VIVA LA VITA

Picking a hotel in a deserted holiday destination is a bit of a mission, so for a moment, it looked like I’m not going anywhere and we will stay in Paphos. Ayia Napa has plenty of beautiful boutique hotels and quirky weekend hideouts, but unfortunately, in November they are either already booked out or closed for the season or renovation.

Luckily at the last minute, I stumbled upon Atlantica So White Club Resort in Ayia Napa, and they happened to have a room with a jacuzzi on the terrace which was enough to lure me in.

In the goal of full transparency, I was hesitating about including this visit on the blog because I had mixed feelings about it, but I will add it here anyway and be 100% honest.

I’ve contacted the hotel in advance to inquire about the room options and the jacuzzi and they were very accommodating and responded quickly.

The hotel wasn’t included in the usual booking sites I use, so we have booked directly on their website. The hotel is located by the main road, so it was pretty easy to find and there was plenty of parking options available.

On the first impression, the hotel grounds are lush green which contrasts beautifully with the all-white theme and the turquoise blue colour of the pool. A much-welcomed sight on an island where greenery doesn’t come by default.

We walked from the back of the parking lot to the front of the building, to a very small reception area. After a quick check-in we were shown into our room, which was huge and had one of the biggest bathrooms I’ve been in.

In line with the all-white theme, the room had modern white decorations, minimalist style and lots of glass to let you enjoy the beautiful views and sunset. We were also given a free bottle of bubbly and a plate of fresh fruit upon arrival.

The room has a mood LED lightning which you can adjust based on your preferences and both the living room and bedroom had a good size TV, with mostly Russian channels (I will get to that later). The room was super spacious and the bed was so comfortable I had trouble dragging myself out of there in the morning.

The hotel has a few restaurants to choose from, two pool areas and a direct access to sandy beach. The are a few room options to choose from, some of which come with a private swimming pool or jacuzzi, like the one we had.

On the first impression, I was super excited and loved the look of the hotel, the staff was super friendly and the views towards the sea were superb.

I was also lucky to score the room with the jacuzzi on the terrace because some of them had those indoors as part of the bathroom only.

BUT

This place left me with a lot of mixed feelings. I will try to be as diplomatic and short as I can.

• the services, written notices, adverts and posters, staff and everything else was pretty much directed towards Russian guests and we felt very much out of place when we arrived
• the hotel grounds are beautiful, but not maintained. The gorgeous pool beds were covered in dirt or mold and not kept in good shape. There was dirt around the private pools and our terrace looked like it had not been maintained for ages. The wooden panels around the pool beds were in pretty bad shape.
• our room had a really good size jacuzzi on the balcony, unfortunately, the balcony was lined with glass panels, so there was zero privacy when using the jacuzzi. All the guests walking from the lobby had direct view to our balcony with jacuzzi. The living space had large glass windows that could be opened to enjoy the view, but when closed the glass looked very dirty.
• breakfast was not a huge success. There was a decent selection, but the food was very poor quality (like eggs that don’t even taste like eggs), you couldn’t get a decent coffee or a juice (just those from a machine). My favourite part of breakfast were the mushrooms, which says a lot. One of the worst hotel breakfasts I had. A cherry on the cake was the guests who despite written instructions were stuffing their backpacks and handbags full of fruit from the breakfast.

All and all, it’s a pretty place to stay but unfortunately, it didn’t live up to the glossy pictures and the beautiful design doesn’t compensate for lack of maintenance and very poor food quality.