Pampered in Pissouri Bay
The Columbia Beach Resort, only a 30-minute drive from Paphos past beauty spot Aphrodite’s Birthplace, lived up to its reputation as one of the Small Luxury Hotels of the World. Our aptly named Eagle’s Nest Suite had a bird’s eye panorama – out across tiled rooftops and lush gardens cascading with bougainvillea to the twinkling sea and white cliffs of Cape Aspro. It was a magical outlook we never tired of.
The décor was stylishly colonial with patio doors to the sunny terrace. Pristine Pissouri Bay, with its long beach, may well be Blue Flag, but even its many watersports weren’t as inviting as the hotel’s swim-up bars. Sitting on an underwater bar stool in the cool shallows with margaritas made us feel like we’d arrived!
Even more thrilling, a swim-up spa is hard to beat – at least, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one before! You could swim from the sunshine through open doors into the serene shade of the seductively-scented Hébe Spa and book a treatment. My signature Hébe Spa Ritual was top-to-toe bliss – I felt like a goddess when I emerged.
It can’t be a bad start to the day to enjoy a buffet poolside breakfast at a restaurant named Bacchus, after the God of wine.
Other excellent hotel restaurants included the Apollo Tavern with its traditional Cypriot menu, and Cape Aspro offering “Street Eats” around a fire-pit barbecue. Yet Pissouri Bay, just a five-minute walk away, drew us to its handful of restaurants as well as bars with live music. It was a 10-minute taxi ride to the more authentic, traditional hilltop village of Pissouri, with its sweeping vistas of the vine-filled valley and bay below. It’s thronged with tourists each Friday for Cyprus Night during summer, but on a tranquil Sunday evening, men were playing backgammon on street corners, while children ran around the fountain on the traffic-free square.
Come dinnertime, the restaurants filled and our dishes of souvlaki and stifado were generous and tasty.
No wonder Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, is said to have been born on Cyprus, an island paradise!