Salamis Bay Conti Resort (Famagusta)

Open an agency's booking page and you'll see five different room names listed under the same hotel: garden, park, club, main building and villa. At first glance it looks like marketing dressing, but at Salamis Bay Conti this list is the direct trace of fifty years of growth. Standing on the Yeni Bogazici coast north of Famagusta, the resort opened in 1973 with 34 bungalows and runs 664 rooms today. The decision you make while looking at that list on screen really comes down to two questions: which room group will you choose, and which month will you come? According to the sources we reviewed, at this resort both change the texture of the holiday more than anything else does. Let's go through the details.

Eight Kilometres from the Centre, Minutes from the Ancient City

The Salamis Road heading north out of Famagusta reaches Yeni Bogazici after a few kilometres, and on the sea side a long resort silhouette appears. That is also the hotel's official address: Yeni Bogazici, 99680. So you won't be staying in the centre of Famagusta; the centre is roughly eight kilometres away, and the evening crowds inside the walled city don't reach this shore. For the Ercan Airport side, it's worth budgeting forty to forty-five kilometres, roughly a forty-five-minute transfer. On the other hand, the ancient city of Salamis is a few kilometres away, a five-minute drive. Walking among the stone rows in the morning and getting back to the hotel for lunch is a normal programme here, and it can be done without renting a car at all.

Fairclough Put Up Thirty-Four Bungalows in 1973

The hotel was opened by the UK-based construction group Fairclough, and on opening day it had 369 rooms, 34 bungalows and 28 apartment units. Surprisingly, at launch it was billed as "the largest hotel in the Middle East", and by the scale of the day that claim wasn't really an exaggeration. The growth since then didn't come from a single investment, because ownership changed hands three times in fifty years. In 1974 the operation passed to Cyprus Turkish Tourism Enterprises, and in 1990 the TRNC government bought the hotel. The real turning point, though, is 1997. That year Istanbul Airlines leased the property for 49 years, and after a multi-million-dollar renovation the hotel joined the Conti Resort chain; the second overhaul in 2010 came on top of that. Today's villa count is also 34, though that may be nothing more than a numerical coincidence. With a history like this, age shouldn't be read as a sign of wear; it's the sum of layers stacked on top of one another.

Where the Sand Ends, the Pier Begins

Fine golden sand runs along the shore, and where it ends a private pier reaches out into the Mediterranean. The beach goes by the name Salamis Beach, and it sits at the centre of the daytime programme. Because part of the strip is set aside for private events such as weddings and cocktail parties, you may find a section of the beach closed in the summer months; weekend guests should be prepared for that. We can't give a firm figure for its length, because the hotel doesn't publish an exact measurement. Measurements aside, what matters here is the sand itself, since the difference between pebbles and sand shows itself from day one on a holiday with children.

What the Name on the Booking Screen Tells You

At Salamis Bay Conti, the five names at the entrance correspond to this: 359 main building rooms, 34 villas, 35 club rooms, 87 park rooms and 149 garden rooms. Five separate price and comfort tiers operate within the same resort, so the name you pick on screen directly determines where you wake up in the morning. The villas are laid out differently; some have a private jacuzzi or pool, and the two-bedroom duplex type is in this group too. So how much of a difference in space does the difference in name mean? Between the smallest park room and the largest duplex villa there's a gap of more than double the floor area. A couple will be comfortable in a main building room, whereas a family with two children will find the villa noticeably more functional. To give a sense of scale, the hotel hosts an average of 1,800 guests a day and works with a staff of around 350.

Which Months Is the Water Park Open?

When you come down to the poolside in the morning you'll see more than one outdoor pool and the indoor pools housed inside the spa building, but the place that draws the crowd is the nine-hundred-square-metre water park. This area, where six slides run, has a season from 1 May to 31 October. Few hotels on the island announce their start and end dates this clearly; among the properties we reviewed this is a rare comfort. For a guest arriving in November, the indoor pool keeps running, while the outdoor pools and the water park close. On the children's side, the mini club is open to the 4-12 age band, and play areas and a mini disco are included in the club. A family arriving with a child under four can't use the club; in that case a paid babysitting service arranged on request remains the only option. Base your decision not on whether the club exists but on your child's age.

Where the Ultra Package Ends at the Table

The concept is ultra all-inclusive, meaning open buffet breakfast, lunch and dinner, daytime snacks, and alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks at set hours are in the package. On the restaurant side that translates into one main open buffet, three indoor restaurants and two open-air restaurants.

Speaking of food, we can say the restaurant options here are pretty rich. For one, there's a main open-buffet restaurant, which I suspect will be one of the places we spend the most time. Beyond that, for those looking for different atmospheres there are three indoor restaurants, and if the weather is nice, two open-air restaurants to enjoy. So you can set off on a different culinary journey every day.

One of them carries the name "Othello", just like the castle on the walls. The same resort runs the Lemon Spa and Wellness Centre, with a Turkish bath, sauna, steam room and massage rooms inside, accompanied by a fitness centre and a tennis court. Since the hotel doesn't spell out separately whether items like massage are included in the package, it's worth asking before booking. The casino is open 24 hours; guests under 25 and residents of the TRNC are strictly not admitted to this section.

There's No Fixed Winter Rate

The hotel is open year-round; what closes is not the building itself but its outdoor areas. The water park and outdoor pools don't operate between 1 November and 31 March; the summer season starts in April and ends in October, with peak crowds in July and August. The nightly rate moves with this calendar too, varying by season and room type, and the current figure only becomes clear with a quote from the hotel or an agency. The guest-side verdict can be read on Tripadvisor, where the property carries a score of 4 out of 5 from 6,114 reviews. A guest coming to Salamis Bay Conti in winter finds a quieter programme that revolves between the indoor pool and the spa. At this fifty-year-old coastal resort, what matters isn't the star count but which doors the month you arrive in leaves open.

For the walled city and ancient Salamis themselves, see our Famagusta travel guide; to weigh the concept against other resorts, browse our guide to all-inclusive hotels in North Cyprus, and for the 45-minute ride from the airport, check the current Ercan airport transfer fares.