Everyday, Europe

A Relaxing Easter at Parklane, A Luxury Collection Resort & Spa, Limassol

May 21, 2025

Easter holidays can be quite awkward when you’re living in the UK, it’s not quite warm enough to travel short haul to the usual suspects (France, Italy, Spain) but when you have a baby / rising toddler, it feels quite intimidating to do long or even medium haul. Last year Tenerife was the answer and this year we thought we’d give Cyprus a go. With a flight of around 4.5 hours I was still worried about flying with an active toddler, but nothing ventured as they say! The weather was set to be sunny and there’s only two hours time difference, Cyprus was already ticking the boxes for two small children.

What is the Parklane, Cyprus.

A few options for the hotel were bandied around and we finally settled on Parklane, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa in Limassol. This was partly because flights into nearby Larnaca were more frequent and flexible than popular alternative, Paphos and partly due to a rather epic looking kids club!

Parklane is part of The Luxury Collection by Marriot and having stayed in a couple of hotels in the collection (Gritti Palace and Hotel Grand Bretagne), I knew standards would be high. As well as travelling with Mr S and my children, my in-laws were coming along as well as my sister and her son; the resort seemed to suit our party well. With 222 rooms, 34 suites and 18 villas, a spa, beach, four pools, six bars and restaurants, a shopping village and the aforementioned kids club it was tick, tick, tick for this place. We booked through British Airways holidays which meant were got a bit of a discount.

Hotel Design and our Room

With Harrods Design responsible for the decor, luxury would be awaiting us and we weren’t disappointed; clean lines, fresh white walls, soaring ceiling and art pieces by Atelier 27 Paris everything was elegant and modern. The floral displays throughout added colour and enhancements and we loved the cute Easter installation at the entrance.

I will say that although it was lovely and polished it was a little lacking in local character and Cypriot touches.

And also, while it was sleek and contemporary, I found the exterior architecture to be a little bit bordering on a tower block in style. However, with the billowing palm trees, abundant flowers and lush surrounding gardens it did work!

We had booked a Family Suite with a Sea View, now a family of four we need the space and this room category looked ample for us.

The room was actually two adjoining rooms. On the one side there was the master bedroom with ensuite which had the usual five star amenities of fridge, coffee machine, TV, wifi and they’d added in a cot for Noah and baby toiletries.

This other room had this small room with a queen-sized bed.

And it had an actual playroom for the boys! This became a sleepover room and cousin Jackson stayed with us for three nights.

There was a second ensuite on this side with a cute child’s dressing gown. Again, any family will find two bathrooms invaluable in a hotel room.

The design was maybe a little bland but now I’m a mum of two I absolutely prioritise comfortable places for all of us to sleep, ample space and storage and this room was all of this.

The two rooms were connected by this huge terrace with a our seaview. To be honest, it wasn’t that easy to see the view but the terrace was extremely safe for small children. On the playroom side there was a barrier to the terrace for children couldn’t even go out from there.

Something that hadn’t actually been explained to us on booking was that the suite was part of the hotel’s ‘Bespoke Collection’ which came with extra perks such as free cabanas by the pool, dinner at a local restaurant, complimentary cocktails at one of the restaurants and gifted beach towels and beach bags to name a few. There was also champagne in the room and a fruit plate that was replenished daily.

Experiences and Activities

Parklane is a fairly largish and spread out resort but unlike Ritz Abama, Ikos Porto Petro or Sani everything is very close and walkable. If you have limited mobility (as I mentioned, we were with elderly relatives) the hotel is a set up well, you can borrow a wheel chair and there are plenty of ramps and easy access to lifts.

There are four pools in the hotel, the main pool was good fun and included a slide for kids. There’s a baby pool here too.

We had a few days here and few days at the smaller pool which was saltwater. Oscar loved splashing about in the fountains here.

We hired the cabanas daily which were honestly perfect for keeping Noah in the shade and being comfortable.

Most days we got relaxed lunches by the pool (chicken ceasar everyday!) and the food and drinks service was really good. My mostly commonly asked question on Instagram was, ‘Is the pool heated’ and it was not and it was quite cold but the boys loved splashing about it there nonetheless.

The adult pool was adjacent to this pool but as a parent, a long lingering look at this tranquil space is often all you get!

And finally there was also an indoor heated pool in the spa which seemed to be available for children.

I’ve been to a few hotels recently where you need to get a transfer to the beach but here it’s in easy reach and there are cabanas available too.

It’s a lovely white sandy beach, perfect for a spot of paddling and a sand castle!

The hotel is also home to the Kalloni Spa which houses Cyprus’s only Thalassotherapy centre plus 14 treatment rooms, 3 suites (two of which include a Russian Banya) and offers leading treatments from expert therapists. Though I didn’t make full use of the spa, I did get a blow dry that I was pleased with! There’s also PARKfit, an onsite fitness centre.

There’s plenty of other sports facilities such as a clay tennis courts, a mini football pitch and a padel court plus all sort of watersports. Oscar loved going out on a pedalo on one of our days there.

Now sport is not my thing… but there was one thing as Parklane that is a big deal… and that’s shopping! The hotel is home to Retail Village with a standalone Dior, Celine and Loro Piano among other big designer names.

Though I didn’t buy anything, these boutiques were gorgeous places to have a mooch around. Inside the hotel there was also Parklane’s Fashion Gallery which houses several different shops featuring a mixture of designer things such Zimmermann, Missoni and Moncler et al.

One thing we found a little bit lacking was entertainment, there was no live music in evening and no entertainment for kids. The only experience we had was during a Sunday brunch. That said it may be more lively in peak season.

The concierge can also help organise excursions and there’s lots suggested on the hotel website. I love an excursion but with only a short week at the hotel and with needs of family members both young and old we decided it would be more relaxing just to stay at the hotel.

Child Care

The Explorers Kids Club at Park has to be one of the best I’ve seen (rivalling the great Sonnwies!).

There’s 3,000 metre squared of space and it’s one of the biggest in Europe. The club hosts children from 4 months to 12 years and run by travel industry giants Scott Dunn.

There’s a castle kids club, a pirate ship splash pad, lots of sports and arts and craft programmes. Our kids loved the playground and bouncy castle. Inside there’s separate spaces for each age group.

The staff are highly trained, the boys loved them. The club operates daily from 10am-6pm and guests can book morning (10am-2pm) or afternoon (2pm-6pm) session.

There were four age groups as follows:

GLOBETROTTERS 4months to 3 years (ratio 3 to 1 )

ADVENTURERS 3-5 years ( ratio 4 to 1 )

VOYAGERS 5-8 YEARS (ratio 6 to 1 )

PIONEERS 8-12 YEARS (ratio 8 to 1 )

For kids over 3 you pay a pretty reasonable 20 EUROs per session and for under 3 is 15 EUROs per hour. I’ve struggled getting Noah to settle at Kids Club before but he was really happy here. They also arranged babysitters in the evening who were the same people as in the kids club, this arrangement was pretty invaluable to us as the kids already knew and loved them. They were some of the best babysitters we’ve had in a hotel.

Food

Dining is a rather major event at Parklane Cyprus and there are six different restaurant experiences. As we were on a half board basis we had breakfast and one other meal included everyday. If we chose to have that meal (lunch or dinner) at the buffet it was completely included but if you chose one of the other restaurants you could use dining credit at 60 EUROs per adult and 30 EUROs per child.

Nammos was our favourite restaurant, we’ve been to Nammos in Mykonos and Courchevel and it’s definitely among one of our favourite restaurant brands, the restaurant in Limassol didn’t disappoint! We ate there three times but do be aware the hefty price tag.

There was absolutely no faulting this restaurant’s beachfront location where you could dine with your feet in the sand or more on solid ground inside the restaurant. The menu is Mediterranean with super fresh seafood (you can select your fish by size) and premium cuts of meat. There’s also sushi and other Japanese options on the menu… this is a place where you can spend hours grazing on ‘picky bits’ like Mediterranean platters, calamari and meatballs or really go for it with a Wagyu steak.

We also really enjoyed Easter brunch here which included live music and DJ, really bringing the spirit of Mykonos to Limassol!

Next up was the ultra elegant La Petite Maison or LPM which featured a beautifully aesthetic interior inspired by the French Riviera. Though other members of the group found the food hit and miss, I personally loved it.

On the more casual side was Vithos, the restaurant by the saltwater pool which offered salads, burgers and pizza. We ate in the restaurant one day and on other days enjoyed pool side ‘takeaways.’

By the main pool was the Teatro restaurant which is seasonal and was not open during our stay but had a very pretty and elegant setting.

The Gallery is the hotel’s lounge bar which serves brunch and than a Pan-Asian lunch and dinner. We ate here on the first night and found the food disappointing and overpriced.

Finally, there’s the hotel buffet known as Lanes, we visited daily for breakfast and though as a group we generally prefer an a la carte breakfast, we agreed that the buffet here was very good. We fed the kids dinner here one night and there’s a good range of quality international options. Our one bug bear was that the evening buffet doesn’t open until 6.30pm when lots of people want to feed the kids earlier. There is an a la carte menu that is served all day but that doesn’t have the instant gratification of the buffet.

Conclusion

Parklane Cyprus really does tick all the boxes for a luxury multi-generational family holiday there’s plenty of fun and sun with a great kids club and easy access to the pools and beaches. We had a few niggles over service in restaurants but the concierge was very good.

For me, though the hotel was beautiful and well maintained, it was a little characterless. Even the fact it was mostly branded restaurants and shops rather than anything traditionally Cypriot. This is something the would have bothered the ‘old me’ who was looking for unique experiences, authenticity and a personalised service … but the 2025 Angie SilverSpoon is looking for happy children and a relaxed holiday and for that Parklane met all expectations.