Cyprus Vavla Rustic Retreat: A Traveller’s Review

Vavla Rustic Retreat

Booking.com


Rustic means relating to the countryside; rural. Kelly, the owner, emailed me straight away asking me what time we’ll be arriving, if we need wood for the fireplace, or dinner/breakfast in order for her to sort it out. We booked at Vavla Rustic Retreat since it had the best reviews and met our requirements. We needed a 2 bedroom country house in a nice village, with a fireplace and traditional  Cypriot feel.

Friendly Owner

We arrived at Vavla Rustic Retreat and Kelly was waiting for us. She toured us around the place and even showed us all rooms and told us the history of the old traditional family stone house.

An old restored house

This place has been restored though funding by the Cyprus Government and the EU. The rooms contain traditional Cypriot items which were used mainly for preparing and storing food e.g. bread. They have maintained the old traditional food scales, some cookware, traditional old sweepers, even in the garden there’s the original water well (an excavation created in the ground to get water). The garden is amazing! It has the traditional stone oven where you can use yourself to prepare food – if you know how to use it of course.

Breakfast

Vavla Rustic cooperate with their neighbors Donna Marie and George for serving breakfast, lunch or dinner. Donna Marie and George are former owners of an award-winning restaurant in New York, and are excellent chefs and hosts. They primarily offer a traditional Cypriot cuisine, however are often open to requests, and can also cater to those with food requirements. Note that they serve on a reservation-only basis.

Our Country House

We stayed at the Anoi, a 2 bedroom apartment, cosy, warm and most of all comfortable and clean. The kitchen literally provides everything! Even a juice maker and a coffee machine. You don’t need to take anything, just your food. All rooms are fully air-conditioned. You can purchase a big basket of wood for the fireplace, which costs 15 EUROS, that is enough to last all night and a few hours the next morning.