Pernera Beach

The food is excellent and the buffet was very good indeed. I would definitely stay here again

The hotel is around 90 minutes away from the airport, and is unfortunately the last stop getting there. I reckon that’s reflected in the price though because you’d paying a fair bit more to stay more centralised. A €9 taxi ride will take you into Protaras which is worth a visit. The hotel is clean and near enough to restaurants, bars and supermarkets. You should probably take out some Euros with you, because all of the ATM’s charge €4 euros each withdrawal with 12% mark up on the conversion rate (I think). I just paid for things on my debit card though and it didn’t work out too badly. Oh, and remember that you don’t need to bring travel plugs with you as they have the same plugs in Cyprus!

Hotel

All of the staff at hotel do a fantastic job. It’s a clean hotel and I wasn’t worried about Covid during my stay.  You have to wear masks in the restaurants (they provide masks) but of course you can take them off when seated. The Wi-Fi around the hotel is pretty decent. I didn’t get any issues in my room or around the hotel. It’s a rather quiet location but there are a selection of good restaurants away from the restaurant. The beach is nice, although not a private beach and you’d have to pay for beds. The sea is absolutely fantastic though, warmer than the pools. I loved putting on a snorkel mask and tube and going from the Cove outside the hotel to the left which takes you to another Cove with a small beach. It’s so nice. It’s shallow so you can stand up when you want to (take beach shoes with you) but you can effortlessly float and move about in the water. You’ll see a few fish (put bread in the water and you’ll see loads). The swimming pools are OK and the hotel policy is that you can only reserve beds after 7am. That means people will queue before 7am to get the front row of by the pools, but you should be able to get a bed elsewhere later on. It’s also hotel policy that you should change your beach towels every 3 days which I agree with, but you can change them sooner if you need to.

Rooms

We had an upgraded room (233) with a sea view. I would certainly recommend doing that because you have a gorgeous view of the sea and sunrise and you’re away from the prying eyes of those by the swimming pools and bar. It had good balcony with chairs and I spent a lot of time on it. The fridge has one bottle of water in it and you don’t get other bottles without paying for them. I actually agree with that, because it’s better to keep topping up the bottles with the various filtered water pumps, although two bottles would have been better (but you normally bring at least one with you from the airport). The shower in the bathroom was great and the beds were really comfortable. The cleaners did a good job each day.

Food

I thought the food was great. The main buffet has a good selection with a variety of items. I would certainly suggest that you book at the Al A Carte restaurant (via an App) and you’ll need to do that ASAP because we did it straight away and could only book for the following week . As we stayed for 2 weeks, we could eat (once) at both of the restaurants and they were fab!  Thalassa was the best one with a massive Fillet steak as an option but the Thai one was great too.  Breakfast was the best I’ve had with proper baked beans available! It’s also nice to have bacon and sausages available… I’ve never seen so many pork products on holiday. Oh, the coffee is great especially the newest machine which is on the right of the 3 machines. We didn’t have coffee and cake at 5pm once which was disappointing, because it’s in the restaurant and you’re not allowed to take it out there.

Drink

The lager is Kappa which is OK. The cocktails are nice with the usual suspects like Sex On the Beach on offer. Getting a drink wasn’t a problem even though there was only one bar. The hotel policy is that you’re not supposed to take drinks back to your room.

Entertainment

In these Covid times, entertainment was always going to be compromised. The Animators were less animated that usual I’m sure but they weren’t allowed to do Water Polo or Volleyball because of Covid restrictions. Hah, they could still do Water Zumba and French Bowls when you’re getting just a close to people though. Evening entertainment was OK, the Rag And Bone tribute being the best of the bunch. The other nights had an Amy Winehouse tribute, A Fire Show, a Parrot Show, a singer and karaoke. They do bingo each night where you pay €5 a strip, but you can win around €100 and a bottle of wine dependent on how many partake. The kids are well looked after. The kids show starts before the main entertainment and rather late at 8pm). The half an hour of listening to the same kids songs (Baby Shark etc) will drive you crazy! There’s a pool table and air hockey table but you have to pay €1 a go for those. If there’s a football match on, they’ll put in on in the room by the bar.

Excursions

We only went on one excursion. The TUI rep sold it to us a romantic VIP boat ride (costing €45 each) where we could see the sunset. When we got there, we were the last on so couldn’t get a sun lounger bed (as there were many people on it) and it was more of party boat. From what I hear, you’d have a better time on the (€15 per person) boat ride with a glass bottom which you can get at the right of the beach.