Golden Coast Hotel

good (OK if you like chips and nuggets) but having said that our daughter who was 8 this time round, liked the food we were eating anyway.

The entertainment this year was not as good as 2005 but OK. I think this is probably the one area they could improve on. It\'s not too bad if you only stay 1 week but they tend to repeat the same programme week after week so the seond time round, you\'ve been there, seen it and worn the T Shirt.

The staff around the pool and the entertainment team were great and keen to get everyone involved in daily activities, but also they did not preassure you into doing anything if you did not want to.

The kids club is amazing - our daughter absolutely loved it and they look after the kids brilliantly (thankless task that it is).

All in all I would recomend the Golden Coast to both families and couples and definitely to those who want a stress free wedding. The Olympic Wedding planner was absolutely fantastic and we had a fantastic day (and holiday).

The hotel is situated on a private beach and right next to the small harbour so is very picturesque and within 5 mins walk into the town of Protaras so even if you did not want to take advantage of the all inclusive package (I would though) then you have access to the town with lots of shops and bars to suit all tastes.

The hotel is also only 10 mins drive to Aya Napa and buses run regularly so it really is a holiday to suit everyone.
For anyone that hasn\'t visited Cyprus before, The Golden Coast hotel in Protaras is something not to be missed and

I guarantee you will keep going back year after year (yes we\'ve booked for 2009).

and a bit of \'Riverdance\' style, and Bingo every night and kids disco.

Some of the staff were very \'end of season\' ish, sometimes were felt guests were just a nuisance. Unfortunately the previous manager has taken some of the best staff with him to his new hotel.

Thank goodness Panicos has been promoted to bar manager and did a sterling job, despite in increase in the number of weddings which took staff away from ordinary guests. If they intend to carry on with the amount of weddings (11 during our stay) then they must employ extra staff to cope.

We met up with several people whom we have seen at the hotel in previous years, we all feel the same. The hotel is in a great location and could have everything going for it, as it has before in our opinion. We will not be returning until things improve.

Nice reception area.

Rooms fine - apart from the carpet. The carpet in the corriders is knackered also - badly stained and worn down. We paid extra for a superior sea view but compared to other hotels where we have stayed in a standard sea view room there was nothing special about this room. There was a half bottle of red wine and four pieces of fresh fruit awaiting us in the room, which was lovely. The walls are paper thin - we had very noisy kids beside us and could actually hear the people in the room on the other side of them banging the walls!! Kept very clean and plently of room though. Overlooked the pool and sea - definately book a sea view room as the view is worth it. There is a mini bar but go to the supermarket across the road from the hotel and get wine, beer, crisps etc there as it is far cheaper. The safe in the room is CY2.00 per day.

It was very noisy and VERY busy around the pool area and there are far too many sunbeds for the space available. This would be fine if you are comfortable lying extremely close to strangers. The pool is also far too small for the hotel. The pool bar area became progressivly untidy as the day wore on and did not look particularly clean although there were an army of cleaners outside every morning. There also seemed to be a large number of Greeks and Cypriots but as their two week holiday is the last two weeks in Aug also, this may explain it. The botel was a lot quieter towards the end of our holiday when the Greeks etc seemed to have gone. The pool bar staff are not what I would describe friendly - indifferent would be a better description.

We chose the sunbeds on the terraces leading to the beach every morning and it was very peaceful as the noise from the pool couldn\'t be heard. The beach is a small sandy cove with hardly no waves at all (good for kids) but very salty. Be careful of the steps leading to the beach - they are treacherous - we seen at least 4 people slipping or stumbling. The hotel also provides fresh beach towels each morning which is an excellent idea. We recommend that you put your towels out before 0830 hrs and you can then maneouver the sunbeds a bit to suit yourself. Some of the beds are not in good condition either. You have to pay for the beds etc on the beach. The terraces had nice flowers and shrubs growing but because the grass looks as if it is only cut about four times a year everything looked overgrown and unkempt. The drain of one of the showers beside the pool was blocked for 3 days before anyone bothered to clear it.

Breakfast was fine - apart from the three dead ants floating in the fresh fruit salad one morning. Best to get to breakfast before 08.30 hrs - it gets very busy after that and there are no designated smoking areas and as non-smokers we found this very irritating. The staff appear to do nothing at breakfast except wander about at a very slow pace and collect dishes from tables occassionally. As far as we know there is nowhere in the hotel that is a designated no smoking area.

In all, we had a good holiday and would go back to the resort of Protaras but not to this hotel. It is described on its website as a 4* hotel with 5* facilities but we would describe it as verging on 4* only. The main things that irritated us was the noise level around the pool, the cleanliness of the pool area/bar and the smoking thoughout the hotel. If you have kids, I think you would get more out of this hotel as there is a varied entertainment programme throughout the day and evening, details of which are sent to your room (a week late however in our case).

One other concern we had was that we were never asked for our room number or name at any time when using the breakfast restaurant or the loungers on the terraces. We had a feeling that there were others (inc locals) who were using the facilities who were not guests at the hotel.

In general this hotel badly needs re-decoration and sprucing up outside and the restaurant and bar staff could do with a kick up the backside. We noticed that on some of the umbrellas there were five stars - not suprised that this hotel in its present state lost one of its stars.

was not a problem as you had the main restaurant (outdoors) open at this time.

The kids club was excellent despite the fact there was hardly any children there!! Our 2 often had 1 to 1 attention and they always made the effort - face painting, playing games etc.

They had a well equipped (hardly used) gym and a lovely indoor pool.

The staff were mainly friendly and happy (mind you Greece had just qualified for the Q/finals of Euro 2004 so they enjoyed winding the English up). They love kids here and always make an effort to talk to them even though they dont seem to have many staying there (I did go during school term though).

One of our children got ill whilst there and they were very good, got an ambulance to pick us up (which our child loved), to take us to a medical centre. This was all arranged within minutes - very good, and concerned.

By the way I paid naerly 500 pounds for a sea view - Thomson charged over 9 pounds per person per night (including the kids!!). Other people booked the hotel with a normal room and then upgraded when they got there at a fraction of that cost and to superior rooms.