While looking outside the window and seeing the autumn weather kicking in, then it is time to escape to the memories from the trip to Cyprus. I choose Cyprus since I had never been there and it seamed a good place to travel beginning of September. I was a bit worried, if it is too hot, but it was about right. Around 30 degrees during day time and 22-24 at night. Only few last evenings I felt a need to put on the sweater. And the sea water was also perfect, around 27 degrees.
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| Swimming time |
HOTEL
I booked the trip through the travel agency Apollo and chose the hotel with the kids club. The hotel name was Malama Beach Holiday Village and as the name says, it was located at the small cozy Malama Beach. We had a 2 room apartment with a small kitchen. Kids were sleeping in the living room on the couches, me and Kevin got the bedroom. I has just potty trained Logan a month ago and he still had some challenges with number 2, so I had taken the protective seat for the bed. Luckily there was only 1 accident and the trip was really a breaking point when he got comfortable with number 2.
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Hotel
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| Road to pool 🏊♀️ |
POOLS
The hotel had kids pool and 2 deep water pools. The beach was located down the hill. Maybe only downside was that the there was not so many sunbeds at the beach, so we usually just went for swim in the sea and then came back to our chairs. Nice thing was that we had the same sunbeds booked for the whole stay, so we did not need to stress about fighting for the sunbeds every morning. That was super nice!
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| Relax time 🧘♀️ |
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| One of the grown-up pools |
FOOD
It was the first time we went for all inclusive option. I did some calculations and even though we might decide to go eat out once a day, then it would still pay off. We usually have not booked the all inclusive option since the hotel food gets boring and is not so good, but in this hotel it was really amazing. There was also a good variety from one day to another and a lot of options and everything was fresh. The wine selection was not the best, but the cocktails were actually not so bad. It was possible to get some cocktails by the pool and then there was also the evening bar with cocktails. So in the end the all inclusive was really paying off and it was so convenient not to think about where should we go eat today and what should we order. Buffet food is also a great option for the kids who usually cannot really decide what they want to eat.
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| Breakfast 😍 |
ACTIVITIES FOR KIDS
It was the first time when Nolan really enjoyed swimming and he actually learnt to swim. Mainly still with a mask, so under the water. Logan also got a good swimming equipment on, so we could all spend time in the deep water pool. Kids did not enjoy swimming at the beach so much since the water was salty and it did not feel good if it got in their eye. Logan did play a bit with the sand. At the same time I also bought a good mask for myself for snorkelling even though there was not much to see in the water.
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| Face paintings |
There were 2 kids clubs. One was managed by the hotel and the other by travel agency Apollo and they had there Scandinavian speaking employees who did different activities with kids. You can leave a child who is 4+ years there without a parent and we used that option for Nolan. It happened usually at the same time when Logan was napping, so I got about 2 hours me time every day. The kids there mainly were from Sweden, so in the end Nolan actually preferred the hotel kids club, since he could freely colour different printouts there.
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| Kids playground |
In the evenings there was also kids disco. At the beginning both Nolan and Logan danced along, but during last days, only Logan wanted to dance.
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| Happy Logan ☺️ |
ENTERTAINEMENT
Hotel also had organised entertainment program every evening. One night there were dancers, then fire show and magician just to name some. I actually also participated in the magician show since the guy asked if there is any married woman who would like to volunteer and ofc there was still awkward silence, so I had to volunteer. He lost my engagement ring and then it game out from the tennis ball. It was actually quite cool magic. And I guess I should not be surprised that Nolan also volunteered for one show. 🤪 Then the magic was about colouring the ribbons.
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| Evening drinks 🥤 |
BOAT TRIP
I have not dared to go to boat trip with kids before, but we decided to try out. It was also half day trip and I saw that the boat is big enough so can sit inside. Luckily it went smoothly and nobody fell overboard. We also managed to see sea turtle that was definitely the highlight of the trip. Both kids also got in the water for snorkelling. Luckily the water is so salty that it is easier to swim, but Nolan did lean quite a bit on me, so it was definitely a good exercise.
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| Boat trip ⛴️ |
AYIA NAPA
We did not plan much sightseeing but we did want to get out and see the area more than just the local supermarket. So we decided to go to the next bigger city one late afternoon. There is a public transport as couple of bus lines that operate, but they are super full. So we decided to go for a uber. I did not consider though that closer to the evening, not many taxis are available, but luckily we managed to get one. The price was not the cheapest but still fine compared to Danish prices.
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| Beautiful fishing boats |
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| The sign of British Empire |
In the city we just walked around and did some souvenir shopping. To be honest, there was not much to see and since we aimed to have dinner in the hotel then we were not aiming to eat out there. But the harbour area was nice and I was happy to get to see a bit other side of Cyprus. Getting the taxi back was a bot easier as the taxi driver approached us. It was like a mini limousine. There was 3 rows of equal seats so it looked like a normal car but a bit longer. 😃
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| The taxi 🚕 |
Next time I might also aim to visit the capital Nicosia and the ghost city Famagusta that does not belong to neither Cyprus nor Turkey.
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| Local police in duty 😁 |
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| Church |
GOOD TO KNOW
The place we stayed was very close to the Turkish side so we actually kept our phones on a flight mode. I actually did not even think that Cyprus is not in Schengen and it was a pure luck that I decided to take the passports with me instead of just ID cards. We also did not consider in the airport that we need to go through the special passport check line. Luckily we got through the line just about when they started boarding. So now I am again carrying my passport with me in every trip. May be only when traveling to Estonia, I am 100% sure that the ID card is enough.
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| Little local beach |
Overall, we really enjoyed Cyprus. The weather and food was amazing and the prices were also reasonable. Would definitely like to come back.
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| Nolan approved the trip 😀 |
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