SOUTHERN CYPRUS: A million Brits can’t be wrong

Dec 1 2007 by Laura Davis, Liverpool Daily Post

Laura Davis enjoys the delights of one of our most popular holiday destinations

LET’S face it, saying you’re going on holiday to southern Cyprus rarely attracts an exclamation of awe.

As more than a million Brits spend time there each year, not to mention the ones who have settled down there full time, it’s a destination that most people have been to at least once.

But, to adapt a well-known phrase - a million people can’t be wrong. There’s a very good reason why so many of us head to Cyprus during the summer holidays - fine weather, beautiful beaches, great food and right-hand drive are just a few of them.

Even those put off by the thought of over-populated resorts filled with beetroot-coloured Brits should not discount the country altogether. An hour’s drive outside the busiest areas and you can often find a luxury hotel or two that are oases of peace and calm.

The Anassa hotel, where we stayed on this brief but enchanting visit, is one of these. Part of the family-run Thanos group, named after the owner Thanos Michaelides, the five-star establishment was opened in 1998, but looks as if it has been there much longer.

The business-savvy family discovered the spot when it was still undeveloped, during a sailing trip in Chrysochou Bay. Since then, the Akamas Peninsula has been decreed protected land so no other hotel can be constructed nearby, although residential houses are allowed.

Based on a traditional village, Anassa does have a main hotel building, where several of its restaurants, the lobby and some rooms are located, but much of the activity goes on outside.

In the landscaped gardens, spread over an area of 85,000 sq m, are lots of low-level white-washed buildings topped with clay roof tiles, which house many of the suites.

TO MAKE the concept of the Cypriot village more convincing, weekly fairs featuring traditional music, dancing and food are held at a central square complete with a traditional church, where guests can get married. Its bell-tower is the highest point on the entire site.

What makes staying at Anassa - which means "queen" in ancient Greek - so relaxing, as well as the luxury spa, sweeping beach and infinity swimming pool, are the gardens.

The cultivation programme began seven years before the hotel opened to ensure the plants and trees would be well matured and the preparation certainly paid off.

Like the stone used in constructing the buildings, the greenery was chosen for its origins in the local area and includes olive, carob and cypress trees, as well as fragrant plants such as jasmine and lavender, all fed with treated water from the hotel’s sewage plant.

Herbs are grown along the pathways, tinting the sea breeze with the delicious scent of basil and rosemary. They are hand picked and used in the traditional Cypriot dishes served in Anassa’s restaurants.

With four restaurants on offer, you find yourself spoilt for choice and not at all tempted to venture outside the complex to the nearby town of Polis.

Food ranges from the more traditional, such as locally-inspired pizza and minced lamb at Amphora, where a children’s menu is available, to the modern - with new Cyprus cuisine served as a nine-course gourmet menu with wine pairing at the minimalist Basilko.

But the real treat is a meal at Pelargos, an outdoor restaurant overlooking the infinity pool. Here it is easy to believe you have escaped the pressures of everyday life forever, as you admire the backdrop of majestic mountains and pine forests on one side and the vivid aqua of the Mediterr-anean.

If this isn’t enough of a view for you, then an open show kitchen lets you watch the chefs at work, cooking on a lava stone grill. Light Mediterranean dishes are made with freshly-caught fish from the sea and make you realise what we’re missing out on at home, buying fish from the supermarket.

Twice-weekly beach barbecues are also held, at sunset, with a bouzouki player providing musical accom-paniment but, sadly, we visited out of high season and did not experience one of these.

The rooms themselves range from garden view rooms, tucked away in little stone buildings throughout the complex, and presidential suites with their own pools. At the top end, as if you aren’t spoiled enough, you can even arrange for a chef to come and serve you in your living room.

These suites are favourites with international footballers - and makeover queens Trinny and Susannah have been known to stay there, too.

Relaxed enough from our walks along the beach, dips in the infinity pool and delicious meals made from locally-sourced ingredients, we were then invited to experience a treatment at Anassa’s spa. This Roman-style thalassotherapy health spa exudes calmness and is a welcome break from the baking sun, particularly if you’re as fair skinned as I am.

Before my facial, surprisingly with a therapist from the North West of England, I was given a glass of detoxifying juice that tasted so pungent it had to be good for you.

Forty very pleasant minutes later, and with soft and rehydrated skin, I returned to the recuperation room for a short rest before taking advantage of the heated indoor pool.

More energetic visitors would no doubt make the most of the seawater exercise pool, squash court and fitness room, but those enjoying an escape from the rat race would be more likely to enjoy the saunas and steam baths that the Thalassa Spa also has to offer.

Feeling reinvigorated, it was disappointing to have to make the journey back to the airport at Pafos and head for home, sure that all the good work would wear off within a few hours of arriving there.

So I will probably join the million-plus Brits and make a return journey to Cyprus before too long.

* LAURA DAVIS was a guest at the Anassa hotel, on the Akamas Peninsula. Double rooms cost from £138 per room per night, bed and breakfast, www.thanoshotels.com, tel: 00357 26888000. She flew with BA from Manchester to Pafos. One-way economy flights for January to October 2008 are priced from £61, including taxes, fees, charges and surcharges.

lauradavis@dailypost.co.uk