NissiBlu Beach Resort — Hotel in Ayia Napa

Amongst all the hotels I've visited, NissiBlu unequivocally and firmly takes the spot as the finest one I've so far had the pleasure to reside in. The hotel is in a very fine spot, just next to the famous Nissi beach (hence the name), and boasts some absolutely stunning views from its rooms and their balconies, as well as the hotel restaurant. The beach itself is just a 5 minute walk away. Downtown Ayia Nappa can be reached by walking in a straight lane in around half an hour, or, if you're feeling lazy, you can just grab a bus and reach downtown in 10-15 minutes. So, it's in a real sweet spot, close to a wonderful beach and not too far from the crazy and bustling downtown, but also decently far away so as to not be disturbed by the loud noises and lights that emanate from the vivacious centre. I must very selectively describe the hotel as high tech. The wi-fi is absolutely flawless, and covers the entirety of the hotel area. Sometimes, we even caught its wi-fi at the beach, but it wasn't consistent. The rooms are equipped with small touchscreen panels that control the lighting (including a night light), the air condition, and signals to the maids (not to be disturbed / please clean the room). And all the rooms also have a smart TV with a special home screen that displays information about the hotel, places of interest in Ayia Nappa, your hotel bills and, of course, regular TV channels and Youtube, Netflix etc. As for the staff, I must particularly commend them for their tireless daily efforts to keep the hotel absolutely spotless. The hygiene was 15/10 (I'm not exaggerating). And, indeed, the staff are all fluent in at least English, but frequently in other languages as well. You can check which language a staff member speaks by observing which flags are exhibited on their name tags. Don't be surprised to see 3-4 flags displayed regularly. Naturally, of course, they are also extremely polite and patient. I've witnessed some guests behaving in very, shall we say, childish and bratty ways. The staff kept their cool and remained calm and polite. Truly commendable (the staff, not the spoiled guests). The hotel boasts two pools, one of which is outdoors, the other one is indoors. The outdoor pool has a bar, and there is a restaurant by the pool where you can get food to enjoy by the water. No eating and drinking in the pool though (needless to say). The indoor pool is, in my personal opinion, particularly amazing. The water is much colder, but more noteworthy is the ambience! Not only do you hear the sounds bustling of water (from the nearby artificial waterfalls), but they also play relaxing zen music, since you also have beds by the pool. It is a wonderful spot to take a very refreshing and pleasant nap. The food is also something very much worth mentioning. There is a huge selection of very high-quality food and drinks at your disposal. So much so that I had a bit of an issue choosing what to eat, so I regularly took bits of various dishes. And, every dinner has a different theme, so it's never stale and boring! We never attended, but we did notice that there are entertainers by the pool during the day, if that's something that interests you. And, every night, the hotel hires different musicians and/or dancers to charm the guests. And, I think they were quite popular, we saw a lot of people enjoying their performances. I personally enjoyed the belly dancers, but my wife didn't approve, so I didn't get to enjoy that too much, sadly. :) If I had to try really hard to find some faults with the hotel, here's what I could say (and this would be stretching it): 1.) The showers had somewhat weak water pressure. Maybe I'm just used to strong water pressure though. 2.) We got separated beds, which is a bit unfortunate if you're a couple, for multiple reasons. And, we heard you can ask the staff to change the beds, but honestly, it seemed a bit too much to ask for that, we didn't want to bother anyone with that. 3.) The food was too delicious, I may have gained some weight. =( So, is the hotel good? No, it's...

I have been many times in worlds different resorts and this one is more like 3 European stars but not 5.

Rooms: 5/5 Very new and clean rooms. Hotel have a very good interior design all over the facility. It really does look very appealing and picture perfect! We got very nice room with partial ocean view (we paid for it). But it was very private because it was in the angle that you cant see neighbors. Rooms very really great!

Gym & spa: 3/5 Gym is very nicely equipped. I was surprised to see it was busy many times. But it was enough place for everyone. Also towels and water were provided. Indoor pool is very cold and it was very difficult to enjoy it even though we used it a lot because there were too may people in outdoor pool. Spa prices are very expensive. I live in Los Angeles and even we dont have prices that high for SPA. But its personal choice for everyone. No complementary jacuzzi or steam room only for extra money.

Tennis Court : 2/5

We wanted to play tennis and many times we couldn't because they prioritized their members that are not hotel guests and pay membership fees to come and play. I understand that but when hotel has only 1 court on over 200+ rooms and we paid for all inclusive but we cant use it doesnt make sense. Also court was full of sand and seems was not cleaned for very long time.

Service: 1/5

Very rude service. Unfortunately we had to face many times rude personnel in the buffet, reception and even cafe bar outside. I paid 7 euro for 100ml for freshly squeezed juice in the coffee bar outside and when I saw that she was pouring from some tint from refrigerator I ask her to make freshly squeezed as they do on the beach cafe nearby. She was very angry with my request pour the juice in the sink in front of me and said that she will make for me. But said they squeezed it not long time ago and she isn't a liar. I didn't accuse her of lying I just ask to make it fresh, I didn't paid for cold press juice. They have to say its cold press since they do it in advance and keep refrigerated. How do I know that is was squeezed 15 min ago or 2 hours ago?

Also breakfast personnel that seat people on the breakfast tables have very big attitude. We ask for table outside and she said they dont have and start arguing and she told us to wait then and abandoned us. We managed to found table in 2 minute by ourself. She just didn't want to put any effort or gesture to accommodate us. Unfortunately, many russian speaking stuff had attitude towards us since they saw that we are eastern european looking.

Also some young girls were playing tennis and took already 10 minutes of our time. When we ask them to leave they start arguing and were rude. We ask front desk who was playing in front of us since they also lost 2 balls and we didn't want to be accountable for it. The front desk said it was staff from children day care. Just absurd how they think during their off hours they can harass other guests.

Food: 1/5 Breakfast buffet has no variety of food. For 12 days menu didn't change even a bit. Staff is cooking with unhappy faces and you feel like a asking a favor. Specially in the morning that doesnt set you in a good mood for rest of the day to see unhappy faces like that. Also sunny side eggs very uncooked everyday. I am glad we didn't got salmonella. because I was very concerned of that. Restaurant downstairs are just serving food that people didn't finish at breakfast but just for money. Since we had only breakfast we were hoping to have a good meal there. But honestly food was very greasy and tasteless. Mushroom soup tasted like breakfast mushrooms just blended with water. Chicken wrap was oily and greasy. Just look at my mushroom soup photo that they charged 10 euros for it. It was tasteless watery bland soup. Shame. Pool bar had nice drinks. I loved strawberry daiquiri, mojito and aperol spritz.

Overall 2/5 starts a lot of room to grow! We tried to make best of our vacation but I would never recommend this hotel. Live music - pianist at the lobby was the best thing...

One of the best arrival experiences at any hotel, and I travel for a living. We arrived at about 8pm. Greeted by a young man who took our cases to our room, but not before giving us Prosecco / champagne. A simple check in process followed. The room was as expected. Modern. If you struggle with technology you may find the light / air con controls a bit daunting as they are on small touch screen panels. There were moments when I would have preferred simple switches but it ended up working well although the panels didn't go completely dark which may disturb some.

Now, there was one issue that we found not to our liking. My wife is Ukrainian. Her family have been greatly affected by the Russians invasion of Ukraine. Yet, the in room TV had at least four Russian TV channels that were the first on the list and at least two of these were Russian news channels. These are Russian propoganda channels. Of course, we didn't and wouldn't have watched them, but it was a bit of a shock and a shame that they were so prominent in the menu selections.

We used the hotels phone app to report some minor issues to reception. One of these was to report that a bedside USB port wasn't working. This was promptly repaired.

You should be able to control the lights and air con through the app but this didn't work for us. Perhaps this element hasnt been enabled. But it wasn't remotely necessary.

We were pleasantly surprised by the view from our balcony. We had a side sea view superior room. We could see the pool and the island of Nissi beach. It was as good or better than we expected.

Room service was excellent. However if I was to nit pick more attention could have been paid to vacuuming the corridors outside the rooms. They were regularly a bit mucky.

As is not uncommon noise levels outside the rooms started to increase after about 6am. Much of this noise seemed to be generated by hotel / cleaning staff talking and getting things ready. Perhaps this is unavoidable but they should be aware that this is easily overheard in the rooms. A second door in the room between the bathroom and bedroom area would have helped providing more soundproofing when closed. Great bath and shower but shame there was no tap to fill the bath. Had to use the shower.

The pool was lovely albeit very cold on our first few days. We had great weather and this warmed the pool up toward the end of our stay. The sunbeds were poor. They don't recline much and were fairly uncomfortable. Despite another recent reviewer stating otherwise the indoor pool WAS heated.

The pool bar offered reasonable prices for the level of the hotel.

We didn't eat in the hotel other than partaking in the included breakfast. This was buffet style and the food quality was good and full of variety. I think it was particularly busy during our stay but as other reviewers have pointed out there were queues to be seated but we didn't wait more than two minutes. Many of the waiting staff seemed to be new, it was the start of the season, and inexperienced. A few smiles and questions about how your day is going or what plans you have would go a long way. It was all very dour. We were on holiday, make us feel excited about the day ahead. A common problem when ordering tea in a hotel is that you have to order twice. The first time it arrives with Luke warm water, then you ask them for hot hot water and you get it. It's worth including this in training for the staff. Overall they did a good job but they would enjoy it more if some fun was injected into the whole process.

From our room we could see the smoking bar. Most evenings it seemed fairly empty but there was often a musical entertainer. However this contrasted with the main areas of the hotel where there was never any entertainment evident despite there being lots of people about who, to my mind, would have enjoyed it. This aspect of the hotel was poor. Just a pianist, or a gentle singing duo would have gone down a treat. Or just move the performers from the smoking bar to other areas? All in all, a...