Советы по Кипру Tips for Cyprus

The hotel is really located in the 1st line, the territory of the hotel bar smoothly turns into the beach - a concreted area 5 * 20 meters with free sunbeds (a rarity for Cyprus). The entrance to the water is from a pontoon along a ladder, like in a pool. In principle, it is very convenient, you go down into the water and you are immediately waist-deep (you can swim) and the water is clean. Literally 5 meters away there is a sandy beach, but the water there near the shore is unclear, in general, I practically did not go there to swim.

The hotel has rooms with a balcony and without a balcony, the former, of course, are more spacious and comfortable. To the left of the hotel (if you stand facing it, and your back to the sea) construction is raging, and, judging by the pace, it will drag on until at least 2012, so it’s better to ask for a room on the right side, it’s much quieter there. Builders come to work at 7 am and work non-stop for hours until 4 pm. True, there is a downside to the coin, construction is a good reason to get up early.

I recommend to go along the promenade towards the hotel Appolonia 5 *. If you go another 150 meters beyond it, there are quite wild places, no one bathes and the water is simply the purest and most transparent.

NUTRITION

I had HB, in principle, everything was enough. Although the food was not particularly plentiful, and not particularly tasty. But this is my subjective opinion. With fruit - strained. They gave only one fruit, mostly watermelon (in July), or plums, apples.

Here it is worth pouring a little tar. The fact is that the guests in Crusader Beach are mainly from the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belarus, because this is a Natalie Tours package hotel. Scoops, in a word, and scoops are not familiar to the buffet. As a result, they either fill up full plates, then leave a lot of half-eaten food, or shamelessly shove food into pockets and purses in front of all honest people. Hence the conclusion - there may not be enough food, so collect food immediately in one go. But just as much as you eat, do not become like foolish pigs.

RECEPTION
At the reception, English-speaking and Greek-speaking Cypriots are mainly on duty (and what did you think, Cyprus, by the way, is a former British colony), in Russian they don’t boom-boom, they only know numerals to give out the keys to the room. There is a bottom Russian-speaking young lady, from ours, she has been living in Cyprus for a long time, but she has not forgotten Russian  . You can contact her for any question.

Another fly in the ointment due to the completely "soviet" composition of the hotel. Once I saw a beautiful picture. A fat English-speaking woman was on duty at the reception (well, how unlucky she was) and then two completely drunk girls from Moscow arrived with a new arrival. It was evident that they began to take alcohol on the plane. When they were brought to the hotel, they were already pretty drunk. So, the oil painting: at the reception desk there is a liter unfinished bottle of whiskey, the desk of the receptionist is flooded with Pepsi-Cola, and two drunk Russian girls shout “I’m sorry, I’m awfully sorry” at the interruption.

Then one of them says to the other in Russian: “We must shout louder, otherwise they won’t believe it. ” Nearby stands a completely drunk man of about 60, also Russian, who is holding on to the reception desk so as not to fall. The woman receptionist at the reception, of course, was completely stunned by such visitors and that day, until the end of her shift, she looked askance at everyone very suspiciously. I suspect that she even wanted to quit, but then changed her mind - after all, 2.000 euros a month are not lying on the road. By the way, those girls were the first to be placed in the room, although several more people were waiting for the settlement. Looks like they were afraid that they would smash everything there.

THE INTERNET

Near the reception there is free Wi-Fi, the speed is quite high and works stably, but it does not catch in the rooms. By the way, for non-specialists, advice is that you can connect to Wi-Fi and quite far from the reception, but the principle of Wi-Fi technology is such that the farther you are from the access point, the lower the speed.
Hence the conclusion - if you want high-speed access, sit closer to the reception.

HOTEL GUESTS

As already mentioned, the hotel is almost 100% filled with tourists from the CIS. On the one hand, it's good, there is always someone to talk to. On the other hand, it’s bad, because in the evenings some of the Soviets get drunk in a snipe and make a brawl: a loud Russian swearing begins on the embankment, swimming with and without clothes, screaming, etc.

TOURS

Unlike, for example, Turkey, excursions in Cyprus cost a lot of money. A trip to the Troodos Mountains and the Kikos Monastery with lunch - 65 euros, a trip to the places of the erotic glory of Aphrodite - 45 euros without lunch, etc. In general, the cheapest excursion is 45 euros. Basically, all companies carry on the same routes. But there is an alternative - the operator "Biblio Globus" takes pilgrims and all those interested in Orthodox shrines, and there are enough of them in Cyprus.
With their help, you can get to the monasteries, which ordinary travel agencies do not carry, and public transport does not go there, except by car.

RENT A CAR

Gasoline in Cyprus is cheaper than in Europe: 1.2 Euro instead of 1.5 Euro, as in other countries. The cost of the car very much depends on the season and the ability to bargain. As a rule, a car is rented for at least 3 days. If you want less, you have to look. In general, the cost of a category "A" car is about 30 euros per day, if taken for at least 3 days.


Despite the fact that Cyprus is part of the EU, there are almost no European cars on the streets, except maybe BMW and Mercedes. Basically, everyone drives Japanese and Korean cars. I took Kia Picanto - I didn't like it. The engine is weak, it barely goes uphill in 2nd gear, but at the same time, gasoline consumption with the air conditioner on is about 7 liters. It seems to me that for a class "A" car, this is a lot.

Insurance: it is best to take Full CDW with no Excess. The latter means that you have zero deductible.
But this rarely happens, usually offices offer insurance with a deductible of 400 Euros. In this case, the amount of 400 euros must be paid in cash (they will give it to you later) or this amount will be blocked on your card. If you take "...with no Excess", then the rent will cost more.

There are also options with gasoline: either you take the car with a full tank and return it with a full tank, or you immediately pay for a full tank of gasoline, then you can return the car with an almost empty tank. I note that the first option is more profitable in terms of money, but in this case they ask you for a deposit, for example 50 euros, or block an amount of 50-100 euros on the card. If you return the car with a full tank, as expected, then the deposit will be returned to you, or the same amount will be released on the card (approximately 2 weeks later).
The car can be delivered directly to the hotel, then after the end of the rental period, just leave the keys at the Reception.
In general, rental offices work there conscientiously, usually there are no problems.
Important: in Cyprus, there is left-hand traffic, that is, the steering wheel in the car is on the right, and the gear knob is on the left. A couple of notes on the rules of UD: the rule of the left hand (instead of the right) applies, when entering a roundabout (round about), you must always give way to those cars that are moving along the junction.

In general, when you sit behind the right wheel, the main thing is caution, because everything is very unusual. At intersections, leave only when you see that you are giving way.

TRANSPORT

There is no railway in Cyprus, but there are excellent roads, and all of them are free. A bus from Limassol to Larnaca or Paphos costs 3 euros one way or 5 euros round trip for one day. Taxis are very expensive: they charge about 3 euros for landing and 1.5 euros for each kilometer.


HITCH-HIKING
Hitchhiking is possible but not recommended and should only be used as a last resort. Once we missed the last bus from Paphos to Limassol. The prospect of spending the night on the beach in Paphos was not particularly encouraging. Since the taxi was very expensive, there was only one option left - to catch a ride. From the bus station to the exit to the autobahn, one of the bus station employees gave us a free lift in his jeep. By the way, he went specially to take us, and told us in detail where it is best to catch a car, for which many thanks to him.

In general, we had to stand for quite a long time. Many cars passed by, but no one stopped, there were not even hints. After about 10 minutes, a large jeep stopped, a woman was driving, a bunch of children were in the back seat. However, she did not go to Limassol, she offered to give me a lift somewhere halfway to Limassol. I had to refuse.
I note that the Cypriots treat the British quite well, although they are their former colonialists. They say that the British at one time did a lot for the development of Cyprus and are now investing a lot of money in Cyprus.

I tried to tell you that Ukraine is also investing a lot of money in Cyprus, because for our oligarchs it is offshore zone No. 1. But they didn't support me.

By the way, there are still a lot of British tourists in Cyprus, while I almost never saw the ubiquitous Germans there. Looks like everyone is in Turkey.

WHAT ARE THEY, CYPRUS?
The population of Cyprus (excluding its northern part) is mostly Greek, but unlike their continental brothers, the islanders are considered more enterprising and hardworking. The driver of the car that drove us to Limassol said that many of them work two jobs. I was surprised that continental Greece got into huge debts, but at the same time the Greeks still do not want to work.

The crime rate in the country is very low. In general, a tourist is a “sacred cow” for them, therefore, no matter what happens, they try to create all the conditions for them. For example, everyone knows that in July an ammunition depot 25 km from Limassol exploded. The only powerful power plant in Cyprus, Vasilikos, was blown to smithereens, and it provided 60% of the electricity for the country. And what: a rolling blackout occurs only in the depths of the country and in residential areas, but not in the resort area. In hotels, water and electricity are not turned off even for a minute.