Salamis Bay Conti Hotel Review - 13 of 44 Reviews

We stayed here for 9 days in May 2010. We'd read all the reviews before we went, and therefore weren't expecting too much from the hotel, but we were after a quiet getaway so it suited us just fine. It's advertised as 5-star, but that's not UK 5-star, I'd say it was more like a 3-star by UK standards.

The first few days we were there, the hotel wasn't fully open (I think we went before the real start of the season) and they were still doing some maintenance work, but nothing that caused us any disruption or did anything to detract from our holiday. It did mean though that not all of the facilities (such as the snack bar down by the beach) were open; the outdoor bar area by the pool opened while we were there.

Some of the reviews we read before we left said the hotel was dirty, and the beach wasn't kept very clean, but I have to say we didn't find this to be true at all. Yes, if you went off the hotel part of the beach and into the public areas, there was some flotsam and jetsam lying about, some of it q bit unsavoury, but the hotel kept it's own area very clean - raking it daily and cleaning the bins two or three times a day, even in May!

The staff were quite helpful, although some of them spoke very little english, which was difficult at times but we generally managed to make ourselves understood.

We had a room on the 4th floor of the hotel, with a balcony that looked out over the top of the reception area and the casino next door. The room itself was reasonably spacious, and had it's own minibar fridge. It's best to avoid using anything from the fridge, as it's very expensive (as an example, a 500ml bottle of water was 2TL, a 330ml tin of EFES was about 9TL, and a small can of red bull was 15TL) but they don't mind you putting your own drinks in there, as long as you put everything back in the fridge before you leave.

While we were there, there was a wedding reception which was a bit noisy and carried on until about 1am, but generally it was quite quiet. They also had some entertainment on one night - again we could hear it from our room but it finished before midnight so again not much of a problem, even if you have kids.

There are a couple of bars on the beach, a couple of restaurants on the main road, and a mini-market across the road, but other than that, there's not much going on in the immediate area. We walked down to the ruins of roman Salamis one day (be warned, if you walk down the beach it'll take longer than you expect! We forgot how slow it can be walking through sand!) and could easily have spent a day looking around there and spotting lizards. There is a free shuttle bus into Famagusta each day which leaves the hotel around 10 and comes back around 1:30 - we used that a couple of times and had a wander round Famagusta. We were considering hiring a car, but didn't in the end - we would highly recommend that you should though, and will definitely do so ourselves if we go back there.

Food... we went half board. All meals are served buffet-style, so basically you just help yourself to as much or as little as you like! The only things you have to pay for are any drinks you have with dinner, or any extras you order yourself. The food was generally ok - but as so often, never really served piping hot. Most of the time it was lukewarm - but I don't think that was unusual for cyprus and we expected it!

If you are looking for a hotel where there is a lot to do 'around' the hotel, Salamis Bay Conti is probably not the best place to go. If, on the other hand, you are looking for a quiet place to stay, away from the madding crowds, then you should be just fine. We would consider going back again, anyway.

Liked — peace and quiet
Disliked — food could have been hotter!

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