This video is a 2-minute tour of City of Dreams, filmed by our team on Monday, 10th July 2023, for Share Cyprus. This was the first day City of Dreams was open to the general public. There is no narration on this video.
About our photo gallery
Our photo gallery does not include any stock images from the City of Dreams. The Share Cyprus team took all photos displayed on the opening day of the City of Dreams (July 10th, 2023).
City of Dreams Mediterranean (COD for short) is a fourteen-storey 5-star hotel centred around its star attraction, the City of Dreams Mediterranean Casino.
COD has at least 500 guest rooms/suites, an outdoor amphitheatre, a family adventure park, and a variety of dining outlets, as well as many retail stores on site.
In addition, COD claims to have the largest swimming pool in Cyprus. We can’t verify that claim, but it’s pretty big!. It sweeps around the grounds of the hotel rather than being just one large pool.
The City of Dreams Mediterranean features high-end shops offering the latest fashion, jewellery, watches, and more, as one would expect, within the lobby area, and the casino area is, of course, the star attraction.
The casino offers slot machines, gaming tables and several separate “high stakes” areas.
The City of Dreams Mediterranean is widely accepted as being the largest “integrated casino and resort” in Europe, distinct from being “the biggest casino in Europe”, which, based on our research, is located in Italy.
As you would expect, there are many dining options available at the City of Dreams, which are open to hotel residents and outside customers.
Click the name of any of the restaurants or cafes above to gain direct access to view the food and drinks menu for each (with prices), and make a reservation.
For an overview of all dining options at COD, click here
This can be particularly tricky since hotel room prices change frequently.
However, as a guide, starting prices for the cheapest rooms (with “mountain views”) are likely to cost over €500 most times of year.
It’s helpful to have your passport or ID with you if you plan to gamble or join the casino as a member. We arrived with nothing but our iPhones, which meant we couldn’t withdraw any cash from the various ATMs available. Additionally, since we needed physical copies of our IDs, we couldn’t obtain tickets or money from the cashier either.
The dress code in the casino and around the resort is almost “anything goes.” Some people are dressed to impress, while others are casual (including shorts/trainers).
You should also be aware that smoking is allowed in some casino areas.
First and foremost, the opening of the first-ever full-scale casino and resort in the Republic of Cyprus was a historic moment (see below for more on this).
It is also unquestionable that the owners have invested a substantial amount of money (said to be around €600 million).
This is undoubtedly great news for Cyprus and also explains why everything at City of Dreams in Limassol is high quality.
Also, considering the City of Dreams is also the largest integrated casino and resort in Europe, it’s certainly worth a visit for that reason alone!
While the Share Cyprus team believe the City of Dreams can be recommended, there are some observations and reservations.
The first observation is that the COD building does not offer decorative flourishes or impressive features, such as the lake and dancing fountains found at modern resorts like the Bellagio in Las Vegas.
Instead, the front of the COD building features a huge car park (think a massive supermarket here!) with some small decorative water features and landscaping.
Then, as seen in our video above, the COD lobby is like a “supercharged version of a modern Hilton Hotel”. It is fresh and spacious, but doesn’t compare with stunning lobby designs found in places like the Wynn Hotel in Las Vegas.
While the City of Dreams Mediterranean hosts concerts and world-class DJs from time to time, there isn’t a permanent “signature show”.
We mention this because casino resorts on this scale often pride themselves on having a “wow” theatre, which hosts a permanent show for guests to enjoy.
We are talking about a show just like the one at Melco’s City of Dreams Hotel in Macau,
Please be aware that the COD is not situated on the seafront or in an area where the vast majority of luxury hotels and resorts are found. However, it’s handy for the nearby shopping mall (My Mall Limassol) and the much-loved Fasouri Waterpark.
Considering everything, the bottom line is that if you enjoy the atmosphere of casinos and casino resorts, or if you have never been to one, we are confident you’ll enjoy (or at least be fascinated by) a visit to the City of Dreams, one way or another.
The Share Cyprus team compared the COD with their personal experiences of visiting world-class casino resorts in Las Vegas and Monte Carlo. As a result, the consensus was that the COD felt just “ok” in comparison.
Therefore, we genuinely believe that your enjoyment of a visit to the City of Dreams Mediterranean will depend on your expectations and whether you have ever visited places like Monte Carlo or Las Vegas.
As for staying at the COD, once again, while certainly the standard of all rooms is high, it feels as if the City Of Dreams can’t quite match the charm and/or the location offered by many other world-class hotels in Limassol or elsewhere in Cyprus, charging similar prices.
The opening of City of Dreams Mediterranean was not a simple process and required new legislation to be passed here in Cyprus.
That’s because until 2015, casinos were prohibited in Cyprus, and many, especially religious leaders, felt the introduction of casinos on the island would be detrimental to society.
Despite numerous objections, everything changed in 2015 with the passage of relevant legislation – Law 124(I)/2015, with the catchy title which translates to The Law to Regulate the Establishment, Operation, Function, Control, and Supervision of a Casino and Related Matters of 2015.
The new law, a key component of the government’s plan to boost the economy and tourism, permitted the establishment of one large-scale integrated casino resort and four smaller satellite casinos in various districts of Cyprus.
Once the law was passed, a tendering process was conducted to determine which companies would be chosen to operate the new casinos.
There were numerous “bidders” at the start of this process, however, all but two of them withdrew during the process, so in the end, contracts were awarded to the Melco/Hard Rock consortium.
Then, following the award of the initial contracts, Melco International Development acquired the entire interest of its partner, Hard Rock International, which means Melco now operates all authorised casinos in the Republic of Cyprus.
By law, Melco has a thirty-year licence and in addition, can lawfully operate as a monopoly for the first 15 years (commencing from 2017 onwards).
At the time of writing, Melco are operating the City of Dreams Mediterranean Casino and Resort in Limassol and three small casinos in Ayia Napa, Nicosia and Paphos (known as Cyprus Casinos or “C2”).
Melco International Development is a publicly traded, Hong Kong-based company that specialises in developing and operating integrated casino resorts.
Led by CEO Lawrence Ho, the company has a significant presence in the global gaming industry, with its primary operations in Macau (a special area of China and home to many casinos), as well as a growing portfolio that includes properties in the Philippines.
So, this means when you visit any casino in the Republic of Cyprus, you are spending money with a company whose core business is based in Hong Kong but is owned by shareholders worldwide.
Details about the City of Dreams biggest jackpot wins are not a matter of public record.
The casino, like many of its international counterparts, prioritises the privacy and security of its patrons.
This policy means that while a jackpot of, for example, €100,000 or even a million-euro promotional prize may have been won, we don’t know for sure because the casino will not publicly announce the winner’s name, age, or any personal details.
At Share Cyprus, we are wary of “award-winning” claims but here’s what we know…
Certainly the City of Dreams is regularly recognised in local awards here in Cyprus, and elsewhere but these are typically judged by industry panels rather than guests.
Concurrently, based on our research, the COD does not appear to have secured a major, guest-voted international award from a highly trusted and independent source like Condé Nast Traveler, which are considered the gold standard for recognising true traveler satisfaction.
Similarly, COD’s claim of attracting “millions of visitors” may well be correct, but this is an internal company metric that is not independently verified, making it difficult to definitively assess its contribution to Cyprus’s overall tourism growth, which is a key part of the government’s official strategy.
Therefore, at the time of writing, the number of visitors, the impact on the nation’s tourism and the reputation of the City of Dreams as a world-class resort are still not independently verified.
