The Cyprus coastline measures 648km.

Cyprus offers over 300 days of sunshine a year. From April to September you can enjoy an average of over 11 hours of bright sunshine a day.

The Turkish invasion in 1974 forced 142,000 people out of their homes.

Lefkosia (Nicosia) is the last divided capital in the world.

Geologists say that the rocks of Cyprus were created during the Cretaceous period, making them 150 million years old.

The Ammochostos Castle in Cyprus was the setting of Shakespeare’s “Othello”.

Kato Pafos includes the seafront and harbour area, with something for those craving activity as well as the lazy sunbather! Spend your days jet skiing, parasailing, diving or snorkelling before a swift trip to the vast water park. It’s also a great place for cycling, with extensive cycle-routes mapped out through the beautiful backdrop of Paphos. And when you need a well-earned rest; the beaches are stunning and the surroundings magnificent.

Take a stroll along the harbour, past the local fishermen and you’ll reach the numerous restaurants and bars. From local Cypriot seafood dishes to Chinese and Italian, there’s something for every member of the family. As the Sun starts to set, Paphos becomes alive with music and people aplenty, all creating a fantastic ambience. The harbour front is extremely vivacious with lots going on and you simply can’t miss out on the impressive evening boat cruises.

A short trip inland documents the other side to Paphos – Paphos Town, an atmospheric hill town made up of charming cafes and beautiful villas, and strongly linked to Greek mythology. Aphrodite, Greek goddess of love and beauty is said to have come from the waves and crashed on the shores to reside here. It’s worth renting a car for a couple of days to really take in everything Paphos has to offer.

Visit The Tomb of the Kings for a historical masterpiece that dates back to the 4th Century BC. Aesthetically delightful with Doric pillars and carved out of solid rock, these were the final resting place for high officials. Yet their impressiveness and magnificence brought about its momentous name.

Venturing back towards the harbour, one comes across the Paphos Castle. First built as a Byzantine fort with the sole aim of protection for its picturesque harbour – job well done, we must say – it changed hands through various settlers in the region until it was dismantled by the Venetians in 1570. The Ottomans eventually restored it and fast-forward to 1935, the cornerstone of the Paphos region was declared an ancient monument. The castle grounds host various cultural affairs such as the Paphos Aphrodite Festival, a famous annual opera.

Paphos airport lies just 9 miles north of the town and with an increase in budget flights to the area, it has become accessible directly and very cheap. The diverse holiday crowd is reflected in the accommodation choices. From beachfront luxury hotels to hill-top villas, as well as self catering apartments for the super-active, there’s the accommodation to suit every choice and budget.

Whether it’s action-packed water fun or delving into the ancient mythology, as you sip your refreshing cocktail watching the sun set by the harbour, you’ll being to wish you had another week here!

You’ll find Limassol encompasses the full seaside-city type holiday resort. With beautiful, busy beaches and generous watersports facilities, a wander around lets you experience the charm of this laid-back yet fun-loving resort. Think bustling little shopping streets full of character, local Cypriot eateries scattered amongst international restaurants and an array of interesting and extraordinary people and you’ll be some way to understanding why boredom is not an option in Limassol.

Beaches are aplenty and whilst the sandy beach of Avmidou must be sampled, one can be rewarded for venturing out a few miles either way to discover some beautiful, untouched natural havens.

The much-celebrated nightlife of Limassol is vast in choice and the most acclaimed in Cyprus. From smart and funky inner city clubs, to laid back seafront bars; there’s something to sample each and every night.

When the sunburn kicks in and you perhaps want a day away from the beach or if you had one to many beers the night before and perhaps need a healthy does of fresh Cypriot air then do not despair, Limassol offer much more to the discerning tourist. Museums such as the Medieval Museum and the Folk Art Museum offer an insight into the often overlooked, yet hugely interesting history, of this attractive Island. Take a trail around the Troodos Mountains which offers interesting excursions and beautiful scenery so close to the city. And with castles and convents aplenty, you’ll have plenty of opportunity to embrace the culture before heading back to the sand!

Limassol is the centre of winemaking in Cyprus. This dates back to the Middle Ages when Richard the Lionheart infiltrated the Island renowned for its wine and sugar cane. The culture reflects this with the Annual Wine Festival every September which is enjoyed by locals and tourists alike for ten days. The dedicated wine-lover simply must also take a daytrip to one of the local wineries to experience the production and taste of the local produce.

The four hour flight route has now been taken up by many budget airlines and flights to the local airport, Larnaca, are direct and cheap. A short ride away from the airport and with many of the city’s hundreds of hotels offering airport-pick up service, Limassol is a very accessible resort. If you can, avoid peak times for great hotel deals, as the Cypriot summer lasts almost all year.

Limassol captures the city-living urban style with a laid-back seaside influence and it works! History and culture reside efficiently with the buzz and excitement of a major city resort. Such is the close proximity and ease of travel around Limassol, you could be chilling on the beach, refreshing in your hotel and sampling the fresh seafood produce with friends outside a charming Cypriot restaurant all within the hour. Limassol presents an envious lifestyle and you might just not want to go back home!

Ayia Napa has become somewhat renowned for its nightlife. Brits flock to the resort every summer to enjoy all night parties with world-class DJs. While the wild ways of Brits abroad may grab the headlines, but put your beer down and take a look around, you’ll find there’s a lot more to this once-fishing village than meets the eye.

Take the Ayia Napa festival for starters. Located in a Venetian-style monastery in a charming location, it gives holidaymakers an insight into Cypriot folklore with theatrical performances, concerts and dancing. First held in 1985, it’s a free event and eagerly-awaited every year until it kicks off in the tourist season.

If you’re looking for something that will get your adrenaline pumping a little bit more, then you should really tap into the watersports available in Ayia Napa. Whether it’s water skiing, speed boating, canoeing, windsurfing or scuba-diving there’s something for each and every water baby. Clean, safe, well-marshalled beaches are the norm, and it’s quite likely you won’t have snorkelled in such stunning surroundings.

For those craving culture, Ayia Napa doesn’t disappoint. A number of museums aim to educate, impress and stress the importance of preserving the beautiful environment of Ayia Napa. The Tornartis – located in the Town Hall – exhibits Marine life of past and present. Exhibitions of note include at reconstruction of a sea-bed during prehistoric times, fish fossils from the Mesozoic period (up to 60 million years old) and vast aquariums of beautiful Cypriot fish species.

One can’t visit the Cypriot hotspot without sampling the wonderful food. While the town centre may be littered with fast-food joints and kebab shops to cater for the partygoer, venture a few minutes out of town to find some enchanting treats. You can probably guess the local speciality – seafood. But don’t confuse this with your generic European dish. Think fresh Red Snapper, Calamari, and Octopus combined with delicious dips such as tzatziki, taramosalata and tahini, throw in some Middle-Eastern
influence and you’re on the right lines.

For the thrill-seeking holidaymaker, take a ten-minute trip out to Cape Greco, where dwells the alleged Ayia Napa Sea Monster. Spotted only a dozen or so times and described as porpoise-dragon cross, legend has it, it’s a direct descendent from prehistoric times.

Travel to Ayia Napa is direct and frequent. Flights from the UK typically travel to the International Airport of Larnaca, just a thirty minute drive away from the centre of Ayia Napa. With the Cypriot winter months just December and January, avoid the peak British summer months for cheaper travel and more reasonable rates.

So if you’ve always dismissed Ayia Napa for it’s party-town reputation, or perhaps you’re a regular visitor guilty of not venturing out of the bar, open your eyes and see the undoubted charm on offer. Just watch out for the Sea Monster!

In 2006, the International Blue Flag Jury awarded the Blue Flag to 49 beaches in 13 coastal communities and municipalities in Cyprus. Among them were Agia Triada Beach, Skoutari Beach, and Mouzuora Beach.

Agia Triada Beach

This beach is used primarily as a boat-launching area because the water is so shallow. At Agia Triada, the sand is a little coarse, but the beach provides more privacy since tourists tend to avoid the area due to a lack of restaurants.

Skoutari Beach

At Skoutari, the sand is hard-packed and contains a bay where tourists snorkel. This beach is a little more populated because there are good restaurants nearby.

Mouzuora Beach

This beach is popular with Cypriots and serious swimmers. Lounging on Mouzuora is not an option since the sand banks slope so dramatically. However, the water is clear and beautiful for swimming! Parking is ample and there are hotels and restaurants nearby.

For none beach-dwellers, there are thousands of other attractions to see in Cyprus! Visit the Cyprus Museum, a storehouse of the island’s archaeological treasures, the Folk Art Museum, the new Archbishop’s Palace, St. John’s Cathedral, Byzantine churches, the Byzantine Museum/Makarios Cultural Center, and the Ömeriye Mosque.

If you are visiting Cyprus at the end of May, check out the annual International State Fair. If your travels bring you to Cyprus in the beginning of June, go see the Nicosia Arts Festival.

For other excursions, visit the Nicosia area to see the Royal Tombs and Agios Irakleidios Monastery at Tamassos. Enjoy the beautiful five-dome church and the mosque in Peristerona, or the Panagia Chrysospiliotissa Church in a cliff-side cave near Deftera.

If you desire more seclusion, visit Paphos, the capital of Cyprus’s western region. With a population of only 27,000 inhabitants, Paphos provides a serene environment for its visitors. Among its attractions are the beautiful old harbor, Paphos’s ancient mosaic floors, its modern hotels and restaurants near the seaside promenade. Other attractions include an archaeological museum, the Byzantine castle of Paphos, the Tombs of the Kings, St. Paul’s Pillar and the Temple of Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty.

Another popular Cyprus destination is Limassol, which is situated in the south of the island. Limassol is Cyprus’s main industrial and maritime area, and also the second biggest town in the country. Tourists flock to the Berengaria Castle, which is where Richard the Lionheart married Berengaria.

Whether you desire historical sights or beautiful beaches, Cyprus has it all!

Tourism, which accounts for about 10.9 percent of Cypriot gross domestic product, has suffered this year from the global downturn that has hit its key market Britain particularly hard and eroded the value of the pound against the euro, which Cyprus adopted in 2008.
Passenger survey data from January to April showed arrivals falling to 375,523 people compared with 411,054 holidaymakers visiting in the first four months of 2008, an 8.6 percent decrease.
Year on year for April alone, arrivals were down by 0.4 percent.

Tourists from Britain, who usually account for just over half of Cyprus’s annual tourism intake, totalled 84,526 in April compared with 93,862 in the corresponding period of 2008, a 9.9 percent drop.
Tourism arrivals from Russia — Cyprus’s second biggest market — fell 11.8 percent, while Swedish arrivals were down 15.6 percent.
However, there were more visitors from euro zone countries Germany and Greece. The number of German visitors increased by 56.5 percent in April and arrivals from Greece were up 23.7 percent.

The housing plan applies to couples acquiring their first permanent

residence in Cyprus or European citizens who live permanently in
Cyprus the last five years and have a yearly income of up to 40,000
euro. The plan covers houses up to 200 sqm all over Cyprus.

The loan can be used for either building a house in an existing plot

or buying an existing house or apartment. The maximum loan amount
can be up to 200,000 euro. The interest rate on the loan will be set to zero
for the first two years and after that it will equal the current interest
rate of the Housing Finance Corporation.

For more information on the housing plan or for properties covered

by the plan call free 80-000-222 or visit your local BuySell office or
reply to this email.

More on www.BuySellCyprus.com

Revenues weakened to 1.79 billion euros (2.38 billion dollars), from 1.85 billion euros in 2007.

However, in December alone, revenues edged forward 0.4 percent to 51.6 million euros from 51.4 million a year earlier.

The average daily spending by tourists was about 64 euros in December, and the average stay was 11 days.

The biggest spenders were Israeli visitors, splashing out 231 euros a day, while Swedes were the most frugal spending only 21.5 euros a day on average.

The disappointing revenue figures are coupled with a 0.5 percent decrease in tourist arrivals in 2008 to 2.40 million people from 2.41 million in 2007.

It was only the fourth decline in visitor numbers since 1996 and the outlook for 2009 is worse, with hotel bookings said to be 25 percent down for the coming summer.

Bumper spending by holidaymakers helped the Mediterranean resort island achieve GDP growth of 4.4 percent in 2007.

The finance ministry has trimmed its GDP growth projections to 3.7 percent for 2008 and down to 2.1 percent for this year due to concerns that the global financial crisis will trigger lower tourism revenues.

The lion’s share of visitors holidaying on Cyprus come from fellow European Union countries, especially from recession-hit Britain and Germany.

Finance Minister Charilaos Stavrakis said on Wednesday the government was mulling an additional 40-million-euro stimulus package for the struggling tourism and construction sectors.

A 52-million-euro injection for the two sectors was announced in November but the economy is slowing faster than predicted. EU Commission estimates for the islands GDP growth in 2009 is one percent lower than the government’s forecast.

Tourism contributes nearly 15 percent to Cyprus’s GDP (AFP)

This information is taken from naharnet.com

Northern Cyprus: How the other half lives

I’d read beforehand that places had to show dual pricing, Cypriot Pounds and the new Euro rate so I didn’t think they would be able to profiteer.

It appeared though that instead of converting the old Cypriot pound to the new Euro amount, it was the other way round, deciding on a euro rate and working backwards to give the Cyprus pound figure.

A pint of local beer, KEO, Carlsberg or Leon was around 3 euros at most places in Napa which at the 1.18 rate worked out at £2.54 a pint, compared to last year when a lot of places were charging CYP1.50, approx £1.80.

I think the main influence on it seeming expensive is the fact the euro rate is rubbish at the moment, the same time in April 2007 the rate was 1.47, so there you see that lovely local pint would have still been more expensive (£2.04) but not as much as 40%!

It will be interesting to see how the euro affects Cyprus by way of Tourism considering over 3m people visit the island from the UK alone, I can imagine those living on a UK pension in Cyprus are feeling the pinch a bit with the rate as it is.

It could be that it’s just expensive like this in Ayia Napa, I will be visiting again in September so will have to venture out and see.