Friend of mine from work is on the flight. By now you'll have boarded, but fwiw she was probably the only mid-20s Asian woman traveling solo on the flight.

Yes -- she had a Lonely Planet guidebook for Turkey in her hand. Her seat mate chatted her up the whole flight.
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13F

That's really below the belt.Ouch

I meant it is the nicest possible way. ;) If I had shared a row with her (you?), I would have been chatting as well! (The seats certainly weren't any good for sleeping.) I was two rows back in row4. Mme13F and I were very happy that Mlle.13F-ette was generally quiet for most of the flight. She slept through dinner, then got quite fidgety, but did stay quiet. Pity for the people in the back cabin as there were two non-stop screamers for most of the seven hours.
I hope the lady with the Lonely Planet book has a good trip to LCA and Turkey. If she happens to pass by le Merdien anytime next week, she could drop in for a coffee or a beer.
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13F

what's below the belt? :confused:

reissued at ORD altialia today...guy at the counter was aware of the fare mistake and made a comment "so you are one of the people who is costing us all that money."

reticket was relatively plainless but took over 45 minutes...i dunno if that guy was just stringing me along or what. :p

p.s.- i am flying nov 3rd, with a return nov 12...anyone on the same flights?

My partner and I began our trip yesterday. We flew from IAD to YYZ on United and spent the night here at the Sheraton Toronto Airport. The trip is off to an inauspicious start, as United lost my partner's luggage and they haven't been able to track it down as of this morning. Still a few hours left before we have to check out of the hotel, so we're hoping it might show up before we depart for Italy.

For anyone staying at the Sheraton Toronto Airport hotel, there is a new train that will take you to the hotel from Terminal 1 at YYZ. It is not well marked in certain areas, so you may need to ask. If you are taking the airport shuttle from Terminal 2 (United/Air Canada), when the bus drops you off at Terminal 1, go inside the terminal and go to the escalators on your right. Take them up to the next level (you should see signs saying "Sheraton".

Take the walkway across to the parking garage and take the elevator to Level 5. Note that the elevator signs say nothing about what level to go to for the train or the Sheraton (hopefully the airport will get around to adding it to the signs). Once you get off on the 5th floor, go to your left, through the doors into the parking garage. Walk across to the next set of doors and go in there. You'll see a long hall (I think it's to your left). Go down that hall and you should see the signs (finally) for the train. From there, you can get on the train and take it to Terminal 3 (where the Sheraton is). The entrance to the Sheraton was VERY close to where the train stops and was easy to find (look for the doormat with the big "S" on it; you can also see the lobby through the glass in the doors).

Will post more once we get underway again.

Just got back from our trip. I will post a more detailed report later, but here are a few quick notes for now.

While in Cyprus, we stayed at the Hilton Park Nicosia. It was generally fine, although very smoky in most of the public spaces. Like some of the other posters, we had some initial trouble finding the hotel as the streets in Nicosia are not always clearly marked at the intersections. We finally found that if you happened to be coming up on Highway A1 (which is the main higway coming from the south) through Nicosia, you can turn left at the intersection that has a Debenham's department store on the northeast corner and that road is the one that the Park Hilton is on (it's about 2 1/3 to 3 km from that intersection).

We ate a few meals at the Park Hilton. They have both a restaurant and a little cafe. The food was generally good at both, although generally not reflective of traditional Cypriot food, except for a tasty soup at the restaurant.

On the first fully day in Cyprus, we went to the Museum of Cyprus. It's a small museum but has some very old artificacts. The museum can be toured in about 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on how much time you want to spend looking at particular items. There's not always a lot of explanation, so you might want to read up a little on Cypriot history before you come, or at least flip through some of the books in the book store.

Day two was spent driving around. We went to the Troodos and Pafos. The Troodos were very pretty. We inadvertently took a smaller road out of the mountains on the way to Pafos and found ourselves driving through narrow streets of very small towns in between large swathes of unpopulated areas.

At Pafos, we went to a sitting area next to the old fort on the water and we watched the sun set over the sea. It was a beautiful site.

On Friday morning, we headed back to the airport. The traffic was very heavy in Nicosia because of rush hour and the going was slow for awhile. It probably added an additional 20-30 minutes onto the trip.

When we got to the airport, we went to return the Hertz rental car, but found the gate arm to the rental car return lot would not open. There was no attendant in the lot and no one to ask about procedure, so we finally drove into the lot through the exit. We parked the car in an open space and then went into the terminal and returned the key at the Hertz counter and that seemed to be fine.

Great report, thanks for sharing!
Funny, we experienced the same issues with the gate when we tried to return the car to the Hertz station in LCA. Quite confusing, especially when you're running tight on time already... Thankfully, the Hertz employee happened to be at the lot, so he helped us into the lot, gave a car a quick once-over, and told us to go in and just turn in the keys.

Some quick notes about stopovers to and from LCA:

On the way to Cyprus, we had a two night stopover in Rome. We stayed in the Cavalieri Hilton and it was absolutely superb -- probably one of the most beautiful hotels I've ever stayed at.

As a HH Gold, they upgraded me to a room with a view of the Vatican and the city. The view was stunning and the room was elegant and romantic. It had beautiful wood floors and wonderful details. The storage for clothes was good and there was a mirrored, soundproof door that we could shut at night. I'm not sure if it's purpose was to keep sounds from the hallway from coming in or to keep voices from the room from being heard in the hallway, but either way, it was a nice touch.

The hotel is outside of town, so you'll need to take a taxi, but we found that taxis only cost about 8 to 10 Euros to most of the places we wanted to go (Vatican City, Trevi Fountain, etc.).

As a gold we were given free breakfast in the restaurant. It had an amazing assortment of food and they seemed to try to have something for most everyone. They had juices, fruit, cereal, eggs and pastries of course, but it went far beyond that. There was gluten free bread for people who can't eat meat; orgainic bread and other organic products for those who eat organic foods; soy milk, goat milk, and coconut milk for those who can't/won't drink cow's milk; a Japanese-style breakfast for visitors from Japan; four or five flavors of sugar-free jams (in addition to @30 flavors of sugared jam); a blender and protein powder, egg whites and other ingredients to make protein shakes; cheeses; meats; omelettes; pastries; desserts; and of course cappucino. I'm sure I'm forgetting something, but you get the picture.

If I had the trip to do over again, I would have changed the order of where we stayed, as it was quite a jump in quality and amenities to go from the 40K points a night Cavalieri to the 20K (or 10K if you booked early) point Hilton Park Nicosia.

In Rome, we stayed at the Le Meredien Hotel Gallia and enjoyed it. The rooms there were not as beautiful as those in the Cavalieri, but were attractive in their own way. The hotel is older and is decorated in the elgant decor of a bygone era, so if you like that, you'd probably appreciate this hotel.

We had only one night in Milan, so the location of the Gallia was convenient for catching the airport buses from the Central (train) Station. It also seemed to have some good food choices nearby.

We had dinner in Milan at an excellent restaurant just a couple of short blocks from the hotel. The restaurant had been recommended by the concierge as a good place to get fish. We had risotto, pasta, fish, and dessert and it was all delicious.

The concierge at the Gallia was very friendly and in addition to making the reservations for us for dinner, he gave us an umbrella to use for the walk so I would not have to go back upstairs to retrieve mine.

Need help planning for Cyprus visit...
 

Well, it's about time that I finally get around to booking accomodations for our four nights in Cyprus next month. I have the DK Eyewitness Travel Guide for Cyprus which I've read through, but I'm still kind of clueless as to how much time I should budget for which cities/areas. I guess the easiest way to ask this is, for those of you that have already been there, what would you recommend in terms of an rough itinerary for a three-full-days visit (arriving on Friday night, leaving early Tuesday morning) in the winter? Are there any sites/restaurants/etc. that you would consider "can't miss" or at least highlights of your stay there? I was thinking of switching hotels at least once, perhaps a couple nights in Nicosia and then a couple nights in either Limassol or Pafos. Does that sound reasonable?

Unfortunately due to the season I know we won't be able to enjoy many of the summer leisure activities available on the island. We are interested in history (museums, castles, ruins), architecture/churches, and also nature. Good food too, but that probably goes without saying.

I haven't ruled out crossing to the North, but as it will be our first time traveling outside of North America I have a feeling it may be a bit intimidating and staying in the South may be more "comfortable."

Also, how difficult would it be for someone who's never driven "European-style" to navigate from Larnaca to any of the other major cities in the South (Nicosia, Limassol, Pafos) after dark (which it presumably will be since we're scheduled to arrive at 6:00 p.m.)? Would it be recommended to just stay in Larnaca that first night to avoid to avoid a long drive (I wouldn't otherwise think of staying in Larnaca)?

Thanks very much in advance for any advice!

We spent three nights in Cyprus last week. You can read my posts above to see where we went. I'll keep my remarks to what we saw and leave it to other posters to comment on other cities. If I were to go back, I would spend more time Pafos. We got to Pafos too late to go into the archeological site, but from what we saw from the outside, it looked extremely interesting and like something that would merit being a destination. Sunset by the old Byzantine/Ottoman fort (next to the archeological site) is very scenic on a clear day. There is also a standard beach promenade, which is nice on a pleasant day.

The Troodos were pretty. If you like hiking, there are a number of trails. We saw the trailheads and they looked nice. There are also picnic grounds in several areas. If you go there, you may want to bring your own TP, as there was none (by their design) in the bathrooms at the picnic grounds we were at. That was the only place we encountered that problem though.

If you like artifacts, visit the Cyprus museum in Nicosia. They have coins, statutes, helmets, pottery, and a host of other ancient and mostly well-preserved items. See my post above about that.

In Nicosia, if you like Lebanese food, I'd recommend the Syrian Arab Friendship Club. We got the meze for two and it was very good. The Club is a few (long) blocks from the Hilton Park Nicosia. We found out about it from the Lonely Planet guidebook.

We rented an automatic and didn't find it too difficult to adjust to driving on the left (British style). We just had to be really conscious each time we made a turn and get used to looking in the mirrors from a different angle. It might have been harder with a stick shift though. Navigation was certainly easier in the day, but it's probably a matter of preference (and how tired you think you'll be).

Difficulty was definitely a factor when we were there last week. I can laugh about it now, but at the time I didn't see the humor. My 9 year old son and I were hustled out to the lot by the Thrifty guy who very basically gave me the keys, pointed out the car, and shotgunned instructions to return the car to the same general area in the lot. It was dark out there, and the cars were jammed in. I spent 20 minutes trying to open the trunk on the Mitsubishi Carisma. It seemed simple enough: insert key into trunk lock button and turn and/or push. Nope. My son asked if we were just stupid Americans. I asked him to look in the car for a trunk release button. No interior light, no release. He found the remnants of the operator's manual under the seat, and luckily found directions to turn the lock a certain way and then USE THE AUTOMATIC DOOR LOCK BUTTON in the car to release!! Problem one solved. The next was getting the car into gear. It was a standard, and shouldn't have been a problem since I learned to drive on a standard. Wrong again. Instead of pushing down on the shift knob, I had to pull up on the collar around the knob. Another few minutes spent solving that. Missed the turn to go back to terminal to pick up wife and daughter, and went about 5 km to a roundabout to reverse direction. You can imagine my wife was less-than-thrilled about being left for so long!

Driving right side of car, left side of road, left-handed shifting was interesting to say the least. We drove to Limassol after dark. I expected to get a nice direction map from the Thrifty guy. Nope. He pointed, and gave quick and unprecise directions in his heavy Irish brogue. The signs were somewhat easy to follow. We missed a left exit about 10 km from the airport which was the impetus for a 30 minute direction-seeking detour. Found a gas station with a Romanian attendant who didn't know Limassol. We felt our way there down the coast highway, and then spent another hour or so trying to get directions to the Le Meridien. As we were about to stop to ask even more directions (our 3rd set), we spied it right next to the St. Raphael, about 10 km back from where we exited!! (Entirely my fault for not printing precise directions before leaving home.)

My wife kept begging me to get in the lane away from the parked cars. My natural instinct had me fading very close to the left! She had many uncomfortable moments!

The Le Meridien Limassol staff made us very comfortable and welcome. We were invited to a management cocktail reception one night, and enjoyed visiting with the management team! Our only regret is that we didn't have longer in Cyprus!

We flew United IAD to YYZ on United the next day. I think I know what happened to your partner's luggage. After we boarded, the pilot came on with an announcement that we were waiting for a few more bags, and that he knew that we would all want to arrive with our bags. After the door closed, and initial announcements were made, an uprising-in-the-making took shape. It seems that 6 passengers noticed their bags on the luggage cart next to the plane. Then came a long (hour-long) period of passenger names and bag descriptions being given to the flight attendant to relay via the pilot to the ground staff. Even as we pulled away, the first lady to draw attention to her bag on the cart noticed that it had been left behind. I think for that reason alone, we were happy with the decision to carryon our needed bags! Sorry we didn't get to meet you on AZ! We stayed at the Sheraton Gateway Toronto Airport on the way back, and enjoyed the hotel/club floor very much. I appreciated the 24 hour access to the pool the next morning when the kids awoke at 3:45 a.m.!!

We will be in Cyprus for 2+ weeks in January. PM me if you'd like a few more details. Maybe we can share a drink, meal, etc.

This will be my first trip, but hubby has been several times. His mom lives in Larnaca. We plan to spend a couple of days in town and then some days in Kalavosos and the Troodos areas. We will probably visit many areas during this time.

I would highly recommend you try to get an automatic shift as someone already mentioned. This makes a great deal of difference in adapting to a different style of driving. This has been my experience in England and NZ.

We arrived in LCA on January 1 from LHR on BA.

The BA plane was downright scary. The IFE system audio and cabin lights were on the fritz. The head FA was rebooting and messing for sometime before he got the system working. Storage compartment doors were taped, then flapping open, then retaped. It's lucky the business class cabin was virtually empty - 9 passengers. It took me 3 tries to find a seat with all controls working properly. The staff was very apologetic and embarrassed by the conditions. Jokingly I asked the FA how the other systems were working and if there were enough parachutes. He said there were enough for our cabin and the flight crew. :D

We had a ride from LCA with a friend into Larnaca where we booked into the Petrou Bros Hotel Apartments. It is a family run establishment - fairly basic, but a nice enough place. The price is good and the location is excellent. Close, but not right on the promenade. We got our rental car from the Petrou Bros and were pleasantly surprised. It is an automatic Toyota (probably midsize) for 14 Cyprus pounds a day.

We're now staying in Kalavassos (a village about halfway between Larnaca and Limassol). This is an interesting village with VERY narrow streets. The Kostoyannis House where we're staying is quite nice. We've had a rare rainy day in Cyprus and look forward to some sunshine to make exploring a little more pleasant.

We're off to the Troodos Mountains next week. I'll post an update after that.