The Irish Independent’s travel section has run a good article about the island.

Yamas!’ Zenon Zenonos beams with pride as he lifts a glass of red wine up to the clear blue sky in a lively salute to his guests. A shaft of Cyprus sunshine dances off the rim and ricochets around inside the liquid, like a miniature burst of ruby fireworks.

Zenon is the third generation of his family to become a winemaker. He doesn’t speak English and I don’t speak Greek, but language is no barrier: liberal tastings and rambling tours of his winery do the talking for us, and the Cypriot love of tradition is plain to see: old photographs, grape crushers, barrels and an extensive, if somewhat out of place, collection of icons of the Virgin Mary set the scene.

The tradition continues in the naming and labelling of the Zenon wines: a Cabernet Sauvignon named after his grandmother, Vassilia, and a blend of Shiraz and a local grape, Maratheftiko, named after his grandfather, Ioannis Michael. The label recounts how he was a vine-grower and wine producer renowned in Omodos not only for his love of producing the wine but also drinking it. Having tasted it, I can’t blame him for his weakness.

Zenon takes great pleasure in showing visitors the 700-litre clay container known as a pitharia, used in the past for fermenting grapes.

The huge pot was handmade by Vassilia and was the only dowry she brought with her when she married his grandfather. The jug was filled with grape must, sealed with a marble slab and then left to stand for two weeks, before the wine was strained through baskets to clarify it and remove impurities.

Although winemaking techniques have moved on, tradition is a word that crops up again and again when you visit Cyprus. Here, the people value old skills, old recipes and old ways. Things that we threw away in our rush towards modernisation have been dusted down and given a new life as tourist attractions on the island.

At the other extreme of tourist attractions, the ’strip’ in Ayia Napa is what you might expect: Nightclubs with Disney-esque themes soil the townscape. Plastic dinosaurs soar 30 feet into the sky and mock medieval castles and cruise-liners jostle with each other for space.

But the binge drinkers are nowhere to be seen once the sun comes up. The resort takes on a completely different character in the daytime. It’s an ancient monastery town — with one of 35 active monasteries on the island — and a historic centre that’s perfect for quiet strolls.

I stayed at the four-star Nissi Beach Hotel (nissi-beach.com) — a welcoming place, reassuringly free of clubbers, with stunning gardens that lead on to the beach and two resident pelicans who feature in nearly every guest’s holiday snaps.

Cyprus is known as the island of saints, and religion is a big tourist attraction. The island boasts a hagiography of more than 300 sacred individuals. Tourists come from as far away as Japan to follow in the footsteps of St Paul, and 10 ancient churches in the mountainous Troodos region are on the Unesco World Cultural Heritage list because of the stunning paintings which adorn them.

Of course, the other great Cypriot religion is food: tables groan under the weight of salads, vegetables, fruits, fish, meats, cheeses, olives, almonds, figs, beans, chickpeas, dates, herbs and honey — all locally produced. Cyprus potatoes, so familiar in our own supermarkets, are grown all year round.

The traditional meze is an endurance test, albeit an undeniably pleasant one. Plate after plate of meat, fish and halloumi cheese is brought to the table with a flourish by the owners of intimate restaurants who treat food, and the way it is served, as sacred.

At Andreas & Melani restaurant in Kalymnos (also known as Governor’s Beach — in colonial days, the British governor commandeered the beach for his own private bathing spot), I sat in the shade of a wooden veranda to the biggest feast of fish I have seen: red mullet, cod, whitebait, crab claws, calamari, octopus, swordfish and sea bream, among other dishes. Gaby Hamann, manager at Andreas & Melani, says that the restaurant prides itself on its local fish dishes and has built up an international clientele, though most Irish tourists have yet to discover its delights.

The most striking thing about a visit to Cyprus is how easy it all is. Everyone speaks English. They drive on the left. The euro is the national currency. The tap water is drinkable. Prices in restaurants and taverns are reasonable. And the weather is superb: sunny days to spend on the beach and balmy nights ideal for strolling around the towns, with just a hint of a sea breeze to keep you comfortable. And so much of this island is still unspoiled.

In Omodos, a quaint village near the centre of the island built from the local honey-coloured stone, I visit Stou Kyr Yianni tavern run by the ebullient host Stavros Zenonos. It’s less a restaurant and more a labour of love. Named in honour of Stavros’s father, Yianni, it’s an ancient village house that has been sympathetically restored and extended, and has now been declared a listed building by the government.

According to Stavros, there is a constant flow of Irish guests here and many of them return each year. “I also get some Irish people living on the island who bring their overseas guests here,” he says. “I have been told the reason they come to my place is that they want a meal with traditional Cyprus ambience.” There’s that word again: tradition.

Cyprus was part of one of the oldest civilisations in the world, and turning any street corner can instantly transport you back through the ages. On an anonymous hillside in Larnaca, between Lefkosia and Lemesos (Limassol), lie the remains of a unique walled Neolithic settlement, which is known as Choirokoitia.

Today, traffic whizzes past on the busy road below, but until this village was founded in 6,000BC by the Aceramic people, the island had been uninhabited. A steepish climb up the hillside in wilting sunshine rewarded me with a view of the ruins of dozens of flat-roofed roundhouses grouped together in a way that proves these settlers worked collectively.

Some of the ‘houses’ have been reconstructed at the top of the hill, where you can find out about the Aceramic civilisation’s rather disturbing habit of burying their dead under the floor while continuing to live overhead.

Happily, that’s a tradition that the Cypriots have chosen not to continue. Nearby is the four-star Elias Beach Hotel (kanikahotels. com), where I also spent a few nights. Right on the water’s edge, this hotel is a favourite for seaside weddings and honeymoons. It’s also an ideal base for exploring Limassol and the surrounding area.

As a sunshine island, Cyprus has a well-deserved reputation for its beaches. It’s such a compact island that you are never more than an hour from a strip of pristine sand and crystal-clear water. But there is more to the coastline than just sand.

At Cape Greko, on the eastern corner of the island, spectacular sea cliffs gaze serenely down on azure seas, as tall-masted sailing boats ride at anchor in the gentle swells. Daredevil divers plunge from the cliffs into the clear waters below. These cliff walls are punctuated by dark, brooding sea caves, hewn by the forces of nature from the rock over millennia. And shards of ancient pottery, wrested by stormy seas from ancient sunken wrecks, dot the soil under your feet.

Cyprus has around 2,000 different types of plant, 140 of them native to the island, including 55 types of orchid. But you will also find roses in great abundance on the slopes of the mountains close to the centre of the island, where they are grown with grape vines.

Legend has it that bees — essential to pollinate the vines — may be drawn by the smell of the roses. But these roses are also used to make a powerful, traditional brandy, which will have you dancing on the tables in one of the tavernas after a couple of glasses. But be warned — the hangover the next morning is like nothing you’ve experienced before. To read the full article click here

For Cyprus hotels visit yourcyprus.info

The Daily Mirror in the UK suggested some hotels that could be worth considering if you’re planning a trip to Cyprus:

1. Almyra, Paphos

One of the best-kept secrets in the Mediterranean, this boutique Cyprus hotel aims to help new parents have a great holiday by lending a range of equipment, including baby gyms, changing mats and bottle warmers, all free of charge.

The hotel can also arrange for food and nappies to be waiting in your room. It’s in a bay just outside Paphos and adult guests will find all the comforts of home, including a Toni & Guy hair salon, while the centre of town is only a 10-minute walk away - if you can drag yourself away from the designer sun loungers and infinity pool. The deal: from £78pp per night with Design Hotels (www.designhotels.com).

2. St Raphael Resort, Limassol

There are indoor and outdoor pools and a private beach at this family getaway near the Amathus ruins. There are large gardens, tennis courts and a gym.

The deal: Expedia (www.expedia.co.uk, 0871 226 0808) has seven nights with easyJet flights and B&B for £643pp.

3. Napa Mermaid, Ayia Napa

Freshly glammed up, this hotel near - but not too near - the clubs of Ayia Napa is great for grown-ups who want to mix hedonism with some serious chilling out.

The deal: Thomson (www.thomson.co.uk, 0871 231 5595) has seven nights B&B, including flights and transfers, from £1,090pp.

4. Palm Beach Hotel & Garden Suites, Larnaca

With its palm-filled garden, swimming pools and spa, the Palm Beach is an island favourite.

More Cyprus hotels including Thompsons Holidays are available with yourcyprus.info

The Independent have been running some good articles about Cyprus recently, and today is no exception. Hopefully it will continue under its new ownership.

It was my wife’s idea to go to Cyprus to catch some early spring sunshine. I was not enthusiastic. Would the weather be OK? Was there much to see? Wasn’t the place overrun with Brits? And hadn’t the coast been ruined? On three out of four of these I was proved spectacularly wrong. The sun was warm, the hills green and, by avoiding the towns, we hardly saw another Brit. I was right about the coast, in part at least. In the official Republic of Cyprus, occupying the southern part of the island (the top third is under the control of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus), some shores are blighted by building work. Yet there are charming places. Governor’s Beach near Limassol on the south coast, for instance, where you find soft chalk cliffs like meringue. And when you have had enough of the sea, you can head for the hills.

We left freezing London on the last day of February, and arrived late in the afternoon. The sun was already preparing a spectacular evening show as we sped down the motorway from the main airport at Larnaca to the house we had rented in the village of Khirokitia, 40km away in the foothills of the Troodhos mountains.

Previously, we had been (too) familiar with the scorched earth that characterises so much of the southern Mediterranean in high summer. Instead, there were mimosa trees bursting into bloom and verges covered in banks of yellow daisies.

Khirokitia is the site of the earliest neolithic settlement on the island, occupied from 6000BC. It lies at the foot of a fertile valley carpeted with wild irises and dominated by a hill. It was also carpeted, we found, with shotgun cartridges – hunting is a passion – but, amazingly, still full of birdsong. Twice we walked the length of the valley, past clumps of wild anemones, overtaking a shepherd and his flock, unsure whether to deplore the local appetite for blood sports or celebrate the locals’ lousy aim. Our house in the old part of the village had a lovely arched high-ceilinged room that opened onto a courtyard with a pool and an almond tree, and a view from the tiny balcony to the orange groves below.

On our first morning we sat in T-shirts and shorts eating the fragrant fruit on the terrace – and 90 minutes later were walking through ankle-deep snow around Mount Olympus, the highest peak in the Troodhos at 2,000m. Trudging on one of the marked trails between 500-year-old pine trees, we did not see a soul. The Troodhos have become busy in summer as refugees from the coast seek relief in the cool mountains. In spring, however, we had them virtually to ourselves.

The hidden glory of the Troodhos is the painted churches no bigger than a barn. One morning we drove for half an hour to Louvaras, a traditional mountain village, and found the key-keeper – a short, smiling man who spoke no English – next door to the chapel of Ayios Mamas. To read the full article click here

For more details about the island, including today’s weather in Cyprus visit http://www.yourcyprus.info

An interesting article in the travel section of the UK newspaper The Independent appeared recently:

From up there, you can see everything,” said the speedboat’s grizzled captain, pointing skywards with a grin and a wink. And with that, he snapped me into my parachute, leant on the boat’s throttle – and lifted me gently from the deck and into the air, attached only by the slenderest of ropes to the back of his craft as it bounced through the waves beneath me.

It was my first experience of parasailing – and as I flew like a modern-day Icarus, in sunglasses and swimsuit, hundreds of feet up, with the cristalline waters of the eastern Mediterranean stretching to infinity beneath me, it really did seem as if the whole of Cyprus was laid out for my inspection below.

There were the famous beaches, smart hotels and fish restaurants of Ayia Napa, which have drawn visitors to this coast for decades; there was the magnificent rocky headland of Cape Greco, home to tiny coves and some of Europe’s best snorkelling; beyond that loomed the peaks of the Troodos Mountains, the island’s most surprising landscape, with its hill villages, cool forests and trout streams; and finally, over there – a few kilometres into the hazy distance – was the abandoned city of Famagusta, once Cyprus’s most popular resort, but under foreign occupation since the Turkish invasion of 1974, a poignant reminder of its troubled past and still-divided present.

We had come to sample a little of Cypriot life and the distinctive culture of this ancient land that has been coveted by so many – including the British – down the centuries. But first a few days of unashamed relaxation seemed in order – this was a holiday, after all! – so we booked ourselves into the modern-day Republic’s most celebrated hotel, the InterContinental Aphrodite Hills Resort – one of Conde Nast Traveller’s “hottest places to stay in the world” no less – with its spectacular swimming pools, private beach club, tennis academy, golf course and 578 acres of protected parkland on a hillside overlooking the island’s south-west coast. It proved the perfect first base – though the wonderfully attentive staff, the friendly atmosphere, the manicured grounds and the molten sunsets from the open terrace of the rooftop bar meant we could happily never have left.

Suitably refreshed, however, we finally ventured west to view the ancient ruins and mosaics of Pafos, south to watch the ships pass by the bustling port town of Limassol, north to the fascinating walled city of Nicosia, the world’s last partitioned capital. We drove up into the hills to nibble on stickily preserved fruits in the enchanting village of Kakopetria, where shady squares brought welcome respite from the summer heat.

And finally, we journeyed east to Cyprus’s party capital, where we rented Sommer Villa, a simple but comfortable modern house with the bonus of a small private pool in the laidback resort of Protoras, a few kilometres along the coast from Ayia Napa. It proved an ideal bolthole from which to explore the island’s best beaches, with their turquoise shallows and demerara sands (our tips: the glorious sweep in front of the Grecian Bay Hotel and the unspoiled crescent down the winding path to Konnos Bay) – and a memorable place, too, for one’s first parasailing adventure. To read the rest of the article click here

For information about holidays in Cyprus visit http://www.yourcyprus.info

In the grand scheme of things, it’s unlikely that you will find Limassol listed with cities like London, Madrid, New York or Hong Kong. Cyprus’ port city may not be known worldwide for clubs or commerce or international flair. Nonetheless, it is a city worth visiting. Its clear blue Mediterranean waters and cultural wealth surprise thousands of tourists every year.

Limassol is the second largest populated city in Cyprus. It is the largest in geographical size. Its population of 176,000 is, by many city standards, barely a blip on the radar. But its relatively small population is perhaps its most alluring attribute. It is large enough to be considered an urban destination, but small and close knit enough to provide a warm welcome to visitors.

Limassol has a great deal to offer the holidaymaker. It is most widely known as a port city. It is, in fact, the biggest port in the Mediterranean trade route. A world class marina is currently in progress, in keeping with Limassol’s close ties to the sea, travel and trade. It is hoped that the new marina will attract boating enthusiasts from around Europe. It will be a centre not just for sailing and yachting, but for playing, eating and holidays too.

Tourists who don’t necessarily appreciate the city’s marine history will certainly find other things to do. Limassol is also known for its colourful festivals. The annual Limassol Festival is a ten day affair dating back to ancient paganism. The modern version has lost some of its pagan religious connotations and has become more of a celebration of culture. The event is characterized by colourful costumes, masks and parades. It might be compared to the Mardi Gras festival of New Orleans.

Limassol’s other famous festival is the annual Wine Festival. Some of its origins have faded with time, becoming largely a mix of history and lore. Some Cyprus historians regard it as a modern version of lively celebrations of worship for the ancient god of wine, Dionysus. The Wine Festival also pays a nod to Aphrodite, the well known and regarded goddess of love. The Wine Festival of the 21st century embraces appreciation for fine Mediterranean wine. It’s also a chance to enjoy merrymaking just for the fun of it.

Visitors to Limassol who prefer sightseeing to revelry can enjoy any number of historical and cultural sites. The city’s coastal front is a sight to behold, with tree-lined walkways for a stroll along the ocean - wonderful when the weather in Cyprus is at its best. It’s dotted with shops and a mix of modern and ancient architectured buildings.

The medieval castle of Limassol dates back to 1000 A.D. It was built during the Byzantine era. The castle now houses a museum full of artifacts. Knowledgeable docents give tourists a full picture of the castle’s history and its contribution to ancient society.

Limassol is also home to the Cyprus University of Technology. CUT is a relative newcomer to the city. It was established in 2004, but accepted its first group of students just in the 2007-2008 school year. Its primary focus is trades and technology. Its founders envisioned an institution that would complement the University of Cyprus, located in the capital city of Nicosia.

The new university was a much anticipated addition to Limassol. Students have been warmly welcomed by locals. It draws pupils from all over the Mediterranean and even further afield international locations.

Limassol boasts accommodation from four and five star Cyprus hotels to economy bungalows. Tourists don’t necessarily have to break the bank account to enjoy all that Cyprus’ prominent port city has to offer, and even a day trip will ensure holidaymakers get to know a bit of Limassol.