CYPRUS HOLIDAY HELL!!
Hi everyone i have now returned from a hellish holiday and thought i would let you know all about it.
We left from Dalcross Airport from my home town on fri 5th Aug - the first dilema was i got stopped in by the beeper machine and bodily searched and they could find nothing. Next as we were due to board i lost the passports and tickets as last seen when i was getting searched. I was making a scene about this as you can imagine and had airport staff looking for them and it turns out they were in the back pocket of my bag all along - well did i have egg on my face!!
We got to London Gatwick and were staying over in the Sofitel at the airport - im lazy like that and wont travel far when i dont have to so if a hotel is right on the doorstep and costs extra then to hell with the cost as its the convenience of the location for me !
On the saturday we left Gatwick early in the morning for Pathos. It was a horrible flight as the seats were so crampt and very limited leg room. When we unboarded and went to collect our lugguage one of our trolley bags had a broken trolley handle - great as it meant it was hard to then pull it along. However putting that aside we trundled on to meet the holiday rep and board the bus to our hotel for Coral Bay.
OMG it was so so hot !!!
We were told we would be one of the first to be dropped off but turned out we were one of the last!!
The hotel looked all ok but OMG this was where the sagas really began ! We were told that our hotel was on the beach - oh yea a mile away up a hill and on an unlit road.
Cyprus had an electric plant explode in July and cause of that some places were on limited electric and guess what - one of the places was our hotel - so that meant limited air con everywhere except our own room. Now talking of our room - it was supposed to be a sea or pool view room - but got neither and no chance of changing as the hotel was full. Great !!
We wandered around to check out the place and as we were all inclusive we settled down for a drink at the pool - a beer for jim and naturally a PC for me ! well OMG the PCs were horrible and not what i was expecting or looking forward to but i gave them the benefit of the doubt and though they would taste better but after 4 they were still the same - good time to be had by me by drinking diet cokes then !!
However we both made friends with some of the locals ...
Next day we met with our rep and booked onto trips for tues, wed, thur and fri. Monday we were going to go to Pathos by the local bus and just check out the place on our own steam before doing the organised trips. We spent most of our time down at the harbour checking out the boats and people watching.
There was a cracking pirate ship called the Jolly Roger run by captain jack pigeon!! But we werent able to take the trip but i did mange to get some photos which ill not post yet as going to use them on the pirate blog hop in september.
Pathos on Monday was fine and we even found a Debenhams so jim was chuffed - NOT!!
On tues we endured the horrendous 11 hour crampt bus journey around cyprus - stopping off here and there at various local placed of interest - not so interesting to either of us im afraid and i wont tell you what we were saying or were thinking but if i see the insides of another tumble down church ill scream!!!
The bus had hardly any aircon and it was so stifling hot we were permanently sweating and sticking to the seats which was horrible. It was a terrbile day all round and my ankles had swollen to twice their size that i couldnt get any of my fly flotts or flip flops on so had to buy more !! We did see Aphrodites rock - alledgedly the place where she was born - its the middle rock.
After Monday we decided to cancel our other trips as couldnt risk swollen ankles for the whole holiday but had to do wednesday trip as that was still within 24 hours and we wouldnt get a refund.
So on wed we endured yet another crampt poor airconned bus trip to Limassol - yes this was marginally better with more things to see and do but OMG still so hot that we spent most of our free time in a cafe to cool down. We saw some ruins of a large house and a theatre - im not much into stuff like that but it was interesting to see.
On wed we basically spent most of the day in the hotel grounds and inside and our room as it was so so hot to do anything. At night we were going to the Millenium bar for the Michael Buble tribute act. I was excited about seeing this of course!! WOW what a let down it was - some jumped up 18 year old who thinks he is gods gift to woman and music - he bummed himself up to be something he clearly isnt - he has his own facebook page and cd. He also had heaps of pictures with his face superimposed on top of Michaels - it was something to behold. Well i gave the benefit of the doubt till he started to sing - but nope he was no MB im afraid in either looks, stature, attitude or voice. So we gave it half an hour and left - oh and the PCs at this place were worse than at our own hotel - i wasnt destined to have a nice one.
Thursday on our anniversary we did likewise NOWT - you can imagine how bored we are getting by this time as it was too hot to sit outside as there was no where in the shade and no sun loungers due to the usual sun bed hoggers !! Despite being told by the hotel that oh no this doesnt happen and too hot to sit around the hotel inside due to no aircon - so it was back to our hotel room.
We also witnessed a lot of topless sunbathers in this family based hotel throughout our stay and kids peeing in the flower bushes - not something i want to see again !
In the restraunt there were a lot of dirty crockery in with the clean stuff - yuck! A member of staff dropped a whole tray of cuttlery on the floor and picked it up and put it back in the tray for use - it should have gone back to the kitchen for washing ! The meals were just on an "OK" par - nothing special our outstanding.
Most nights the sun loungers were left lying all over the walkways of the hotel and not tidied away, so you had to walk onto the grass to get passed them all. Kids blow up bed and toys were also left everywhere and in the pool - how pathetic is that. In the mornings there were still the glasses etc left lying around on the outside tables from the night before - very very untidy.
We decided to take a walk to the beach that night for a nice stroll on the sand. Well out of our hotel we found the road to the beach and set off - it was very poorly lit and lots of bushes on the edge of the pavement. We felt rather unsafe as there had been previous attacks on tourists in this area. When we found the beach well this was terrible as absolutely no lights what so ever and rocky walkways to it so gave up and went back. That was a pathetic night !!
On friday we went to the animal and bird park in pathos. the hotel told us what bus to get so off we went. anyway the bus didnt come but we got another one where the bus driver was very helpful and said that bus didnt run any longer. he dropped us off and explained where to get the bus back from - 500km back down the road we came - a road with no walkways in the middle of nowwhere and nowt about !! GREAT.
Anway we headed off down to where he told us to go and OMG it was in between banana plants which was nice to see up close but then the hill ahead was daunting.
We trekked a mile up this hill to the park and was sweating buckets when we got there. There were free transfers but oh yea not on the day we wanted to go which was typical. We spent 4 euros on the bus there and 12 on a taxi back !!!The park was ok but in desperate need up major upkeeping and re housing for some of the creatures. Felt so sorry for most of them. But it was the best day of our holiday !!
On fri night we packed ready for our journey home on saturday. We got picked up mid afternoon on sat and then got our flight back to gatwick where our suitcase trolley handle was now totally broken and unusable. Our stay over at the same hotel was also doomed - i was given the card and off we went to room 220 - the card didnt work so jim went back to reception and it turns out it was 228 so we had been trying someone elses room !!
We had to spend most of the day at gatwick as our flight home wasnt till 1410!! we arrived back at Inverness early which was a bonus but mum was late to pick us up ! Got home and sat down and felt like crying as what a terrible trip and one we will not be taking ever again as my mind is made up i will only be going on holiday to the USA from now on !!
Anyway i thought id share my experiences with you and i appreciate you have probably fallen asleep now after reading this!!
Our holiday was doomed from the start as everything was linked around the number 13. The table we kept getting in the dinning area was 13, when we ate out it was also table 13, our room was 174 (17 minus 4 is yep 13) and we flew home on the 13th - what can i say !!!
We left from Dalcross Airport from my home town on fri 5th Aug - the first dilema was i got stopped in by the beeper machine and bodily searched and they could find nothing. Next as we were due to board i lost the passports and tickets as last seen when i was getting searched. I was making a scene about this as you can imagine and had airport staff looking for them and it turns out they were in the back pocket of my bag all along - well did i have egg on my face!!
We got to London Gatwick and were staying over in the Sofitel at the airport - im lazy like that and wont travel far when i dont have to so if a hotel is right on the doorstep and costs extra then to hell with the cost as its the convenience of the location for me !
On the saturday we left Gatwick early in the morning for Pathos. It was a horrible flight as the seats were so crampt and very limited leg room. When we unboarded and went to collect our lugguage one of our trolley bags had a broken trolley handle - great as it meant it was hard to then pull it along. However putting that aside we trundled on to meet the holiday rep and board the bus to our hotel for Coral Bay.
OMG it was so so hot !!!
We were told we would be one of the first to be dropped off but turned out we were one of the last!!
The hotel looked all ok but OMG this was where the sagas really began ! We were told that our hotel was on the beach - oh yea a mile away up a hill and on an unlit road.
Cyprus had an electric plant explode in July and cause of that some places were on limited electric and guess what - one of the places was our hotel - so that meant limited air con everywhere except our own room. Now talking of our room - it was supposed to be a sea or pool view room - but got neither and no chance of changing as the hotel was full. Great !!
We wandered around to check out the place and as we were all inclusive we settled down for a drink at the pool - a beer for jim and naturally a PC for me ! well OMG the PCs were horrible and not what i was expecting or looking forward to but i gave them the benefit of the doubt and though they would taste better but after 4 they were still the same - good time to be had by me by drinking diet cokes then !!
However we both made friends with some of the locals ...
Next day we met with our rep and booked onto trips for tues, wed, thur and fri. Monday we were going to go to Pathos by the local bus and just check out the place on our own steam before doing the organised trips. We spent most of our time down at the harbour checking out the boats and people watching.
There was a cracking pirate ship called the Jolly Roger run by captain jack pigeon!! But we werent able to take the trip but i did mange to get some photos which ill not post yet as going to use them on the pirate blog hop in september.
Pathos on Monday was fine and we even found a Debenhams so jim was chuffed - NOT!!
On tues we endured the horrendous 11 hour crampt bus journey around cyprus - stopping off here and there at various local placed of interest - not so interesting to either of us im afraid and i wont tell you what we were saying or were thinking but if i see the insides of another tumble down church ill scream!!!
The bus had hardly any aircon and it was so stifling hot we were permanently sweating and sticking to the seats which was horrible. It was a terrbile day all round and my ankles had swollen to twice their size that i couldnt get any of my fly flotts or flip flops on so had to buy more !! We did see Aphrodites rock - alledgedly the place where she was born - its the middle rock.
After Monday we decided to cancel our other trips as couldnt risk swollen ankles for the whole holiday but had to do wednesday trip as that was still within 24 hours and we wouldnt get a refund.
So on wed we endured yet another crampt poor airconned bus trip to Limassol - yes this was marginally better with more things to see and do but OMG still so hot that we spent most of our free time in a cafe to cool down. We saw some ruins of a large house and a theatre - im not much into stuff like that but it was interesting to see.
On wed we basically spent most of the day in the hotel grounds and inside and our room as it was so so hot to do anything. At night we were going to the Millenium bar for the Michael Buble tribute act. I was excited about seeing this of course!! WOW what a let down it was - some jumped up 18 year old who thinks he is gods gift to woman and music - he bummed himself up to be something he clearly isnt - he has his own facebook page and cd. He also had heaps of pictures with his face superimposed on top of Michaels - it was something to behold. Well i gave the benefit of the doubt till he started to sing - but nope he was no MB im afraid in either looks, stature, attitude or voice. So we gave it half an hour and left - oh and the PCs at this place were worse than at our own hotel - i wasnt destined to have a nice one.
Thursday on our anniversary we did likewise NOWT - you can imagine how bored we are getting by this time as it was too hot to sit outside as there was no where in the shade and no sun loungers due to the usual sun bed hoggers !! Despite being told by the hotel that oh no this doesnt happen and too hot to sit around the hotel inside due to no aircon - so it was back to our hotel room.
We also witnessed a lot of topless sunbathers in this family based hotel throughout our stay and kids peeing in the flower bushes - not something i want to see again !
In the restraunt there were a lot of dirty crockery in with the clean stuff - yuck! A member of staff dropped a whole tray of cuttlery on the floor and picked it up and put it back in the tray for use - it should have gone back to the kitchen for washing ! The meals were just on an "OK" par - nothing special our outstanding.
Most nights the sun loungers were left lying all over the walkways of the hotel and not tidied away, so you had to walk onto the grass to get passed them all. Kids blow up bed and toys were also left everywhere and in the pool - how pathetic is that. In the mornings there were still the glasses etc left lying around on the outside tables from the night before - very very untidy.
We decided to take a walk to the beach that night for a nice stroll on the sand. Well out of our hotel we found the road to the beach and set off - it was very poorly lit and lots of bushes on the edge of the pavement. We felt rather unsafe as there had been previous attacks on tourists in this area. When we found the beach well this was terrible as absolutely no lights what so ever and rocky walkways to it so gave up and went back. That was a pathetic night !!
On friday we went to the animal and bird park in pathos. the hotel told us what bus to get so off we went. anyway the bus didnt come but we got another one where the bus driver was very helpful and said that bus didnt run any longer. he dropped us off and explained where to get the bus back from - 500km back down the road we came - a road with no walkways in the middle of nowwhere and nowt about !! GREAT.
Anway we headed off down to where he told us to go and OMG it was in between banana plants which was nice to see up close but then the hill ahead was daunting.
We trekked a mile up this hill to the park and was sweating buckets when we got there. There were free transfers but oh yea not on the day we wanted to go which was typical. We spent 4 euros on the bus there and 12 on a taxi back !!!The park was ok but in desperate need up major upkeeping and re housing for some of the creatures. Felt so sorry for most of them. But it was the best day of our holiday !!
On fri night we packed ready for our journey home on saturday. We got picked up mid afternoon on sat and then got our flight back to gatwick where our suitcase trolley handle was now totally broken and unusable. Our stay over at the same hotel was also doomed - i was given the card and off we went to room 220 - the card didnt work so jim went back to reception and it turns out it was 228 so we had been trying someone elses room !!
We had to spend most of the day at gatwick as our flight home wasnt till 1410!! we arrived back at Inverness early which was a bonus but mum was late to pick us up ! Got home and sat down and felt like crying as what a terrible trip and one we will not be taking ever again as my mind is made up i will only be going on holiday to the USA from now on !!
Anyway i thought id share my experiences with you and i appreciate you have probably fallen asleep now after reading this!!
Our holiday was doomed from the start as everything was linked around the number 13. The table we kept getting in the dinning area was 13, when we ate out it was also table 13, our room was 174 (17 minus 4 is yep 13) and we flew home on the 13th - what can i say !!!
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