Ross Fraser, who works for Thomas Cook, describes his first holiday in Cyprus in this guest post.

“I visited Cyprus for the first time last summer – taking advantage of a friend’s villa that wasn’t in use. Being a dedicated Majorca tourist this was a great opportunity to explore a new place that had always been one I wanted to tick off the ‘visited’ list.

I stayed in a small town called Anarita which is around 10km east of Paphos. At the time of visiting (summer 2008) there were no local buses that serviced the airport so the taxi’s almost run a cartel, therefore depending on where you are travelling onto could cost you a few quid. (I believe this is changing/has changed since my visit and a bus service is being launched). I was picked up so didn’t have to worry about this.

In all honesty I wasn’t hugely impressed with the town of Paphos, it is a mix of old buildings and unflattering new concrete apartments and shops with a big dollop of British tourists thrown in! If you are interested in history however there are some fantastic Roman ruins in Paphos that are well worth a visit. The main historical site entrance is near the harbor in Paphos and entry costs around 6euros, there is more than enough to see to easily fill an afternoon.

Paphos Roman riuns by Verity Cridland

Being an olive oil fanatic I visited an olive farm, I cannot remember the exact location of the one I went to but there are a good number of farms across the island open to the public so there is likely to be one near you which you can visit. I found the experience fascinating – learning about how olive oil is made and then being able to taste some of it was wonderful!

When I was visiting it was very hot – unlike Majorca where the heat is more humid I found the temperature in Cyprus even hotter and because the villa I stayed in was made of concrete it locked in the heat at night, so I would make sure if you are going there that you have air conditioning.

If you have a car during your holiday in Cyprus a town that is work a visit is Limassol which has some good shops (in my option) it had a Pull and Bear, which is an mid priced fashion store that I love and one you don’t see across the whole of Europe.

Limassol by Leonid Manchenkov

If you like food then you are spoilt for choice in Cyprus. I’m a vegetarian and I didn’t have too much trouble finding places to eat either. One thing that I was shocked about was the price of coffee, with an average coffee being around 2 – 3 Euros a cup, shockingly expensive, but the cheap high quality wine more than made up for it.

It is also very easy to visit Egypt from Paphos, there was a boat and plane that leaves from the town, if you have a couple of days free in your trip this is something that you can quite easily do.

In all I found Cyprus an interesting place, I didn’t visit enough of the island to comment on the whole country, you do need a bit of time on your hands and a hire car is almost essential in order to see some of the outstanding heritage the island offers.

If you are looking for a holiday to relax and unwind, enjoy good food in almost guaranteed sun then visit Cyprus.”