Hi Anne

It all depends on where you stay and what you will do.

If you plan on hiring a car, getting out and about to see and experience the local culture then I doubt AI would be of any use to you.

If you plan on staying in high class/grade hotel accommodation then you have to expect to pay higher prices for the privilege - for example: a cheese and ham toasted sandwich in the Four Seasons in Limassol is offered at 12 Euros each. The same can be purchased in the Nag's Head pub a bit further up the road for around 4 Euros and a 3 course meal for about 12 Euros.

If you eat along the harbour in Paphos you can expect to pay twice as much than you would eating in one of the bars/restaurants on Tombs of the Kings road just 5 minutes away.

If you choose to go to one of the local tavernas or nautical clubs you will find the food is much better than in some of the tourist restaurants - prices will be about the same or sometimes a little less.

We holidayed in Cyprus for 15+ years before we came to live here and always stayed in an apartment, hired a car and took ourselves all over the place. We found Limassol was always better suited for this as it's more central so easier to visit each end of the island without having to drive more than 90 mins in each direction.

Wherever you choose to stay you will find cheap and expensive side by side. Check the prices before you order and if you don't like the prices don't have any hesitation about getting up and leaving. There are plenty of other places to go! Most bars and restaurants have their menus on display or written up on a board so it's not really an issue.

Along Limassol seafront we've ordered a drink of tea per person and prices have varied from 1.90 Euros for a mug/beaker to 2.40 Euros for a cup (we chose to have a half of shandy each instead as it was a lot cheaper)! Lager (Keo, Carlsberg or Leon) can be anything from 1.50 Euros a pint and upwards.

On the beach we've had local souvlakia (pork kebab) at Curium beach at 6 Euros but exactly the same at Ladies Mile beach is double the price. We can go to local restaurants and expect to pay anything from 7 Euros and upwards for a main meal. On the other hand there's another restaurant we go to for a special occasion in Limassol where we know we will pay around 22 Euros for a huge sirloin steak or a Lebanese restaurant that offers a meat meze for about 20 Euros per person.

You will find the younger locals frequent the trendy coffee bars (Starbucks and lots more like them) which are very expensive. However, you will find they will order just one drink and then sit there all afternoon or evening with it!

Hope that helps a bit?

Shell
Limassol, Cyprus

be careful there are 2 AI's the first incs all on site entertainment [except special events] and all local soft drinks,water wine and spirits by the glass.. the other is soft AI which doesn't always include spirits and only selected drinks with meals and limited free entrtainment...

I would not consider AI [unless like last year a family holiday] we go Half board which gives a better selections of hotels, you don't feel obliged to stay in the hotel all the time,and if you are not keen on the food you haven't lost much by going out for a meal,

Like ALL holiday resorts it can be a cheap or expensive as you wish to make it, drinking and eating in the main resort areas will cost you, but a stroll outside the resort can save pounds [sorry Euro] and receive better quality [we always listen for busy places where you cant hear English being shouted out] or small bars [usually quite dark and dingy looking] where mainly locals go.

Lemesos [limasol] and Larnaka are working towns with sea frontage, Pafos [paphos] is a bit in the face and the better hotels usualy a long way [say corral bay] from the town. Pollis and Lakki [latchi] still in the Pafos district are smaller and therefore quieter, Agia Nappa has its reputation and can be very expensive in the main area, adjoining Nappa is Nissi Bay a nice stretch of sandy beach and some very good hotels [far enough from the town that you don't get many 18/30 types. Protaras and Penera are a bit touristy but nowhere near as much as Pafos Or Agia Nappa., this is our prefered area good hotels entertainment if you want, sky sport if thats your thing, or out of the main area pleasant walks and reasonable prices, take a look at the resort reports for a better idea.

yasus
wizard

Some false information there regarding Paphos hotels.The better hotels are not a long way from Paphos,within a 15 minute walk of the main tourist and harbour area there are at least 3 five star hotels(Almyra,Annabelle and Amathus) and a few excellent 4 star ones(Alexander the Great,Aloe,Avanti to name 3).Just a bit further away(15 to 30 minute stroll) are several very good 4 star hotels.At the other end of Paphos,just off the Tomb of the Kings road is the Elysium,another 5 star.As said,eating out can be as expensive or as cheap as you want.Not all the harbour restaurants are over priced,in fact some of the cheapest 3 course set menu deals can be found on the harbour front.

It all depends on how much you can afford to spend as to be honest the only way I would return to Cyprus is if I could afford a top end AI hotel in a sea front position(young family).

If you want the security of knowing your holiday is paid for as such then AI is the option I would recommend with plenty of spending money so you're not trapped at all anyway and can come and go as you like from your hotel complex.

I do think that Cyprus is one of the more all round expensive holiday destinations but it's not stupidly expensive.

If you're on a tight budget then I really would choose somewhere else as although as lovely as it is I did not find anything that special to justify the tour operators prices.

"I do think that Cyprus is one of the more all round expensive holiday destinations but it's not stupidly expensive"

That's good to hear....for years we have gone AI, this will be our first self catering holiday in a long while. Only paid £1600 for four of us for a fortnight DIY, apartment and flights in August, so hoping it stays a fairly inexpensive holiday. The only thing that worries me is the cost of eating out...I don't mind cooking the odd night, but I'd like a break from it really.

without wanting to sound flippant, you can eat at McDonalds an get a burger for 1 euro right through to top notch restaurants were you might be paying 100euros each...

Part of the fun of self catering is discovering places which might include going to the bakers for a snack, supermarkets/shops for some quick and easy do it yourself catering and cafés and restaurants to suit your budget.
We (2 of us) spent 500 Earth pounds in 5 days back in April 2009, but we did eat out in all the places we wanted to for 3 meals a day and drank plenty...
We could easily have made breakfasts/lunches, maybe sat on the balcony for a quiet drink etc, but at the time we wanted to enjoy the short 5 day break to the full !

STeve

The only advice I can give re AI in Cyprus is

DON'T DO IT!!

We went to Cyprus 2 years ago and must admit we found it quite expensive,there were 3 of us,2adults and 1x15year old.Our hotel was £3600,AI ,but the food was pretty good,we didn't feel the need to eat out apart from the days we went on trips.We did find the trips rather expensive though.It was a good holiday and we really enjoyed it but it cost us well over £4000,at that price we can only really afford to go on one holiday and maybe visit our friends in Spain if we're careful.Last year we went to Turkey,just the 2 of us,our son went to Florida with his girlfriend and her family,our hotel was £1600,4* AI,food was not too bad,trips were cheap and we only spent about £500,it also meant that we were not saving as hard and could enjoy other things.This year we are having 8 days visiting our friends in Spain,a week in Cornwall and 2 weeks in Turkey,all for about £5000.

We used to go all inclusive when we first started going abroad with the children and it served its purpose. As they grew up and moved on we went to half board then bed n breakfasts and eventually to just self catering (this was in other countries). We have mostly done self catering in Cyprus but back in 2008 when everyone was saying how going into the Euro had put prices up by 10,20,50 and even 100% (which wasn't true) we went All inclusive..

"the food was ok" yeah it was, but I don't do ok, I'm a keen cook and do a lot of meals at home and even while on holiday so "ok" isn't really what I want. We found ourselves eating in at the hotel for breakfast, maybe lunch but after a few days we had enough and started going out and about to get meals that you talk about with comments like "oh you should have seen this..", "it looked like a stew but oooh what a flavour, you really need to try some".. "I had this on holiday and had to make it myself for everyone else to try"...

ALL INC and Self catering will both have good and bad points, both will be great holidays, but they will be different holidays.

All inc you find yourself more tied to the hotel which is great if you have the little ones with you and like to spend most of your time by/in the pool, at the bar (this I don't mind ) and generally using the facilities (gym, tenis, games machines etc that the hotels might offer) with no real worries about costs so you can tell them to get another drink, get some lunch, not get some lunch, get a snack etc.. and no pressure about meal times (we found we used to get up for breakfast but the kids didn't want it, so they would have a mid morning snack after swimming around for hours, we would then get a bit of lunch but they wouldn't want any. They would then get something in the afternoon etc.. they were on holiday just like we were, so as long as everyone was fed and watered I wasn't going to stress about when they were actually doing it (as long as it was decent food and not 10 icecreams a day with 20litres of sugary pop)

Self Catering you spend more time going out and about looking at different places to eat, talking to other people about places they have tried, talking to the bars/café/restaurant owners about life and such.. You also find you can get up when you want and if you fancy going to the beach at 7am you can. You can then go for a breakfast at 10am if you like (where ALL INc you tend to have to get up and go to breakfast in your allocated slot). You can then decide to go and explore the area, hire cars etc and go and look around, maybe miss lunch because you aren't hungry (in the heat) and then find somewhere nice for an evening meal...