Recommended Hotels

Most Cypriot hotels are self-contained resorts aimed at package clients; there are relatively few small inns with unique character.

Mega-hotels dominate the southern coastline, but there are some foothill inns of great charm. Pafos district has the widest choice, from beachfront hotels to wonderful inland retreats. South Nicosia has a good range of hotels, but accommodation choice in the Troödos Mountains is limited.

Northern Cypriot hotels can be noticeably cheaper than their Southern counterparts, but many are marred by the casino trade. Most accommodation is in and around Keryneia, but there are also good if modest options on the Karpasia Peninsula.

€€€€ over 200 euros

€€€ 150–200 euros

€€ 100–150 euros

€ under 100 euros

Southern Cyprus

Nicosia

Almond Business Suites €€ Ikostipemptis Martiou 11, new town tel: 22879131, www.almond-businesshotel.com. Self-catering one-bedroom apartments with contemporary furnishings, popular not only with business people. Quiet location, strong, free WiFi signal and a conference room are other pluses.

Centrum €–€€ Pasikratous 15, Laïki Geitonia, tel: 22456444, www.centrumhotel.net. Nicosia’s only salubrious budget option, redone in 2010. Rooms, often quirkily laid out, come in standard and executive grades. Fast, free WiFi, friendly staff and an atmospheric adjacent restaurant for breakfast.

Classic €€ Rigainis 94, tel: 22664006, www.classic.com.cy. Overhauled in 2011, this has small, tastefully furnished rooms, good breakfasts, an on-site restaurant, garden bar and a well-equipped gym. The best-value old-town choice, with helpful staff.

Cleopatra €€ Florinis 8, new town, tel: 22844000, www.cleopatra.com.cy. Comfortable hotel, popular with foreign businessmen, as well as tourists with cars (some private parking). Revamped rooms in three grades, with butler sinks and rain showers in the baths, neutral or ‘Bordello Baroque’ décor in the sleeping areas. Common facilities include a large outdoor pool, fitness centre, good-value lobby bistro, and full-service poolside eatery.

Larnaka and Region

Cyprus Villages Traditional Houses € Tochni and Kalavasos, tel: 24332998, www.cyprusvillages.com.cy. A dozen converted buildings in these two villages were among the first (1980s) restoration projects, and still among the best. They range from apartments by the Tochni reception office, with central heating and down duvets for winter, to self-contained traditional houses with private pools. Best to arrange all-inclusive packages directly with them.

The Library €€ Central Kalavasos, tel: 24817071, www.libraryhotelcyprus.com. This dusty old inn was impeccably restored in 2010 as a ‘Wellness Retreat’ with a state-of-the-art spa as centrepiece, and, yes, a well-stocked library on the ground floor. No expense has been spared in appointing the units (including three suites), breakfast is copious, and there’s a good restaurant on site.

Palm Beach Hotel and Bungalows €€€ Larnaka–Dekeleia road, tel: 24846600, www.palmbeachhotel.com. Plenty of palm trees indeed in the lush gardens abutting hard-packed Oroklini beach; half the somewhat dated standard rooms overlook this. Viewless garden bungalows have a higher standard, though this hotel’s four stars derive from common facilities like gym/sauna, water sports and service levels.

Agia Napa

Alion Beach €€ Kryou Nerou, tel: 23722900, www.alion.com. Much the best value five-star hotel hereabouts, built on a smallish scale, with helpful staff and scrumptious breakfasts taken out on a terrace. Rooms (prefer sea view) are large, with clean, unfussy decor; bathrooms have proper shower screens. Pools, both indoor and out, are a bit of a joke but who cares when an excellent beach is five steps distant.

Napa Mermaid €€€ Kryou Nerou 45, tel: 23721606, www.napamermaidhotel.com. This formerly dull high-rise is now a designer hotel with switched-on staff. Best of the four room types are the junior suites, with big balconies and plush furnishings; the grand suites are effectively two-bedroom apartments with a jacuzzi on the terrace. Pool, tennis court, gym on site.

So Nice Boutique Suites €€ Leoforos Nissi 103, tel: 23723010, www.sonice.com.cy. Design-led bungalow suites with an arresting colour palette just inland from peaceful Landa cove; prefer senior grade rooms, which accommodate four and have a roof terrace. There’s a poolside restaurant and elevated sushi bar (summer only). Big pool, wedding area on lawn, but no gym or spa.

Limassol (Lemesos) and Region

Columbia Beach Resort €€€€ Pissouri Bay, tel: 25833000, www.columbia-hotels.com. This family-friendly hotel shares a sybaritic spa with its adjacent affiliate, the Columbia Beach Hotel, but is closer to the excellent beach (beyond lush gardens). Large suites in three grades (including family), arrayed around an enormous lagoon pool, have stone, wood and tropical touches.

Four Seasons €€€€ B6 coast road, 9km (5.5 miles) east of town, tel: 25858000, www.fourseasons.com.cy. The best self-contained resort on Cyprus, where you get what you pay for, with consistently excellent service. The dominant motif is oasis, with a jungly atrium and koi ponds. From a range of units, the adults-only garden suites and the family quads behind the beach are remarkable. Amenities include three pools, spa, gym and on-site scuba school. Three in-house restaurants are among the best in Limassol, with considerable walk-in trade.

Lofou Agrovino € Lofou village centre, tel: 25470202, www.lofoutaverna.com. One of the top agrotourism projects, in a showcase village, these studios have been meticulously renovated from old houses or purpose-built. There are fireplaces or wood stoves for winter, clothes washers, and full kitchens with dishwashers. Eat at owner Kostas’ co-run, mezé format Lofou Taverna, while breakfast is served in a separate café-wine bar.

Londa €€€ Georgiou tou Protou, 5km (3 miles) east of town, tel: 25865555, www.londahotel.com. The city’s first and still best boutique hotel, with crisp lines and white, beige and wood tones lending a vaguely Asian feel to variable rooms and suites. Popular with local and foreign trendies, who pack out the in-house restaurant and lobby bar at weekends. Good service from smart, young, international staff. Excellent spa, small beach with water sports, decent pool.

Troödos Mountains

Linos Inn € Palaia Kakopetria, tel: 22923161, www.linosinn.com. Antique-furnished rooms, studios and suites occupy a group of restored, linked old village houses – a romantic weekend getaway popular with Cypriots as well as foreigners. Some have river-view terraces and fireplaces. Popular bar, with live music at weekends, and a busy restaurant.

Semiramis € Spyrou Kyprianou 55, Pano Platres, tel: 25422777, www.semiramishotelcyprus.com. This carefully refurbished 1920s mansion is now Platres’ most distinctive hotel. Rooms have a preponderance of double beds, solid wood floors, fanlights over the windows, modern baths and occasional balconies. You take breakfast in the ground-floor salon or out on the terrace; half-board is available at the competent, co-managed Village Restaurant.

Pafos and Region

Alexander the Great €€€ Leoforos Poseidonos, Kato Pafos, tel: 26965000 www.kanikahotels.com. One of the less pretentious Pafos hotels overlooks a small sandy cove. Adults-only garden cabanas have veneer floors, plunge pools or patios, and fully modernised bathrooms; main wing rooms were refurbished to the same standard in 2013. An unusually large indoor pool, pleasant spa, and three on-site restaurants remain the same.

Almyra €€€€ Leoforos Poseidonos, Kato Pafos, tel: 26888700, www.thanoshotels.com. The oldest hotel in Kato Pafos has been revamped in a minimalist boutique style, popular equally with families and trendy couples, lodged in separate wings (and with separate pools). The best units are the adult Aethon rooms and the Kyma suites with lawn terraces. The spa has a stunning sea view. Three varied restaurants are sensibly priced for the hotel’s category.

Aphrodite Beach € Asprokremos Beach, tel: 26321001, www.aphrodite-beachhotel.com. The rooms here are resolutely 1980s style, but that’s forgiven when you consider the warm welcome from the multilingual owners, the excellent meals available, and a position immediately above the best beach in Pafos district. Products of the adjacent orchards find their way into the food (half-board recommended).

Ayii Anargyri Natural Healing Spa €€€–€€€€ Miliou village tel: 26814003, www.aasparesort.com. Occupying the site of a nondescript monastery (only the church remains), this retreat in a lush stream valley has the most striking spa in Cyprus, sumptuous breakfasts and vast common areas. The best units are the hillside garden bungalows, with solid wood furniture and some private jacuzzis, or the ‘monks’ rooms’ with exposed stonework, huge beds and spring water on tap.

Lasa Heights € Lasa village outskirts, tel: 26732777, www.lasaheights.com. The nucleus of this country inn is the helpful owner’s grandfather’s former coffee shop, now the breakfast area. It’s an airy spot with sweeping views from Pafos to Polis, ideal for mountain-bikers and wildlife-spotters. The best, antique-furnished room is in the old stone building; others, in the new wing, are contemporary, with modern baths and pastel colour accents.

Paradisos Hills € 1km (0.5 miles) east of Lysos village, tel: 26322287, www.paradisoshills.com. A stone-clad country hotel, set as per the name, run by two South African-Cypriot sisters. Large, tasteful, balconied rooms have solid-wood furnishings and mostly sweeping sea or mountain views. Food is good, with the Sunday buffet a local institution. Common area décor is rustic without veering into kitsch; there’s a large, wind-protected pool on a lower terrace.

Sentido Thalassa Coral Bay €€€–€€€€ Coral Bay, 11km (7 miles) from Pafos, tel: 26623222, www.thalassa.com.cy. This mostly suite hotel is known for its top-notch spa and personal butler service. One-bedroom suites are large, with long balconies (looking to either sunrise or sunset) and quality furnishings including sound/DVD systems. There are two restaurants, a large pool and steps down to the beach – or a private lido.

Northern Cyprus

Keryneia (Girne) and region

Bellapais Gardens €€ Beylerbeyi (Bellapais) village centre, tel: (392) 815 6066, www.bellapaisgardens.com. The management here could just let the location sell things; instead they offer top-drawer service, an excellent restaurant (with significant walk-in trade, plus the best breakfast in the North) and high-standard chalet units. The views, from the restaurant or spring-fed pool, are to die for.

The Hideaway Club €€ Trimithi (Edremit) village centre, tel: (542) 855 0771, www.hideawayclub.com. The returned London-Cypriot owners and their staff have an almost telepathic knack for anticipating guests’ needs, ensuring repeat business. Rooms/suites in several grades aren’t bad either, all with complimentary bath robes, iron bedsteads, throw rugs and hammocks. Poolside bar/restaurant is the heart of the ‘club’.

Pia Bella €€ Iskenderun Cad 14, east Keryneia, tel: (392) 650 5000, www.piabella.com. A somewhat grim location is belied once inside this lushly landscaped complex, with two pools, one for serious swimming. The two rear wings, with their ‘superior’ rooms, suites and self-catering units, are preferable to the main building. Assiduous service ensures a loyal, largely Brit, clientele.

Karpasia (Karpaz)

Karpaz Arch Houses € North neighbourhood, Dipkarpaz (Rizokarpazo), tel: (392) 372 2009. The most successful restoration scheme in the North incorporates many soaring traditional arches – thus the name. The best units are next to the restaurant.

Villa Lembos € Ayfilon Road, Dipkarpaz (Rizokarpazo), tel: (392) 372 2028, www.villalembos.com. Spacious bungalows of very high standard set amidst lovingly tended gardens; the multilingual proprietor is service-orientated. Sole common facility is the restaurant.