Cyprus: The implausibly sunny island is steeped in history and myth

I don't know why it took me so long to visit Cyprus. I love the Mediterranean and I love exploring island life – especially in beautiful settings that are steeped in history and myth. The Greek islands have always been my idea of heaven in that respect. Perhaps I simply never felt the need to venture elsewhere.

As the legendary birthplace of Aphrodite, Cyprus has equally impeccable classical credentials. According to Homer's Odyssey, the goddess of love emerged from the waves in a surge of white foam on the island's south coast, next to a craggy limestone rock formation known as Petra Tou Romiou. It was always likely to be my sort of place.

In the end, though, it was the need to travel early in the year that finally took me to Cyprus. It's the third-largest island in the Mediterranean, and also the easternmost and the sunniest. A reputed 300 days of sunshine a year make it a very appealing prospect for visiting outside of the regular summer season. In early spring, when Greece has yet to warm up, Cyprus is usually blue-skied, balmy and ablaze with fields of flowers. (The wild orchids appear in the lowlands from February. By this time of year, you can expect vivid swathes of scarlet gladioli, alongside silky drifts of almond blossom.)

It was March when I made my first visit – a month which even the most loyal Graecophile would be pushed to recommend as a promising bet for Greek island-hopping. To my delight, the weather was gorgeous. The sea was a bit too cool for swimming, but turquoise and glittering. The sand was warm. The air was luminous.

As a newcomer to Cyprus, I'd decided to let the island give me its best shot and had opted for an awesomely luxurious destination – the Anassa hotel and spa, built like a mini-village on the coast of the secluded Akamas Peninsula.

The Akamas peninsula is part of the Republic of Cyprus (rather than the self-styled Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus). The peninsula is the spectacular rugged outcrop on its north-west coast, encompassing a host of small coves and turtle beaches. The fine sandy beach on Chrysochou Bay, which the hotel leads down to, is said to be one of the best on the island.

Being a bit of a beachcomber, I sometimes have a struggle with exclusive hotels. But it was hard not to like the Anassa. Complete with its own market square and Byzantine church, the complex is made up of pretty, whitewashed villas with biscuit-coloured roof tiles, set amid lovely gardens that are laden with bougainvillea and lanterna and awash with lavender and aromatic herbs. It was wonderfully restful. Birds sang in the trees, and tiny white butterflies floated like rose petals.

It was also, I discovered, a great place to indulge in a bit of pampering – the state-of-the-art Thalassa Spa offers all manner of luxurious treatments. I started off with a Cleopatra Milk Bath – a scented concoction of rose, jasmine and organic milk (so called because Mark Antony gave Cyprus to Cleopatra as a love token). Thereafter, it was one cocktail of organic ingredients after another.

By the time I'd had an Anassa Signature Cypriot Scrub (virgin olive oil, sea salt and oregano) followed by a wrap treatment (organic yogurt and honey), I felt like a walking advertisement for healthy Cypriot cuisine – oiled to within an inch of my life and packed full of vitamins. It was definitely time to leave the hotel and start exploring.

The nearest fishing village, Latchi, was a bit of a disappointment. The harbourside is lined with fish restaurants, some of them occupying converted sponge divers' warehouses. But the place itself is not exactly picturesque – mostly just a rather lacklustre string of modern shops housing archetypal tourist tat and awful "leisurewear". Even though parts of Greece are equally blighted, unfair comparisons were starting to form in my head.

Fortunately, my next outing – a signposted trail to the nearby Outra tis Afroditis (Baths of Aphrodite) – was much more encouraging: a pleasant stroll through glades of carob, juniper and red-berried lentisk trees, leading to an eerily atmospheric recess thick with lush vegetation. Enclosed within it is a cool, clear pool where the goddess of love is said to have bathed.

The pool is fed by water dripping from a spring above, cascading like skeins of glass thread down the dank, dark rock-face and unravelling over labyrinths of twisted tree-trunks. Nearby, with an entrance framed by a cloud of red hibiscus, is a cheerful café directly overlooking the sea. Complete with old-fashioned blue plastic chairs and checked tablecloths, the café's been there for 45 years now. Tucking in to a plate of delicious meze and watching the owner's pet chipmunks somersaulting in their cage, I began to feel I was in a real country at last.

But the best experience of my visit was still to come: a whole day spent exploring the lesser-known parts of the Akamas peninsula in a 4x4 with a friendly local chef and his girlfriend who'd invited me to join them on their day off.

Formally designated as a National Park and conservation area in 2007, the peninsula is breathtaking – a stunning expanse of forests, isolated bays and dramatic gorges. It's home to an abundance of wildlife, including rare breeds of bats, birds and flowers. I even spotted a chameleon. And, rather thrillingly, its thick woodland provides refuge for the last of Cyprus's wild mouflon (the goat-/deer-like creature that serves as the symbol of Cyprus Airways).

Ironically, the main reason that the peninsula's rugged hinterland has remained so undeveloped is that, until the late 1990s, much of it was sealed off for use as a live firing range by the British armed forces. The presence of the British army on Cyprus has left some unfortunate legacies – not least in the depressingly uniform rows of expatriate retirement villas that choke the countryside on some parts of the island's coast (about one in three of the residents around Paphos is British).

But there are certainly no signs of incomers in this still-unspoilt landscape. Instead, there are just scatterings of traditional settlements where local farmers keep bees, or grow olives, vines and almonds.

Meanwhile, black-shawled old ladies tend tribes of goats (for halloumi cheese production) or make rag rugs. It's rural life in a time capsule.

At the end of our day out, with evening drawing in, my new friends took me to the mountain village of Kera to meet Chino, a local artist. Within minutes we were sharing tumblers of wine in his courtyard under the fig trees, and I'd decided that Cyprus was definitely proving worth the visit.

Two hours later, as a row of empty bottles lengthened beside us, Chino was holding court with an unstoppable riff on the subject of the new flag being proposed by the United Nations in anticipation of a reunified Cyprus. Greek-Cypriot by birth and – in both cigarette habit and temperament – the mountainside's resident human volcano, he clearly has little faith in politicians.

"It's a flag for infidels!" he announced, stabbing the air with a cigarette and exhaling impressive quantities of smoke. "I ask you – what other God-fearing European country doesn't have a cross on its national flag? Go on – think of one."

"Well, there's Germany," I said. "Or France... or Holland?" Chino waved his hand dismissively. For a moment I contemplated offering Italy as a trump card, but decided enough might be enough. This was obviously no time to let the facts get in the way of a good rant.

Out came a bottle of the local Zivania firewater, and we all settled back for the evening. Cyprus was turning out just fine.

Divided island

The geo-political status of Cyprus is as intricate as the landscapes. Nowhere is this more evident than in the island's capital, Nicosia. It is the last Berlin – a city divided. In 1974, a coup by the military junta in Athens deposed the government of Archbishop Makarios. The Turkish government used this as a pretext for invading the north of the island. After fierce fighting, an uneasy ceasefire was signed. Since then the island has been divided by the Green Line that splits the official Republic of Cyprus in the south from the self-styled Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in the north.

For years, the only way legally to reach the North was on a short day visit using the UN checkpoint on the west side of Nicosia. But since Cyprus joined the EU in 2004, the border has become much more porous.

You can cross from the south by crossing at several checkpoints, though the Ledra Palace and Ledra Street checkpoints in Nicosia are for pedestrians only, not for vehicles.

You may take a hired car through the checkpoints, but check the insurance status with the rental company first – you will not be allowed through a crossing without the correct insurance documents.

There are controls on the quantities of goods that can be purchased in the north and brought into the south; no more than 40 cigarettes.

Travellers who have entered Cyprus through the north (usually at Ercan airport) are considered by the government of the Republic of Cyprus to have entered through an illegal port of entry. "The government reserves the right to fine EU (including British) citizens for illegal entry if they cross into the south," warns the Foreign Office, but adds "In practice, their current policy is not to do so".

Simon Calder

Getting there

Paphos is the main gateway for the Akamas peninsula. It has flights from a wide range of UK airports, including Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow with Flyglobespan (0871 271 9000; flyglobespan.com); Birmingham, Heathrow, Manchester and Stansted on Cyprus Airways (020-8359 1333; cyprusairways. com). From Gatwick, British Airways (0844 493 0787; ba.com) competes with easyJet (0905 821 0905; easyjet.com); easyJet also flies from Manchester.

Staying there

The Anassa Hotel (00 357 26 888 000; thanoshotels.com) has a "rack rate" of €270 per double, including breakfast. The hotel is about an hour's drive from Paphos airport.

Packages

The writer travelled with Sovereign Luxury Holidays (0871 200 6677; sovereign.com), which offers year-round packages to the Anassa Hotel. A one-week stay, including flights from Gatwick, private transfers and breakfasts, departing on 1 April, costs £1,443 per person, based on two sharing.

More information

Cyprus Tourist Office, 17 Hanover Street, London W1S 1YP (020-7569 8800; visitcyprus.com)

Jessica Blunden