I had never been to cyprus before and when I researched the Island this hotel was recommended. Friends who has been to Cyprus said this hotel had a good reputation (none had stayed there though) and was on the beach.

The room was drab and basic. The hotel lobby is dated and tired.

We used to wait ages for lunch to be served (only a sandwich usually).

I found broken glass on my chair at breakfast one morning and no one was interested in cleaning it up properly.

The hotel was technically on the beach but I wouldn't spend time there, the space was so small.

Even the picture of the garden in the brochure didn't really match the reality - the picture was better.

The hotel was OK but not worth the money we paid.

I can fully concur with the other excellent reviews of the Annabelle.

Initially we had booked to stay at the 5 star Elysium, but after 2 horrible nights we moved to the Annabelle. The difference in the two hotels is unbelievable. The staff in the Elysium were arrogant, the rooms had a dreadful view of rubble, and the hotel had no ambience.

In complete contrast all of the staff at the Annabelle made us feel welcome. Their smiles were sincere, and the chat was always friendly yet not intrusive. I have to particularly applaud Harris the reservations manager and Michael the catering manager who could not have done more for us. They seemed to be able to guess what we wanted before we even asked! Demetris the door man even found a walking stick for my father when he saw he was rather tired.

The hotel is still managed by a local family and it really does show. Unlike the Elysium and other faceless, rambling 5 star hotels, there is still a local charm to the place. It is one of the older hotels in Phapos, but it has character and charisma. The grounds are delightful, with grottos and waterfalls, greenery and secluded areas to sunbathe. The location is ideal, a leisurely stroll to the harbour after dinner etc. I understand the hotel is about to undergo refurbishment to keep it sparkling. If you want a pompous liquorice seaweed body wrap whilst sweating on the latest treadmill in a Channel tracksuit go elsewhere, but if you want a blissful, relaxing holiday head to the Annabelle.

We stayed at the Annabelle back in 2005 and loved it so much we decided to go back again this year. When we arrived we were greeted by a doorman who led us to reception so we could check in. We were then sat down and handed two glasses of fresh orange juice and cold towels which were extremely welcome after our journey. We did not bother to book a deluxe room as we knew we would hardly spend anytime in there but to say it is a 5 star the room was a little disappointing. We opted for a side sea view room and did pay a little bit extra for this but the whole room was just a little 'tired'. The decor was a little tatty and a couple of the floor tiles had little holes in them. The toilet would not flush properly for the last couple of days, and we had two power cuts in our room in one night. We did complain to reception about the power cuts and to give them their credit they sent someone to our room immediately to rectify the problem. We also had ants in our room for the first couple of days but after informing reception they also sorted that out. Next time we will definitely book a deluxe sea view room as they sound to be the best rooms.

The breakfasts were a little disapointing as the only fresh fruit available were tinned peaches, sliced stringy oranges and chopped melon. The pancakes were cold and they kept running out of toast. Also it is was very difficult to get a hot pot of tea. You have to ask the staff for either tea or coffee and you either don't get any or it is lukewarm. We heard several people complaining about this and on our last day the staff were falling over themselves to give you hot tea or coffee so I think they must have had a telling off from management.

Anyway thats the negatives aspects of the hotel. The positive aspects are lovely surroundings, the gardens and pool area are super. The pool was perfect blue not green and cloudy as some of the reviews said earlier in the year. The sun loungers are very comfy and there was no need to get up at dawn and put towels on them as there were always plenty. Yes the bar is a little expensive but no more so than any other 5* we have stayed in. The service during the day around the restaurant and bar areas was impeccable and as an added bonus around 11am each day the staff came around with ice old flannels. The food in the Meditreaneo was superb and the prices were reasonable compared to other restaurants of the same ilk. The Annabelle does have a air of understated elegance and it is definitely the best hotel in Paphos and I would not hesitate to stay here again, but the hotel is over 20 years old and some of the rooms just need a bit of an update

we went to the hotel annabell for our honeymoon and we really liked it. i had read some of the earlier reviews on this site and was a bit concerned but i didn't need to be. we really liked the hotel and paphos was beautiful although it is a very expensive resort in general, it's not just the hotel prices that are high.
we found all the facilities inside the hotel to be clean and the staff were pleasant. we were there on a half board basis so we did eat a fair few meals inside the restaurants. we really enjoyed all the food and there was plenty of variety. but we did feel that the amorosa restaurant was overpriced (we had to pay a suppliment on top of our half board allowance) and the food wasn't supierior to that of the meditterano where we could have eatten an inclusive meal on our allowance. the hotel puts on different theme nights in the restaurants and we went to some of these and had buffet meals which were really enjoyable but we did seem to also end up paying suppliments to go to a few of these. so even though we paid for half board we were always paying for something extra.
the hotel did seem to lack much in the way of entertainment in the evening infact most of paphos resort closes early too. by 11.30 you would be hard pushed to find many good bars on the main road, you have to walk further into the town to a place known as 'bar street' to get anywhere open a bit later. apparently there is a night club there but we never came across it. even getting fast food after 11.00pm is hard. we arrived really late in paphos and were starving the first night we were there but we couldn't get a meal annywhere.

paphos in general is a quiet sleepy resort with great scenery and scortching heat. a wonderful place for rest and relaxation. there are alot of boat crusies you can go on and the mosaics really are a good outing. the castle isn't much to shout about. the aquarium is nice. the better shops are in the shooping centers, the ones on the main road are a bit samey.

one of the reasons we picked cyprus was because we had decided before we went that we wanted to take one of the day trips to egypt, from cyprus to egypt is only a 50 min plane ride but you have book it over there and we couldn't find any useful information before we went so i thought i'd add some onto this review for anybody else who needs it. it costs around 200 cp each for the trip and that included transferes, flights and all entrance fees on the tour. we visited the mosque of mohamid ali, the great pyramids of giza, the sphynix, the cairo musuem and we had dinner at a 5 star hotel and a boat ride on the nile. we got to go shopping at a bazarre and visited the papyrus institue. it was a great trip, worth it for a once in a lifetime experience. egypt is very cheap in terms of currency too. you won't need egytian money as they accept cypriot pounds. a pound to us is like 10 pounds over there.

back to the annabell..... we paid to have one of the delux sea view rooms and we loved it. the room was nice and big with a good sized bathroom, it had seperate shower and bath which was nice instead of one of those duos. the only thing with papohs is (and we didn't find this out until we went) they have very narrow sewage pipes and the pipes cannot carry paper, only natural waste, so you get these little bins to put all you toilet paper in. not very pleasant in some of the cafes etc but the hotel ones were okay and emptied twice a day in the rooms. the tropical gardens around the hotel grounds are supperb but the crickets can get really noisy. the swimming pools were very relaxing and swimming in the caves was a nice way to cool down at the hottest time of the day. everything you need is on your doorstep at the annabell you only have to walk out and there are shops everywhere and it's a bit like a home from home. anything you forget you can buy. i would recommend taking flat shoes only in paphos as the pavements aren't very level.

overall it was a good holiday. the hotel was a beautiful place to unwind and because of the size of it you never felt crampt we had plenty of room to spread out and get the best out of it. the man made beach is a little bit dissapointing and we had to travel to find a decent beach. we tended to find that the further away from the harbour we got the cheaper things became and some of the best bars were at the back of the shops not on the main road.
a taxi wil charge you a minimum of 4cp (over £5 sterling) no matter how short your journey is and alot of the drivers don't know where they are going or only know the hotels as landmarks. it's better to take the bus, they are very regular and air conditoned so it's not too bad in the heat.