Malta or Cyprus – which is best for your summer vacation?
Get there
Paphos and Larnaca airports are a magnet for British visitors in the summer. British Airways flies to both, from Heathrow and Gatwick; easyJet delivers the same double act from Bristol, Gatwick and Luton, while also serving Larnaca from Liverpool, and Paphos from Edinburgh and Manchester. Jet2 offers Paphos and Larnaca from Birmingham, Bristol, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds-Bradford, Stansted, Manchester and Newcastle – and launches a flight from Belfast to Paphos. Tui Airways (020 3451 2716; tui.co.uk) enters the two airports from Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff, East Midlands, Gatwick, Manchester and Newcastle – and offers additional flights to Paphos from Bournemouth, Doncaster-Sheffield, Exeter, Glasgow, Stansted and Norwich. Ryanair operates in Paphos alone from Stansted, Manchester and Newcastle. Wizz Air (0330 977 0444; wizzair.com) lands only in Larnaca, from Cardiff, Gatwick and Luton.
City streets
If Nicosia does not have much of the Cold War Berlin barbed-wire atmosphere, it is the most obvious representation of the island’s divided status: the “Green Line” that cuts through the Republic of -Northern Cyprus (recognized only by Turkey) from the rest of the country sliced around it. But there is a lot to please visitors on the south side of the schism. The Cyprus Museum (mcw.gov.cy) has archaeological wonders from the ninth millennium BC onwards. For food near the “border”, visit Lil Anamma (toanamma.com), a classically Cypriot tavern with outdoor tables and meze platts.
It sits in Ledra Street, which also has the main crossroads of the city to the north. You can walk around with a British passport (unvaccinated tourists need a negative PCR test result), to see Cyprus existing a decade or two later than the rest of the country. The Selimiye Mosque is, however, glorious, and retains much of the soul of Hagia Sophia – the original identity of the building (13th century). A four-night mini-holiday for the five-star Hilton Nicosia – departing from Gatwick on 13 July – costs from £ 682 per person, via Expedia (020 3024 8211; expedia.co.uk).