I've recently did a whole season in Napa and had one of the best years of my life. I wish somebody would have written something like this for me before I went so here we go.

BEFORE YOU GO

Get travel insurance – You can not do this when your out there because its illegal.

You can get it really cheap at Tesco and when you get there you can take it to Saveco heath care clinic and they will take care of you if you get ill which does happen considering its eating crap, late nights and heavy drinking. Even if its for something small like throat spray.

Plus you can use their internet for free even if your not waiting for the doctor.

Take short clothes with decent pockets. I brought out shorts with crap pockets and lost phones, money loads of stuff. Zip pockets reccomended.

Do take a hoodie and jeans because in April, May and beginning of June, end of September and all October it get cold at night.

Don’t really bother with CV’s unless you’re a DJ.

Get a CHEAP HOTEL (preferably Anthea Hotel). Workers in April and May seem to stay there for a while before they get accomadation. Hang by the pool talk to young people, you may find room mates. You will only see families in nice hotels.

Take sun tan lotion because its expensive when you get there.

Take money to last you because you may be out of a job for a month at the worst if your hopeless.

Get some Euros to live on in England its cheaper (Marks & Spencer are the cheapest I think).

YOUR THERE!

Your in your hotel, what do you now?

ONE THING I MUST STRESS DO NOT TO GO THE BAR TEASERS – It’s the only place that will rip you off. They will promise you a drink and 10 free shots of Apple juice and lie about how much it will cost. Usually 25 per drink. The only place in Ayia Napa to be scared of. Everyone else is true to their word usually. Although I did not go to a strip club while I was there, be warey but I hear their okay as well, if you take a budget. Take

no more than $150

Get a Cypriot sim card, it’s simple no proof of ID needed. Just pay £15 euros and you get a SIM card easily slots in and you get a certain amount of money free with it. It is essential if you want to find a job. You can find these in nearly any Kiosk.

FIND A JOB

Here are the different type of jobs: 

Ticket seller for boat parties and barcrawls – In peak season you can make a fortune ($10 per ticket with 300 people on each boat. 9 boats a week)! But its hard work and you have work through the blistering sunshine and drive around for hours talking to complete strangers and you may have to knock of peoples hotel rooms when its quiet (April, May and October.

Ticket sellers for after parties (Aqua or River Reggae) – It’s a nice job you get to work with an army of friends, you can make a lot of money during peak season ($70 a night), thoroughly recommend it.

Be aware you WILL have bad nights maybe a couple in a row of poor sales and make little money, especially in earlier months. You also have to work long hours

PR – It can be a fun job, speaking to people all night, pull folk, get ****ed. But it’s hard and all eyes on you to get folk in and if you have a bad night, don’t be expected for it to go unnoticed. There is a lot of pressure on you to bring people in and you are disposable. You can make from $20-$25 a night, some places do commission after you get 25 people in you can make a up to a euro per person you get in on top of a £20 wage per night. On the bright side you don’t work long hours 9:30-2:00

Bartender – Hard jobs to get in June, July, August and beginning of September.

So you have to get there early. Good pay $30-$40 a night with tips on top of that.

You have to already have experience in most places to do it. But there are barely any days off and work long hours to open and close the bar.

Waiter/Waitress – This is a nice mixture you don’t have too much pressure like PR’s do, you do have be in good spirits every night mind, you can make decent money in tips, you might have work long hours to help open the bar, but you can make $20-25 including tips per night.

Class collector – This job is hard to get in peak season like bartenders because bar have only 1 or 2 of them in each bar. It’s a hugely low pressure job and you may find yourself doing nothing and getting paid for it in quieter months. You do work long hours opening and closing the bar (7:00-3:30). You also have to deal with bins…nice. You can make £20-25 a night in this job.

Dancer – Only for pretty girls, you can get paid from $20-$25

DJ – You need to go EARLY April or May at the latest to find these jobs. You need to talk constantly harras people to find a job. If you get it, you can make a lot of money £50 onwards. There is room to have job doing more than just nightclubs aswell. Worker’s parties, beach parties, boat parties, opening for big acts etc.

Pirates Inn – Fun place to work with guaranteed pay, good crack, unlimited free drinks, good pay, open from mid-April-end of October. PR’s are constantly watched and managed by the manager though.

Aqua and River Reggae – You work with an army of good people, you can make a lot of money in peak season. If you working for them in quieter months you should have some money to help you live off for until peak. Also they work long hours (11-6). Plenty of free drink tokens.

Fantasy Boat Party – You need to get there early for this job (April-May) you get $10 per ticket and you can make 100s a day during peak season. When its quiet (April-May) you may need some money to live off for a while until peak, its well worth it. Long hours. 9-11 in Peak. You must have rented a scooter/quad. With is an extra cost ($150 per month)

Starskys – Good money ($25) and little pressure, open mid-April-mid October.

ACCOMMODATION – Not too easy to find in peak, although people constantly leave for home sickness reasons, so if you get a job, you certainly always meet someone who would like an extra room mates to lower the bills.

The cost of living can range in different apartments. For a whole room it can cost from £350-450 a month, with electric bills of £30-200 depending on how much you cane the aircon, sometimes (rare) water bills of £20 a month. But that is all shared with as many people as you need to. If you share with 4 people then you might only pay $100-150 yourself a month.

Ask around to see where is a rip off. I’ve marked with red dots places you can find accommodation in Napa on the map.

EATING – Food is not expensive unless you’re fat. You can get a packet of noodles for 40 cent per packet. Cheaper if you buy them in mega packets.

Incredible Universe is a massive store for bulk food buying at cheap prices

Meat at the butchers cost £4 for steak. $3.50 for a packet of 8 sausages and $6 for a packets of 5 burgers. If you have a good job that is.

Theres some cheap super markets. Plus discount is good.

The green dot represents the cheapest place to find alcohol. Very cheap and they sell some cheap groceries and batteries aswell.

The water drops represent places to top up your empty water bottles with drinkable water with is 25 cent per refill, which is cheaper than buying newer packets of £2-4 euro packets of bottles. You will buy a lot because it gets hot during the day after a dehydrating work night.

Laundry is $3 to wash and £1-2 to dry.

Internet places 50 cent for 30 minutes.

Enjoy your summer out there. Make sure you try at least one Fantasy Boat party, an event at Micronissos Beach and Nightmare horror place (not that scary but fun if you go with a bunch of pals)

Don't be put off by any word of mouth. Its an amazing lifestyle, it's easy to find a job, it's easier than you think to find people who need an extra room mate, talk to workers, its quite easy to live happily without ever starving if your the type of person that doesn't get sacked for being a sack.

So just go for it! 

GOOD LUCK!