Luxury Hotels Atlas / Places / Cyprus / Neo Chorio / Anassa
Anassa
Neo Chorio, Cyprus · Independent · Core Luxury
Anassa means queen in classical Greek, and the whitewashed village that Thanos Hotels opened on the Asprokremnos coast in 1998 was the project that cost Foreign Minister Alecos Michaelides his cabinet seat. Sandy and Babcock of San Francisco set 166 low rooms, suites, and villas down a twenty-acre hillside on land then marked for the Akamas national park. James Northcutt designed the interiors. The Byzantine chapel of Saint Athanasia stands on the village square above Chrysochou Bay.
- 166 rooms
- Opened 1998
- Neighborhood: Asprokremnos
- Rooms from 441 sq ft (41 m²)
- Architect: Sandy & Babcock
- Interiors: James Northcutt Associates
About Anassa
- On 9 August 1998 the Cyprus Mail wrote that part of the hotel had opened the month before, and that thirteen extra rooms an interior minister had vowed to demolish were still standing under revised plans.
- Thalassa pumps seawater straight from Chrysochou Bay for the marine treatments, in front of a beach the house measures at about 150 metres, with a PADI Five Star Gold Palm dive centre on the water.
- Paris designer Joëlle Pléot furnished the suites with pieces Cypriot artisans made by hand, in rooms James Northcutt had already shaped.
- Condé Nast Traveller readers placed the house thirteenth among the world's hotels in the 2025 awards.
- Thanos Michaelides, the present chief executive, has since put more than ten million euros into the main terrace, the junior suites, and the villas, and turned Amphora toward the grill.
History
Anassa, the classical Greek word for queen, opened in 1998 on the Asprokremnos coast just west of Latchi, on a hillside then inside the land proposed for the Akamas national park. The Cyprus Mail of 9 August 1998 called it the largest hotel complex yet built on the island, and the most fought over. Thanos Hotels, the family firm of Foreign Minister Alecos Michaelides, had started construction about two years earlier. The ombudsman, parliament, the technical chamber, Greenpeace, and local greens all objected to planning relaxations that let the complex rise higher than the zone allowed and reach a protected beach. Michaelides lost his cabinet post. A stop order followed thirteen extra rooms. The interior minister promised they would come down. Ten months later the paper found them still there, under revised plans the town planners had accepted.
Sandy and Babcock of San Francisco were the architects. James Northcutt Associates of Los Angeles shaped the interiors, and Joëlle Pléot of Paris designed furnishings that Cypriot artisans made by hand. The house holds 166 low rooms, suites, and villas on twenty acres above Chrysochou Bay. Saint Athanasia, the Byzantine chapel, stands on the village square. Thalassa, the spa, pumps seawater from the bay. Thanos Hotels still owns the house. Thanos Michaelides now leads it, and more than ten million euros is going into the terrace, the junior suites, and the villas.
The setting
The gate is at 40 Alekou Michailidi Road in Neo Chorio, the road named for the minister whose family built the hotel. Latchi harbour sits just east, Polis Chrysochous a little further inland, with the Baths of Aphrodite and the Blue Lagoon along this Akamas shore. Paphos airport is about 45 kilometres, a 45-minute drive. This is western Cyprus, not Greece and not Turkey.
Awards
- Condé Nast Traveller Readers' Choice Awards (2025)
Open Anassa in the atlas for live weekend rates, photos, and the full folio.