A Cyprus to soothe the soul (especially if you are travelling with the family in tow and have managed to leave the pram at home)
- The five-star Anassa Hotel Resort sits on the beautiful north-west coast of Cyprus. This luxury hideaway caters to families and young couples alike !
Travelling with toddlers can be hellish. Especially if you leave before dawn and realise en route to the airport that you've forgotten to bring your pram. Oh dear.
It was too late for us to turn back and, no, you can't buy a buggy at Gatwick because nobody is stupid enough to leave theirs at home.
Happily, Anassa, a Thanos family hotel in North-west Cyprus, is acutely geared up for children.
A fine spot on the shoreline: Anassa occupies a pristine position on the north-west coast of Cyprus
Friends had told us it was the best hotel for children that they had ever stayed in, so our expectations were high. After a four-and-a-half-hour flight, and a 45-minute drive from Paphos airport, my wife and I and our two children (aged three and one) were greeted with cold flannels and glasses of cool bitter lemon.
A buggy materialised on request and our anxieties melted away with our ice cubes.
Anassa, meaning 'queen' in ancient Greek, lives up to its regal name.
It's all marble floors, water features and amphora pots. The service is miraculous and there is even a 24-hour (complimentary) infant menu.
Perched on a hilltop overlooking a Mediterranean bay, the hotel is within walking distance of its own sheltered beach, a boat ride away from ravishingly beautiful blue sea lagoons and a five-minute drive from Aphrodite's bathplace, where the goddess disported herself. (Legend has it your beauty can be restored with a drop of its spring water, but annoyingly, it has yet to work for me.)
There is no denying it is an expensive hotel. If you need to ask how much the villas with infinity pools cost, you won't be able to afford them. But this is a superb hotel. There are of course private rented villas available in the area.
Anassa Hotel has all the creature comforts - two spectacular outdoor swimming pools, an indoor pool, spa, four restaurants - but its USP is its design: it resembles a traditional Cypriot village. The gardens and white-washed villas are arranged around a square with its own Byzantine chapel.
Yes, it's a little Disneyfied, but it works.
The hotel is cleverly laid out on different levels so it never feels full. Directly above the spa is the chapel, so you can worship your body and soul in quick succession.
The clientele is intriguingly Euroeclectic.
There was a handsome, septuagenarian, Italian gentleman with a beautiful young wife and three daughters dressed in identical couture; David Cameron's Eton contemporary Octavius Black and his Cameron-Cutie wife Joanne Cash; and the odd tattooed Eastern European with a body-builder's physique, gold chains around his neck and a golden woman on his arm.
We knew Cyprus from previous trips and its extraordinary range of Roman amphitheatres and mythological sites. But you can be forgiven for not wanting to leave the hotel grounds. We made a point every day of walking through its fragrant gardens lined with jasmine and bougainvillea.
When we found we didn't have appropriate footwear for our one-year-old son, the staff offered to fetch us Crocs from the capital 80 miles away. We bravely walked out to buy a €3 pair from the local market; a transaction felt positively subversive.
There is no better way to stress-test a hotel than with toddlers. Every request was met instantly.
Please can you erect netting on our terrace to prevent our tearaways from escaping into the garden? Done, sir. Please can you put a latch on the front door to prevent them letting themselves out? No problem.
Making a splash: Anassa is ideal for family holidays (even if you've gone and forgotten the pram)
In the afternoon, we tended to drop the children off at the kids' club, which they loved. It was air-conditioned and manned by calm and kind polyglot staff.
Almost all of the 166 rooms have sea views. We had two interconnecting rooms with terraces. The decor was bland, but quality bland. Breakfast was served on an outside terrace under almond trees. There were fresh bowls of fruit salad, date truffles and raw honey served on the comb.
In the evenings, we dined with the children al fresco in the square, serenaded by local musicians. On offer was a traditional Cypriot buffet, a smorgasbord of Greek salads and roast suckling pig on a spit.
Anassa is a second generation family-run hotel, and it prides itself on repeat visitors.
We left with indelible memories of swimming in the pellucid waters of the blue lagoon, dancing with our children under the moonlight to violinists and passing a school of dolphins in our motorboat. It was like going on honeymoon - but with your children in tow.
