Amathus Hotel - A World Away From The Everyday

"People will forget what you said. People will forget what you did. But people will never forget how you made them feel."- Maya Angelou.

This is the exact quote that springs to mind as I sit at my desk, warming my bones with a steaming mug of green tea. I’d be lying if I said I was overjoyed to be back beneath England’s gloomy skies after a week spent wrapped in Cyprus’ warmth. Not just the warmth of the sunshine, but the warmth of every member of staff at the five star Amathus Hotel in Limassol. 

From the moment my two and three-year old tottered into the hotel foyer, they were treated with such genuine welcome that my husband and I immediately knew we wouldn’t have to spend the week hushing and shushing and apologising for shrieks of delight or excitable squeals of ‘Caaaaaaake!’ every time they were spotted flaunting their sugary deliciousness. “The staff are attuned to looking after children, and looking out for children as well. It’s something that comes as almost second nature to them,” Nick Aristou, Commercial Director for Muskita Hotels in Cyprus, tells me over our frothy cups of sun-kissed cappuccinos. 

I didn’t even try to hide my own little squeal of delight as we were shown to our stunning apartment on the tenth floor of Amathus’ brand new addition to the hotel – the Residence building. Vast ceilings, sprawling sofas, beds that couldn’t look any more inviting to two sleep-deprived parents. Every nook and cranny was absolutely spotless, the kitchen had everything anyone would need during their stay (although all we planned on using was the bottle opener), and the best bit of all – the view. There was nothing in front of us but pure, uninterrupted blue. “Our building is the only one that is literally on the sea, and when you’re in the Residence apartments and you’re on the balcony looking out, you feel like you’re on a ship, because all you can see is blue water,” says Nick. “Here at Amathus Hotel, we’re just forty to fifty steps from the sea and it’s a huge USP when it comes to selling the properties. There’s been a lot of development in Limassol over the last few years. There are a lot of similar residence-type properties that have sprung up in the city, completely changing the skyline. But all of them, except for our Amathus building, are on the other side of the dual carriageway.”

All of the Residence apartments are delightfully spacious, with cosy yet vast open plan living areas. There are walk-in closets, floor-to-ceiling windows, en-suite marble bathrooms, and, in many of the twenty-eight apartments, private balcony swimming pools. This was our haven for the week, and, despite having two tots accompanying us, there were moments of pure balcony bliss (something I definitely didn’t envisage writing!). This was largely due to all the superb on-site activities there are for families, making it so much easier to pass the childcare baton, and do that thing parents of little ones long for – open a book, and actually get to read more than two sentences in peace. On the balcony. In the sunshine. Nothing, and no-one to disturb this precious time. Perfect.

The hotel’s slogan is ‘Indoor luxury, outdoor paradise’, and I’m going to speak on my kids’ behalf when I say that these words aren’t just reserved for couples. Indeed, the east of the hotel grounds has an abundance of activities available for children of all ages. There’s the Pelican Kids’ Club which offers soft play, toys a-plenty and fun educational activities in a supervised environment. There’s an outdoor playground in the shade (we find shade surprisingly lacking in playgrounds in hot climes), a family pool, a children’s pool with water slides for the older ones, and a smaller toddler slide in the neighbouring pool. There’s a dedicated family beach area with extra-large umbrellas and a floating sea adventure park out on the waves that is ideal for teenagers. Most nights of the week there’s children’s entertainment too – magic shows, science shows and musical games. It’s worth noting that we stayed here outside of school holiday time, so there were no queues for slides, the family beach was quiet, and our little ones were the only children in the kids’ club at one point. At the height of summer it is of course much busier, making the escape to the west-side adults-only areas an even more tempting option.

One of my favourite moments of the whole holiday was swimming in the adults-only pool, completely alone beneath the palm trees, the scent of jasmine and fresh mint drifting by, the sun on my face. One of those moments you just want to package up and put in your pocket, getting it out every time you need a mood boost. Post-swim sunbeds aren’t of the crammed-in-like-sardines variety at Amathus – instead, they are spaced out throughout the well-manicured gardens. There’s a separate beach too just for grown-ups, where you can order your Aperol Spritz or Greek salad to be delivered to your spot on the sand with the mere press of a buzzer.

During another moment of tot-free time, I escaped to the spa (with a nod of appreciation for the well-equipped gym en-route). If you ever find yourself in the arms of Amathus, I urge you to book in a treatment here. My facial with Ginka was divine. The busy-ness of life makes it so hard to switch off, but in this spa den I was able to do just that, with my pores thanking me for it. 

A mere few minutes’ walk away from Amathus is their sister hotel, the five star Four Seasons. This is another gem of a hotel. There has been so much attention to detail when it comes to design that they’ve even followed a psychologist’s advice when it comes to morning showers in your room. Above the showerhead are lights that can be set to a rainbow colour of your choice, depending on your mood, helping set the tone for your day ahead. You can then venture down in the immersive lift, with its floor-to-ceiling screen showing gushing waterfalls, ocean depths or swirling galaxies, transporting you to the candlelit walkway of the spa, the Kindergarten, or perhaps to one of the many restaurants offering first-class food.  

“Good cuisine and gastronomy is one of the pillars of our philosophy,” says Nick as we savour delicate little freshly-baked cakes. “Over the years we have developed a very good reputation with our restaurants, and we’ve designed all our restaurants to compliment each other.” There are four restaurants in each hotel, which include an all-day dining restaurant for breakfast, lunch and dinner in both hotels. The other three are fine-dining, gourmet restaurants offering different cuisines. “We have a steak house and a fish restaurant at the Amathus, and we have a Chinese restaurant, Italian restaurant and a Japanese-Peruvian fusion at the Four Seasons. The guests from both hotels can dine in each one at will and they can charge their accounts from one to the other, so it’s almost like they’re staying in a big complex in that respect, so you get the best of both worlds when it comes to cuisine.” 

The food is created by award-winning chefs, including Michelin star chef, Ettore Botrini. He, along with all the other chefs across both hotels, focuses on using locally-sourced food as much as possible, cooking in synchrony with the seasons. “We try and get as much of our produce as locally sourced as possible,” Nick says. “It’s within our sustainability philosophy as well. But, being an island, we can’t get everything locally-sourced because we need to have good beef, we need to have good fish and so on, so we do bring some food from overseas. Cyprus has the best pork in Europe, but we do have to import Angus beef from Scotland and salmon from Norway. But apart from those, mainly everything else is locally sourced. Vegetables and fruit are nearly 100% locally sourced.”

While my husband and I had the most delicious meal at Amathus’ seafront Limanaki restaurant, savouring every mouthful of the freshest seabass with crispy potatoes and a selection of seasonal vegetables, I feel my culinary review would be unbalanced if I didn’t include my children’s stand-out cuisine. Ice cream. Not just any ice cream, but gelato from the Four Seasons’ Colors Café, their cones heaped with apple pie, cheesecake and chocolate flavour ice cream mountains, sugary droplets dripping down sticky little hands, satisfied smiles on messy little faces. 

Other holiday details that delighted the kids (nearly) as much as the ice creams were the Amathus Cat House and carp pond. Indeed, Nick might not mention this on his LinkedIn profile, but he is one of the most knowledgeable people on the island when it comes to looking after carp. There’s a beautiful pond at the Four Seasons filled with these striking creatures (feeding time is a must-see spectacle for little ones) and a cat house just outside Amathus’ hotel grounds, where cats that would otherwise be roaming wild have cosy homes and a regular 6pm feeding time. 

I asked Nick if he was proud of all that he and his team have created, and the answer, quite rightly, is yes. “Personally, I do feel a great deal of pride both for what we’ve achieved physically in both hotels, and in particular the Amathus Residence building which is one of a kind. The Residence marks the next phase in the hotel’s life cycle which is going to take it through the next fifty years.” But Nick and his team won’t stop here. “Our company has always been of the opinion that we have to renovate, we have to innovate.”

So, is it this dedication to progression, this attention to detail that makes guests want to come back time and time again? No. “It’s more how we make the guests feel that makes a difference,” Nick tells me. “Because of that feeling, people want to come back. Both hotels have more than 55% returning guests.”

Nick has a very good point. After all, people may forget what you said, or what you did. But they’ll never forget how you made them feel.

For more information, visit: https://www.amathuslimassol.com