If you don’t fancy a trip abroad this summer but want to get away, the Aldiana Zypern on the Laranaca coast could be the answer. KATY TURNER checks it out
SPACE is viewed with as something of a premium at the Aldiana Zypern, a new resort on the outskirts of Mazotos. There are 650 sunbeds scattered throughout the 690-capacity resort, baths and separate showers in the spacious rooms and a host of places to pull up your sunlounger and read your book.
Our weekend started after a(nother) long week on a Friday afternoon. Along with the humidity, a spawling low-rise holiday village greeted us that reminded me of new projects in Egypt. What is essentially the back of the hotel fronts the road, so you almost enter through the back door. As soon as we arrived, a man pulled up in a buggy to whisk away our bags. He also whisked away our four-year-old, a child-friendly approach that was to characterise our stay.
We could have done with his buggy later as we made our way to our rooms. This is the problem with these spacious resorts, they take some walking around. After failing the initiative test and going to the wrong room, we finally found the right ones;
adjoining with a small commual lobby, the door to which we were able to lock (and in doing so lock ourselves out!)
The Aldiana is a true resort, it is not just a hotel next to the beach that calls itself one, and as such, guests are expected to spend most of their time within its confines. In order to help younger guests achieve this, the Aldiana has a kids club, where we safely stashed ours – if there was a nursery in Nicosia with matching conditions they would definitely go there. Separate rooms for different age groups are all brightly decorated with lots of places to crash once the day gets hot. The club also has its own (gated) pool and children are taken to the restaurant half an hour early where they are fed seperately. Anyone who is willing to take on the task of feeding my children is well worth recomending.
Left to our own devices we were able to check out the other facilities. The wellness centre that offers a range of treatments in addition to saunas, jacuzzi and indoor pool was top of my list. However the popularity of Franz’ hands was obviously legendary as there was no slot that was suitable (a problem I’m sure you wouldn’t have if you stayed for longer than a weekend). After watching a catamaran slide gently out to sea, I decided it was perhaps time to ignore sea sickness and take the plunge. I failed to persuade my husband to join me, and (ignoring a manager’s advice to go it alone with one of the instructors) allowed myself to be persuaded to try archery instead.
Bows are far heavier and more complicated than Robin Hood and Hollywood would have you believe. I could barely hold mine still let alone pull the string under my chin in the indicated manner. Five arrows later and I hadn’t manage to even project anything as far as the target, let alone hit it. Two quivers full after that and my record had not improved. Maid Marion I am not.
We were warned by the instructor (who insisted his ankle injury had nothing to do with stray arrows and was caused by rehearsing for the evening’s entertainment – more later) that our arms and shoulders would probably hurt by breakfast the next morning. By the time I headed back to the kids club before an afternoon dip with my children, I was worried I wouldn’t be able to use a knife at dinner. However the swimming pool and a hot shower later (taken in rare luxury – I was able to plonk the kids to play in the bath while I enjoyed a shower alone) I seemed to have recovered.
Saturday evening was gala night, when the hotel’s 50 catering staff pull out all the stops. The buffet is self-service and largley served from live cooking stations (cutting down on waste food and waiters) and the choice was immense. The children’s area was given over to desserts on this occasion, three of which were paraded around the room with sparklers before anyone could tuck in.
Gala night is also a special night for entertainment; the extremely hard-working staff put on a fair mixture of numbers in the hotel’s 600-seat theatre, the highlight of which was four members of the animation team tap dancing while sitting and standing on chairs (one of whom had been entertaining children all day and would be back in the kids club by nine the next morning). Despite my childrens’ best attempts to disrupt the show by variously climbing onto stage and acting the clown and screaming the house down, the staff managed to keep to schedule before it was back to the pool bar for fireworks and a farewell cocktail.
Aldiana has 12 resorts on the peripheries of Europe and they attract mainly German-speaking tourists (owners are hoping to bring 30,000 Germans to the island this year who wouldn’t have come otherwise) and guests are encouraged to join in the Relax with Friends motto. It may be a bit gung ho for some tastes but there is the option of dining in a beach side bar rather than the 700-seat dining room and it is relaxing to spend a few days with no more taxing decisions than whether or not it is possible to eat pineapple at every meal.
After enjoying a buffet breakfast on Sunday morning, closely followed by a buffet lunch we were faced with one more decision: when would we be able to come back?
n The Aldiana Zypern is also hoping to attract the Cyprus market this summer. Double rooms including three buffet meals a day (with drinks), access to the kids club and most sports activities starts at £98 for two people. For more information contact tel: 24 849000
