Overview

Cyprus is a deeply enjoyable holiday island that boasts myriad charms year round. Within one compact and sweepingly attractive island are a variety of rich landscapes and eclectic travel experiences.

Cyprus as a destination is not just about its (admittedly very attractive and impressively clean) beaches, as it also offers skiing and hiking in its voluminous mountains, charming hilltop villages and vine-blessed slopes with nearby towns where you can sample the seriously underrated Cypriot wine. Then there is the sweep of Roman and Greek remnants that scatter the island and sit dramatically amongst its coast and mountains. Moving into the towns and cities, there is a dash of Mediterranean swagger to go with the bright lights and buzzing nightlife.

The rich story of the island can be traced back over 10,000 years. Like many Mediterranean islands, Cyprus has long been seen as an important strategic base with various civilisations having swept through over the years from the Ottoman Turks to the British, the Greeks to the Romans.

While independence was achieved in August 1960, in 1974 Turkish troops arrived on the northern coast of Cyprus, having been ‘invited’ by the Turkish Cypriot leader, Rauf Denktash, to intervene in order to protect the Turkish community. Since the Turkish army took control of the northern third of the island it has remained partitioned and UN peacekeeping forces maintain a truce between the two sides with all attempts to date to find a solution failing. 

Despite its political problems, Cyprus is a modern country that effortlessly marries European culture with indelible links to the past. Here, visitors can discover a compact world of clean beaches and rugged mountain peaks, vineyards studded with olive trees and ancient ruins that stir the imagination, citrus groves and old stone villages where 21st-century Europe seems a very long way away indeed.