So I'm back from my holiday, not with much of a tan, but feeling suitably relaxed. Myself and a couple of friends went to Cyprus for five days and four nights.

Getting there

Cyprus is a long way from the UK - it's about the furthest European destination you can fly to, and it took over four hours on the plane each way. Still, the combination of Norwegian Air on the way out and EasyJet on the way back did the job.

Places to stay

The apartments we stayed at were pretty good for the cheap and cheerful end of the scale - I've added my review to that site, so I won't repeat it here.

Things to do

I bagged The Rough Guide To Cyprus and the Lonely Planet guide to Cyprus from Oxford central library, and they did us well for museums and other sights to see, as well as general background.

Food

We were surprised at how cheap the food was - if you avoid the obvious tourist traps and the presence of KFC, McDonald's et al, you can get some nice local stuff for not very much a head - certainly cheaper than eating out in most of the UK. The guide books came through for us here again. The portion sizes and provision of free extras like bread were all nice touches.

Misc

We were surprised when stepping off the bus from the airport at how poor many neighbourhoods looked - even in the developed, beachfront, touristy part of Larnaca, you didn't have to go far to find crumbling buildings and poorer businesses crammed in next to the more modern and western ones. Still, the people were all very friendly, and English was almost universally spoken.