More about St. Raphael Resort
Really nice hotel on the beach
by bobyn about St. Raphael Resort
Very nice five star (*****) hotel, with excellent location, comfort and service.
The St. Raphael is situated about 15 kms from Limassol in an area called Amathus.
There was an archaelogical find here about ten or so years ago, which put a halt to all building on this stretch. Therefore it is rather quiet and not as commercialised as when you get closer to Limassol itself. There are another few similar hotels along here with similar setups, which are also quite nice, but I cant speak for them as I didnt stay there!
This hotel was willing to give me cuttings from a plant they had in their hotel after I had arrived back to Ireland....I thought that this was nice "after service".
Arriving at 6am in the morning, a lovely welcome was received, this place knows how to make you feel special!!
Pics to be added. The setup is like this: hotel, swimming pool, gardens, residents beach (owned by Hotel, as they can do in Cyprus), private marina. So if you're looking for a relaxing time with everything within reach, this is the place to be.
The staff are very friendly, with a pleasant 24 hour room service (very handy), dry cleaning, laundry, swimming pool with a water bar where you can get both drinks and snacks, choice of four restaurants, buffet breakfast, cocktails, beer, mini bar in room, beauty parlour, gymnasium, indoor pool, beauty rooms, organised scuba diving, etc etc etc...
Would definitely stay again
by TripAdvisor Member irish_gremlin
This is a beautiful hotel in a very quiet location with very few pubs nightclubs or such like in the area. The rooms were lovely, the facilites were great with 2 outdoor pools, 1 indoor pool and a beach. We spent most of the time on the beach and towels are available from the Gym area as often as you like. Sun loungers and umbrella are provided by the hotel on the beach ,and there is a fantastic floating "play area" in the sea comprising two trampolines, a moonwalk, a slide and a climbing wall. There are many other water sports available, though these have to be paid for.
Staff in the hotel were mainly friendly, though at breakfast time they always seemed to be in a rush to clear your table and move you on, and on many occasions a guest returned to their table from the buffet to find it had been reset and the reminder of their breakfast removed.
The hotel would benefit from a leaflet that tells guests about all the services and how to access them, times of opening of the restaurants and which restaurants require a prior booking.
We were staying on a Bed and Breakfast rate and ate in the hotel on 2 evenings and could not complain about the quality and standard of the food.
The hotel is located about 15 minutes from Limassol and if you, like us, are on a bed and breakfast rate, then you will need a car to travel as good restaurants are very limited within the vaccinity of the hotel.
We would definitely go and stay in the St Raphael again, and I would certainly recommend it to anyone. The small irks that we had were overcome by the facilities and the friendliness of all the staff.
We loved it!!!
by TripAdvisor Member Brun
My boyfriend and I spent a week at St Raphael on an all-inclusive board, we arrived at the hotel to be told our sea view room was not available, therefore we had been upgraded to an executive suite in the new wing, we loved it! The room was excellent with a HUGE balcony overlooking the sea marina and pool!
We found the food to be delicious and very varied, we never got bored.. the service was brilliant and the hotel itself clean and spacious...the only down side, and I'm just being picky, is the beach as it's man made so not the soft white or yellow sand, more grey colour, but still clean and nice enough.
I would say if your going to Cyprus stay at the St Raphael, we went past Four Seasons and other top end hotels they were near the town and looked tatty...I sound like I'm making commison but it honestly was lovely!
ps there was no building noise or work I could see
Do Not Hesitate to Go Here!
by TripAdvisor Member JezzaSB
I have just returned from a week at the St Raphael hotel in Limassol, and I would like to say that it is up there with best holidays I've ever had.
I went there with my wife, 18 month old daughter, and my mother - my father passed away recently - so as you can imagine, it was a much needed break!
The first thing that strikes you when you arrive is the reception area. We love an impressive reception, as this sets the welcoming tone for a holiday, and this hotel does not disappoint! Marble floors, glass elevators, water features, huge open spaces, shops! Stunning!!!
The staff are incredibly friendly and helpful as we discovered when our family room (MASSIVE ROOM) developed a problem with the sliding door and was letting all the noise in overnight. They offered us a sea view room, but for us, baby and all the tools needed for the little one it proved a little too small, so they again moved us, but this time to a mountain facing suite in the new wing. WOW! Can't fault it. AND ALL FOR FREE!!!
We went all-inclusive (our first time!) so as you can imagine we were a little unsure of what to expect. You get a choice of 4 free restaurants - Phoneician (you'd better be hungry!), Octagon (breakfast, lunch, dinner buffet), Palladium (dressy evening buffet with HUGE choice) and the Splash Restaurant by the pool (lunch, drinks & snacks until 6.30pm). Say "Hi" to Michaela at the Splash Restaurant. She's FANTASTIC and unbelievably helpful.
You can also choose the Sailor's Rest (which you have to pay for but you get £5 (cypr) per person off the total EACH TIME you eat there) which is a short walk past the marina. There's also a Beach Bar which provides a buffet lunch for free if you go all-inclusive. There is an Amphibian Bar, too, attached to one of the pools.
We never had a problem with the food as the quality was excellent, and the choice amazing. If I had to moan about something, it would be about the selection of fruit available - not a lot of choice.
When you're outside, the feeling of space is incredible. You don't have to sit on top of other people, having them listening in to your conversations. The beach is huge, and again the spacing is perfect.
If you enjoy your drinks you will be in heaven. You get free drinks until midnight. The choice again is amazing, so if you're after daytime refreshments or a little tipple, there'll be plenty of choice for you. If you want to drink imported alcohol you'll have to pay (though you do get £1.50 off any drink not on the AI selection list).
Overall, we had a great relaxing time, exactly what we needed after the year we've had. We would recommend this hotel without exception, and we are already looking into booking our next trip there, but this time we'll stay longer. I can highly recommend the sea view suites in the new wing (see my photos) which they lent us on our last day as our flight left late that evening.
BOOK IT NOW!!!
Oh My God!!!
by TripAdvisor Member Kirsty&Alan
There is no way this hotel is a 5 star hotel - I would give it a 3.
Our main bone of contention was the food.
The food - the brochure states that there are 2 a la carte restuarants. No there isn't! The Lebanese is lovely but you do not get to pick off a menu but it is at least waiter service.
The Italian - well it beggars belief! It is a handful of plastic tables and chairs arranged outside the breakfast room. No music no flags infact nothing Italian apart from a dried up pizza and one pasta dish. This is does not make it an Italian a la carte in my eyes! We left in disgust from this restuarant.
The main buffet restuarant, the Palladium, is hell on earth. The hotel has over 200 bedrooms but on average only 5 or 6 main dishes and believe it or not, one night one of the dishes was BAKED BEANS! In a 5 star hotel???
We complained about the food and the fact that we could not get a drink with our dinner to the hotel management. They advised us that we could eat off the a la carte menu in the buffet restuarant free of charge. We did this until one night we stood for approx 5 mins to be seated, which they ask you to do, then we were sat at a dirty unmade table. There were other clean tables around but for some reason they saw fit to put us there. The waiter then disappeared and did not return.
Other waiters saw us but not one person approached us either to make up the table or offer us a drink. The guy who showed us to the table did come back into the dining room and saw us still sitting there but again ignored us. We sat for approx 10 mins then left. What a farce. We ended up having a sandwich upstairs in the bar. This is not what I expected from a 5 star hotel.
This is the first year the hotel is doing all inclusive and to be honest, I think they are really struggling to cope. You have to sign for absolutely everything as guests from other countries are not all inclusive. Some drinks, as usual on all inclusive holidays, are not included but their system does not follow rhyme nor reason. Eg, a whisky is free, a coffee is free but if you want an irish coffee you have to pay £3.80 Cyp. Amaretto coffee is the same, an Amaretto is free as is the coffee but if you want them in the same cup with a bit of fresh cream you have to pay £3.80 Cyp. Didn't know fresh cream in Cyprus was so expensive!!
These little things really annoyed after a while and the food and the service in the main restuarant did not get any better.
You do get and allowance of £5 cyp per person per day for food if you eat at the marina, however, check your bill when checking out as it is not automatically deducted. As is the £1.50 cyp pp allowance for anything taken from the menu in the bar which is not part of the all inclusive package. When we checked out and paid our bill, reception staff had no idea what we were talking about and we had to go and get a menu to physically show them that we were entitled to a discount. How many people have just paid without querying?
The area the hotel is in is so quiet compared to the hussle and bustle of Limassol but the building work going on all around the hotel is very extensive at the moment. Worst of all was the hotel's own gardner cutting the grass (with huge indutrial machine!) at 7am!!
There were certain members of the staff that could not do enough for us, Proc at reception, Christos Nounis the bartender, Simona the waitress and Nicos the porter - if only the restuarant staff could take after these guys!!!
5* It isn't!
by TripAdvisor Member Travelmad-uk
My husband and I have just returned from a week at this hotel and although we had a plesant stay, the food leaves a lot to be desired from a 5* hotel.
The meals were buffet style and although there was plenty of choice it seemed the dishes were mis-matched and did not complement each other. All of the meat served at the Carvery (which we renamed the Chunkery) were very overcooked and dry to the bone, which is why they couldn't carve the meat and had to lever chunks of it away.
We tried the Octagon (Italian) restaurant,which also doubled up as the breakfast and lunch dining hall. The food was laughable and certainly not Italian. We figured that it wouldn't make any difference what restaurant we ate in as all the food was cooked the same way!. At breakfast for example there was hot food but they did not cook eggs to order, they had a 'chef' frying and poaching eggs which then sat in containers for what could be 1 hour. There are lots of stray cats that roam the hotel grounds and restaurants, which doesn't bode well for hygiene reasons.
Our room was ok, we had a front marina view, but the hotel is dated (apart from the new wing) and could benefit from a total overhaul. The rooms and hotel were kept clean by very friendly chambermaids.
The hotel has two pools and while we were there it was very peaceful around the pool, with plenty of sunbeds available.
Entertainment was quite dire, an outside disco most evenings which played the same music everytime.
There was only two english channels on the bedroom t.v, one being Sky News the other BBC World.
We stayed on an all inclusive basis, but there are restrictions as far as drinks available, some cocktails but not all, some coffees but not all. Weird!!
Would not go back to this hotel, despite the friendly staff, it is too far from the main resort of Limassol and there are only a couple of bars and restaurants within walking distance of the hotel.
Fantastic Place, Everything you need!
by TripAdvisor Member partickpebbles
The Hotel, well fantastic, I travelled with My WIfe, Son, Two Friends and there two children. After a 45 min transfer check in was slick and the porters quick to get the bags to our rooms.
The Rooms were on the sixth floor, via the glass lifts! They were clean and had all the mod cons listed in the brochures, Internet, Flat screen tv, coffee and tea making facilities, Safe and Mini Bar.
We wer lucky to get a sea view, but our friends had a slightly bigger room! (Well they had one extra Bod!!)
After the first night we changed rooms, so we could be inter connecting! This allowed the kids to cause mayhem and Chaos from 7am!!
The Holiday was about having fun, watersports and the kids! It was all there. October was the perfect time to go, it was quiet enough by the pool and on the beach, but all activities were still available. This allowed the boys to do the Adrenalin stuff! Which included, Fly fishing! See Pic!, Jet Skiing, Parasailing and much much more. (Not Inclusive but well priced!!)
For the kids, Play group, 2 Parks, two pools and a waterslide!
For the ladies, a fantastic Spa!
So all good!!
The Food..........lots of choice, but as with any all inclusive, can get repetetive! But we had Lebanese twice, Italian, and the other nights from the Med Buffet!
Breakfast was fab, with Bucks fizz available if you could face it!!
Lunch wise you had 3 choices, by the sea, by the pool, or in the main restaurant! - Again all good!!
Bar wise, a pool bar(in the pool) a bar by the other pool 20yards away! and the Main Bar 'The Captains Bar'!!
Unlike most all inclusives you don't wear a wrist band, so you sign for everything! Check the bar tariff as not everything is included! We realised this quickly! but there was more than enough! Cocktails galore, Champagne, Wine and Beers are all in!! its thinks like XO Brandy and Port (Jim Liked his port!) that you pay for!!
So overall, Fantastic the whole hotel staff were polite, the watersports team were friendly and mainly british!!
Would I go back?? Sure would!!!!
Lovely holiday
by TripAdvisor Member TheSmyths
Just come back from a weeks holiday at the Raphael. My husband and I + 2 kids (10 +7). Our first time back to cyprus for 12 years having visited limassol a couple of times before we decided to go for a nice 4/5 star hotel.
We had a large family room on the 4th floor facing the road. Some noise but nothing major. Maids come every day and are very helpful and friendly as is all the staff in the hotel.
Weather was fantastic. We are beach people more than pool loungers so we were delighted with the beach and the watersports that were available right beside it. Pool areas are clean and tidy with plenty of sunbeds.
Food - there are 3 restaurants - we did not try the lebonese but we tried the italian which was ok but mainly stayed with the Palladium. The food was generally good and we felt there was plenty of choice but i must point out that we are not fussy eaters. Everything was cooked properly - my only slight disappointment was the lack of choice for children as i have a fussy 7 yr old!
The town of limassol has changed alot in 12 years in fact it was hard to recognise. Its never been pretty so we were not surprised with what we saw. But this holiday was about finding a nice hotel with a good beach and going all inclusive so we could thoroughly relax. This definitely was acheived.
We do agree that it may be does not reach a 5 star status but a good 4 star.
Just a couple of points - be advised that russians/eastern european holiday makers occupy 60-75% of the hotel.
Kids club could have been more entertaining.
Overall we had a lovely holiday and would recommend the hotel.
Hope this has been informative for you.
Brillant
by TripAdvisor Member acpp
We have just come back from a xmas holiday where we stayed at the St Rahael Resort. It was fantastic the food, location, staff and facilities. We went all inclusive and well worth the money. In regards to the food, i am a vegetarian and the chefs catered for my need very well. The entertainment for xmas was very good and the staff were very friendly. I would recommend this hotel to anyone and i am thinking about going back there next xmas.
Forum Posts
St Raphael resort hotel
by mdbkw
Hi we are staying at the resort from 15 april to 23 april. Can any give an honest opinion of the place please.
What will the weather be like then and where are the best places to see please. We will have a car to use.
Many thanks
Martin/Karen
Re: St Raphael resort hotel
by ilmitz
try and go to Paphos for sure which has a lot of charm and definately go to the Trodos mountains. Limassol itself does not offer too much but its a nice little town to relax for a few days in.
