"We’ve just got back from a week at Pernera Beach Hotel.
We booked it quite last minute and were looking for somewhere above average, in a low-key area but within reach of Ayia Napa as we were travelling with two 18 year old boys.
This fit the bill perfectly, and then some!
Everything in the hotel is top quality and the 4 stars are well deserved.
All staff are super friendly and start to learn your orders as the week goes on.
I will admit I am a snob and before I went I’d seen the hotel done bingo and thought oh god what’s it going to be like?! But the bingo lasted half an hour a couple of times a week and was actually good fun. It’s not a ‘Brits abroad’ type of hotel, they’re down the road in Protaras and Ayia Napa.
The boys went into Protaras and the strip there which was walkable in under 30 mins and they enjoyed. They also went to Ayia Napa a couple of times. The bus is €2 each but takes an hour, runs until about 4am. They did that the first time but after that got taxis which took 15 mins but cost €30.
We had superior sea view rooms which were great, spacious and seemed very newly decorated and with a nice bathroom.
Plug sockets in Cyprus are the same as in the UK so you don’t need adapters, and by the beds there were also USB and USB-C charging points which was handy.
Disappointed there was only a single hair/body wash in the shower and no other toiletries provided, but it’s a nice one with a ginger smell, and didn’t dry my hair out.
The buffet restaurant done the best all inclusive dinner I’ve ever had, really great quality food and huge selection, with themed nights (Asian, Mexican, Greek to name a few). It’s lovely to sit in the outside section looking over the beach. The white wine they serve in there is nice as well, similar to a Sauvignon Blanc.
We didn’t bother with the buffet lunch but the snack bar at the pool done toasties, burgers, nuggets, fruit salad and everything we tried was fine.
The à la carte restaurants are good, we preferred the Asian one which was really great quality and good portion sizes. The Mediterranean restaurant was ok but not as good.
To book the à la carte restaurants you have to use the hotel’s app, you can only book for the number of people in your room though, so for us with 2 rooms it was a bit trial and error booking a table for one room and then booking the other one for the same time, a couple of times after we booked the first table it said it was fully booked so we had to cancel and try a different time! But was ok in the end we just added a note on each booking to ask to sit with the other room number, and had no issues with that.
Breakfast selection was really varied, hot food until 10am then pastries and fruit until 11am. The pastries are very tasty and the cold cappuccino from the machine is delicious, hint - the serving is small so add 2, they’ll both fit perfectly in one cup!
Really good free wifi available all over the hotel and on the beach next door.
It’s a 25 minute stroll along the boardwalk to main Protaras beach and another 5 minutes to Fig Tree Bay. Easy access and you could easily do it with a buggy/wheelchair. The main beaches were both horrendously busy when we were there, I’d actually recommend to not bother because Pernera beach is right next to the hotel and is a beautiful little bay with sunbeds to rent and places to get food and drink, and a much nicer place to be. It’s like Fig Tree Bay but on a smaller scale and less crowded.
Wet and Wild watersports are on the opposite side of Pernera beach (3 min walk from hotel) and offer the best value jet skis in the area, also banana boats, canoes etc, all very reasonable and they’re super friendly.
Pool closes at 6pm which we felt was a little early as the sun set at 7.30.
Sunbeds around the pool got reserved by 9am but there were always beds available on the grassy areas which we preferred and were quieter.
Late check out can be booked for around £80 through TUI when you book, but if you must get it book it on site for €55. However - we were getting picked up at 8.30pm for our flight home so we paid for late check out for one of our rooms. For the other room we didn’t bother, checked out at 12 as normal and put cases in the luggage room, they let us keep our beach towels and wristbands so we had all day on the sunbeds using the bar, and had lunch and dinner. We spoke to reception a few days before we left and booked a shower for 6pm on the last day which turned out to be an individual, air conditioned changing room in the spa which was great and no extra charge so if you can book a shower I don’t think you need to bother with late checkout."