A review by Yelena of Pine Grove Villa, Northern Cyprus

My husband found Pine Grove Villa in North Cyprus independently on the Internet, so it wasn't anyone's recommendation.

We emailed a request about the villa availability and got a phone call within half an hour. The villa was available for the period we were looking at. The accommodation is owned by a British couple and all of the arrangements were really easy. We paid a deposit in advance and the remaining amount 3 weeks before the holiday.

The owner was very helpful with organising airport transfers and generally very knowledgeable about the country and the area. He advised us to hire a car and he was right. Although the villa is about 10 minutes from the nearest beach, you still need to go to the supermarket and to do any sightseeing.

The villa itself comprises of a lounge, a dining room and a kitchen, a utility room and a toilet downstairs, and three bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs. Two bedrooms have balconies with fantastic views. One of the bedrooms has an en suite. Everything was clean and tidy and furnished very tastefully. Almost all of the rooms had mosquito nets and air conditioning. The bathrooms had a supply of towels, shampoo, soap and shower gel. The villa had everything really - TV, books, CDs, DVDs, magazines, a washing machine, an iron and an ironing board, a dish-washer, a fridge, a cooker, crockery, cutlery. The only little drawback was the state of the pans and frying pans. We love cooking so couldn't really do much with the pots provided. BUT? if you eat out every night or buy ready meals, this is not a problem. We couldn't go out all the time because we had a 16-month old child!

Outside there is a lovely spacious pool with parasols, sun loungers and mattresses. Around are beautiful gardens. A real treat. There is also a lovely table and chairs for eating alfresco.

Any pictures you take, you can immediately email to your friends as there is a wireless Internet connection.

The villa was a great find and we started recommending it to others.

The web address is http://www.pinegrovevilla.com and you can even watch a video online!

Read the full review here.



My family and me stopped at the Pine Grove Villa for 2 weeks in October. We had never been to North Cyprus before, so we decided to give it a whirl. We chose the Pine Grove Villa from us looking on the Internet, it has a superb website and it looked great so we booked for 2 weeks, for me my wife and our 4 children.

The proprietor Len Cooper advised us to fly to Larnaca airport where he arranged a taxi to collect us from the airport, which drove us to the Villa. It was very straightforward, took about an hour-ish, with a short stop at the border between the North and South. On arrival at the villa we where welcomed by Peter their caretaker, who showed us around the villa, and explained the villa in detail. (Very welcoming).

The villa was superb, with plenty of space, and loads of room for the kids, which was perfect, it has digital TV, mostly Turkish channels, however it had around 15 channels in English which was good and my wife even watched Eastenders, (How Sad) and if you like DVD's there was hundreds for you to watch. Our bedroom was really nice with ensuite shower and toilet, the kids had a double and a twin room both very nice.

What made the holiday was the villas pool and the location. The pool area is amazing, it had loads of room and was really secluded and was perfect for kids. We spent so much time around the pool is was great, we had a few barbeques and did lots of alfresco dinning which was really nice. We did venture outside the villa and walked on numerous occasions to the escape beach, which took about 10 minutes to get there and was stunning, probably one of the best beaches I have ever seen. There was loads to do on the beach, you got a clean sun bed and there was a reasonable priced restaurant, however the only bad point being the cost to enter this private beach, it cost about £3.50 each, which can add up with a large family. We did go to another beach about 5 minutes by car and was also really nice, this beach was free. (Kaversenry Beach I think?)

I liked where the Villa was situated just off the main road, about 15 minutes to Kyrenia by car, it is quiet location where you will 100% need a car, most of the nice restaurants, the stunning Kyrenia harbour, Bellapais village and water park are a car drive away so it is a must if you stop here. I would recommend any family to stop at this villa it really is superb, and has beautiful gardens and a superb private pool area, the owner (Len) was very helpful so was his caretaker (Gabriele) who helped us on numerous occasions.

I would give this Villa holiday 9/10, My family really enjoyed it, we did lots of excursions, and shopping in Kyrenia town, I would recommend everyone to go and see the harbour (which can be a bit pricey) and Belapais village which is superb and has lots of restaurants. There is a supermarket within walking distance and 2 larger supermarkets 5 minutes by car. The villa is a perfect base to see the Northern Cyprus, it is not as commercial as say Paphos but it was a really enjoyable holiday, will definitely go back.

The price for the villa for two weeks was £1000.00 plus we did manage to get some cheap flights with thomsonfly.com