Bellapais Monastery Village Review - 6 of 65 Reviews

My partner and I recently got married after finishing our degree courses and buying a new house. As the move was pretty expensive we only had a very short honeymoon and thought now was a good time to book a deal and come away to make up for it. Our travel agent suggested the Bellapais Monastery Village as a good place for couples to stay and after a little price haggling we bagged a great package deal. My partner had visited Cyprus before but this would be my first trip out. First impressions of Kyrenia were that it was a little quiet and not at all like a holiday destination but we reserved judgment anyhow.

We arrived at the hotel and were quickly shown to our rooms. The staff didn't seem to busy but they weren't very friendly either. Right away we had a problem with our room. The beds were two singles and not a double, but after pointing out it wasn't what we'd booked, they moved us to a larger room with a double, although without an apology! We were told this was a 5 star hotel by British standards but I'm not sure that's entirely accurate and was more like a sales line from the travel agents.

It turned out very lucky that we both are in good shape as the hotel is absolutely covered in steep steps. Literally everywhere you want to go is either up or down a long winding set of stone steps. I wonder how many elderly or infirm people come out here without realising, we certainly weren't warned beforehand.

Thankfully the restaurant staff were happier and more pleasant than the reception staff and actually made the effort to smile at the customers. Although the food was very British (lots of greasy egg and bacon) we expected as much and intended to sample the local food on the evenings. What we didn't expect was that we'd need a taxi to get into town every night. The Bellapais was quite isolated, which we didn't mind so much, but for somebody with a family of children, this place would have been a nightmare! All in all we enjoyed our stay, but owing more to the fact we were here to relax rather than actually do much, otherwise we'd have had problems.

Liked — warm weather, quiet complex
Disliked — Steps, away from the amenities

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