CyprusVista

Limassol may be baking in heat this week, but a few residents of this popular Cyprus holiday destination will be right in their element! The Municipal Gardens in Limassol are one of the great secrets of the resort, two acres of formal gardens with a mini-zoo that kids will enjoy. As zoos go, it’s fair to say it’s more an aviary with added extras, but when the extras are a zebra and some cheetahs, no young animal fans is going to be disappointed. Add in an ice-cream in the cool shade of the trees overlooking the sea, and you have a lovely pleasant family morning excursion in Cyprus without needing a car.

In September, you should definitely leave the car behind, as the garden play host to the annual Limassol September Wine Festival. Cyprus wine is surprisingly good; after all, they have been growing grapes here for centuries. You can also sample Cypriot wines all year round at the four main wineries on Franklin Roosevelt street, or hire a taxi and visit to the vineyards on the peninsula beyond Paphos, for a day out with a difference.

For a short excursion from Limassol, the whole family will enjoy exploring the ancient Cyprus city of Kourion. If you don’t want to hire a car, you can catch a bus to this vast site from just outside Limassol Castle, which takes you direct to the ruins. This important ancient town was abandoned after a devastating earthquake in 365AD, but you can still imagine gladiators, senators and merchant wandering around the Roman villas, baths, agora (marketplace), and watching plays in the impressive theatre.

Just a few kilometres west of the Kourion, past the ruins of the Stadium, is the Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates. The strange channels cut into the rock are not water channels, but early planters, originally filled with shrubs and trees to honour the woodland god.

And, of course, if the kids get restless with all this history stuff, there’s always Curium Beach just south of the ruins at Kourium, complete with a couple of tavernas.

The ancient city of Kourium, Cyprus. Photo by Jungle_Boy at flickr.com

Popularity: 38% [?]

Most visitors to the popular resort of Limassol in Cyprus, now officially called Lemesos, are content to lie on the beach and soak up the sun. Yet with a heat wave forecast for Cyprus over the coming week, and temperatures topping 35 degrees on the coast, the beach may prove just too hot to handle.

So leave the scorching sands and explore historical Limassol and its surrounding areas instead. Remember to take a hat, cover any exposed skin with plenty of sunscreen, and have a bottle of water to hand. Avoid the strong midday sun too - always our favourite excuse for a leisurely lunch in the shade with a cool beer!

Start in the old town and the 13th century Lusignan Limassol Castle. Here, you can see the modifications made by successive rulers of Cyprus, from the Venetians to the British. Climb to the top for a great view of the town from the battlements. Inside, you can cool down with a visit to the Cyprus Medieval Museum, housed in high arched Gothic rooms that seem to echo with the ghosts of past inhabitants. Here, you’ll find impressive Byzantine silver plates, part of a hoard of treasure found in Lambousa (in North Cyprus). Under your feet are the foundations of the Byzantine chapel of Saint George, where Richard the Lionheart is said to have married his bride Berengaria in 1191.

Leave the castle, and you can wander the winding streets of the old Turkish quarter, exploring the small shops and artisan’s workshops that seem to lie behind every door and dusty window. The central market is here too, where you can shop for produce and all sorts of everyday items in the cool of its stone walls.  If you fancy a hot bath, the Turkish hammam south of Cami Kabir is open most afternoons!

If you have the stomach for Cyprus wine in the morning, four of Cyprus’ wineries offer tours and tastings at 10am every morning. All four lie along Franklin Roosevelt, a road west of the old harbour, served by the number 19 or 30 bus. The KEO factory also operates tours at 9.50am from their reception area,  and the tasting session is a great introduction to the different types of Cyprus wine. Try the Commandaria, a sweet fortified wine unique to Cyprus.

After your tasting, simply wander (or gently sway on the bus) back to the seafront, as the area around the old harbour is a nice spot for lunch!

Limassol Castle. Photo by Jungle_Boy at flickr.com

Popularity: 35% [?]

It’s hard work, being married to soccer superstar Wayne Rooney. The Mirror newspaper reports that his new wife Coleen McLoughlin has only had a month to recover from her honeymoon, before she’s taking another holiday, in Cyprus. This holiday, her NINTH this year (yes, you did read that right) is a family affair, as Coleen has treated her mum and dad to a week in the Cyprus sunshine at the exclusive Elysium Hotel in Paphos. Husband Wayne, however, is back in Britain, hard at work training with the Manchester United team for the new season.

However, quite why the newly-wed Coleen decided to use a hotel sunbed during her stay is a bit of a mystery. Not only has she enjoyed the sunshine in Barbados, Miami, Italy, Las Vegas, New York and Tenerife this year, but with the current sun strength in Cyprus, she could get a tan in 10 minutes on a plastic sun lounger by the pool…

However, that is all the Cyprus sun she should expose her skin to even when using high factor sunscreen - 10 minutes. Weather experts are warning that the hot weather front just reaching Cyprus also brings high UV radiation. With temperatures set to reach 35 degrees in coastal resorts such as Paphos, holidaymakers are advised to avoid being out in the sun between 11am and 4pm, always to apply sunscreen to any exposed skin, and wear a hat.

Popularity: 41% [?]

If you haven’t booked your summer holiday in Cyprus yet, there are plenty of companies trying to tempt you with last minute bargains. So, with so much Cyprus holiday accommodation on offer, which offers you the best deal, hotel or villa?

A Cyprus hotel holiday seems to have it all; comfortable bedrooms, hotel restaurants, breakfast provided, pool, bars, sunshine - what more could you want? If you want to just chill out in the sunshine, forget the UK grey summer skies, and let someone else do the cooking, cleaning and drink mixing, Cyprus hotels are ideal! You can grab the best deals through late booking sites such as lastminute, holidayhypermarket and goingplaces. For cheap prices for 4 and 5 star North Cyprus hotels, try the new site kyreniahotels.co.uk.

However, if you crave peace and quiet, and don’t want to share your mealtimes and swimming pool with lots of other people, a Cyprus villa holiday is the answer. In your own private villa, you can be king (or queen) of all you survey. No set times for breakfast in a busy restaurant; if you want to sleep in and enjoy a leisurely brunch on your villa terrace, you can! No rush for the sunloungers by the pool; they are all yours (unless your kids get there first, of course.)

You can shop in local markets for fresh produce that’s still dusty from the fields, and cook fresh fish or sizzling kebabs on your own barbecue. Or, you can simply stroll down to the local restaurant or taverna for a taste of real Cypriot cuisine, without even breaking a sweat!

You can either choose a villa holiday in Cyprus that is packaged with a flight, or build your own from cheap flights available to Cyprus during the summer, plus villa rental and car hire. You can often save money by creating your own holiday, as you can depart on the days that are convenient for you, at more sociable flights times, and from your local airports. So, you can save on fuel costs driving to the airport, airport parking charges, overnight accommodation (some package flights leave very early) and avoid those horribly crowded changeover days too!

The REAL bargains at the moment are North Cyprus villa holidays. The Turkish Lira is currently weak against the UK pound, and prices in Northern Cyprus are around a third lower than in south Cyprus. Not only does your money go further, but rental costs are usually priced by the day, so you can create your ideal holiday without being confined to a whole week’s booking.

Cheap flights are available into Larnaca airport in the south, and Pegasus Airlines offer scheduled flights at very reasonable prices into Ercan airport in North Cyprus, five days a week. The best North Cyprus villa rental site we’ve found is Amy Villas - small, but with a good range and great value prices!

Holiday villa in Alsancak, North Cyprus: picture courtesy of Amy Villas

Popularity: 50% [?]

On your flight to Cyprus, take time to look out of the window just before you land at Larnaca airport. Below you is either the shimmering winter waters of the Larnaca Salt Lake, or the dry dusty lake bed dried out by summer sunshine. Most tour company coaches whisk you straight past this lake on your holiday in Cyprus, which is a shame, as you’ll be missing a hidden treasure, the Hala Sultan Tekke.

In AD649, an aunt of the prophet Muhammad fell from her mule on the shores of the lake, and died from a broken neck. She was buried in a tomb that today is contained within the pretty Hala Sultan Tekke mosque, one of the most holy of Islamic religious sites, after Mecca, Medina and Jerusalem.

Surrounded by waving palm trees and with its minarets and towers, from a distance the Hala Sultan Tekke seems like a vision from the pages of “1001 Arabian Nights.” It’s a very peaceful place, with channels watering the gardens (when there is water available) and the sunlight filtering through the palm leaves. In winter, when the lake is usually full of salty water, migrating flamingos stop over to feed on the brine shrimp that give the birds their characteristic pink colour.

The yellow stone mosque you see today dates from the early 19th century, and does not include a dervish convent, as the name ‘tekke’ suggests. Instead this group of buildings is a ‘marabout’, or saint’s tomb. The name itself is a mixture of Arabic and Turkish; ‘Hala Sultan’ meaning ‘the King’s paternal aunt’ and ‘Umm Haram’ meaning ‘Sacred Mother’. Leave your shoes at the door, and you can enter the mosque, decorated with medallions. Here, you will also find the tomb of the Turkish wife of King Hussein of the Hejez.

Larnaca Salt Lake was formed, as the legend goes, when Bishop Lazarus stopped a woman carrying grapes and asked her for a bunch. She rudely refused, so the Bishop turned her vineyard into a salty lagoon, which now lies three metres below sea level. In fact, settlers had been here much longer, as a Bronze Age village was discovered just a few hundred metres west of the mosque. Salt was collected from the shores of the lake as a commercial venture until 1986.

The Hala Sultan Teke is open daily, from 7.30am to sunset in the summer, and 9am to sunset in the winter. Donations are welcome to preserve this important shrine, and pay for the nightly police guard against vandals - sad but true.

photo by BR0WSER at flickr.com

Popularity: 32% [?]