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At October Half Term we were luck enough to spend 6 nights in Cyprus, 3 nights at the Amathus Beach Hotel and 3 nights at the Four Seasons Cyprus, both based on the beach front just outside Limassol.

The Amathus Beach Hotel is a luxury hotel that welcomes families with open arms. It describes itself as a “serene sanctuary of world-class comfort. A proud member of  Leading Hotels of the World this luxury design hotel offers a fabulous range of state of the art facilities, top notch services …. ensuring a holiday experience of world class luxury.”

We pulled up outside the hotel at around 6pm in our hire car (for which we cannot thank the service we received from Manos Cars enough – very personal and attentive and highly recommended ) and kind of exploded into the impressive quiet reception area. The porters unloaded our luggage and took the car keys off hubby to park the car, allowing us to all focus on the welcoming smiles and the fruit drink immediately provided by the very helpful staff at reception.

As we are a family of 5 there was no option for one room, five people meaning two rooms were needed, but for this we were grateful as we had two immaculate interconnecting rooms towards the back of the hotel.

Tip: If you are travelling as a family with young children I would recommend upgrading to a see view with a balcony. Not specifically for the view, although that is always nice, but to allow you to sit outside in the warm Cyprus evenings once you’ve put the kids to bed.

The rooms easily fit a very large King Sized bed and a sofa bed, together with a large TV, and huge bathroom. One of our rooms had a large shower area and the other a huge bath so we had the best of both worlds.

Tip: If you are only taking one room and you are travelling with young children who need a bath, mention this when booking.

After unpacking a little and the girls bouncing on the beds (sorry Amathus) we made our way down to the buffet restaurant La Terazza out the back of the hotel. Whilst we couldn’t see the view very well that evening we could tell it was a beautifully placed restaurant and you could hear the sea. It was Carvery night and we all settled down to some beautifully cooked roast meat and fabulous salads. The fabulous salads was a running theme throughout our stay.

We polished off a bottle of wine quite happily over dinner and whilst the kids found the playground, strategically placed in-between the children’s pool and children’s beach and we drank some cocktails whilst watching them create a play on the pirate ship!

And then we went for a little wander down the front and paddled in the sea!

We sloped off to bed at 10pm happy in the knowledge that that was actually only 8pm UK time, hoping they would sleep in til at least 8.30!

It must have been something about the Cypriot air but the mornings did start later and I think for the first time on a holiday ever, the kids woke up every day at a time starting with an eight! Winning.

Our second day began with a late start and an even later breakfast at 10am. Seriously unheard of for us, but the kids had been happy to potter in our rooms and we managed a very relaxing start.

The breakfast at Amathus Beach is served in the Kalypso restaurant on the lower ground floor and was incredible. More choice than any buffet breakfast I’ve ever experienced, with the ability to ask them for anything that wasn’t actually out. I honestly couldn’t think of anything that wasn’t there from porridge to champagne, smoked salmon to Nutella.

The counters in the Kalypso restaurant were low enough that my 6 and 5 year olds could help themselves to most items and they loved heading up to the buffet themselves to make toast, get more chocolate spread and pancakes and pour more juice. I love having my coffee topped up before I’d noticed I needed it and enjoyed a huge selection of fresh fruit followed by pancakes with maple syrup.

After breakfast it was pool time. The children’s pool at the Amathus Beach Hotel is small but it has two slides and those two slides entertained my kids for literally hours at a time. I was very impressed by the staff’s attention to the pool and the kids, not only learning my childrens’ names within hours, but supervising kids in the pool who were getting a little feisty and whose parents may not have been paying quite so much attention. Special mention has to go to Antolius for this.

 

Fab time on the water slides yesterday @amathuslimassol #cyprus #visitcyprus #familytravel

A video posted by Karen Beddow (@mini_travellers) on Oct 24, 2016 at 10:59pm PDT

Having had a late (huge) breakfast we didn’t bother with lunch that day but the children’s menu was available all day had it been required.

We spent a bit of time on the children’s beach which was very quiet particularly as it was half term, and we found sunbeds right at the sea edge.

By 2.30pm the kids were desperate to go and find out what the Pelican Kids club was like. The pull of face painting and mask making helped together with the knowledge that pizza making was at 4pm too. On arrival we had been given an activities timetable for the week so we could easily see when things would be on that the girls wanted to do. It was on 10.30am-1pm and 2pm-7pm every day, with additional evening shows on a couple of nights. Children had to be signed in and out regardless of age and this meant you knew they were safe. If they needed to get hold of you they just called you on your mobile to come and collect them.

One of the early evening activities was a magic show and the magician was excellent (slipping from Russian to English with ease) and entertaining the children and parents alike.

Tip: Times of the Pelican Club vary at different times of year. The Pelican Club is included for children up to 12 however the activities were perfect for our kids aged 5 and 6. Possibly aimed at this age group.

We ate at La Terazza all three nights of our stay at Amathus Beach for a number of reasons. We loved the location right near the playground. It was significantly cheaper than the other restaurants at the hotel and it also had live music on which the girls loved. Once they had eaten, or not eaten in the case of the evening after Pizza Making, they entertained us (and some of the other guests) with their dancing. Copying the artists with great enthusiasm. Cypriot night was a particular highlight and they loved copying the dance moves and watching the glass tower built on top of the dancers head! Move over Strictly competitors.

We thoroughly enjoyed the relaxed pace at the Amathus Beach Hotel and the kids went in and out of the Pelican Kids Club happily. Our days were mostly no more complicated than swimming, popping to the beach, playing on the slides and dipping in and out of the kids activities but it was the perfect mix. Combine this with the wonderful weather we were lucky enough to have during our stay high 20’s with a light breeze and it was a fantastic family stay. Easy to see why we heard people say they had returned year on year and why others we met were disappointed to be leaving after ten days.

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NB: We were provided with complimentary accommodation at Amathus Beach Hotel and some meals but all views and opinions are our own.