Let’s be honest here, pretty much everyone was in either Greece, Portugal, Italy or Cyprus over the recent summer jaunt, so we’re all pretty familiar with that feeling. You know the one we’re talking about. The one where you’re walking through a quaint European seaside village, one part of you reveling in the simple pleasures of a rural coastal holiday, while the other part is weighing up the possibility of sacking in your current life set-up, considering using your big-city savvy to open up a beach-side bar and relocating permanently.
Sure, the ‘push’ side of that mindset can be attributed to combination of an oppressive Middle Eastern summer and the post-Covid return of leisure travel, but the ‘pull’ side of it, well, that is little more complicated. For me, a lot had to do with the destination, the Columbia Beach Resort in Pissouri, Cyprus, to be precise.
The luxury resort is built to feel like you have just bought your own slice of that European getaway that you always think about. While the five-star property is rather sizable – able to offer 169 luxury suites, two swimming pools and an award-winning Spa – it, rather significantly, doesn’t feel big at all. Squeezed into its own valley, overlooking the secluded Pissouri Bay on the southern coast near to Limassol, the higgledy-piggledy nature of the layout and uniformity of the building’s Cypriot architecture creates that quaint small village vibe, which we all crave.
Built around a large lagoon-style pool, the décor of the Columbia Beach Resort is specifically designed to reflect the honey-coloured surroundings of the vast beach and impressive rugged cliffs. The narrow passageways, the stone archways, red-clay roof tiles and the quality of detail put into the resort’s rather excellent collection of restaurants, create a tranquil village-like vibe that continues to attract both tourists and locals since it opened its doors a decade ago.
As any parent knows, upping sticks and starting a new life only semi-depends on your desires, the real stakeholders here are your offspring – a place that Columbia Beach Resort understands implicitly. Catering for kids aged four-months an up, schooling is all but taken care of, as long as you consider playing games, arts and crafts, and watersports excursions ‘schooling’. There are also family and interconnecting suites, children’s menus, and a babysitting service.
Now, back in the thick of things post-summer, I consider whether a new life as beach-side bar owner calling. Maybe not, but a trip back to Pissouri’s Columbia Beach Resort certainly is.
