Tsokkos Polycarpia Hotel

I have just returned from a weeks holiday at the Polycarpia with a friend and our two boys aged 15. We booked the holiday 2 days before we travelled and after the summer we have had in England there wasn't a lot of choice.
However, we couldn't have picked a better holiday if we had spent months planning. We really couldn't fault anything.
All the staff were extremely friendly and helpful and are a credit to their manager Yanni (sorry if I have mis-spelt this) who himself was always available for guests to speak to.
The entertainment crew were great fun - I was worried when we first arrived that it may be like Butlins But Milli & Simon made sure everyone had fun without it being regimented.
Don’t think I lost any weight doing water aerobics _sorry Milli- but never laughed so much and have still got the scars form adult water polo!! Milli has a fantastic voice - watch this space!
The hotel rooms were very clean with excellent maid service. The breakfasts were very good with plenty choice and the pool was so relaxing.
Supermarket across the road and five minutes walk to a small beach. Plenty good tavernas within a few minutes walk. If you want it a bit livelier you can walk to Protatas in about 15 minutes. We did this one night but much preferred where we were staying.
Our only complaint was we only booked a week!!
Thanks for a great holiday hope to return!

We were originally booked to stay at the 3* Christophinia Hotel in Nissi Bay a hotel we have visited twice before as we were coming back to Cyprus to attend the wedding of our niece at the Nissi Bay Complex.
Unfortunately we were forced by Olympic, much to our disappointment, to change our accommodation due to Olympic ending their contract with the Christophinia.
We were told that the new accommodation was of superior class being classed as 4* by some tour operators and 3.5* by others. The brochure made the accommodation sound excellent too however, we arrived at 9pm just in time for our evening meal and after a delayed flight etc we were definitely ready for it.
What we were met with was a selection of cold and frankly inedible food.
So after a large portion of salad we headed for the bar and entertainment. The evening entertainment was Karaoke as was it every evening till one am!
We noticed that there were very few guests around and as the week progressed we could see why. The food was horrendous, breakfast by 8.30am was all but inedible as the bulk of the contents were cooked at around 6am and were left out on luke warm trays to slowly grow crispier and crispier and that was just the eggs!
No commercial toaster either instead three domestic toasters of which two only toasted one side.
Dinner was, it has to be said, a master class in how not to flavour, cook and serve food. The staff hovered by your table constantly and as soon as you had emptied a glass or laid your fork down them whipped your plate away even if, as happened on two occasions, you hadn’t finished!
By the third evening – BBQ Night - we didn’t think the food could get any worse but sadly we were wrong. Chicken grilled until leather, pork belly slices in a vile slimy sauce and so on but the worst thing about it was it was all cold…..even the ice-cream in the dessert area was almost liquid as the freezer was faulty.
I approached the chef and asked him if he checked the temperatures of his food and equipment and recorded them and he just looked at me blank. All COLD I said and he just shrugged and returned to the kitchen. We had salad AGAIN!
Later that evening we were approached by one of the entertainment staff and we commented about the horrible food, we were astounded to hear that everyone including the staff agreed, they ate out as much as they could and they advised us to change our half board to a lunch rather than dinner and eat out in the evenings. We took his advice!
The vegetables were raw the meats all served in very hot pepper sauces and the final straw Egg and Lemon SOUP! I have worked in hospitality for over 20 years and never have I been served Egg and Lemon Soup!
The other things that we had to contend with were…..Broken air conditioning, unclean rooms. Paper peeling from the walls, stained and broken light shades, dirty bathrooms, and the cleaning staff merely changed the bedding with holes to more bedding with holes and wiped out the sink and bath.
Towels were only changed on demand and cups and glasses were never washed just left on the side still dirty. Toilet rolls were like gold dust! Not good when you have eaten the food!
The cleaning staff also did general cleaning round the hotel at really odd times. The marble floors outside the dining room area were mopped throughout dinner! We lost count on how many guests slipped when entering or leaving the room.
The plain fact is that this Hotel is not 4* nor is it 3.5* it would struggle to reach 2* in most other European countries.
The serious side to this is that if food is served in a Mediterranean climate at these temperatures it is only a matter of time before a guest is struck down with some form of food poisoning.

My family and I stayed at the Polycarpia for 2 weeks and I want to begin by saying it was the best holiday I've ever had (even though I'm only 20!).
The hotel was adequate. Gym, washing machine & tumble dryer, 4 pools, table tennis, tennis court, pool table, air hockey table & 3 bars.
The entertainment was fantastic. Run by entertainers Nick & Kris (both friendly),
they organised several daytime activities such as Splash Dance which was fun to watch,until I jumped in the pool fully dressed the day of my departure, water polo, water volleyball, french bowls, killer pool & probably more.
It really comes alive in the evenings though by the stage area, where there's also a bar & pool. They start off at 9.30pm with bingo & then from 10pm-midnight they put on a show.
They did things like karaoke ,I didn't sing but it's a laugh to watch, Battle of the Sexes, Nick did a stand up show (which was one of the funniest things I've ever seen), A Disney night where Kris sang, he's actually a really good singer & other nights they got professional singers to come in. Also the bar staff by the stage are really friendly & fun to be around (especially Nicolas who always has a smile on his face).
At the end of every evening show they do party dances where all of the guests get up on stage (usually drunk by then & dance to 'Cartoon Heroes', 'The Mimic Man', 'The Jungle Song' & others.
I had my 20th birthday while there & a boy band that were performing that night surprised me by singing me a song & afterwards all the other guests sang happy birthday to me. I even got a free drink from a nice family. It's that kind of friendly place.
Also there’s 2 corner shops right by the hotel so you can easily buy all your essentials.
And 6 or 7 minutes down the road by the beach there is little bar/cafe I went to a few times. Cheap & very tasty drinks (especially the cocktails!), run by a man called Nico. Very charming friendly guy.
I would definately say go to the Polycarpia if you like to have a laugh, a few drinks & keep the kids (& yourselves) entertained.
Go to Belle's Bar & Boogie's nightclub in Protaras town aswell. I really recommend it.

We were sold this hotel on a 4 star basis and they is absolutely no way on Gods earth that the Polycarpia was a 4 star! we, along with a few other couples that we had met demanded that we were transferred, which we were to the Tsokkos Beach Hotel down the rd which was amazing and more like a 4 star hotel.
The lobby was a mess, dingy, dark and miserable, it was out of the way from the other hotels and about a 10 minute walk from the small beach. The lifts were really awful and slow. The rooms were disgusting and small with dangerous balconies, especially if you had a small child, as we did.
The swimming pool was the best thing about the hotel, but the loos were like they were off a building site. My husband has seen some pretty disgusting loos on building sites, but nothing like these. The entertainment was embarrassing. Really juvenile and hideous. The food was so bad that we ended up eating out the nights that we had to endure before being transferred.
This hotel was barely a 2/3 star no way in a million years was it a 4 star. I would not go back to this hotel if it was offered to me free as it was that grim! Please do not be fooled by the 4 star grading as it is not one. All the other hotels such as Tsokkos Beach and Gardens had the 4 stars outside but this didn't. And the receptionist at the beach hotel told us that the Polycarpia was a 3 star hotel.

This hotel is good but silly little things stop this.1st of all everyone was getting ear infections including myself about a half the people in the hotel got it. The swimming pool was drained out nobody was informed what was going on and young children and babies were still in the pool when it was being drained. The food was good but very basic and the menu repeated itself the following week. The entertainment was fairly ok one entertainer was hopeless but the other one (nick) was fantastic, the children were always following him around. The room itself was very clean with a good view from the balcony. There are plenty of bars, restaurants and clubs within a 2 minute walk.

It was excellent with lots of pools entertainment all night long. Good prices, friendly staff. I had a fab holiday at the Polycarpia Protaros, great beaches good snorkelling facilities.
Activities all day long, great bars and restaurants had a fab time and hope to go again some time.
Fabulous rooms and bars and cafes, lots of great shops to visit for gifts to take home for your family. Love from Sophie Davies.

Having read some of the reviews on this and other sites, I was a bit sceptical bout having decided to book this holiday as all I had heard was bad things.
I stayed in the hotel with two friends, we had two single beds and a put up bed which was adequate for our needs. The hotel itself is very well maintained and although the decor may now be a bit dated, I have stayed in hotels that were far worse that had the 4* rating.
It is located handily for Protaras centre, a 15 minute walk at most or a 2minute cab ride (Beware of the traffic from around 8pm - 11pm it is quicker to walk in the evenings due to the tailbacks into the town centre). Additionally for those intending on sampling the delights that Ayia Napa has to offer, it literally takes 15 minutes cab ride costing £9.
We were all inclusive and impressed with the variety of food on offer at breakfast and in the evenings, as well as the bar offering a large variety of snacks in the daytime.
Additionally the entertainment was good quality with the entertainers encouraging as much participation as possible in a good variety of daytime and night time events at the hotel.
Both pools are excellent and the gym is pretty good (If a bit basic).
The staff are simply brilliant, willing to help with any query and in some cases are entertainment in themselves (Nikolas the Barman!). If you are looking for a family holiday then I would definitely recommend the Polycarpia. if like us you were looking for a relaxing holiday away from Ayia Napa but with easy access to it when required, the again I would say that you could do far worse than the Polycarpia.
All in all, the willingness to help and desire to please meant that the two weeks all inclusive holiday flew by.

This hotel is advertised as a 4 star, however beware there are apartments as well as hotel rooms, if you get these then they are hardly 2 star never mind 4 star as advertised. The hotel staff were really friendly and entertainment was good, however the evening meal was absolutely disgusting, even the staff admitted that they did not eat there. Do not bother complaining to Cosmos, as it is part of the Airtours group and all the said to me was that you have to expect that hotel abroad 4 stars are different from at home, when I complained about the meals they stated that they cannot cater for everyone’s palate. Would not recommend this hotel on this basis.