revolves around it probably is one of them.
It is a really lovely hotel right on the beach, the service right from the boss Aristos down to every waiter and every Barman is outstanding, it really is terrific. The location is just bang on - one side you have the sea when you walk out the front door and you can within 15 minutes stroll be in the Paphos Harbour. Literally 7 or 8 minutes away is a very good very pleasant Irish bar and between the hotel and the Irish bar you will pass about 8 restaurants of varying ethnicity and quality - everything from Seafood to Chinese to value steak to French and in fact a quite outstanding South African steak house. So one of my feelings about the place is that I tend to prefer half board rather than the all inclusive simply because you can enjoy the hotel and also get out and have a look around.
Cyprus is a hugely interesting Island - history goes back centuries and we do an optional trip of the island which I would strongly recommend to everybody - we are guided of course and we visit a number of locations all over the place and we finish up at an oldy worldy village where we enjoy a terrific lunch, fortified by significant and substantial portions of the local wine. This is a really super day out which costs something like €40 or €50 and I heartily and very strongly recommended it to everybody as it really is terrific.
This brings me to the final aspect which is golf. We played Aphrodite Hills many years ago, of course there were no flights to Cyprus for about 6 years so we just had to stop going there because of the difficulty of access but Aphrodite is very spectacular, Minthis Hills not quite so much so but an extremely friendly place to go to and finally Elea which to me is one of the best golf courses in Europe -designed by Nick Faldo it is immaculately kept absolutely beautiful and for those of you (and I think there may well be a few) who elect to make it an 11 day trip this will be your golf course to play twice. It really is quite superb only 15 minutes from the hotel (as all the golf courses are) – everything really is very accessible once you get there. Yes it is a long flight (four and a half hours) if you consider that the hotel is only 15 minutes from the airport, this does take the real harm out of it.
I love the place and I’m sure you will enjoy it whether you go in March or in May - Weather is promises to be great and we will have a wonderful time - I personally look forward to it!
