Protaras holiday villa: Penera

We stayed at this Villa last week in June first week in July and had a great time. The Villa is spotlessly prepared by Glenn before the guests arrive, we even had a beer and a bottle of wine waiting when we arrived.

The Villa is located a short distance from the small tourist resort of Pernera, about a 10-15 min walk. Once in Pernera there are some nice bars and restaurants and a few shops selling the usual souvenirs and gifts. Most notable of the bars was Knights bar it has an English feel to it and serves very high quality food. It would be advisable to book or you could be in for a long wait. We found the best restaurant on our last evening! Mojito’s can be found towards the end beach on the road to your right and is well worth a visit the serve great value snacks during the day and fantastic meals at night – again pre booking is advised.

From Pernera you can get the bus for 1.35euro all the way to Ayia Napa and the water park – well worth a visit, If a little on the expensive side. The bus is about every hour and is the same price for any distance travelled.

If it has been a while since your last visit to Cyprus you may notice a few changes!

Firstly they are having a drought – no rain at all in at least six months so some places are on restricted water (this didn’t affect us, but other family in Paralimni had their water shut off every couple of days). The place is very dry and dusty most of the rivers have run dry and the lakes are empty – no fishing for those Bass I afraid!

Secondly the Euro pound ratio is not so good – we got 1.22 to the pound this added to the credit crunch oil shortage has put the prices of almost everything up since we where last here a couple of years ago. Shop at the larger supermarkets Orphanides just up the road in Paralimni is good and Carefore just outside paralimni is better a bit like Safeway.

Thirdly the place is a building site – they are putting Villas up everywhere! They were building at the back of us but it was not intrusive at all. But everywhere you go there is something being built – which takes away from the prettiness of the island.

The beaches and coves are all beautiful and snorkelling is a must! The water is so warm you can stay in all day. I would also recommend one of the boat trips out to see Famagusta Ghost town they can be very reasonable.

So for the most part we had a great holiday and will probably return again, Greek Cypriots are some of the nicest people in Europe.