Holiday islands such as Cyprus welcome holidaymakers with open arms, but with increasing environmental awareness many of them are hoping to address any damage done while people visit.

The campaign to get Cyprus greener has started in Paphos, and aimed initially at those taking self catering holidays with Thomas Cook Holidays, who with the Travel Foundation launched the initiative.

A press release recently explained what they were doing and why:

A campaign to reduce plastic waste and help keep Paphos green has been launched by Thomas Cook UK & Ireland in collaboration with sustainable tourism charity, the Travel Foundation and the Cyprus Sustainable Tourism Initiative. This summer, self-caterers enjoying Cyprus holidays with Thomas Cook will be given reusable cloth bags to use instead of plastic bags. Local hotels will also receive advice and guidance on how to minimise plastic waste.

The scheme has been designed to reduce the 2,000-plus tonnes of plastic bags that are used in Cyprus every year. Many of these bags and other plastic items end up in land-fill, where they slowly break down into smaller particles that can then contaminate the soil and waterways. The organisations hope to help protect the environment by reducing the amount of plastic used in the resort. To promote the initiative, those who use the bags when shopping will have the opportunity to enter a draw to win a voucher for £200 off their next Thomas Cook holidays.

Hotel staff and guests will also receive advice on how to reduce plastic waste. The organisations have developed an in-depth plastic waste reduction programme, which will involve approximately eight Cyprus hotels.

Andy Cooper, Director of Government and External Affairs at Thomas Cook, said: “We’re delighted to be working with the Travel Foundation on a great cause which will go some way to protect the island’s environment. With the support and involvement of customers, resort representatives, hoteliers and local businesses, we’re hoping that this campaign will be a huge success.”

Julie Middleton, the Travel Foundation’s Industry Programmes Manager, said: ‘By taking simple actions such as using cloth bags for shopping and reusing plastic bottles holiday makers can help keep Cyprus clean and green. With over 2 million tourists travelling to Cyprus every year, small changes made by individuals can have a significant impact on the environment. Selected supermarkets, hotels and self-catering properties in Paphos are supporting the campaign and we hope that local people will get involved too.’

All very encouraging for those who believe in global warming and want to do their bit for the environment.

For more news and travel information about Cyprus visit yourcyprus.info Independent comments from holidaymakers who are on the island now are available with social media like facebook and myspace

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

Interesting news from the Montreal Gazette:

Sun worshippers and beach goers in Cyprus will have an extra luxury on offer to them this summer in the form of a massage service.

The western coastal town of Paphos is toying with proposals made by a massage parlour in the capital Nicosia, to set up a kiosk on one of the municipal stretches of sandy beach, offering a relaxing massage, further enhancing the sun, sea and sand experience.

“If the municipality’s governing council decides in favour of the proposal then we might give them a spot on one of the beaches this year to start with,” said Savvas Vergas, the mayor of Paphos.

The massage service is set to open its doors for business on June 1, and prices will be closely monitored by the local municipality, just as they do with the rental of sun loungers and umbrellas.

Tourism accounts for almost 11 percent of the island’s GDP, and British tourists make up the majority of holidaymakers to Cyprus annually.

And who best to try out the latest fad but the mayor himself. “Why not,” he said. To read the original article click here

A good article has appeared in the Scottish newspaper, the Press & Journal, about golf holidays in Cyprus:

For years, Portugal and Spain have enjoyed something of a monopoly on the finest golfing destinations in the Mediterranean, but they may be about to face quite a challenge from Cyprus.

When it comes to golf, Cyprus is the new kid on the block – it boasts only three courses, but there are ambitious plans for another 14 in the next few years to turn the island into another golfer’s paradise.

If the impressive courses at Aphrodite Hills, Secret Valley and Minthis Hills are anything to go by, Cyprus is well on its way to becoming a utopia for golfers of all abilities.

I teed off my experience in the opulent surroundings of the Aphrodite Hills Resort, a fabulous five-star development on a plateau overlooking Petra tou Romiou, the legendary birthplace of Aphrodite, the goddess of love.

This resort oozes elegance, with many of its 290 rooms and suites fit for a king, but it also boasts an 18-hole championship golf course designed by Cabell Robinson, Europe’s leading course architect.

It’s spectacular, but for 150 euros a round, you expect something special. Built on a mountain, it is separated by a dramatic ravine, so buggies are essential to complete the course in a day.

The drive from second green to third tee is about a kilometre in itself, but this is nothing compared with the perilous, rollercoaster-style descent to the seventh.

You drive your cart down narrow twists and turns, not daring to take your eyes off the road ahead, to reach a glorious tee shot over a 160m gorge towards a luscious green surrounded by olive and carob trees.

The next hole is again impressive, with the massive eighth green seeming to teeter on the edge of the Mediterranean. Every hole is an event in itself, and is a fantastic experience.

Aphrodite Hills has plenty for golf widows and families, too: it also features a first-class tennis academy, a beach club and a multipurpose sports court for children with anything from volleyball to mini-football.

The surrounding region of Paphos is steeped in local history and culture, too: taste the local vintage at a nearby winery and wine museum, or try the handiwork at workshops which turn out traditional Cypriot clay pots.

Completing our rounds in near darkness, we headed back to base, the five-star Columbia Beach Resort, in the picturesque coastal village of Pissouri, for a traditional Cypriot meze, a constant supply of small dishes of meat and fish, including delicious barbecued octopus, all cooked to perfection.

Smaller than Aphrodite Hills resort, the Columbia is equally luxurious.

With elegant suites around the main pool, a stone’s throw from the sea, this hotel is rightly regarded as one of the best in the region. After a day’s golf, what better way to relax than in the hotel’s spa, with highly trained therapists on hand to massage aches and strains away?

Next up was Secret Valley Golf Club, a short drive from Aphrodite Hills and a course within a colourful, picturesque valley – an “easier” proposition than the previous day, but hardly one to be taken lightly.

The course has a stunning new clubhouse, redeveloped in 2006, and manager Stelios Patsalides summed up the course perfectly: “The views of the surroundings, combined with the design efforts, create a unique and memorable golfing experience.”

Quite right. Although less glamorous, Secret Valley still had an air of grandeur in the setting of a natural amphitheatre with the hills looming up to create a bowl.

It felt the most “British” of the three – and the rain we encountered made us feel decidedly British, too.

While we got drenched by a heavy downpour – rare in these parts, but welcome for the rain-starved country – this was Cyprus, so we were soon dry and the round was completed in bright sunshine.

We then moved up the road to Paphos, a city festooned in history and an archaeology lover’s delight, whether it be the immaculately preserved mosaics at the House of Dionysus, near the popular harbour, or the World Heritage Site of the Tombs of the Kings.

Our home for the next couple of nights was the impressive Almyra Hotel, the first hotel built in Paphos in 1972. Originally the Paphos Beach Hotel, it was renamed Almyra after a huge renovation in 2003.

A very modern-feeling complex, the hotel offers the ultimate in “resort chic”, and our Aethon Sea View rooms resembled mini-villas with a balcony overlooking the sea. We lived like kings for two days.

One of the main selling points of the Almyra is the Almyra Spa, which promises “to create a holistic approach through health, beauty and fitness”.

With luxury treatments ranging from Fragrant Flower Rituals to Mountain Herb Retreats, the spa provides a pampering to ease any painful memories of poor shots on the fairways.

Our final golfing destination was Minthis Hills, near the village of Tsada, just 15km north-east of Paphos, another venue of breathtaking beauty.

Built in 1994 by Donald Steel, the course underwent massive renovation before reopening in June 2007. A new clubhouse is under construction.

The club’s temporary base, a ramshackle-style building, might lack the “wow factor”, but the course has that in spades. Afterwards, the clubhouse restaurant served a cracking mixed grill.

At 550m above sea level and with meandering hills all around, Minthis provides a stunning vista of the Cypriot countryside and offers a really challenging 18 holes.

The stand-out hole is the 14th, right on the edge of the course, where the tee has been cut out of the side of a hill, with a drive over a valley of out-of-bounds shrubbery and olive trees, with ominous perils awaiting those brave enough to have a blast at the hole perched above the valley some 250m away.

Just enjoying the beautiful Cypriot sunshine and countryside was a delight in itself, but to do it while playing a round was pure heaven.

If you are seeking a new challenge, Cyprus is definitely the place to take your clubs to. And make it snappy before the secret’s out about a new golfing paradise.

Time to go: Spring and early autumn – it’s not too hot and the island is in bloom. To read the full article click here

For more details about Cyprus, including reviews of the hotels in Cyprus visit yourcyprus.info

Also available are villas on and near golf courses, with some good offers for Cyprus villa holidays

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