This post may contain affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate and associate of other programs, we earn from qualifying purchases. This means if you click a link and make a purchase, we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you.
Some destinations carry their mythology lightly – Paphos does not. The island is a place where the sea still remembers Aphrodite and the land holds Roman mosaics just beneath its surface. Its southwestern edge harks back to when it was named European Capital of Culture in 2017; a UNESCO World Heritage coastline meeting a city that has quietly but confidently become one of the most compelling corners of the Mediterranean. Since then, it was only a matter of time before the hotels caught up.
Enter Imperial Island Resort under the Louis Hotels Elegant Collection. Formerly known as Louis Imperial Beach Hotel, it has reopened its doors on the 3rd of May to the public. First impressions are everything, and Imperial Island understands that. The reception and lobby set the register immediately – light and meticulously planned. The 550 sunbeds arranged across manicured lawns and poolside terraces tell their own story: this is a resort built for people who want space, ease, and the uninterrupted pleasure of doing absolutely nothing, beautifully. And that is exactly how it felt for me.
Imperial Island Up Close
The 239 rooms and suites are dressed in muted, mineral tones that feel like a home. There is a quietness to the palette of soft linens, clean lines, and the understated luxury of letting the view do the talking. And the views, from the Sea View suites in particular, are worth every penny. Waking up to the Mediterranean on a clear Cypriot morning, the water so still it looks painted, is the kind of thing that recalibrates your entire relationship with mornings.
For families, over half the hotel’s rooms have been redesigned as fully equipped suites with sliding doors, offering parents and children their own separate space within the same reservation. It is a detail that sounds minor until the moment it isn’t. And at Imperial Island Resort, children within the families are of the utmost importance.
The Kids Club, designed for ages two to twelve, comes with an outdoor soft play area. The Teens Club is a separate world entirely, with interactive IT facilities and video games that actually hold their attention. These are spaces built from an understanding of what modern families need and not what resorts traditionally assume they need.
The two main outdoor pools are flanked by loungers and landscaped gardens, with a dedicated children’s pool and an indoor pool for those who arrive early in the season or simply refuse to let an overcast sky change their plans. Phase two – due when the resort reopens in April 2027 after winter works – will add an extensive waterpark, two new family pools, a children’s feature pool with slides, and a complete landscaping of the hotel gardens. The resort is already a destination. In 2027, it will be something else entirely.
Come evening, the former ballroom masterfully transitions into its next chapter. Now completely rebuilt as a state-of-the-art theatre, the venue fluidly rotates its entertainment curation by shifting effortlessly from high-energy DJ sets and contemporary dance ensembles to powerful live vocal performances. A sleek, dedicated bar services the space, remaining open as the vibrant programme runs well into the night. It is proof that a family resort does not have to become a quiet one after nine o’clock.
Then, there are the spa amenities that include the gym, saunas, steam bath, and a jacuzzi that offer a full wellness approach with a guarantee of ultimate tranquillity.
And if it is pure blissful escape you are looking for, Planet Spa – sitting within Imperial Island Resort – boasts a menu of massages and revitalising treatments that endeavour to provide an alternative path to the deeper exhale that a proper holiday should eventually produce. Treatments include a wide variety of massages, spa rituals, hammam rituals, and facials.
I enjoyed a deep oriental back massage that relieved me from the tension of living a city life back home and eased back pains that were buried deep in the layers of my muscles. I was treated by one of the hotel’s skilled therapists who used a combination of techniques such as slow strokes, friction movements, and trigger point therapy that caused me to come out of the treatment room feeling entirely renewed and deeply relaxed.
The Table at Imperial Island: Where the Resort Earns Its Stars
Dining at Imperial Island Resort is where expectations are most likely to be pleasantly dismantled. The main restaurant, wrapped around a sun-drenched terrace with pool views on all sides, runs live cooking stations and themed evenings across the week. The buffet is generous enough to accommodate every preference. From Cypriot, Italian, Peruvian, Mexican, down to good old BBQ, the restaurant is proof of a resort done properly.
But the two specialty restaurants are where the real conversation begins.
Pygmalion: Elevated Gourmet Burgers
Their elevated gourmet burger hub at called Pygmalion is a burger joint that knows exactly what it is. The meal opens with a trio of appetisers consisting of crispy fried halloumi, spiced chicken wings and a cabbage slaw. I ordered the Farmer’s Burger: a house patty beneath crispy bacon, a fried egg, iceberg, tomato, red onion, and smoky BBQ sauce.
The whole thing is assembled with the simplicity of a classic diner staple, but what separates it from a good burger to a really good one is the precision within indulgence. Alongside it, I had the Truffle, Garlic and Herb Fries that will make me reference them against every hotel burger I eat for years afterward.
Fiki Japanese Fusion: Elegant Dining
Fiki Japanese Fusion operates at an entirely different register. The menu moves from Japan to Korea to Thailand and back again with such fluency, and the kitchen approaches the fusion concept as an opportunity to show off rather than an alibi. I began with edamame, pure and properly salted, and a tom yam coconut soup with dumplings – lemongrass, mushroom, coconut milk, and vegetable dumplings that made me just want to keep eating.
The Tiradito arrived next: fresh tuna, cucumber and radish pickles, tutti frutti and wafu sauces. The bright acid of the sauce against the richness of the fish showed every element earning its place. The Tempura Maki was constructed with precision: prawn tempura, cucumber, avocado, orange tobiko and sriracha mayo, delivering a perfect balance of satisfying crunch and fiery, creamy warmth.
For the main courses, the Korean Chicken was the evening’s standout: tempura-crisp, glazed in a deep, sticky Korean sauce, and finished with sesame. The Robata skewers of salmon, mussel meat, and perch fillet over charcoal were finished with robata sauce, arriving with a proper smokiness that only an open flame produces, leaving the seafood tender and sweet against it. The Beef Bulgogi Noodles closed the savoury courses with a distinct impact with its marinated beef that took me back to my travels in Hong Kong.
Dessert was a Tonka Cream Brûlée with milk chocolate crumble, coconut gel, and caramel sauce, serving as a composed end to my meal.
Culinary standards across Imperial Island Resort reflect the oversight of Executive Chef Kyriakos Sotiriou, who moves between Louis Hotels’ properties with the regularity of someone who takes consistency personally. And I could definitely taste the difference that makes.
Explore the Best of Cyprus
I headed further along the coast and found myself standing in front of my favourite mythology: Petra tou Romiou or more known as Aphrodite’s Rock. The view is a sea stack rising from turquoise water between Paphos and Limassol. Ancient legend places this as the birthplace of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty, where she was born from sea foam when the gods disturbed the water and carried to shore.
During my visit, it was a calm day, and the sea was so still that the rock sat in perfect reflection. But on the rough days where the waves would hit the rock hard, the stone appears through the spray in flashes. Euripides called Cyprus the Island of Aphrodite and rightly so – you feel it before you know it.
I boarded a yacht with Blue Lagoon Charters along the coast to the Blue Lagoon. The water deepens from turquoise to a colour that doesn’t photograph accurately, and arriving by sea is the only way to approach it properly. I swam, came back on deck, and sat with a prosecco in hand and munched on fresh fruit under the gleaming sun while the afternoon did what it wanted. Some hours are worth more than others.
For wine, I spent an afternoon at Sterna, a family winery in the hilltop village of Kathikas, 650 metres above sea level. The locals consider this their finest wine road. Sterna has been working these vineyards since 1995, and it shows in the confidence of its owners, as they offered tastings of their three whites, two rosés, two reds, and a local wine distillate.
All these were served with homemade bread, olives, and hummus in a stone building with a cave cellar carved straight into the rock beneath it. The 100% Xynisteri white is Cyprus’s most important indigenous grape, grown at altitude, clean, and mineral with green apple and grapefruit. Safe to say my luggage was fully stocked with wine on the way back home.
Eating the Cypriot Way
Beyond the gates of Imperial Island Resort, I ate my way around Paphos, and two restaurants earned their place in my memory.
Muse Café Kitchen Bar
Muse Café Kitchen Bar has been on its clifftop in Ktima since 2010, with a terrace that looks out over the whole city and the sea beyond. I started with the Beef Tartare with Bone Marrow and Yellow Quail Eggs: hand-cut beef, roasted bone marrow, yellow quail eggs on toasted brioche. It was rich and precise and set the tone for everything that followed.
The Halloumi Bruschetta came next, grilled halloumi with basil, cherry tomatoes and balsamic glaze on baby ciabatta. A proper Greek salad, made with care. Then the Grilled Pork Chop that was bigger than my entire head, marinated and cooked on the grill, with baby potatoes and a side salad.
No fuss, no gimmicks, just good ingredients and a kitchen that knows what to do with them. Muse draws locals and visitors in equal measure. Sitting on that terrace at prime lunch time with a limoncello spritz in hand was the pinnacle of my Cyprus stay.
Y&P Fish Tavern
But perhaps the truest Cypriot experience of my trip was dining at Y&P Fish Tavern that sits on the harbour at Latchi. By reputation and by experience, the establishment is the best fish tavern in Cyprus. People drive across the island for a table here, and they are right to.
My table had the fish meze. It arrived in waves: taramosalata, tzatziki, olives and tahini first, then prawns, mussels, fried squid, crab legs, octopus, cuttlefish, small fried fish from the day’s catch and finally grilled fish. The table ran out of room before the kitchen ran out of ideas. The octopus was the standout, the kind of freshness and depth of flavour you only get when nothing has been near a freezer.
Understanding the Meze
Meze is worth understanding before you sit down to one. It is not a dish. It is a way of eating that reflects how Cypriots think about food, which is that tables should be full, guests should not have to think about what comes next, and nobody leaves wanting. Plates keep arriving. The variety is not incidental. Cypriots live to eat in a way that is cultural rather than habitual, and it shows in every taverna, every market stall and every long lunch that turns into an early evening without anyone noticing.
Cyprus Will Stay with You
What I have learnt from my trip to Cyprus is that the place has a way of staying with you. It is not in the obvious, postcard sense, but in the specific details that have surfaced after I left. It’s the taste of Xynisteri on a Tuesday afternoon, the stillness of the Blue Lagoon, and that plate of octopus so fresh it reset my understanding of seafood. And in the centre of it all, Imperial Island Resort sits at the heart of it. It is a hotel that has been built with genuine intention in a destination that rewards both locals and visitors with a generosity that is entirely its own.
Getting There
Seven nights at Imperial Island Resort on a Premium All Inclusive basis, including flights from London Gatwick, transfers and 23kg luggage, is available from £1,353 per person through easyJet holidays, based on a 1st July 2026 departure.
Before you fly, Holiday Extras offers access to the No.1 Lounge North at Gatwick’s North Terminal from £96 for two adults, with three hours to settle in before departure. Bookings can be amended or cancelled without charge through their Flextras option.
