Considering how early we got to bed, I was super surprised to discover that we slept all the way through until 7 o’clock. We had our morning coffee (or tea), dressed and then proceeded to descend the long flight of stairs down to breakfast. At this point you may be forgiven for thinking that we were on the third or fourth floor of the hotel, but we’re not. We’re in a terrace of rooms all on the ground floor adjacent to the main reception. Our room is beautifully decorated with a main bedroom, a smaller bedroom, a bathroom, coffee-making facilities, a wardrobe and small balcony. The bed in the master room comes equipped with a four-post frame and mosquito net. Useful for those who choose to sleep with all the windows and doors open and prefer not to be on the local insect’s à la carte dinner and dance menu. 

The grand staircase down to the main restaurant is literally what it says on the tin. Four flights of stone stairs down to a very grand main restaurant. The light airy modern feeling of the main restaurant which includes a choice of outdoor or indoor dining, has a selection of seating options ranging from small sofas, individual wooden chairs, or metal-framed chairs, depending on where you are located.

The grand staircase.

Inside seating area

Outside seating area

There’s acres of choice in the main buffet, although it can feel a little limited if you’re not feeling like what’s on the menu, with only one long hot counter, an area for salads and fruit, and a separate second area which serves pastries and other baked goods.

The selection of sweet items out for breakfast was an eclectic mix. It comprised apple crumble pie, chocolate tart, black cherry Bakewell, vanilla tart, spanakopita and a filo cheese slice. There was also a granola bar but unfortunately it contained chocolate. I’m not sure why they thought chocolate in the granola bar was a good idea. When you go to the supermarket looking for cereal bars you can find eight or 10 that contain chocolate compared to the one or two options that don’t, leading me to believe that chocolate in cereal bars is very popular with most people except me.

Our morning started with a stroll along the beach and around the headland. We passed what looked like an abandoned dinghy, which got me wondering if it had been a small boat of refugees, before it was slashed and broken. With the hot sun blazing on our backs we soon turned around and retreated to the beach bar, to sip on lemon iced tea, Coke Zero, and Fanta lemon. No prizes for guessing who had the Coke Zero. From there we wandered back to the pool bar to find some shade. But it wasn’t long before the knowledge that the pancake bar was open had burnt a hole in Liz’s head and she was agreeing to adopt an abandoned pancake. But full credit to her, she did get one to share, rather than a whole one for herself. Once we’d downed our next drink, the ladies had got a sudden attack of the munchies, and proceeded to demolish a club sandwich each.

Meanwhile, I was making a short work of a strawberry daiquiri and a peach Bellini. (Yummy)

After lunch we left Liz to snooze and walked along the seafront in the opposite direction to this morning’s amble.

Did I tell you about the fantastic ice cream bar? They’ve got a huge Carte D’Or ice cream bar. All included and totally yummy. As a recovering ice cream-a-holic, it’s torture, but I can take it. My rule is only one per day. 

The view from the main pool is absolutely wonderful with the ocean forming a backdrop behind it.