The Cyprus Blog at TripToCyprus.com

We decided to go on a second visit to Ikea last weekend. We also planned to combine it with a visit to the Mall of Cyprus next door to Ikea. It was a massive shopping/window shopping spree lasting almost 7 hours, that i ended up with a headache by the time we reached back to Limassol!

The Mall of Cyprus is quite impressive, designed on the lines of the big malls in the rest of the world. Carrefour and Debenhams occupy huge areas on the ground and first floor. One store called Public was interesting. It was an electronics/books store. The layout was very similar to Best Buy or Frys in the US. It had lot of options for electronics, though one must be crazy to buy anything in Cyprus, as the prices are quoted almost the same number of pounds as the price in US dollars. The books section was huge, probably the biggest i have seen un Cyprus. Other than these, we had the usual share of all the fashion stores. Vidhya tells me that the size of the stores here are much bigger than the ones within the city and they have more options. K-Cineplex is also there, so if you get tired of shopping or if you don’t want to accompany your wife on a shopping spree, let her shop while you can catch the latest movie.

The second floor has lot of restaurants serving junk food like Pizza hut, Mc Donalds, KFC etc. The icing on the cake was Haagen-Dazs, where i had milk shakes for the first time. I love all the ice creams of haagen-dazs, but the milk shakes were even better. It seemed that the whole of Nicosia had come to the mall that day just to have lunch.

On the whole, a trip to Ikea and the mall of cyprus could take the most of your day, but they are worth a visit from time to time.

IKEA will open its first branch in Cyprus on September 6th in Nicosia. It will be located in the Shacolas Emporium Park in Latsia on the old Nicosia-Limassol road. I am yet to see the IKEA brochure widely available in Cyprus, but i heard that the prices are very attractive, in some cases even comparable to the prices in US and that means only one thing - very cheap. Whether you are shopping or window-shopping inside IKEA, it is a great experience. I remember, when i was in San Jose and we visited IKEA to buy an energy-saving bulb, we were shocked to see the different varieties of bulbs available. So shocked and confused that we came back not knowing which one to buy!

Source : Cyprus Mail

Update: I have already been to IKEA two times and it is a wonderful place to spend time and I always end up buying some stuff or the other. If you are driving from Limassol, take the roundabout when Nicosia (don’t go over the bridge, but under it to the roundabout), then take the last exit (turn right) and then turn left at the first roundabout. You will then reach the backside of IKEA where you will find signs to reach the parking.