The Anassa is not the easiest place to find. Situated on the Akamas Peninsular, famous for being Aphrodite’s favoured bathing spot, I drove straight past it at first and had to execute a three (OK – four or five) point turn on the narrow approach road from Polis.
This is no mistake on behalf of the management: seclusion is the key here. The family-run Thanos Hotels also owns the immediate surroundings and plans to grow the trees around the property so it remains hidden from the road.
Once inside the grounds, you’re still not sure if you are in the right place.
Guest services manager Polis Ioannou said:”We wanted to make it feel different, not make it feel like a hotel.”
And different it is. The property is designed around a Byzantine village concept, with white stone walls, a square and a small chapel. There is no imposing lobby – even the driveway has a tranquil, Zen garden-like feel.
“All of the rooms have the same element of understated luxury,” added Ioannou.
And paying for the privilege of all this tasteful simplicity is not necessarily prohibitive. Studio suites, the most basic room available, start at £116 per person. The presidential suite weighs in at a rather more substantial £1,550 per night but money is probably not the first thing on many of the Anassa’s guests’ minds. Leonardo DiCaprio and Simon Le Bon have both worn the hotel’s fluffy bathrobes.
Billed as the ultimate Mediterranean retreat, you had better not come here planning anything more stressful than a game of tennis.
Although all of the rooms have Internet ports and ISDN phonelines, Ioannou assured me that they are not very often in use.
“We want people to feel as though they are on holiday, not business,” he said.
For the same reason, there are very few signs to direct you. The owners did not want guests to feel they were being herded about. So it is easy to get lost, as one corridor in a Byzantine village-effect hotel looks a lot like another. Your best bet is to follow the sound of the resident harpist, which leads you back to the main staircase.
Though the Anassa has enough facilities to keep active types happy, it was hard to imagine any guests exerting themselves too much.
This is an ideal property for honeymooners, couples wanting to get away for a romantic break or empty-nesters after a bit of the good life. Though it has a year-round children’s club, kids may not appreciate the ‘understated luxury’ or the isolation it offers – though all the facilities are impressive and it has a particularly good stretch of sandy beach.
I found it hard to resist the appeal of the hotel and its spa (see below) and was impressed with the range of cuisines available at its four restaurants, from fusion at the flagship Basiliko – housed in an atmospheric candlelit crypt – to traditional Mediterranean at Amphora.
The anassa
Category: five-star deluxe.
Number of rooms: 184.
Room rates: £116 per person (peak summer lead in)
Facilities: four restaurants, two outdoor freshwater pools, indoor pool, range of watersports facilities including scuba diving and yachting, two tennis courts, squash court and indoor gym.
Spa facilities:include thalassotherapy treatments, body wraps, massage, sauna and steambath. 55min body massage from £30.
Available through: Abercrombie and Kent, Amathus, Argo, Cyplon, Cyprair, First Choice, JMC, Libra, Olympic, Prestige and more.
Reservations: Thanos Hotels, 2nd Floor 767 High Road, London, N12 7QE. Tel 020 8445 5111; fax: 020 8445 5789; e-mail: sales@thanoshotels.co.uk.
I MET spa manager Alkistis Loukides for dinner dressed in a suit and she commented that Ineedn’t have made such an effort. In a way, she was right. She had seen me covered in nothing but algae and wrapped in clingfilm just a couple of hours earlier, so just who was I trying to impress now?
I took comfort in the fact that my foray into the world of health clubs was made in the name of journalism. My first treatment was a re-mineralising body wrap. This involved an abrasive rub-down to rid the body of any dead skin, followed by a covering of active bio-gel, which gently heats the skin and opens the pores. I was then coated in an all important spirulina-based algae, with only a small flannel to protect what modesty Ihad left. Spirulina is a type of seaweed which is high in zinc and magnesium, two vital minerals which are soaked up by the open pores. Next up was the heat wrap – basically clingfilm and an electric blanket, which opens the pores further and allows magnesium into the bloodstream, thus re-energising the body. The final stage is a spirulina-based cream coating which rehydrates the skin.
Did Ifeel re-energised?Well, I certainly felt better than Idid before. Rarely have Iever felt so clean either. I think they might have managed to get rid of dirt that I’d been carrying around since I was playing in my sand-pit.
I asked whether this treatment was one that men had often. The answer was no. “The spa clients are generally 50:50 male/female. But the men tend to go for the ‘high power’ treatments – such as the thalasso-jet shower. Women choose more therapeutic and cosmetic treatments,” said Loukides.
Dismayed, Ithought Ishould try another, perhaps more masculine treatment. She suggested a thalasso-bath. Ileapt at the chance and the next day found myself submerged in a green sea-water Jacuzzi, filled with detoxifying algae. For about 40 mins, separate jets of water massage you from shoulders to toes while you listen to Enya.
As a new spa convert, my only disappointment was that the unisex sauna is being split into male/female sections. This seemed to take the fun out of it somehow.