Cyprus has seduced and inspired travellers for hundreds of years and it continues to do so. Dazzling beaches, shimmering blue seas, endless summers and tables groaning under heaped platters of mezé and bottles of sweet chilled wine are enough to tempt the most reluctant of travellers.
Combining the cultures of both West and East, the towns and cities of Cyprus are vibrantly modern yet bear witness to the island’s long and culturally diverse history. Cyprus is blessed with a balmy climate and a rugged landscape of coast and mountains dotted with vineyards, villages and monasteries.
Cyprus has earned its place as one of Europe’s tourist hotspots. Whether you prefer quaint, rustic cottages, luxury hotel complexes, village tavernas, fine-dining restaurants, coastal resorts with all the tourist bells and whistles or empty wilderness peninsulas and forested mountains, Cyprus can cater for all tastes.
If you venture beyond the established resorts, with their karaoke bars and restaurants knocking out fish and chips, pizza and stroganoff, you’ll find a completely different Cyprus. Traces of the exotic and Levantine are never far away, from ruined castles and elegant Islamic minarets to cool mountain villages hiding sacred icons from the very first days of Christianity.
Throughout its history, Cyprus has suffered waves of foreign invaders, from Mycenaean Greeks and Persians to sunburnt Crusaders, Ottoman pashas, and British Empire-builders. More recently, it has attracted numerous Russian expats. Internal division, too, has left its mark on the island. However, in recent years, tension has eased and the gradual opening up of the Green Line has made it easier for travellers to explore the island as a whole. In one day, you can experience two distinct cultures – Greek and Turkish, Christian and Muslim – simply by walking down a street and crossing between the two halves of the city.
When to go
The tourist season in Cyprus lasts from April to October. During this time there should be no trouble getting flights and hotels, plenty of restaurant choices and attractions to keep you occupied. The downside during this period is overcrowding and price inflation. If possible, avoid the fierce August heat but if high summer is unavoidable, ensure your hotel/car has air conditioning. The autumn can be remarkably hot and humid in September or even October. The best time to visit Cyprus, as a tourist, hiker, cyclist or lover of nature, has got to be the spring, when skies are blue, the air is warm and balmy, the uplands are a luxuriant green, the streams and reservoirs are full of water, migrating birds fill the air and there are wild flowers everywhere. To further refine your choice, try if possible to be in Cyprus during the Greek Easter – it’s a major celebration in the Orthodox calendar, and there are colourful events going on in towns and villages across the island. Much of this advice applies to the north as well as the south, though festivals will in general be Muslim rather than Christian, and the north coast can be cooler than the rest of the island thanks to mountain breezes from the Kyrenia Range. In winter, many places will be closed and the weather can be unsettled and quite cold.
Where to go
One of the great advantages of Cyprus as a holiday destination is that, being a relatively small island but possessing a huge variety of attractions, scenery and activities linked together by an excellent road system, you can get to pretty much anywhere in a day.
Most tourists begin their trip on the narrow coastal strip in the south, which hosts the main towns of Larnaka, Lemesos and Pafos, each with a historic old town, promenade and popular beaches. Beyond them, to the north, foothills rise to the island’s main mountain range, the Troodos Massif, dotted with villages, churches and monasteries. To the west of the island is a plateau covered in vineyards, the great wilderness forest of Tilliria and the stark empty beauty of the Akamas Peninsula. North of the Troodos (and lying within Turkish-occupied north Cyprus), lie the more impressive but less lofty mountains of the Kyrenia Range. Beyond here is the even narrower northern coastal strip on which Girne/Kyrenia is by far the most important and most beautiful town. To the east is the broad and largely flat Mesaorian Plain on which stands the island’s divided capital, Nicosia, known today as Lefkosia (south) or Lefkoşa (north); further east is the crumbling port city of Gazimağusa/Famagusta, with its range of pretty and not-so-pretty ruins, and the long, tapering Karpaz Peninsula, home to wild donkeys and far-flung villages.
If sun, sea and sand holidays are more your thing, you have an extensive choice. In the south, Protaras and Agia Napa, east of Larnaka, the beaches either side of Lemesos, Pafos and its satellite Coral Bay, are packed with resorts offering a range of activities; in the north, the coast either side of Girne and north of Gazimağusa offers more of the same. For smaller hotels with a more individual character, try the north coast around Polis and the Akamas Peninsula, or the hill villages of the Troodos Mountains, which offer traditional homes converted into guest houses.
Lemesos is the island’s gastronomic capital. Lefkosia also boasts several cool cafés and Cyprus’s best shopping, while the northern towns of Girne and Gazimağusa provide a relaxed harbour-side ambience. Wine lovers are particularly well-catered for by the wine museum and wine festival in Lemesos and by six well-signposted wine routes in Pafos and Lemesos districts.
Virtually every region of Cyprus has a Roman (or earlier) ruin, a Byzantine church, a Crusader castle or Ottoman mosque, plus some grand British colonial architecture. Standouts include the prehistoric villages at Tenta and Choirokoitia, the ancient cities of Kourion and Salamis, crusader castles such as those at Kolossi and Lemesos in the south and St Hilarion, Buffavento and Kantara in the north, monasteries like Kykkos and Machairas, and the beautiful UNESCO World Heritage painted churches of the Troodos Mountains. Ottoman architecture can be admired in Lefkoşa’s Büyük Han, and Muslim mosques in Hala Sultan Tekke in Larnaka or Hazret Omer Tekke east of Girne.
For nature lovers, the Troodos and Kyrenia mountains offer superb climbing, hiking and cycling. The seas around the island provide stimulating dive sites and the beaches at Lara Bay in the west and Algadi in the northeast are great for turtle-watching. For golf, head to the fine courses in Pafos and Girne. Across the island look out for the colourful religious and village festivals that take place in spring, summer and autumn.
Title Image Credit: Tobias Van Der Elst (Image Cropped)