Angela enjoying dessert at the Hotel Indigo in Larnaka, Cyprus.
Photo by Trevor Sharot.
We ended our two week stay in Cyprus in Larnaca at the grandest and best appointed hotel of our trip. As we drove up to the hotel, I was apprehensive about the unpretentious exterior. The hotel was in the old quarter, and a flat-fronted block, with flat balconies, in bright colours, yellow and blue, like the one star hotels in France along motorways.
But inside, quite the reverse of one star. A boutique hotel. Luxury in Larnaca. Have you heard of Hotel Indigo? They have a big building in Houston, according to Wikipedia.
The Austrian airline staff stay at Hotel Indigo in Larnaka, Cyprus, wearing their jolly red uniforms. Red stockings. As you might expect, Larnaka has an airport, as well as a shipping port.
Hotel Indigo, Larnaca
Hotel Indigo is a top style and price hotel in the old quarter of Larnaca in Cyprus. Our stay started well with a welcome drink. Like a calamansi juice.
The manager explained, 'We are an 'adults only' hotel."
Adults only does not mean a red light district hotel. 'Adults only' means no high chairs or cots, child portions, child menus, or family rooms with discounts. Nor swarms of fighting children and crying babies. Just the occasional well-behaved single child with parents in the restaurant.
What is Hotel Indigo? I had never heard of them. They are part of a huge network of hotels including the Holiday Inns, which are the complete opposite of the Indigo hotels, as we learned later over dinner from the manager. Holiday inns are the same worldwide. He said, 'Each Hotel Indigo is different, in local style, franchised, kept spotlessly clean with four colours of cloths for the bathroom, bedroom, balcony and outdoors ...' and so on.
Although they don't have a concierge desk, which you would find in a five star hotel, 'the receptionists are expected to know all the local shops, museums and businesses'. Yes, we needed a suitcase and they directed us to a nearby shop which stocked suitcases. (Gogo - described in another post.)
Bedroom and Bathroom Delights at Indigo hotel
In the bedroom we found a proper explanation clarifying that the water in the fridge was free, not chargeable. Also an espresso machine with two capsules. A kettle. Green tea and breakfast tea bags. A small bag of complimentary almonds.
Other good points were a plethora of sockets, . A desk wide enough for two people to sit.
Pictures over the bed. (A decorative touch which was lacking in the hotel we had moved out of on pre-booked night two the previous week earlier in our stay. That was Eins Gallery rooms in the larger city of Lemassos, which the English call Limasol).
In the Hotel Indigo in Larnaka, the shower room had white towels rolled up showing the ends like a double layer of Swiss roll cakes.
Parking Tips
A free public car park is opposite. Overgrown at the edges with straggly weeds. A pity they can't persuade the car park owners to landscape it. Get a local garden centre to do this for free, or at a discount.
You can overlook your car from your bedroom balcony in Hotel Indigo. (My husband joked, 'and watch who's stealing from it!')
We left our car completely empty. Years ago, my friend 'Susan', who was driving me in her car, told me, 'Leave nothing visible in our car in public car park. Not a jacket or bag. You know that your car or jacket contains no valuables. But thieves don't know there's nothing. If they break in and find nothing, they could be angry and vandalize the car. Give the impression that it is a waste of time and energy to break into your car. Not a pair of old sunglasses. Not a coin. Not a sweet paper. Not a map. Nothing left behind. Nothing forgotten. Nothing of value. Nothing. Make it look completely cleared out. Completely empty.'
Our Hotel Indigo air conditioning kept going off. The hotel reception re-set it.
I wondered if they switched off the air-con it to economize. Next morning it was off again. This time I found the confidence to challenge them by politely asking, "Why does the air con keep going off?"
The receptionist, Maria or Kelly, said, 'If you leave the balcony door open, the air con shuts off automatically.' I wish they had explained that previously, or had a note warning that.
The balcony door would not close properly. We reported it. While we were out, hotel staff fixed the problem.
The shower room door also did not close. A construction error. When the shower room's glass door was almost but not quite closed together at the top, a diverging parallel line led to a larger gap at floor level.
On the other hand, Hotel Indigo provided the best toiletries, better than any of the other four hotels we had previously visited.
Dinner
At dinner we had a 'sweet cheese' dessert with grapes. My favourite. I have always liked cheesecake. This was a variation on it. The sweet cheese had the consistency of thick Greek yogurt. The white creamy base layer was adorned with green and red grapes and crunch red pomegranate seeds were hidden below.
The second evening I tried another dessert, three types of 'spoon sweets'. These were cherries, whole walnuts, and slices of almost see-though watermelon, soaked in thick syrup.
Breakfast
At breakfast we had Cypriot coffee. The grounds at the bottom are thick. (The same as Greek coffee and Turkish coffee.)
I order it medium sweet. (In most hotels they speak English. If not, I ask for, 'Medio', which means medium.)
I also started with a fresh grapefruit juice. Fine flavour.
To go with our toast, I had Fig jam. Runny honey.
If you want marmalade with your breakfast toast, ask for orange jam. We were given toast with small glass jars of orange jam, fig jam and honey.
Other people had ordered huge plates of English style grilled breakfast. Which included triangular potato which Americans call hash browns, also known as rosti in Switzerland, and latkes in Jewish style restaurants in London.
Our waiter told us that Cypriot coffee, Greek Coffee and Turkish coffee are the same. The style originated in Persia, now called Iran, but is no longer so popular there.
Sightseeing Within Walking Distance
From the hotel we could walk to the sea front with its long seafront promenade. It has a short, low pier. You can swim.
Lots of restaurants are along the seafront. In the side streets are more restaurants, bars and wine tasting shops.
And souvenir shops. Great jewellery shops with necklaces in silver and colours.
The Church and Tomb Of Lazaurus
Also in walking distance, just around the corner, is the main church containing the tomb of Lazaurus, who Jesus raised from the dead thirty years earlier. Mind your head, down a few steps. A few stone slabs. Not much to see.
Larnaka has a saltpot and pepperpot museum, run by an Israeli. You can see several sets in the shop window. Many more sets are inside.
A grand Jewish museum beside a synagogue shown on maps was still under construction when we visited in early June 2022. The synagogue was closed for Jewish holidays.
Sightseeing Drives
We drove to the salt lake, where storks are to be seen November until March. At other times of year, April to October, less interesting wildlife than my local pond in England, and the flocks of migrating birds swooping past the balcony at the Rodon hotel where we stayed at Agros in the mountains in central Cyprus.
We quite liked the multi-arch aqueduct. As Jonson famously said, 'worth seeing, but not worth going to see'. All in all, in the summer season, the best parts of Larnaka were the beach, the jewellery shop, closed on Sunday, my husband was glad, and our lovely luxury boutique hotel.
Cheaper hotels
If you want a more modest hotel, we stepped into the Opera hotel where a friend of ours had previously stayed. Up a white staircase to Reception where two ladies greeted us. No restaurant, but the serve yourself drinks and snacks bar counter opposite their reception desk is open for a bread and coffee breakfast time and all day. You are within walking distance of the seafront and alleyway restaurants. Operetta apartments, along the street, is in the same brochure, if you want self-catering.
Hire Cars
We hired an Avis car. A Kia car. Very good. All the controls were clearly marked on the dashboard. Room for round drinks containers in the door and between the seats. Two sockets for mobile phones in the dashboard.
The boot had just room for two small suitcases. When we bought a third suitcase, we had to go straight to check into our next hotel to avoid leaving a suitcase visible in the car.
However, if you cannot afford a grand hotel, my favourite ice cream was the red fruit flavour in a cone from a van by the Tombs Of The Kings archaeological site on the seafront in Pafos. We arrived in Pafos and left from Pafos, on Ryanair.
Useful Websites
Ryanair (to Paphos)
https://www.ryanair.com/flights/gb/en/flights-to-cyprus
Larnaca
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larnaca
Indigo Hotel
Church of St lazarus
http://www.mcw.gov.cy/
gov stands for government and cy is the abbreviation for Cyprus.
More photos soon.
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