traveldk.com

The divided city, within medieval ramparts, is full of interest. With a clutch of museums, historic buildings, a lively morning market and authentic cafés and restaurants, it merits a leisurely visit (see Nicosia Walled City).

Enter Northern Nicosia (see Northern Nicosia) at the Kyrenia gate and walk south down Girne Caddesi to Ataturk Meydan, the hub of the old town. South of here, the city’s historic buildings tower above a maze of narrow streets.

Walk down Asmaali Sok to the fortress-like Büyük Han, a 16th-century caravanserai with an arcaded courtyard which now houses boutiques and a pleasant café, then turn left towards the soaring Gothic front of the Selimiye Camii. This 700-year-old cathedral of Agia Sofia (Holy Wisdom) turned mosque is Northern Nicosia’s greatest glory. Behind it, signs lead you to a small square, Selimiye Meydan, and the Sultan Mahmut Library, an eight-sided building with a domed roof containing a collection of Islamic manuscripts and ancient Korans. On the opposite side of the square, a haphazard collection of stonework in the Lapidary Museum includes medieval crests, Turkish tombstones and gargoyles stripped from the Gothic cathedral.

Immediately south of the Selimiye is another Gothic relic, the church of St Nicholas, which became a storehouse under the Ottomans. Across the road, the Belidiye Pazari is the town’s central market, with a colourful mix of produce stands and arts and crafts sellers.

Walk back through the Arabahmet quarter, and enjoy lunch at the Boghjalian Konak Restaurant (see Boghjalian Konak Restaurant, Nicosia).

Crumbling old houses and a cheerful clutter of bazaars surround the medieval monuments of the Turkish half of the divided city. The Selimiye Mosque – a picturesque hybrid of medieval Christian and Islamic architecture – is the city’s most prominent landmark.

This resort has a reputation as the liveliest spot in Cyprus, with great beaches, water sports and a huge number of bars, cafés and restaurants catering to every taste (see Agia Napa).

This resort has a reputation as the liveliest spot in Cyprus, with great beaches, water sports and a huge number of bars, cafés and restaurants catering to every taste (see Agia Napa).

Sleep off the effects of a night’s clubbing in the sun at Agia Napa’s most favoured beach or, if you still have the energy, go waterskiing, windsurfing, parascending or jet skiing. Bungee jumping is another popular activity here.

The flumes and lagoons of Waterworld are an Agia Napa landmark, 2 km (1 mile) west of the town centre. There’s plenty of family fun here, with gentle rides and shallow pools for younger kids and roller-coasters and slides for teenagers.

A super eating place beside Agia Napa’s harbour, where there’s always something to watch while you eat (including the restaurant’s pet pelican). The grilled fish is the best in Agia Napa and the seafood meze is a treat.

This farming village looks over to the Turkish-occupied North, towards Famagusta, and you can make out the battlements of the walled city in the distance. Deryneia also has three pretty churches: 15th-century Agia Marina, 17th-century Agios Georgios and the church of the Panagia (see Famagusta Gulf Viewpoint).

Within Venetian ramparts, Famagusta conceals a wealth of Gothic and Islamic architecture. At its heart is the Lala Mustafa Pasa Mosque, originally the cathedral of St Nicholas, with its graceful Gothic porticoes and sixpaned rose window. Huge stone cannon-balls, relics of the eight-month siege of the city in 1570, lie in the streets, while overlooking the harbour is the “Othello Tower”, so called because Famagusta was the main setting for Shakespeare’s play.

Graceful columns, rising from a honeycomb of toppled walls, mark the site of the greatest of Cyprus’s ancient cities. Founded more than 3,000 years ago, Salamis dominated the island until its near-destruction by earthquakes in the 4th century AD. Archaeologists have found Hellenistic mosaics, the remains of Roman baths, a fine amphitheatre and the foundations of two Byzantine basilicas.

Visitors to Salamis (see Salamis) can combine sightseeing with sunbathing at the long beach next to the ancient site. A reef protects shallow, clear water – good for snorkelling.

On the east coast of Cyprus and only 8 km (5 miles) from Agia Napa, Protaras has mushroomed into prominence around a clutch of sandy beaches where the warm, shallow water is a vivid turquoise. During the day, the beaches are lined with sunbathers while the sea is dotted with the bright sails of windsurfers and catamarans. At night, Protaras comes into its cosmopolitan own, with a main street lined with bars, cafés and restaurants to suit all tastes. There are plenty of excursions to be made to nearby sights and attractions, such as Fig Tree Bay (see Fig Tree Bay, Protaras and Beaches).

This crescent of sand, lapped by turquoise waves, is delightful. There is a full menu of watersports.

Pine woods cover the steep slopes behind this minute cove, hemmed in by craggy headlands. It is easiest to get to by boat, and it’s a popular stop on day-trips from Protaras and Agia Napa, with good visibility for snorkelling.

This long, rocky spit is the least developed part of the island, with sandy beaches on its north and south coast and a scattering of historic Christian churches, including the monastery of Apostolos Andreas, which is being restored with UN and EU funding. Within is a holy well famed for its mystic healing properties.

Within Kyrenia Castle is the Shipwreck Museum, housing the world’s oldest wrecked ship – sunk around 300 BC and salvaged in 1967 – complete with its ancient cargo of wine-jars and grindstones. Also here is the fascinating Tomb-Finds Gallery, which displays Neolithic, Bronze Age and Hellenistic treasures.

Narrow market streets full of food stalls and craft workshops surround the sturdy medieval castle in the heart of the old quarter. Mosques and minarets are reminders of the island’s multicultural history (see Historic Limassol).

Kolossi is no fairy-tale fantasy castle, but a solid, forbidding fortress which bears testimony to the military skills of its medieval builders. For a while, it was a stronghold of the piratical Knights of the Order of St John, and was surrounded by the vineyards from which they made the celebrated sweet wine, Commandaria, which was named after their “commandarie”. Sacked by Genoese marauders in the 15th century, it retains many of its original features from that period, thanks to a careful restoration in the 1930s, including a private apartment and a coat of arms of one of the commanders. There are great views of the coast from the castle turrets.

The multi-tiered stone theatre of ancient Kourion is often the summer setting for concerts; when not in use it offers views over the peninsula (see Kourion).

Perched above the sea, Bellapais would be worth the journey into the mountains just for the view. But the abbey, built by the Augustinian order in 1200, is also the most spectacular piece of Gothic architecture in Cyprus, with vaulted stonework decorated with elaborate carving.

The best tables here are on the seaside terrace, which juts out into the water. Monte Carlo’s meze is among the most generous, and their moussaka also comes highly recommended.

This impressive monastic eyrie, founded by a Byzantine empress (the mother of Constantine the Great) is poised high above the coastal plains on a 700-m (2,300-ft) crag in the foothills of the Troodos mountain range. Still home to a community of 20 monks, it claims as its most holy relic a fragment of the True Cross – its name in Greek means “Cross Mountain” (see Stavrovouni Monastery).

Tumbling into a wooded ravine, this beautiful 11-m (36-ft) waterfall, surrounded by forest, is at its most spectacular in spring, when the Troodos streams are fed by melting winter snow from the mountain peaks. It is most popular in summer, when it offers a cool and shady retreat from the powerful midday sun. Its name originally derives from the swallows (chelidonia ) which chase flying insects above its pool on summer evenings (see Caledonia Waterfall).

Although the summit of Mount Olympus can be reached by car, hiking to the peak on foot offers a greater sense of achievement. Start from the Troodos resort car park and follow the signposted Atalante Trail, which is waymarked by strategically positioned red dots. Following the 1,750-m (5,750-ft) contour, this is an undemanding walk for most of the way, through pine and juniper woods, where birds and butterflies flit and with glimpses of the sea and the plains far below. Covering a little over 16 km (10 miles) and only 200 m (650 ft) in altitude, this walk can be completed in a morning by anyone of reasonable fitness, but comfortable trainers or walking boots, water and – especially in summer – a hat and sunblock are musts.

After around three hours, the so-called Atalante Trail connects with the Artemis Trail (see Artemis Trail) and a detour upward to the summit (you can’t miss the giant radar masts and telecom towers) then loops back down to the Troodos resort. En route you will pass mineral formations and information markers supplied by the tourist office that point out the indigenous plants and wildlife of the region.

At the summit are the ruins of a 16th-century Venetian fortress, built in a vain attempt to defend the island against the invading Ottomans.

Your walk completed, enjoy a lunch of fresh trout in Pano Platres.

A secret mountain cave and a miraculous icon of the Virgin are Trooditissa’s main claims to fame. High above Platres on the Troodos mountain slopes, it was founded during the 13th century beneath a grotto where hermits, according to local legend, guarded the holy icon for many years. The cave can be visited by all, but the monastery and its wondrous icon may be seen only by Orthodox pilgrims who journey here in their droves.

Start the day in Ktima, or upper Pafos, with a visit to the Covered Market (see Covered Market, Ktima Pafos), where you’ll find lace, embroidery, ceramics and leather goods on sale and an array of open-air stalls selling everything the Cypriot housewife could wish for, from kebab skewers to fresh fruit and vegetables. From here, walk up to the town’s only relic of its Ottoman past, the Cami Kebir (Grand Mosque), standing desolate and padlocked in the heart of Ktima’s oldest quarter.

A stroll back along Makariou, Ktima’s main street, takes you through the Central Park with its fountains and cafés to the unassuming Ethnographical Museum and, within sight of it, the much more imposing Byzantine Museum, guarded by a bust of Archbishop Makarios. The highlight of its collection is the icon of Agia Marina, dating from the 8th century AD – one of the oldest in the world.

To avoid a long, hot walk, return to the taxi stand on the town’s main square, close to the corner of Makariou and Evagora Pallikaridi streets, and take a five-minute ride to view the Archaeological Museum’s collection, which spans the millennia between the Bronze Age and the Byzantine era. Then, having whetted your appetite for ancient arcana, take another cab to Kato Pafos (see Kato Pafos Archaeological Park) to see the preserved mosaics of this Roman villa complex.

Continue the Roman theme with lunch at the Roman Restaurant (see Roman Restaurant, Pafos).

The Akamas Peninsula is a beachcomber’s heaven. A four-wheel drive vehicle is needed to reach this rugged spine of hills, covered with pine and juniper trees, but it’s worth the effort. Along its south shore are southern Cyprus’s only empty beaches, while from its western-most tip are fine coastal views. There’s excellent snorkelling off its rocky shores, while divers favour the offshore islets, such as St George’s Island (see St George’s Island). For something less energetic, boat trips are possible from Pafos and Lakki (see Akamas Peninsula).