What's On Cyprus

The setting is as good as on the beach, it's a traditional village house with alcoves and arches edging the shaded patio out front, overlooking the beautiful Mediterranean sea.  The ambience is relaxed outside and continues inside, with comfy lounge style sofas and 4 huge TV screens to watch all the live sports, there's a pool room with plenty of seating and two lovely open fires to keep your toes warm in the winter.

Fāinā told me "We originally opened a French restaurant in Makarios Avenue, introducing Lebanese cuisine after 2 years, but when we moved our restaurant here we switched to a Lebanese Restaurant with just a few French dishes as our customers were mostly locals.  These days its a more varied international mix as more and more tourists have discovered us.  As the years past, we found more and more of our customers were asking us to cook French cuisine for them".  She laughed and said "ha! but many restaurants cook Frogs Legs, but none can cook them like ours!  And, then she added; just wait til you try our Duck!"

It's a lovely idea for a truly different day out. What I really like about The Camel Park is it’s diversity, as there’s always something new to see every time you go. With such a lot of animals, there’s often a few babies around including iccle Camels, ranging from as little as 2 weeks old … they are just delightful! You can choose to stroll around at your leisure or there’s guides who offer information in several languages.

As coffee moves to a higher level in Cyprus, Coffee Lab in Paralimni is leading the way ... They specialise in real fresh ground coffee from a single source, by that I mean they know exactly which Coffee Farm it comes from and that includes speciality coffee from Brazil, Ethiopia, Guatemala and Kenya and if you're luck you'll catch one of their limited editions ... Trust me they guys know their coffee ... More ...

Vangelis said he had extensive training in Naples, not at collage but at an academy at a traditional pizzeria, with top pizza chefs.  The rewards; pizzas as authentic as you can get this side of Italy, the dough, 4 simple ingredients, hand made, but fermented for 48 Hours before use, a Neapolitan influence, which enhances the flavour, then topped with your favourite toppings and baked to perfection in a traditional stone fired revolving oven ... the result a thin base with a light fluffy crust ... I have to say they're delicious!

They'll ask you how you'd like your meat, tidied, trimmed and cut, always doing that first before they weigh it and once you get to know these guys, you just say things like 'extra fine ground beef for bolognese, for four people' and they know how much to give you ... bear in mind they're Cypriot portions 😉 ... I often run through an order for my BBQ's and how many people are coming and Andreas says I think that's enough ... brilliant!

Over a delicious Illy coffee, I asked Charbel how it all started; he said, "In the past, I was an HR Operations Manager in the F&B Sector ... Then we found this place, and between 2016 to 2021, we took Rise of the past, and Re-Branded it ... it was during the pandemic where I got the idea to take it to a new level and we had the time make some improvements, the idea was to 'Elevate your Hotel Experience' ... it's not just about the decoration it's about culture and spirit"

I was delighted to be invited to find out more about this exceptional, luxury chocolate manufacturing company.  Established in 1990 by Constantinos' father Stavros.  Their story is almost as lovely as their chocolate tastes ... omg!  Constantinos made me very welcome as we talked about how it all started ...

Cannabidiol has no psychoactive properties in the body, in simple words you don't 'get wrecked'.  It helps contribute to the overall well-being of the body and reduces body pains and muscle spasms.  It is an effective anti-inflammatory and helps with diseases such as in my case cancer, but also psoriasis, epilepsy, depression, anxiety, loss of appetite, and many, many more.  It also helps reduces stress, stops nausea and vomiting, and is antioxidant and neuroprotective ... It's worth opening your mind to natural remedies and CBD is truly amazing!

It's amazing how many people still didn't know this place exists ... it's situated in the village of Avgorou, and includes beautifully landscaped herb gardens, the woodland area created in the shape of Cyprus, scattered with the endemic trees and shrubs of Cyprus, a Lavender Labyrinth, and it boasts the first and only hedge maze on the island, all 2000 sq.m. of it ...