Athena Beach Hotel — Hotel in Yeroskipou

According to Tui’s description of the hotel there ‘’is 6 bars ……. And 6 restaurants including 1 buffet restaurant, 4 à la carte restaurants and 1 adult only restaurant...’’. This isn’t quite true. For the six bars – The Athos bar is the actual hotel foyer, the adult pool bar closes at 6pm and the sixth floor St Andrews Roof top bar (adults only) is reserved for the Hotels ‘Elite’ class. The Nectar bar was nice, but the entertainment is ‘Dull’. The swim up pool bar is nice but very small and the bar staff are utterly miserable. And the 6 restaurants, what a load of nonsense. The Helios beach bar is simply a snack bar. If your half board there are two options: 1. The Buffet with very mediocre food and a bit of a ‘ruck’ getting served or 2. a set menu in the Leda Restaurant (which they don’t really want you to use because they want you to pay extra for their expensive ‘A la Carte’ menu). You have to reserve using their app and you are limited to how many times you can visit. If you use any restaurant other than the Buffet you will pay a lot extra. There’s a welcome room ‘Elite Guests’ who on arrival get a seat and a glass of fruit juice while the facilities are explained to them. This term ‘Elite Class’ is used throughout the hotel. On the other hand, we ‘plebs’, on arrival were quickly 'dealt with'. We were handed one key and two cards (it’s a cash free hotel you cannot use Euros) and then hurried to follow the concierge up to our room. We were not told about how the half board dining arrangements worked, which bars / restaurants were for 'Elite' customers only or how we booked reserved the other restaurants. We found out about facilitates from other commoners (sorry guest). We were told on arrival that because we had arrived late there was complimentary food on at the Leda restaurant, but it was not explained to us that this 'complementary meal' would form part of our half board supplement therefore you weren’t entitled to a lunch or evening meal on your last day unless you paid extra. Very Rude! Upon arrival both my Partner and I had exactly the same disappointed expression when entering the foyer. I haven’t got the best of hearing and the hotel reception has retained their Covid screens. We ended up speaking between a 150mm wide gap between two screens which I think would exacerbate the transfer of bacteria rather than prevent it. While I‘d rather take my own suitcase, we were ushered to our room with the concierge (oh by the way its not a cash free hotel when they want a tip) and again we both had the same expression when shown our room. The rooms are very Staid. The bath with plastic shower curtain and the tainted, slightly brown, rubber non-slip mat with ‘suckers’ for the bath while you showered were hardly inspiring. The balcony was dark, because the balcony light cannot be controlled and they all go out at 11pm. The double bed is two beds pushed together. It was clean enough but altogether uninspiring. The air condition is excellent. All in all, we had a lovely holiday. The hotel grounds running down to a small bay (but very rocky underfoot when you get into the sea) are lovely. Paphos town is great and reasonably priced. It’s 30 minute walk into Paphos along the sea front and we did this every evening after our ‘ruck’ at the Buffet. But I have to say the Hotel was now dated and dull and being half board seemed to be an inconvenience to them. They should just declare themselves all inclusive and keep charging extra for their ‘A La carte’ service and providing a ‘superior’ service to their...

Where to start.. I cannot beleive people reccommend to stay here, we were looking for early flights home! The rooms are filthy, our first room had lipstick on the pillows, a hole in the wall and the floor, mouldy shower all over, sweets on the floor and urine left from a previous guest on the toilet. It smelt absolutely damp and mouldy too, coming from the air conditioning I think.

There is a nightclub exactly opposite which goes on until 2am some nights, with relentless swear words in the music that you can genuinely hear in the hotel room.

The rooms aren't one bit sound proof. You can hear next doors conversations, making coffee and let alone the constant traffic that seems to be trampling the corridors.

Whilst walking around the room corridors, full sized cockroaches aren't a sight we needed to see.

The breakfast made my stomach turn by day two, both of us were unwell, and we did not gorge or eat much at all.

Unbeknown to us, we had paid god knows how much more to be an Elite guest, this meant a seperate breakfast area and a rooftop bar access. I was surprised this wasn't clear until arrival, and I felt it was all a bit showy with not much effect other than more money in the hotels pocket. Due to being an elite guest, we were offered a late check out on the final day, which as we know can be so helpful with a late flight home. They told us to tell them the day before, as we did, to be told we couldn't have a late check out.

The hotel gave a 'courtesy room' with a shower and toilet, for our last day, what a hoffiic experience that was. I'm glad we had somewhere to shower but approached with extreme caution. It's certainly not something you expect to see in a '4*' hotel.

This is hands down the worst place I have ever stayed in, what a waste of time and money.

The rooms have so much literature about not creating waste and being good for the environment, e.g. If you leave your towels on the floor in the bathroom it means change them please, towels hanging up means leave for another day. They got changed regardless of what we did so why so many bossy signs around the rooms?

There are no extraction fans in the bathrooms at all, and obviously no windows.

The outside area is nice though, if only the toilets matched it. Once again the stench and hideous effort to make it clean was unbearable. They barely flushed and you could see and smell the lovely presents other guests had left. Obviously suffering from the same breakfast as us.

More positive notes..

Around the sun loungers the staff were attentive to bring you drinks if you ordered from them, they were always nearby to help which was a nice touch.

The slides were small but enjoyable, and no cues. There were plenty of lifeguards around the pool and multiple aqua aerobics hosted throughout the day.

There were quite a few choices for children's pools which looked really good fun for them.

The sea has a platform and steps going down to them so therefore easy access. However there are many boulders and it is quite shallow, so I'd swim with extreme caution. The sea is a nice temperature, it is nice and refreshing without it being harsh due to it being shallow, it seems clear water around the Seaweed and plastic debris.

The sand is coarse but there are working outside showers next to the beach bar so that is no problem.

They provide beach towels.

All I can say is I'm delighted we're going home, totally devestated we wasted a week and so much money, and I hope that someone reads this review so they aren't left as...

This hotel was incredible, with a lot of sunbeds, multiple pools and great choices for food and drinks.

We stayed in a Deluxe Superior Room (Elite Class) with a terrace and sea view. The room maybe felt a little dated, but lots of space and came with all the little extras to make the stay lovely (stocked minibar, wine and fresh fruit on arrival and lots of bathroom essentials). The terrace was great with 2 sunbeds and table and chairs - ideal to get some private space to take in the sun!

We had an all-inclusive package for the week, which lets you use the Al a Carte restaurants as much as you like, standard buffet, as well as breakfast, lunch and snack options. There are plenty of dining choices available inside the hotel and they had themes each night to keep things interesting. The food quality was very good! Our favourite Al a carte restaurant was probably Zephyr - food is outstanding, and included in the all-inclusive package - definitely worth a visit. Our only criticism of Zephyr is the enforcement of wearing trousers - as a very white, sweaty person in the heat, it does feel a little uncomfortable and outdated. However, we would do it again for the food 😅

There are a lot of bar options available too, with our favourite being the rooftop bar (only for Elite Class rooms). The sunsets up here are beautiful and it's probably the nicest and most modern part of the hotel. The staff here make the experience magical. They go above and beyond to make you feel at home, ask you about your day and get to know you. We particularly loved Diana, who was super friendly and made the best cocktails!!

There are several options at night for entertainment, with live musical acts each night at the main pool. There are also themed nights which are a lot of fun! They also do different activities during the day in the pool like coffee masterclasses etc.

The hotel also has a nice coastal path that takes you directly to Paphos in about 30 minutes, which has plenty of bars and restaurants if you don't want to stay on site the whole trip.

The hotel has several pools, including an adults only one with a swim-up bar. There were plenty of sunbeds for everyone, though the ones in the prime spots around the pools are usually taken by time we got up (7am)... The hotel should enforce sunbed rules to clear out any towels sitting on beds for longer than 30 minutes to give others a chance at getting a good spot, as most of these sunbeds sat empty with a towel on it for hours in the morning. Not sure why anyone goes on holiday to get up early to take a sunbed ... how is that even a holiday for these people? 😂

You can book cabanas for a whole day at €40 per day, which we felt was underpriced for what you get. Cabanas have 2 sunloungers in the cabana and 2 outside, and they take food and drink orders throughout the day - so you don't have to walk over to the bar yourself! They provide towels too, so don't have to bring ones with you. We used the ones by the adult pool overlooking the sea, which was just beautiful!!

On the final night, we got a bottle of champagne in our room which was a beautiful final touch to a great stay!

I need to make special mention of Katerina from guest relations, who was truly unforgettable. She made us feel welcomed from the first day and was always available for questions or help with other things we wanted.

Thank you for a great holiday. We will definitely...