10 Days In Cyprus

One of my favourite things in the world is being able to travel to different countries and explore different cultures and see new different sites. I recently had the pleasure of traveling to Cyprus for the third time. It is a country that me and my boyfriend love to visit and we feel so lucky that we have been able to go back for a third time. This year we went back to the same hotel we stayed in in June 2017. It was lovely going back the Atlantica Sancta Napa hotel this year and experiencing a few of the changes they had made, although I did forget to take some pictures to show the changes but maybe next time we go back I'll remember. A lot of the staff remembered us from last year as well which was lovely as they see so many different faces every year it felt nice that they had remembered who we were. The hotel was amazing and I would highly recommend it to anyone wanting to visit the area. The hotel is so central to many of the places you may want to visit around the local area aswell, it is a five minute walk to the beach, there are plenty of shops and supermarkets surrounding the hotel and it is roughly a 10 minute walk to the Ayia Napa strip containing all those lovely pubs and clubs lots of people like to go to. I will admit we didn't go to the strip at all, we have both been there before so we didn't feel the need to visit it again.

This holiday was mainly about relaxing and having time to ourselves away from the general stresses of life, work and selling a house. A lot of our time was spent on a sunbed by the pool listening to music, reading books and allowing ourselves some peace and quiet. We did go and explore a bit of the island halfway through our visit which was lovely, we found some new places we hadn't been before that just blew our minds away. Every year we have gone we have hired out a little buggy to drive around to explore, they are so fun to drive and it just makes it easier to explore a little bit more of the beautiful place you are in.

Our first stop when we got our buggy was Penera, this was the first place in Cyprus we ever stayed so we love to go back and see what has changed and go back down memory lane. If I'm completely honest we just weren't too fussed with our little visit back this year, so much had changed, they are adding more hotels and there are a lot of building work going on right now that the place just doesn't look as nice as it did when we stayed. Adding more hotels just ruins the area and the quietness and peace it brought to us when we stayed there and it properly isn't a place I would like to go and stay again because it would ruin the memories I had that first time we went to Cyprus. Nevertheless it is a lovely place and the people are so friendly it is still worth a visit, even if we just go for a few hours.

When we hired the buggy we were given a map of places that are worth visiting so whilst we were in Penera we jotted down a few of the places we wanted to go to. One of those places was the Palatia sea caves, however on the way there we took a wrong turn and ended up driving up a mountain. Halfway up the drive of the mountain we looked to our right through the trees and the view shocked us. We continued to drive up the mountain, parked up the buggy and walked the rest of the way up this mountain. The view from the top was incredible, pictures really don't do the view justice. If you ever go to Cyprus in the Ayia Napa or Protaras are I highly recommend taking a visit to Cavo Greko because the view will literally blow your mind away. I don't like heights in the slightest but I loved standing at the top of the cliffs and looking ahead for miles. There was something that was just so peaceful about being up there.

On our way back down we found the sea caves and went to have a look what they were all about. The sea caves were beautiful and people were jumping off the edge of the cliff into the sea. Unfortunately I'm not that brave that I wanted to launch myself off a cliff, however it would have been nice to find another way down but we couldn't find one so we jumped back into the buggy to explore a little more of the area. Back in the buggy we headed back towards Ayia Napa and found a lovely little beach which we took a little stroll down before getting back into the buggy and driving to Ayia Thekla and to another very quiet beach. We drove down some back lanes behind the apartments and villas right along the beach before heading back up to the main road and back towards Ayia Napa. We then went to find the beach my boyfriend niece got married at last year and it was nice to be back there down memory lane.

A little later in the week then we walked up to the Ayia Napa international sculpture park and explored the sculptures for a couple of hours. It was lovely, I had a great time there.

We had a lovely week and I would go back again if we could. There are still so many places I would love to visit so we absolutely have to go back. If you have ever wanted to visit Cyprus I highly recommend it.