Does anybody know of a website where I can print out driving directions for Cyprus in advance? Mapquest, Michelin, Google, etc. all appear to lack data for Cyprus.

No need...
 

...the Cyprus tourism board supplies all car rental companies and hotels with excellent road maps for the whole country and each region. Driving there is very easy, I only got lost once in the mountains and we ended up at a beautiful monestary...dont sweat it just wait til you get there and ask at the rental car desk.

Agree Paphos is much nicer....
 

...seems more upscale, the roads and blvds. are flowered and better tended plus the UNESCO world heritage site is in Paphos.

I'm in Ayia Napa right now, halfway through my very short trip.

The 767 (762) AZ flew from YYZ-MXP was nothing to write home about. Stiff business class seats with mediocre recline. No individual video screens, never mind video on demand. And the food was absolutely atrocious. My meat was burnt to a crisp and totally inedible. Well worth $33, however.

The AZ lounge at MXP is the absolute worst lounge I have ever frequented. If you want to take a shower, be prepared to bring your own toiletries and towel or plan on drying yourself off with paper towels and a hair dryer (and in one of the two shower/toilet rooms, the hair dryer is broken). No windows in the lounge, a bunch of ratty and sagging furniture, no computers for internet access (although I believe you can use the net if you have your own laptop), and very, very few snacks. The only positives are a good selection of newspapers in many languages and a cellular phone charging station that has about a dozen adapters.

My CY-operated flight to LCA was delayed by almost three hours. I rode in coach ("D" inventory was zeroed out when I made my one date change). The plane was supposed to be a 319, but we got a 320 instead. I had a seat in row 10, which is the no recline exit row. You'll want row 11 if you are on the 320. Not that the exit rows are that great; I'd estimate an industry trailing 34 inches of pitch or so. Business class didn't look much better. It's basically economy with leather seats instead of cloth. 2-3 configuration with the armrests adjusted on the port side. You'll definitely want the port side. Food was good in coach, however. And the booze was free. The movie during the flight was Dr. Doolittle 3.

Cyprus is great. I rented a car with an automatic transmission from Thrifty Cyprus, which was a good choice for me given the taxi fare roundtrip to Ayia Napa. I would highly recommend Ayia Napa for those looking for beautiful beaches and a Cancun/Ibiza-style party experience. The Napa Plaza Hotel, where I am staying, is great. Right near the town square. For those who are less concerned with being in close proximity to the nightlife, the Nissi Beach Hotel looks like an excellent choice too.

For any divers out there, I would highly recommend diving the wreck of the Zenobia. Honestly, I cannot recommend it enough.

The Zenobia is a 560 foot Sweedish roll-on, roll-off ferry that sank in Larnaca harbor (Cyprus) on her maiden voyage in 1980. She now lies on her port side in approximately 138 feet of sea water.

I did two dives, the first exploring the cargo hold, the aft ramp doors of the ship, and the screws and the second exploring the front of the ship including the bow, the dining room, the bridge, and a lifeboat. The Zenobia was carrying just over 100 lorries (trucks) and many of them are still visible in the hold or at the bottom where they spilled onto the sea floor during the sinking. Swimming through the restaurant and the bridge is a cool experience, which offers ample exit points with natural light visible at all times in the event of an emergency. There is no current in the harbor and visibility is excellent. Plus, for plane lovers like myself, the dive boat as anchored above the wreck is right underneath the flight path for the final approach to the airport so you will get a great view of a variety of planes during your surface interval.

I dove with EZ Divers, a really good operation run by British expats that offers free transportation from hotels in Ayia Napa and Protarus to the dive site and back. The Zenobia is a can't-miss dive for anybody headed to Cyprus.

Unless things have changed since April, you can take a car across if the rental company permits it. You do have to buy additional insurance on the Turkish side because the Cypriot insurance isn't valid there.

I returned from my trip to Cyprus on July 4th. Check in at LCA was fairly painless. There are two dedicated lines for business class passengers, so check the computer monitors closely. CY will only give you a boarding pass for the LCA-Italy flight so continuing boarding passess will need to be obtained in Italy for the AZ flights.

Business class passengers have access to the SunMiles lounge which is past immigration and security. After passing through the metal detector turn right and take the elevator upstairs. The lounge is decent, with ample seating, a fair selection of snacks and beverages, and plenty of newspapers. There is a sign proclaiming that "no bermuda shorts" are allowed in the lounge, although I was not stopped even though I was wearing shorts.

My flight from LCA-MXP was operated by a 320. I sat in 2A. Apollo business class is in a 2-3 configuration (A/C -- aisle -- D/E/F), with modular armrests spread into the vacant middle seat on the two side (the port side), which is the side you will definitely want. Seat pitch and recline is very poor for business class; I would estimate about 33 inches of pitch, so for those of you who do not have business class seats on the LCA-Italy segments, I wouldn't loose any sleep over it. The food is decent, but the only noticeable difference between the food in business class and the food in coach is a slightly larger salad that also comes with shrimp. The movie on the return was Big Momma's House 2. As with the outbound segment to LCA, my return segment was also delayed, this time by an hour and a half due to a faulty computer which had to be replaced.

I flew AZ #606 from MXP-EWR on the return. The flight was operated by a 772. Frustratingly, we had to be bused to a remote stand. I say frustratingly because it defies reason for AZ to park a 300 passenger widebody at a remote stand while allowing much smaller narrowbodies like MD80s and 320s to occupy the actual jet bridges at the terminal.

I was seated in 2H. Business class on the 772 is a 2-2-2 configuration and has two cabins. Rows 1 and 9 are the bulkhead rows and appear to have slightly less legroom than the non-bulkhead rows, so I'd recommend steering away from them.

The seats are designed by Recaro. They are not lie-flat seats. Instead they offer a recline of approximately 150 degrees. Despite not being fully flat, they are quite comfortable, in both the lounging position and the sleeping position.

AZ offered a different amenity kit on this return flight, this one made by Bvlgari. The service was pleasant and crisp. The ravioli pasta was much better than the pasta dish offered on the outbound flight. But, once again, the meat main dish was very poor. This time I had turkey, and it was rubbery and almost inedible. For a transatlantic business class product and an airline that comes from one of the great culinary countries in the world, the food is incredibly disappointing.

The most disappointing thing about my flight was an inoperative in-flight entertainment system. The 772 has video and audio on-demand with individual screens in the armrests that are approximately nine inches. Unfortunately, my system and that of my seatmate and the person immediately across the aisle did not work despite multiple reboots of the system by the flight attendants. While we could play games, we could not watch any movies or television programming, nor could we use the audio on-demand. Had I paid a regular fare for this flight, I would have been very, very unhappy.

Notwithstanding AZ's reputation for habitual tardiness, this flight, like the outbound, arrived within a few minutes of schedule despite leaving about a half hour late.

Ah.. so you were on the delayed flight on July 1st as well? We were on that same flight. What a mess. We were supposed to connect on the Aegean flight to Athens that night, the one that was finished boarding by the time we arrived (missed the flight even with an original 3 hr layover) To top it off, Cyprus/Alitalia managed to lose our bags and we finally got them two days later. We decided to spend two days in Larnaca before flying off to Mykonos. We will be back in Cyprus on the 15th.

Cutoff time for check-in at LCA?
 

For those who have already done this trip, when did you show up at LCA for your flight back? The CY website states you must be there no later than 2 hours prior to your flight. Did you show up any later? Did you see them denying any late-arriving pax?
Showing up 2 hours early means waking up early, something we're not excited about. We plan to stay in Agia Napa the last couple of nights, which is apparently about 45 min. away from LCA, meaning a 6am wake-up... :(

Do you think they'd have a problem with a business class customer showing up 1.5 hours before the flight, or would you not risk it?

I don't think I ever checked in before 745 for a 940 flight on 2 occasions, and maybe closer to 8 once. Security and immigration doesn't take very long and the airport is very small (I think 45 minutes before departure is more than enough time). I think the reason is that they want the bucket 'n spade crowd to get there early. I think someone who flew in May said 8 was fine.

Similarly, no need to go to the gate at 35 mins before departure as recommended. 25 minutes is more than adequate.

I checked in at LCA at about 8:15 a.m. for my 9:40 a.m. flight. No problems. I don't think the two hour check-in requirement is enforced.

Good to hear, since the FCO bound flights leave at 9:15am, about a 1/2 hour earlier than the MXP flights. I'll plan to be there by 7:45-8AM then!
Thanks,

We showed up only 1 hour before...
 

...with absolutely no difficulties whatsoever.

Guys, just saw this thread. Would agree with most comments. Here's my contribution to some of the unanswered comments/ questions:

I hardly ever check in in LCA with more than 60 minutes to spare, usually it's about 45. Especially if I am flying business and certainly if I have my seat reserved. With the beauty that the airport is, there is no point in going any earlier :rolleyes:

There is definitely a separate check in for business class - it's sometimes far from the check in for the masses though.

Taxis will try to rip you off. Heck, they do that even with me and I'm a local. But to be fair, they don't have to cheat - the fares are already high as it is!

The "lake" that Dr Buffy mentioned, is a salt lake that is supposed to be dry in the summer. That's when traditionally the salt was harvested. Pity donkeys no longer harvest the salt - was quite a picturesque site.

In CY's defense, the 2x3 seating in business class is pretty standard in Europe. Their 2x2x2 on 330s are AFAIK unique in Europe so count yourselves lucky to be on one of those. And as for bad movies - at least you get some! Few airlines offer those intra-Europe nowadays though some make the effort for the long trek to Cyprus.

Re: hotels. Recommendations for the nicest ones: In Limassol, I'd stay at the Meridien/ 4 seasons/ Amathus and nothing else. In Ayia Napa quite a few decent ones - my favourite is grecian Park. In Paphos at the Amathus/ Elysium/ Anabelle. Elsewhere, everyone is raving about the IC but it's not on the beach. The Columbia beach resort in Pissouri is also quite nice. And if you'd like to splurge, try the Anassa near Polis (2 1/2 hrs from LCA). In Larnaca...why would anyone stay in LCA is beyond me ;-)

For those of us who are doing/did 15-17 hour turnarounds. :D


Does anyone know of a decent but not too expensive hotel near the city park in Lemosos? There's a wine festival there in early Sept. and we want to sta near there so we can stagger back to the hotel.

Good question, YVR C! We're also planning on attending the wine festival (http://www.limassolmunicipal.com.cy/wine/index.html) and are hoping for a nearby hotel. From my brief initial research, it would appear that most hotels are long the beach in Limassol, a few KM away from the actual city (and the festival). Prices aren't too bad, less than $100/night for a 3* property. We may stay near the beach, and cab it to the festival (can't be that expensive, can it?)
PS - When will you be in Cyprus? We'll be there Sept 3-7!
BostonBali