Mare Paphos — Hotel in Κοινότητα Κισσόνεργας

My partner and I stayed here for our honeymoon. While we had a lovely time overall and really appreciated many aspects of the hotel, there are quite a few areas that fell short of a 5-star experience.

Positives: • Staff: The majority of the staff were incredible – warm, attentive, and a true credit to the hotel. Martina from the lounge bar and David at the coffee shop deserve special recognition. Martina was so welcoming and made every evening feel special with her service and cocktails, while David remembered our orders • Arrival: Being offered champagne on arrival for our honeymoon was a thoughtful touch, and the buggy ride to our room was very welcome after a long day of travelling. • Rooms: Modern, comfortable, and well-equipped with a large bath, ironing board, hairdryer, and good air conditioning. Beds were comfy, though the pillows felt like water gel pads, which wasn’t ideal. The bathroom was sleek, although I found the rainfall showerhead impractical for washing my hair. • Food & Drink: The food at the adult pool and main pool bars was consistently delicious – in fact, much tastier than the buffet, which was disappointing given the 5-star status. The tavern snack bar was also a standout, and the coffee shop across from the buffet served excellent coffee (though some food there was stale). Drinks were best from the coffee bar and main pool bar. • Pools: The pool water temperature was perfect, and the adult pool was kept cleaner than the main one. • Extras: The hotel provides a hairdryer, iron, and ironing board, which was helpful. Coral Beach is also only a 9-minute taxi ride away, so you can easily spend time at a real beach. • Ambience: Lots of sweet stray cats around the grounds, which we loved.

Negatives: • Transport: Getting around was one of the biggest challenges. Bolt taxis were unreliable, and we were left stranded a few times due to no availability. Since there’s very little to do in the immediate area, this was a real downside for a honeymoon when we wanted to explore. • Facilities: There’s no beach at the hotel itself, only a rocky area with loungers. There’s also no room service, and service around the pool was very limited. • Sunbeds: The fight for sunbeds each morning was exhausting. Guests rushed out at 8am to reserve them, and by the time you’d had breakfast there were none left. The adult pool had slightly more availability. Paying €80 per person for “premium” beds was not worth it – they were stained, mouldy, and felt unhygienic. Most standard sunbeds were ripped and flimsy, which is unacceptable for a hotel of this rating. Overall, the hotel feels overcrowded for its capacity, and the sunbed issue really affected our experience. • Pools & Cleanliness: The adult pool was clean, but the main pool was less so. We even saw people spitting in the water and overheard conversations about urinating in the pool Also, the pool closes at 6pm, which feels far too early. • Food: While poolside food was excellent, the buffet was disappointing. It was repetitive, not well labelled (only allergens, no clear indication of vegetarian/vegan options), and most hot items tasted like fish due to being cooked in the same pans. As a vegetarian, this caused me a lot of anxiety. There were no plant-based proteins like Quorn or tofu. Themed nights added a little variety, but even then, it was limited. • Maintenance: Our door lock didn’t work for two days, and despite reporting it multiple times, we were met with disbelief by the maintenance man until he saw it himself. This meant leaving our room unlocked while out – very stressful on honeymoon. The TV also kept cutting out and turning on and off by itself. • Reception: Service was hit and miss. Some receptionists were polite and helpful, while others seemed uninterested or judgmental when we raised issues, often asking us to “come back tomorrow.” We were also told we’d been upgraded to a sea view room, which wasn’t true, leaving us feeling misled. • Entertainment: Geared almost entirely towards children – great for families, but not ideal...

We have stayed at this hotel in July - 2 adults, 1 child (3years old). Overall we had a lovely holiday but I personally feel like some improvements would make it better. We are frequent travellers and we just missed a few of these minor details, which we’ve enjoyed in other hotels.

First the good stuff: Kids club! I can’t explain enough how amazing the ladies working there are. They were helpful, kind, caring, creative and entertaining. Kiran misses kids club and keeps asking us every day to go back! Purely on the kids club basis we would be highly likely to stay at this hotel again. The Kids club also runs the evening entertainment for children, which was truly magnificent! The mini disco was fun, energetic and not repetitive as they tend to be in other hotels. It was always followed by a show or some other form of entertainment for kids. Our little one loved it! You do need to book a day in advance but we’ve never had any issues with getting a space! Even on our first day we’ve managed to get the space for the afternoon. It also helps that the staff are multilingual - making the communication between children easier as well as making the children feel comfortable and welcome. Every single member of staff at the kids club deserves a big shout out! Food - food was honestly great! We are vegetarian and we were never left hungry. The breakfast did get a little bit repetitive but lunch and dinner were amazing. Probably one of the best foods we’ve had at an all inclusive resort. Big thank you to Daria and Paulina from the main restaurant! Always helpful and kind! Rooms - cleaners were very dedicated to their work! The room was always left spotless. Rooms are modern and very nice just like the rest of the hotel grounds. Location - great location! Bus stops are directly outside the hotel! Lifeguards - this is the first hotel where we’ve seen that many life guards at each pool and they have really been vigilant. Staff - friendly and always helpful! Drinks - very generous, strong and a wide choice of drinks available.

Now room for improvement: No minibar in the room - we’ve really missed having a minibar in our room. It would really help having some soft drinks at least not just a water bottle. Water - as a family of 3, during our 7 night stay we were only given 3 water bottles which was a bit of a let down. We saw people refilling their bottles so I assume it was the same situation for other guests as well. The sunbed situation - honestly it was just hideous… I know that the hotel is trying to control that and that’s mainly the fault of the guests but to see grown adults line up and then host their own private rat race for the sunbeds is a little off-putting. We avoided that area and stuck to the aqua park area where they had plenty of sunbeds. The main pool was so overcrowded that it lack any privacy. On our arrival, we were handed the key and instructed on how to get to the room. There was no one who took us there or helped with the bags which was the first time we’ve encountered such approach to customers. We were also not offered a welcome drink, which is a first. All inclusive not being 24h - once the main restaurant is closed, there’s nowhere you can get food from which is a shame. It closes quite early as from what I remember it was 9pm when it closes. It would be nice if an area in the hotel was dedicated for late snack. When you arrive late they leave sandwiches, cake and apples in your room. However, the sandwiches they left in our room were ham&cheese and as I’ve previously stated we are vegetarian so we were left hungry on our first night. Evening entertainment for adults - we mainly used the kid’s entertainment which was AMAZING! But we did use the evening entertainment for adults on the last night and it was quite disappointing! The Bingo was good, I enjoyed that but the dance show we have watched afterwards was quite disappointing. I felt like I was watching a fitness class and not a dance...

An honest review. I’ll start with the positives. The hotel itself is in a great location & beautifully decorated. The rooms are lovely & the bed & pillows very comfortable. The majority of the staff were helpful though we did encounter some issues. We travelled as a party of 3 adults & booked the stay last minute. We arrived late on the Saturday evening (10.30pm) & were greeted with a juice or Prosecco which was very welcomed! Check in was swift & we were taken to our swim up room which was great, though would not recommend these rooms for people with walking difficulties as there are steep hills or steps. We asked if we could have something to eat as we’d been travelling all day. We were informed that as it was Cypriot Easter the restaurant was still open but it’s worth noting that in normal times it would of closed at 9.30pm so late travellers will not be able to eat. We had a snack in the restaurant & headed back to the room to unpack. We then headed to the bar for a quick drink before bed but were told that the all inclusive had stopped & any drinks we now wanted, even water, were chargeable. It would of been nice to of been told this at check in as I expect we’d of headed straight to the bar for some refreshments. The bad points - The food & house keeping really let this hotel down. The buffet restaurant food was often cold or luke warm at best, even at the very start of service. Breakfast variety was excellent but food cold or luke warm. Lunch & dinner, variety of food often the same or very random & we struggled to make a meal out of it. A lot of the meat dishes were cold & this led to us picking what we ate very carefully. The Cabana food is inedible, cheap & poor quality. The house keeping was terrible. We didn’t have our bed made or fresh sheets for our entire week long stay. We know our sheets weren’t changed as I had a mark on one of my pillow cases that remained there all week. Our room had hairs on the bed, towels & kettle area when we arrived but we brushed this off as we booked last minute & wondered if our room had been made in a hurry. However throughout our stay, not only did we not receive fresh bedding or have the beds made, our room was NOT cleaned. Hair & dirt on the floors, around the toilet & shower. One day our floor was mopped, but this left the room smelling of wet dog. Not only did the maid not service our room, but she was incredibly rude & unfriendly. I have never stayed at a 5* hotel & not even simply had the bed made. Thankfully we were provided with fresh towels and toilet roll each day, but that was it. One evening there was a used sick bowl sat on top of the bin outside the front of the hotel. The porter was out there the entire time & failed to report or do anything about this. My Mum went out again an hour later & the sick bowl, full of sick, was still sat on the bin. Disgusting. On our final day, someone had vomited behind the cabana hut. This is a well trafficked area with guests & staff so can’t see why this wasn’t promptly cordoned off & cleaned. We’d heard from other guests that sickness was circulating the hotel which explained the sick we encountered on 3 occasions. We raised our concerns with the maid & reception but there was a language barrier so we raised it with the TUI Rep who couldn’t of cared less. We left the hotel to eat out on 3 occasions despite paying for all inc. We booked late check out 1 week in advance & asked if we should pay upfront twice. We were told to pay at check out, but found ourselves locked out of our room on the day of departure, despite booking it until 6pm. We were told by the maid that we must “leave now!”, reception said we need to pay upfront, despite being told TWICE we did not need to. Poor & confusing communication, our cards were now locked in our room. We will not be returning as this is not a 5* hotel & not worth the money. We heard from other guests who had complained that management did not listen, so we have emailed TUI to...