A few weeks ago we took a family holiday to Cyprus - somewhere that we'd never been before and we ended up having a bit of a bittersweet holiday. Bitter because we'd gone with my Adam's parents and his Grandad and his partner and on the very first day Adam's Grandad partner fell at the resort and ended up breaking her hip. It's bad enough for that to happen at all, let alone on your first day of a holiday that you've been looking forward to and in a foreign country. We all felt so sorry and awful for her and Adam's Grandad.
Fortunately, their insurance was absolutely brilliant and looked after them really well. Her operation went successfully and the insurance covered everything, even things like taxi's and another (nearly) two weeks stay in another hotel when she wasn't able to fly home with us. And whilst of course, it wasn't the holiday that we'd all planned on having, we tried to make the most of it safe in the knowledge that Maureen was being taken care of.
ATLANTICA OASIS / THE KIDS POOL AREAWe stayed at a hotel in Cyprus called Atlantica Oasis in Limassol and the hotel itself was really nice. We especially really liked the children's pool area because the water was so shallow that we didn't really need to worry about the boys as much as we would have hasd to next to the deeper swimming pool.
We all spent hours around and in the children's pool where there was a big pirate ship with two fun slides coming off it. There were also fun sprinklers in the pool and a pole with several colourful buckets hanging off it which took turns to fill up and tip over down onto whoever was below and into the pool. The boys loved it and it was great because it meant there was somewhere that they could make friends and play with the other children on holiday too.
We bought a few floats for the pool there as there was a convenient reasonably priced shop in the hotel itself.
In between being in the pool, the boys enjoyed relaxing in the shade on the sunbeds. We took lots of activities for them to do whilst on the plane there and back and also at the hotel itself and these came in so handy! The boys were kept so well entertained and the flights went so smoothly. You can have a look at what we took in terms of travel entertainment for the kids here.
OUR ROOM / THE HOTEL To be honest, our room at the hotel wasn't quite what we were expecting as we'd paid for a family room to fit the four of us, but the room, in my opinion, wasn't really fit for four people, as it would have meant the boys sharing a sofa bed that could only fit one single and one half of a pillow. I didn't take any photos of it I'm afraid, but we were also given interconnecting rooms with my in-laws which we also hadn't requested. I did think about speaking to a member of the TUI staff but in the end, we made it work by having one of the boys sleep in with their Grandparents on their sofa bed in their room. In a way that worked out better as Logan usually wakes up quite early and so it meant that he wasn't then waking Ethan up. But it's definitely reminded me to double check what we're paying for room-wise next time that we book somewhere to stay.
The hotel itself was really clean, very modern and I really liked it. The staff on reception could have been a bit friendly at times, but the restaurant staff were always super friendly and welcoming. There were quite a few cats around and the guests seemed to be leaving out water and food (including ourselves) for them. I liked that there was a kids pool area for the children and families to go to if they wished to, a main pool area that everyone could go to and then also an adults only area with a adults-only pool and a very trendy, super modern bar (where they would serve drinks in glasses during the day as well as at night and where they offered a special cocktail daily on top of the others that you could ask for. There was also live music in the adults only bar in the evenings apparently.
THE FOOD / RESTAURANTS Food-wise there was lots to choose from and we had plenty of choice as vegetarians. Breakfast was a buffet and there was a huge variety, from cereal to cooked breakfast, to fruit, cheeses, different loaves of bread and more. At lunchtime, we could eat in the restaurant if we wanted to and choose from a huge buffet of different food. Alternatively, we could eat at the cafe and have sandwiches, cake, tea, coffee, fruit and more. We could also have as much ice cream and drinks (including alcoholic) as we liked all day long. At dinner, we would change into some smarter clothes after a shower and head to the main restaurant where there would be different food from earlier that day. The food wasn't as nice as other places I've eaten at when on holiday, but it was still lovely and enjoyable and we were always spoilt for choice. The chefs were also super accommodating and one night they happily cooked up a pizza for the boys as the pizza that was out contained meat. They were always very friendly and happy to answer any questions.
Another thing I liked about the restaurant at Atlantica Oasis was that they had lots of alternatives out, so, for example, there was a variety of dairy milk alternatives to choose from for those that didn't drink cows milk. There was also a kids corner section at the right height for children to help themselves which I liked and there was also a section clearly labelled as the vegetarian section where there were different choices of meat-free dishes available daily.
You could also book special meals (which were included in your stay) so for example, we booked an a la carte meal where we got to eat outside (which was lovely) and order from a dedicated menu. Another time we booked an Italian and for that, we went over to the sister hotel to have it which again was really lovely as otherwise we probably wouldn't have gone over there and found out that they had a really great playground for the kids.
THE OTHER POOLSThe other pools at the hotel were great too, there was the main pool (30 seconds away from the kids' pool area) which was really large and went underneath a bridge that you could walk across to get to the other side of the pool. There was also an adults-only pool which looked really nice, but obviously, we didn't use this pool and then there was an indoor pool which we really liked too. It was mostly quite quiet in the indoor pool as most people were outside, so it was nice to go and have a bit of a quiet break from everything when we wanted to. The boys loved practicing their swimming in there. The indoor pool is located next to the gym and there's also a beauty/spa area too and a sauna that's available on request.
THE EVENING ENTERTAINMENTThe evening entertainment was absolutely brilliant and I'm not usually one for evening entertainment. I would have to say it was my favorite of any holiday we've been on. There was always a kids disco on, followed by Bingo which everyone loved getting involved in. We actually won 217 euros on our first night (not bad for the fact that I'd never played Bingo before!). And then after the Bingo there were some really fun shows on, my favourites were The Greatest Showman dance tribute and also the comedian/magician, he was absolutely brilliant and I was thrilled to have got to have gone up on stage with him and be part of his act. We didn't get to see it sadly as we had very tired boys, but my in-laws said that there was a fire show on one of the nights that was amazing too!
THE LOCAL AREAThere are a few things you can do outside the resort too and the TUI reps tell you how you can go about booking these at the meeting you can attend on the first morning. We were planning on going on quad bikes around Limassol as my Mother In Law didn't fancy it and so offered to look after the boys whilst we went, but sadly I picked up a bladder infection whilst there and so didn't fancy it after that, so my Husband and his Dad went and they said it was really good and a great way to see the area.
Another thing that we did was to go into Limassol one of the days we were there. We took the bus which was only about 5/10 minutes walk from the hotel and only cost us just a few euros and we headed into the town. Where we got off of the bus was really lovely - it was right next to a children's park and on the promenade. It was all so scenic and a lovely place to stop for a while and take some photos.
As we headed up the promenade we decided to stop and get a drink and some snacks, we stopped just by a small marina and sat there for a for an hour or so relaxing whilst the boys coloured in and played the Switch for a while.
After we'd finished our drinks we headed over to Limassol Castle, which was such an interesting place to explore. It doesn't look like much from the outside, but inside is well worth exploring. It's not huge, but it's also not expensive. My favorite part was the crypts!
We wandered around Limassol for a bit after that and I found it so interesting. I am starting to realize that I am far more fond of exploring than I am of just pure relaxing on holiday. We came across this cathedral which we wanted to go and have a look inside of, but this was the point that I realised I had a bladder infection and we were all very hot and sweaty, so we decided to head back to the resort.
We came across this cafe with this really nice outside seating area in Limassol and I thought it looked so pretty. I would definitely liked to have explored a little more.
It's hard to sum up our holiday because it wasn't exactly what we had hoped for and had planned, but on the other hand there were so many lovely moments and things that went perfectly and writing this has reminded me of that. It's just such a shame that we didn't get to enjoy Cyprus with the boys Great-Grandad and his partner, but I think that we made the most of it as much as we could and we've still managed to come home with some lovely holiday memories.
Thank you for reading. Alex xo
