Cyprus travel guide

Cyprus’ greatest natural resource is sunshine, over 300 days of it per year.

Yet "Aphrodite’s Island" has often been careless with the coastline that puts all that sunshine to good use.

Many resorts are large and over-developed, with little historical or cultural character, and the battle to preserve the remaining unspoiled coastline is being closely fought. Delve inland for a greater appreciation of this island: countless ancient sites, sleepy villages, frescoed country churches, terraced hillside vineyards and rugged mountain ranges await you. The layers of a long and tangled history, from Stone Age peoples, through Greeks, Phoenicians, Persians, Romans, Byzantines, Crusaders, Venetians, Genoese, Ottomans and British, are there to be seen and felt.

The North-South divide 

Some of your finest memories are likely to be of a remarkably friendly and hospitable people – both Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot – despite their turbulent and traumatic recent history. This is, after all, an island that was invaded by Turkey and split in two in 1974. Within weeks, some 180,000 Greek Cypriots were forced to flee to the south of the island, becoming refugees in their own country. Within a year, around 44,000 Turkish Cypriots had moved north. The island is still divided today, though since 2003 there has been greater freedom of movement across the de facto border.

Although it’s simple to visit the North (which only Turkey recognises as a separate republic), most travellers still choose the Greek-Cypriot South. But for those who do cross the cease-fire line that separates the two parts of the island, the North offers the best Lusignan and Venetian monuments, some excellent beaches and appealingly empty landscapes.