Vivo Mare

Had a fantastic week with friends in this summer house. The staff were great! 🤗

We spent a week here and loved it. The beach is just a couple of minutes away, and Sya napa is about a 30-minute walk along the shore. The house is great, especially that huge pool. Highly recommend it.

The villa itself was lovely, roomy, and had a great pool for the family. But we ran into a few service problems, and the place we got didn't match the villa description we booked. Finding the entrance for self check-in was confusing. There are two access roads for different villas, but you can't see the villa names or numbers from outside. We ended up walking around other people's villas at night, then called the out-of-hours helpline and were directed to the other road. We hadn't been given any arrival instructions. When we arrived at 9pm, there was no hot water. The helpline explained how to turn on the heating and said to wait for the tank, but after two hours there was still none, so we went to bed without showering after travelling all day. We were told someone would come the next day. After we chased a few times, a maintenance person arrived in the afternoon and said the heating element was faulty. Once it was working, he explained that hot water stays on for only two hours and takes 15 minutes to heat. In practice, it took closer to 35 minutes before the shower water was warm enough. That setup really isn't ideal.

The pool was brilliant, and the rooftop jacuzzi was great too, though the pool jacuzzi broke on day three. We had a couple of slips around the pool and in the bathrooms because the floors are so slick. The hot water also took ages, at least five minutes to reach the shower, which doesn't seem very environmentally friendly. Air conditioning worked well except in the living room, which never got that cool. The lifts were excellent, and the TV, fridge, and other appliances all worked. At first glance the villa looked luxurious and outstanding. There were six of us in the three bedrooms, with plenty of space, but they advertise a maximum of eight. Where are the extra people meant to sleep, on the sofas? The kitchen had everything advertised except the microwave. It's a smart home, and we needed a couple of days to figure out the controls. Some switches were in the wrong rooms, like having to go to room 3 to close the blinds in room 2, or use the main computer at the end of the corridor. If you're not good with computers, that could be a problem, though we eventually worked it all out. The beaches and Ayia Napa city center are a long way from the villa. A 15-euro taxi for five minutes was a bargain, or you can rent a car, which we did and found really fun. It's a great villa for adults, but not designed for children, with sharp glass edges and slippery marble floors everywhere. Watch out if you stain a towel: I was charged 25 euros for hair dye marks that I can easily wash out at home with an ordinary white wash. We thought charging for stains rather than actual damage was ridiculous and shocking. The agent was obnoxious and rude about it. Imagine if it had been period blood. All in all, it was a great stay in a superb villa, despite the teething problems. Definitely not a family villa.