More about Four Seasons Hotel
The best hotel on the Island?
by phrederic about Four Seasons Limassol
Frequently touted as "the best hotel" on the island. It was, well, ok. For the price, astoundingly disappointing. Cheap
typewritten lists of rules in the rooms and elevators, a low level of English, French or German spoken by the staff... A refusal
to serve lunch poolside. Overall, while still nice, the hotel seemed more geared towards avoiding problem than anticipating desires. A far cry from a real four seasons or anything remotely comparable.
On the other hand, the chef sent up this wonderful cake to our room on my birthday.
Luxury hotel with friendly staff and wonderful service
by A TripAdvisor Member
We were lucky enough to win a break here in a competition - otherwise we'd never have been able to afford anywhere 5*. And what a treat. Although we travelled off-peak (condition of prize), which meant that two restaurants were closed for refurbishment and there was noisy building work going on, we had a lovely time. Plenty of staff all over the hotel - and all very friendly and helpful rather than being superior. Everyone made us feel very welcome. Although it was too cold to swim outside, the pool is immaculate, really big and looks gorgeous. Really inviting. (I understand the hotel underwent a considerable makeover recently). Hotel is practically situated on the (small, dark-sand) beach - again unused as it was out of season. Buffet breakfast at the hotel was amazing and they had just about any food that any nationality could desire (except peanut butter although I'm sure that if I had asked they would have got some!). Ate in the Seasons Oriental restaurant one evening - quite expensive, as you would expect, especially for Cyprus, and the service was rather over-the-top - could barely lift a forkful of food to my mouth without someone fussing and asking if they could help me! Quite impersonal too, as the tables are so large you are seated miles away from your dining companion. Tried room service dining twice - very prompt and lovely food. Hotel boasts great facilities, including a fully equipped gym, steam rm, jacuzzis and sauna plus (very small) indoor pool; and a professional Spa and hair salon. Two tennis courts too, which we used, and they provide raquets and balls. Housekeeping service was great and very thorough and our (seaview) room itself and bathroom were gorgeous - very contemporary in design and well equipped, plenty of storage space for clothes and a massive bed. Even a jacuzzi bath and two showers in the bathroom with lovely toiletries. Limasool itself (9km from hotel) has nothing to write home about and the whole area is very touristy and commercialised but there is plenty to see and do on the island itself if you hire a car - lots of sites of archeological and historical interest and the Troodos mountains are a must-see. Would be very lucky if we could ever afford to return to a hotel of this standard again!
Top notch hotel, but don't rate limassol
by A TripAdvisor Member
This ia a fantastic hotel, there is no doubt about it. If you have already booked here you have made a great a great choice. However, I will try to give an objective perspective.
Firstly, the positives.
1) Great decor - it looks the best hotel in the area inside & out. Rooms were nicely furnished & I would imagine appeal to most tastes. We choose the superior room (inland view), which was fine for us. Room upgrades were quite pricey (apparently £200 + per week for a sea view even paid for directly at the hotel). The hotel did not seem to automatically upgrade you even though it wasn't full. However, I suppose I would be a bit gutted if I had paid for an upgraded room & other people were getting it for free. So, unless it is your honeymoon or other special occasion, what you have booked is what you seem to get! The view from the inland view room was a bit rubbish, but then we didn't spend much time staring out of the window anyway.
2) Lovely pool area - this is even better than the photo's. I must also say that I was most impressed by the sunbeds, which were very comfortable (nice little cushion for your head!) & made of wood - not like the horrible plastic sunbeds. Also, unbelievably discovered a second outdoor pool (near the colours cafe) on our last day - it was empty, but looked great & I imagine is used when the main pool is too busy in high season.
3) Great gym (which is free) - most things at the hotel are not!
4) Very attentive staff. Bought you drinks at breakfast within 1 minute of sitting down & always a pleasant smile.
5) The best breakfast ever. For me, breakfast is always the best meal on holiday & it was outstanding at the hotel. Really top orange juice. Bacon that was like the stuff at home. Eggs that were perfectly cooked. Even champagne for a bucks fizz if you really wanted to push the boat out (personally I could never drink alcohol that early in the morning, but a really nice touch).
Overall, there was a mix of cliental at the hotel. Mainly couples of various ages, a few families with young children & well behaved teenagers. I also thought there was a quite a few 'Gabriel & Carlos Solalis' types (from Desperate Housewives), i.e. slightly prententious, overly tanned, & loads of designer gear.
Look away now if you can't bear to read anything negative about the hotel! These are mainly not major (with the exception of the first two), but I think it is worth pointing out in the interests of objectivity.
1) Most importantly, I was not impressed by Limassol at all - I don't mean to offend anybody, but quite frankly, it was a bit of a dump! i.e. a concrete jungle, no nice buildings, crappy souvenir shops galour. However, if you are using the hotel as a base to explore the island I am sure it will be fine, just don't expect too much from Limassol. As a result, we just wanted to cocoon ourselves in the hotel (so it doesn't really matter where you are!).
2) The beach infront of the hotel was disappointing - black sand & quite a bit of rubbish on it. We are used to holidays in the Mauritius, Seychelles & Maldives & I think it is unfair to directly compare these destinations. I thought the beach was not particularly well looked after, altough this maybe due to the time of year, as nobody was using it. Having said this, I should also point out that it was much better than the other bits of beach that I saw infront of other hotels.
3) My wife tells me that I must mention the lack of choice at the evening meal for vegetarians - lots of rice & vegetables. As a veggie, my wife found the whole thing to be very repetitive. However, full marks to Chef Philipos who noticed my wife was struggling for choice one night & spontaneously brought her a meal that he created. I was most impressed by this.
4) One 'front of house' staff member was very unsociable, which gave quite a negative impression when you arrived at the hotel. The staff were generally fantastic, but this guy (he looked like Alexis Sayle) was particularly unfriendly. We also had him again as we came to check out & they had made a mistake on our bill (check all of your drinks bills - we kept our own tally because of this reason). Anyway there were various drinks that we had not ordered put on the bill - fortunately, I had not signed for them, but the guy on the front desk made me feel like I was a criminal. I suppose this is a minor niggle, but personally I think first & last impressions are important.
5) TV in the room - every other nationality, but English had an entertainment channel in their own language, which I felt was a bit unfair (Sky News, Euro News & some business channel were in English). You get the odd programme in English on the other channels, but only due to it being subtitled in cypriot. Pay per view movies were about 10 english pounds & mainly what is currently out in UK on DVD. I took my own personal DVD player & bought a scart lead which you could plug in to the TV & play your own movies (for free!).
6) Last negative! There seemed a bit of a culture of reserving sunbeds which irritates me. I think the hotel needs to stop this, as reserving sunbeds starts others doing this & lowers the class of hotel. The sunbeds looking out on the sea seemed to be the 'favourites'.
Finally, a couple of other general points:
1) Half board / B & B option - we got free half board (due to the time of year - this was one of the reasons that attracted me to the hotel). Whether I would pay for half board is a different matter... There are plenty of tavernas nearby & much cheaper than the 20 cypriot pounds each for the buffet, which did seem a bit steep. However, non of the tavernas looked that great.
The weather at the end of March was mid 70's plenty hot enough for me (I got sunstroke one day!). A bit cold in the pool & too cold for the sea - but this is a great time of year. Someone did tell us that it was slightly cold for the time of year!
it is a paradise
by A TripAdvisor Member
I loved it, everything: breakfast, and the tropical area below, and
the fish pond with big fish, and room, and my bad, so wide I could
sleep across it, what I did. And the buffet, and food, and
entertainment, I think it is flawless.
Moscow on sea
by TripAdvisor Member kitson
My wife and I have just returned from a holiday at the Four Seasons and have very mixed feelings about the experience. I agree with many other posts on the quality of the acommodation. The bedrooms and bathrooms in particular are to a very high standard with fresh towels twice a day, beds turned down at night etc. The pool area is also great and on the whole staff are friendly, attentive and keen to please.
However, in my view this hotel has two fundamental problems - it's location and it's desire to try and cater cater for business visitors and holidaymakers together.
1. Location. The hotel backs onto a very busy road that is seemingly used as a race track by the locals particularly during the evenings. This means that anyone not paying the supplement for a pool & sea view room will experience considerable road noise. There is also a minor road that winds it's way round the perimeter of the hotel grounds down to the beach - this road again seems popular with the locals who late at night needlessly accelerate hard on motorbikes on their way to and from a small public car park by the beach. Apart from the road noise created by these two roads there is a lot of building work taking place either side of the hotel which adds further noise / dust etc. Photography promoting the hotel gives the illusion of space and extensive grounds but what is surprising is just how close the roads and other hotels and buildings are to the Four Seasons grounds. Finally, as others have commented, Limassol is by no stretch of the imagination a sophisticated resort in fact quite the opposite with half finished buildings, 'English Pubs' and topless bars within a few hundred metres of the hotel.
2. Business or pleasure. There is an article in the hotel magazine that outlines their desire to appeal to both the leisure and business traveller. Whilst both types will enjoy the quality feel to the acommodation I think it is in the food & beverage area that the hotel is pitching more towards the business traveller and in particular those from eastern europe.
During the evening the bar was often populated by large numbers of loud and older Russian 'businessmen' and their younger lady companions. If you happen to be in the general bar / lobby area in the early evening it is very obvious that the hotel is used as a meeting point for escort agencies. Whilst this can provide the casual observer some entertainment to see businessmen and their local escorts trying to make contact with each other it also creates a bit of a sleazy atmosphere which in my view is incompatible with a hotel catering for families on holiday. The consequence of this is that most families tend to avoid the bar and lobby / lounge areas in the evenings.
Another example of catering for the business market is the recently opened lobby restaurant offering 'exclusive greek cusine combined with french finesse' and 'fine tableware worthy of masterpieces on a tantalising menu'. We chose this restaurant one evening and have never eaten in a more artificial and unrelaxing atmoshere. I think the hotel have created what they believe is the right (and profitable) environment for business entertainment rather than a restaurant where those on holiday can enjoy a relaxing and good quality meal.
On balance this hotel felt more to us like it was in a city catering for business rather than beside the sea and aimed at the leisure traveller.
Great Service
by TripAdvisor Member jefft53
We spent the Easter 06 holiday at the Four Seasons. What a lovely hotel. Great location on the beach, superb facilities, nice, spacious rooms. But above all the standard of service was superb.
Good but not perfect
by TripAdvisor Member freeflight
I thought that this was a part of the Four Seasons chain but this is not the case. The service and accomodation is generally to a very high standard. Internet access from the rooms using the television costs money and does not cover POP3 accounts so if you need to keep in touch it is better to take your laptop with you. The indoor pool was warm at a time when the unheated outdoor pools were on the cool side. The little gym was well equipped. Food is good. The chinese food is good but the portions are small so you need to order quite a bit. Paying for the sea view rooms would be a good idea as there is considerable traffic nosie on the other side of the hotel facing a busy main road. Nothing much to do in Limassol..not even the shopping,. There is a brilliant Italian restaurant 300m down from the entrance which is always busy. You will struggle to watch anything much on television so take your mp3 player and relax....
Ideal to visit
by A TripAdvisor Member
Just returned from another visit to this hotel.The hotel improves continuously with this year two more excellent restaurants added.Weather in May is probably the best time of the year.
Although you may need a sweater in the evening the days are predicatably warm and sunny.From late june onwards we find it gets to hot in Cyprus.
Facilities in the hotel are excellent and the staff are genuinely very helpfull and well trained to attend to any requirements.
Always fantastic
by TripAdvisor Member SherylJenny
We have been visiting this hotel every year sometimes twice a year since our daughter was 10 months old she is now 10 years old and we enjoy our visits more and more as the years pass. This hotel has a wonderful mix of highly polished professional staff catering for your every whim and a friendly approachable management team that only ever want to help. I have stayed in various rooms and floors in the hotel and never had anything but a perfect nights sleep in a large bed with big fluffy pillows. The recent renovations to the rooms have resulted in luxurious bathrooms. The new Greek restaurnat (Mavromatis) was excellent we went with both our children (9 and 10) and we all throughly enjoyed the calm relaxed atmosphere in there, they were very accommodating, friendly and polite. In the day time there is everything or nothing to do, my husband scuba dives and Cyprus had one of the top ten dives in the world (Zenobia), my daughter loves the banana boat, super mable, flying fish and best of all the kids club where she makes loads of presents to take home, my son is mysterious and likes to just sit with sunglasses on read books and people watch and loves the games room. I like to do absolutly nothing but be waited on knowing everyone is happy.....there is no better place than here to do this I reccommend this whole heartedly.
Good but problems
by A TripAdvisor Member
We recently stayed at the 4 Seasons Hotel in Limassol. The hotel is nice and has recently undergone some refurbishment program. However we must stress that this is not a true 4 Seasons hotel and has somehow managed to keep the name going. Our room was nice and comfortable however the service and grounds could have been better. Access to the sea was not what we expected so eventually we opted to leave for another 5 Star hotel nearby which had better beachfront, grounds and service. Depending on what you are looking for this hotel will suit some but not all..... do your homework beforehand.
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