This is not a 4 star hotel,very old looking.

Location is great, the food was not very good, ate out many times,hotel gym is a waste of time, equipment very old.

Gardens not looked after, pool was nice and the staff were great, but overall I would not go back to this hotel.

Excellent location, staff marvelous and always ready to help. Runs alwasy clean and spotless.

Slightly run down.

Entertianment rubbish, and it would be an improvement no entertainment.

Big problem is the noise from the Ghetto Bar opposite.

If kept awake at night, call down to reception and ask them to call the police. Which they will happily do.

Food is usually very good, but this year, dinner at night was very poor. Main problem seems to be the hotel offering 'all inclusive' and thus dumbing down. Lesson: you don't get something for nothing.

Other meals good, but lunch for 'all inclusive' (which I never had) I was told was disgusting.

Lunch at pool bar very good.

'All inclusive' is also bring in the rougher end of the holiday trade who like to sit around drinking all day.

Otherwise, with above reservations, a very good hotel.

We arrived at 2am ish in the morning after a trouble free, smooth flight and we were allocated our rooms within minutes. We were pleasantly surprised by the rooms. They were larger than we had expected and interconnecting (which we had previously requested by e-mail). There were plenty of draws and cupboard space which is always useful. The room was very clean although a bit basic and the shower was a bit hit or miss at times. Both rooms had a TV (which was expensive if you wished to use it), Hairdryer (not much good) and Fridge (adequate but again they do suggest that if you use it, a charge will be made). You can purchase Tea & coffe facilities at a cost of 2.75cp per day. The Hotel does not like it but we bought a kettle in protaras for 9.99cp and took our own tea.

Breakfast - was probably the best meal of the day. The choice was your usual English and Continetal mix with a choice of tea, coffee and fruit juices included.

Lunch - We were on a halfboard basis and so did not eat at the hotel but apart from the main restraunt there is a cafe bar on the complex should you wish to use but once again, quite expensive when feeding a family of 5.

Pool Bar - Had everything you would need but very expensive. A bottle of water cost 1.00cp but take a 2 minute walk to the supermarket and you would pay 30cence.

Dinner - Sadly, not too exciting. Each night was generally themed. There was usually a choice of 3-4 meat dishes, usually roasted potatoes and a selection of cold pasta and salad dishes. Pudding consisted of 1 or 2 cake type desserts. We were quite disappointed but having said that we are quite fussy eaters and so we probably couldn,t pass a fair judgement. No kids menu but you can request something to be cooked ie hamburger, nuggets, chips etc. You can also request ice cream for the children.

Swimming Pools - Kids pool is great. The main pool is very deep and was a big concern for our smaller children as to get through the sunbeds you had to walk extremely close to the pool edge (not good for our scatty 2 year old).

Hotel Entertainment - Run by the lovely Gina and only Gina. Poor lass tried her hardest but alas to no avail. Kids Disco will probably not be as you have known it before. Entertainment was poor and so consequently not a lot of people stayed in the hotel to witness it. However, once you step outside the hotel into 'The strip', you can understand why. The strip consists of Restraunts (inc Pizza Hut, Southern Fried Chicken and McDonalds) and Karaoke bars which are full of impersonators such as Elvis, Tom Jones, Robbie Wiliams, Maddona, Abba, etc. Fantastic entertainment for all the family.

Overall, The Vrissiana was a pleasant stay. It is perfectly situated and all the staff are absolutely fantastic. Protaras itself is a good resort with plenty of Nightly entertainment, shops and restaraunts but taking into account that you only get about 80 cypriot pounds to 100 pound sterling it does work out extremely expensive. Having said that, we would happily go back to this area if we got a cheap deal.
The Beach - We were quite surprised at how rocky it is at the sea edge. There were stretches of just sand but these areas were consquently very busy. Fig Tree Bay hosts the perfect beach but it is not very big and once again people were packed on to it like sardines. Point of warning, the sand is very fine almost dusty and very very hot. Beach shoes are a must for the little ones.

The lobby area is a little run down and in need of a face lift, but this is not true of the rest of the hotel, especially the rooms.

The rooms are very good, spacious, with an almost wall-to-wall sliding door. The door opens out onto a balcony with a table and a couple of chairs.

The rooms are cleaned daily, clean towels if you want them. Beds made every day, bed linen changed every few days.

In the rooms is a TV with various channels, including hard porn pay TV! But who wants to sit in a room watching TV?

The rooms also include a fridge, for which you may or may not have to pay, depending on what you use it for. If you only use it for food you don't seem to have to pay, if you use it for drinks you do have to pay. Check with reception.

There is no safe in the rooms, there are though safety deposit boxes in reception, which is a better arrangement. To open requires a key from you and reception.

The rooms are always immaculately clean as is the rest of the hotel.

The service, whether reception (but especially reception), house maids, restaurant and bar is excellent, both friendly, competent and efficient.

Unlike too many hotels, especially those in the Tsokkas group, Vrissiana has not sacked all its local staff and replaced with cheap immigrant labour. There are a couple of very pleasant girls from a Slovakia hotel and catering school who are there for their summer vacation to gain practical work experience.

The food has always been good, but for 2006, the evening meal was very poor. Poor quality ingredients, poorly prepared, poorly presented.

No-one had a good word to say about the dinner, whereas people are usually highly complimentary about the food.

As all the staff are the same apart from a new chef and new manager, the staff suggested draw your own conclusions where the problem must lie.

The problem also seems to be a move to 'all inclusive', and those on half board are suffering as a consequence.

There is no such thing as a free lunch. You may get eat as much as you want to eat all day long, but it will be rubbish food. Corners are being cut to keep the price down.

Lunch for the 'all inclusive' is even worse than the evening dinner. I did not try it, but 'disgusting' was the comments I heard.

Lunch at the pool bar is good. Breakfast is good. But even breakfast, food is not being freshly prepared before the guests, for example fried eggs. For both breakfast and lunch at the pool bar, a very wide choice.

Vrissiana must reject 'all inclusive' and go back to bed and breakfast and half board.

The new manager is a disaster, he is not interested in listening to what anyone has to say. The Aqua Sol board needs to look at replacing the new manager as a matter of urgency and with top priority. In one season he is going to lose the reputation of the Vrissiana that has been built up over many years.

The hotel used to have an evening where you had a complimentary drink with the management, and for regular guests, the previous manager invited them to join him for lunch. Both seem to have been scrapped. A retrograde step which severely curtails informal feedback.

Because of the poor food (people had no other complaint) people were saying they would not return, or if they did, it would be bed and breakfast (this included people who had been to Vrissiana in the past).

Another downside of 'all inclusive' is that it is attracting into the hotel the bottom end of the tourist market.

The Ghetto Bar across the road needs a bulldozer. After midnight it turns up the volume, and goes on past 1am, often until 2am or later.

It is a legal requirement for the noise to stop at 1am.

Once the music stops, drunken yobs at the Ghetto screaming and shouting for at least another hour. Sometimes fights spilling out into the street.

If kept awake, call down to reception, who will call the police. This is something tour reps should be advising on, but as usual they are useless.

The animator is a pleasant English girl (entertainer) and very friendly, but the entertainment is rubbish.

Why do people even want entertainment? Would not a quiet hotel, the ability to relax after dinner, be preferable to a ghastly noise?

The hotel has no indoor pool and has never claimed to have one. I assume bogus claims by tour operators.

The L-shaped pool is shallow at one end and a deep at the other end.

The children's pool is in reality little more than a shallow paddling pool. Safe, but not for swimming.

The grassy area between the pool area and the beach is a little threadbare and needs reseeding. Some of the sunbeds have seen better days and need replacing.

The gym is poorly equipped, and needs new equipment.

The location could not be better (apart from the Ghetto Bar), in the centre of town and right on the beach.

Overall this is a good hotel, if slightly down at heels in the reception area, and urgent action is needed on the meals in the evening.

Protaras is a very good resort, although it is starting to attract the rougher elements that you'd expect to find in Ayia Napa.

The on-line guide to Protaras

http://www.heureka.clara.net/sunrise/protaras.htm

has a picture of Vrissiana Beach Hotel.

Felt slightly disappointed when we arrived at this hotel, it should be down as a three star definetly not a four star hotel.

Entertainment was poor especially if you have children although it may improve in high season. I had not much sleep the first night as there was a very noisy bar close by, and also the bathroom extractor fan came on religiously about 6 am in the morning and sounded like a digger.

I complained and was moveed to a room opposite where the noise level was better. I am sure this hotel had a indoor pool listed so I was really annoyed when I couldn't find it along with the tennis courts, it also advertises a gym which is true and a sauna but this is charged for.

Me and my four year old son struggled with the food so I think we eat out three times. On a higher note the staff are very friendly, I would go back to protaras buton a self catering basis as there are plenty of lovely resturants to choose from, we particularly enjoyed the corner restuarant ehich specialised in Flambe!!

This was the greatest place I have ever been although the entertainment bar was quite lame. Frank Sinatra was good though.

The staff were welcoming and very friendly and they were some of the nicest people I have ever met. There was 1 waiter who forgot to ask me what I wanted to drink though so that was poop.

The location was fantastic as it was right on the beach and right by Stephanos watersports which was very handy as I did a lot of watersports.

There was a good variety of food for vegetarians and they had theme nights for every night.

The hotel was very clean and the cleaners were great as we weren't allowed other drinks in our room but they let us keep the booze! BRILLIANT!!!

I would recommend this hotel as it is fabulous and in staggering distance from some great cocktail bars! I recommend the Flora cocktail bar and the greenery bar!

Hello again. I have already put a review but I accidentally put self catering. We were here on half board and the food was fabulous!!!

Everything here was great and I am going back there in 7 weeks.

Although the entertainment wasnt that good, Protaras was packed full of nightlife so you are guaranteed a good time.

All of the staff were lovely and were very helpful.

Arrived early hours due to a delay and was met by friendly staff which was great. Our room on ground floor was very clean and quite spacious but could hear the music from disco bar at top of road.

In morning met by staff at breakfast welcomed to Cyprus and seated at table. All meals had a good choice and would recommend the flamb

I stayed for seven nights at this hotel in August on a half board basis and found it ideal for a family holiday.

Most of the staff are really friendly, food is good, drinks a bit expensive, hotel could do with a minor refit, lots of areas to sit and relax and sunbathe.

Drinks at beach bar do vary in price depending on who serves you but overall I found this holiday very relaxing and enjoyable and would return again in the future.

Just back from two weeks holiday and had a wonderful time.

The hotel staff were so friendly, really appreciated clean towels every day, and the facility to have towels to sunbathe on for a refundable deposit. The food was great too.

I would say the hotel was probably more a 3* appearance but location was brilliant, just walk onto the beach.

At night the 'Ghetto' bar at the top of the street was noisy.

Brochure stated 'sky tv' in room, this was not the case, there were no English speaking channels on it, and the remote control had a 'pay tv' button that you were to use to pay for film channels. We did not use this but were told when checking out that we had used the tv pay channel for 8 minutes. Just don't use the tv at all, we only flicked up and down channels and got nothing to watch.

Would definitely recommend this hotel, you will have a wonderful holiday here.