Planned Route For A Cyprus Round Trip: driving, eating, drinking, hiking, sightseeing, swimming, walking (June 2022)

 Cyprus map

Ryan Air

Start with booking flights to Cyprus. RyanAir is cheap, cheaper if you book early, expensive if you have to go the day before. A couple on our flight had to take different flights when their son was offered the chance to take an O level at school a year early so mother and one of the two children had to go a day later. The mother and exam taking son's flights were a different day and much dearer than the father's and daughter's flights a day earlier and booked earlier.

Our flight out to Cyprus was full, half booked by people going to a wedding. Cyprus holds a lot of weddings for people from the UK and Israel.

Seating and food

Pafos Hotel

Hotel: Casa Mespilea

Behind the front building is a courtyard with hotel bedrooms around it on the ground floor. In the morning you step out to the aroma of growing herbs. The buffet is along the wall of the main buildings. Choose a table under the trees. The buffet included dark bread wrapped around white cream cheese.

After eating, walk around admiring the trees and flowers. The sun casts shadows.

Upstairs on the terrace, used for events, is a view of the distant sea. Alternatively. cross the road for a clifftop view and caffe, a statue with its back to the sea, and Caffe Nero which enjoys the view.

Pafos Seafront

Tombs of the kings

Archaeology floor mosaics

Shipwreck, banana plantation, wineries

Limasol (southern seaport city)

Hotel Eins - noisy on a Friday night. Insects. Cannot park outside to unload suitcases and load up.

Restaurant Meze

Wine Museum

Excellent

Mountain Village Lifou

Agro Vino hotel

Delightful

Greek Orthdox -Cypriot  church

Nicosia (capital) (see previous post)

Hotel

Cyprus Museum

Allow at least an hour. Make sure to see the room of gravestones and translated

inscriptions.

Observatory - on the Greek side.

Great to see the layout of both sides of the old city.

Classic Motorcycle museum. 

Turkish occupied side

Great Inn (Buyuk Han), a courtyard where you sit in the open air. We had lunch there. Very pleasant. 

The attendant guarding the entrance to the communal toilet makes a small charge. So keep some change for yourself and your companions.

Larnaka 

Hotel Indigo

Plain facade but luxurious inside. Great menu. Expensive. My husband's favourite hotel.

George's Villa guesthouse

A farmhouse in fields just off the motorway. Dogs, cats, ducks, birds, delightful hosts, chatty, cheerful George and his smiling Vietnamese wife Hana. She makes breakfast for 5 Euros per person and brings it up on a tray, beaming as if you are doing her a favour. 

Up an outside staircase. George and Hana help you up with your luggage. Insect netting on windows. Big spa bath. Shower with loads of buttons. Loads of wall sockets, cupboards, hangers and fully equipped kitchenette and big glass top desk with a map of the world. 

George drives ahead of you to point out the best local restaurant along the off the motorway strip. 

When we left, he said, "I wish I  could have talked to you longer." 

We felt the same.

Useful Websites

Casa Mespilea, Paphos

www.casamespilea.com

Secrets of Suitcases, wheels and strong sides, and belts with holes to fit - our perfect purchases from Gogo

I had packed light in a ten kilo small size suitcase (cheaper than 20 kilos) checked in and only a handbag to carry on which both economised on our Ryanair flight from Stansted in London, England, to Pathos in Cyprus (the Greek-speaking side). However, after buying wine bottles, and clothes, we needed a larger suitcase for the return journey.

In Larnaca, we went to a Gogo suitcase and travel goods shop. The lady in charge showed us their range of suitcases. The cheapest Suitcases from 15 Euros for a small pull along bag, were only two wheels. We wanted four wheels. In fact, much of the time, we had pulled the bags along on two wheels going up and down between the car park and the Stamsted terminal. That might wear out two of the wheels and eventually make the suitcase tip to one side.) On level ground, your suitcase pulls along lightly on four wheels. If you have not packed over-full so the suitcase bulges and tips over with heavy front pocket.

She also explained that the cheapest of the bigger cases were plastic which is more likely to split/break. The dearer option is the PTFE, another stronger type of plastic (I though she said silicon.) The middle price were the expanding suitcases, which I prefer, which have a soft front where the second zip extends the suitcase forwards.

Spills?

I would prefer to have liquids, such as wine, as well as food, completely separate, with solid souvenirs, packed away from clothes, in another suitcase, or carry on luggage.  

The Gogo shop

The Gogo shop has their own brand of goods. Suitcases. Bags. Belts.

My Red Belt's Holes

I bought a red leather belt to co-ordinate with my red leather and imitation sandals. The red belt also goes with my red (synthetic) shoulder/handbag. But what about the holes.

Making More Holes

I tried the belt and could see it was too big. In a department stores, often if you ask for an extra hole in a belt, they glare or shrug. 

I asked the lady if she could make more holes to fit me. She produced a hole punch from under her desk. She measured the distance apart of the holes. She tried the various punch sizes on the rotating ring so the holes were matched in size as well as large enough for the buckle spike. 

My husband said he could have made holes. We have tried this before. It works. But I would have to wait to wear it. DIY back home with a pen knife, scissors, in awl, takes longer, and could cause an argument between us. Besides the holes would have been less regular in shape. A cut risks splitting the belt. 

I had taken a photo of all the belts in case I wanted to go back for another. This was good, because I looked and could not see orange. Which stopped me worrying about it. 

Later in Nicosia I saw another Gogo shop. Interestingly, the suitcase styles, sizes and patterns, were completely different. So it is worthwhile shopping around from city to city.

Useful Websites

https://www.facebook.com/gogotravelgoodscy/

I was pleased with what she did, willingly, at no cost. I should have had one more hole, more than I thought I needed for the trousers with a shirt tucked in. Later, on a thin dress, the belt was slightly loose.

Useful Websites

https://gogotravelgoods.com/

What's an adults hotel and do I really want one? What other kinds of special hotels?

Problem
A friend on Facebook asks whether an adults hotel is for adults only or something more sinister.

Answer
I've checked them on line and they are mostly in honeymoon destinations, romantic beachside places with cocktail bars, occasionally bars by pools, and without children. No crying babies. No creche. no high chairs. Sounds good to me.

Story
I was recently sitting 12 storeys above a swimming pool and BBQ area with constant screeching from children playing tag, woken from my afternoon siesta by the noise.

The Lion Dance with banging drums did not disturb my sleep but the screaming children did.

I would like a holiday with no swimming lessons in the pool with children jumping onto you and instructors shouting at them.

The other kind of 'adults' hotels are downmarket, in cities but in cheap areas of town, and rent rooms by the hour.

I heard from two girlfriends that they had booked into basic budget hotels in Singapore, one in an area which turned out to be the notorious red light district. People were coming and going constantly, checking in and out day and night, without luggage. The hotel had no restaurants, not even breakfast. Nobody staying there wanted to waste time eating, nor to be seen in public. The first friend was studying sociology and was delighted to see 'real life' rather than a regular hotel. The second friend was on a tight budget; she was very happy that the helpful receptionist was keen to send her off to budget eating places.

A tourist board in Australia found me a new hotel in a certain district when it was hard to get accommodation anywhere in the city because of the simultaneous gay parade. The tourist board suggested I might like to visit later. Our flights were already booked at advantageous prices. I told the tourist board that we weren't bothered by the parade.

When our taxi reached the hotel my husband went in first to check it was the right place, and had our room. He was given a very warm welcome by the man on the desk, who was amusingly dressed, in leggings and a wig and lipstick, like a character from a dancing school. The receptionist must have assumed my husband was single and gay.

When I arrived with the luggage a few minutes later, I enthused about all the art school paintings, and Greek God statues. The person on the desk looked distinctly disappointed at meeting me. He had no interest whatsoever in discussing Greek mythology with me.

I didn't realise what kind of hotel it was until a couple of young men dressed like twins in purple tops came downstairs holding hands and, again, looked very suspiciously at us.

The World Travel Market has held marketing meetings where companies promote different kinds of specialist holidays, aiming at the pink pound, the handicapped, adventure, luxury, health tourism and other specialist holidays,hotels and packages.

Tips
Check hotel websites and read the feedback and you'll soon see what kind of hotel you have found.

If you have children or grandchildren you may want the opposite, a family friendly hotel offering children's activities, early suppers, reductions for children, a children's paddling pool and play area, a creche.

Even if you are a grandparents, when not with your own grandchildren, you might like the relief of a quiet hotel. The romantic hotels may be full of honeymoon couples.

The off-season Saga hotel could have a high proportion of people with wheelchairs and sticks, plus sit down evening entertainment such as shows featuring songs from musicals. If you have difficulty walking, you might want to ask if a hotel with a daily buffet can give you waiter service or let your partner take food for two. Hotels aimed at older people may have single bedrooms. Daytime activities might include talks, or bridge or card games for those who like to sit in silence.

You can find hotels suitable for every age group and interest. Hotels cater for children, romance, all inclusive, activities, extreme sports, music, art, photography, water sports, dogs.

You can stay in tents, skyscrapers, or on boats, hotels designed for the gay, the blind, the handicapped, golf, volunteering, the elderly, the single, the opera lover, the wine enthusiast, or those who want to learn drawing or cooking, bridge, bird-watching, swimming, sailing, or whale-watching. I go on writers' holidays and speakers' weekends and holidays. Others choose songwriting and story-telling. Or time seasonal holidays at ski resorts, or to see Wimbledon Tennis or football matches.

You can go on safaris, mountain climbing, trekking. Pick historic hotels, ultra-modern hotels in funny shapes, on mountain side pods, in youth hostels, universities, caves, ice hotels, spa hotels and hotels with giraffes poking their heads through the window.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. Please like and follow and share.

Update 2022

We stayed at the adults only Hotel Indigo in Larnaka, Cyprus for two days in June 2022.

Angela enjoying dessert at adults only hotel Indigo in Larnaka, Cyprus, June 2022. Photo by Trevor Sharot.

See my post.

https://www.jet2holidays.com/adult-holidays

Travel Snippets - Looking at Larnaka, Latvia, Lithuania

Larnaka
On the southern coast of Cyprus, Larnak is associated with Lazarus, who went to Cyprus after being raised from the dead by Jesus. You can visit the Museum of St Lazarus and St Lazarus church. Also Archaeological and Paleontology museums. Lazarus was an incoming or immigrating resident. Another famous man, an outgoing or emigrating person was Larnaka-born stoic philosopher Zenon who went to Athens.

You can marry on the island of love. Walk along the Palm Tree Parade and if your budget is exhausted there's free entry to the Pieredes Museum.

High street bakeries make honey pastries for Xmas markets and gifts. You can make your own olive oil and carob syrup and cook savouries and sweets on a day in November, organised by the owner of the olive oil factory and olive restaurant in Skarinou village for £53 for residents at Palm Beach Hotel and Bungalows at 4 star hotel, seven night holidays from £557 per person (sharing) in November.
www.planet-holidays.co.uk Planet holidays 0871 871 2234
www.palmbeachhotel.com
wwwlarnakaregion.com
press visits contact Marlen Taffarello 01780 481689 marlen@fcdcom.co.uk
www.visitcyprus.com

Latvia
Latvia - all roads lead to Riga, the capita, European Capital of Culture 2014.  The widest waterfall, called Venta at Kuldiga; wooden toy construction kits for houses, Ligatne underground bunker, latvia.travel/sight/secret-soviet-bunker-ligatne. Museum of fateful objects. riga2014.org
see www.latvia.travel

London
Pestana Chelsea Bridge
Chelsea Bridge Wharf
Sat nav SW8 4PP www.pestana-chelseabridge.co.uk
Marketing and PR priscilla.nascimento@pestana.com

Lithuania
See Vilnius Old town, Grutas Park in the top ten of the world's weirdest museums.
Rye bread and herring and all kinds of potato: sausages, amber processing Amber Road. What's not to like!
www.Lithuania.travel
www.tourism.lt