‘I won’t come back to Cyprus!’
“Everywhere in Ayia Napa,” says Lotta, wrinkling her nose in disgust, “there are reps. They get in your face, touch your body…”
Not every visitor to Cyprus has a winning experience. Some are so put off by certain aspects that they vow never to return. It’s easy to miss: over 30 per cent of tourists are repeat visitors, one of the highest rates in Europe. And, say what you will, the travel sites are doing a good job of selling the island as a Mediterranean paradise…
‘Few feelings can compare to that of sinking your toes into warm sand… of the sun kissing your skin, and your senses taking in the fresh, salty breeze and the endless views of glittering blue waters,’ gushes visitcyprus, our main tourist portal.
You can see they’re going all out on the sun, sea, sand theme. And, given that the majority of tourists are actually looking for a relaxing break from greyer skies, it makes sense. But not everyone can appreciate the finer points of their holiday…
“Ayia Napa was disgusting,” adds Lotta. “Drunk Brits everywhere, even on the beach. The music was so loud we couldn’t sleep. And everyone was selling something. I don’t really want to come back.”
A 25-year-old Finn, Lotta is one of the tourists we spoke to in late July. Her response, while uncommon, was not entirely atypical. Other disenchanted visitors were quick to voice their concerns.
“The beaches are overcrowded,” said a young Welshman. “The beach showers were broken,” lamented a German family. “The water was dirty,” complained an elderly couple from Slovakia.
Of course, if you look for a specific perspective, you’re sure to find it. And it’s very dangerous to portray just one side of the story. Our questions were carefully worded to give no bias: ‘Would you come back to Cyprus?’ we asked, and then waited for the response.
Plenty of visitors we spoke to loved their island experience: ‘Gorgeous beaches, wonderful people, beautiful scenery, excellent food,’ was the crux of it.
But many also referenced a darker side to the island, and were less willing to return. The reasons they gave were fairly eye-opening…
The most frequent complaint was the heat. Now that’s nobody’s fault – the entire world has just experienced the hottest July since records began, and Cyprus has suffered along with the rest of the globe. But for northern Europeans the island’s recent temperatures came as a nasty shock.
“We looked up the weather before we came,” says 28-year-old Mancunian Harry. “But it said Cyprus would be in the mid-30s in July, and we knew that’d be okay because we’ve been to Spain before and it’s the same. What we didn’t expect was 40-plus. For days on end.”
Harry is red. Not a slightly sunburnt pink, but the kind of fluorescent scarlet that prompted us to suggest a doctor’s visit.
“I paid for a beach holiday, so that’s what I did,” he asserts, pulling uncomfortably at the neck of his tshirt. “But I’m beginning to think I should have just spent all my time in my room.”
Harry wasn’t the only visitor to suffer from extreme heat. Thirty-something Swedes Erik and Sofia also fell victim.
“This is a heatwave, yes?” says Sofia. “We have been before to Cyprus but not like this. We were not happy – even at night, it was too hot. Before, we used to eat by the sea and then go to the town. This time, we only went to the hotel restaurant because it had air conditioning.”
Heat wasn’t the only complaint. Gillian from Cheshire has been to Cyprus five times over the last decade and doesn’t like the changes she’s seeing…
“It’s silly to expect anywhere to stay the same,” admits the 42-year-old. “But the differences are becoming more pronounced with each trip. When I first visited, Cyprus was still a gem. Over the years, it’s become the Costa Del Sol – overcrowded and over-commercialised.
“Everywhere you look, there’s a new development going up. Even the mountain villages that used to be so peaceful and authentic are tourist traps now!”
Gillian has stayed in Paphos, Larnaca and Limassol; visiting Nicosia, Ayia Napa and the mountains during her visits. She’s currently in two minds about returning to Cyprus, a sentiment she shares with middle-aged Londoner Michael.
“I think a lot of people will say Cyprus is cheap,” says Michael. “But it’s not. Maybe you can get a good package deal for flights and hotel, but if you set your own itinerary, it’s quite expensive.”
Like Gillian, Michael has been to Cyprus several times. But he’s noticing a sharp increase in prices.
“We like to rent a car and a villa, make our own travel arrangements and do our own cooking. Once, that was fairly cheap: it was about the same price as France or Italy. But now you can’t get even a small AirBnb for less than €200 a night. And food – whether you’re buying it yourself or eating out – has definitely shot up.”
For 26-year-old Clara from Denmark, rubbish is the issue. “Everywhere you go there is litter,” she says. “We went to Cedar Valley – it is meant to be beautiful. And it was,” she smiles. “But there was litter everywhere. It became a game to us: spot the litter. It is on all the beaches, on the streets, in the mountains. This is not something I would see in Aalborg.”
A few of the complaints were fairly nonsensical. One couple were peeved to have discovered they couldn’t go all over the entire island at will. Another complained that the food was ‘foreign’, and that McDonalds was too far from their apartment.
As veterans of the tourist vox pop, one thing we did notice was that complaints were on the rise. Whether that’s due to the calibre of visitors, a general increase in expectations, or a myriad of other reasons, it was certainly interesting…