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Change your Christmas climate
By John Connor
 If the idea of a cold, wet Christmas doesn’t appeal, why not leave the cold and wet behind? John
Connor explores the charms of North Cyprus.
The theory is simple. The warm Mediterranean evening and the lights of the restaurants are reflecting off the waters of the harbour as fishing boats and the odd pleasure craft bob at their moorings.
There is no fuss, no rush, and some local music is playing quietly in the background as you choose a table and pick up the menu to, yet again, marvel at how little the dinner is going to cost.
You sit there taking in the atmosphere, watching a few tourists stroll by, and wonder whether to visit the turtles next day, try some more hassle-free shopping or just collapse on a virtually deserted beach.
Unfortunately, these days, the practice is usually somewhat different. Due to simple pressure of numbers in most Mediterranean resorts at high season, there will be plenty of fuss and rush as you fight to get a table near the harbour, the music will be loud and definitely not local, the Euro prices will be not much cheaper than at home, beaches are packed and the only turtles you are likely to experience will be in tinned soup.
This, sadly, is the effect that “progress” and mass tourism has had on so many once charming destinations. The bad news is that they probably won’t get any better, the good news is that there is still one little gem that hasn’t been changed by a single disco in the last 30 years.
In fact it really hasn’t changed since Laurence Durrell sat under “the tree of idleness” by the ruins of Bellapais Abbey in 1950 and wrote the book “Bitter Lemons”. The tree is still there, and quite a lot of idling still goes on.
So where is this time capsule of a holiday destination? Don’t mention it to a soul, but it’s North Cyprus. Well, we don’t want everyone turning up there, do we?
The fact is, for historical and political reasons, North Cyprus has been cut off from the mainstream of European life since the island was divided in 1974. But all that is about to change. Hopefully the promised European Union investment in the North will not change the charm of the place too much, but it means now is a perfect time to remember when a backwards glance from the beach will not reveal a single hotel block.
Of course the regular British visitor knows this. There is so much more than the reminders of British rule — the red post boxes and three pin sockets — to bring them back each year, despite the flights that have to land in Turkey for half an hour, before arriving at the airport of Erkan in North Cyprus.
So how best to discover this undiscovered world? Well let’s go back to the that peaceful harbour, known to us as Kyrenia and to locals as Girne. It is one of the two main holiday centres richly deserving its reputation for being, well, drop dead gorgeous.
A backdrop of mountains rolls down to the sea, via a 1,000-year-old castle built by the Venetians to keep people out of the town they were putting together at the same time. Suffice it to say that they would recognise most of it today, including the local banquets served nightly in the harbour-side restaurants.
You are only a few minutes walk from quaint old shops, boats and local bars and there are plenty of small hotels overlooking the harbour.
The coastline round Kyrenia is rocky and rugged, although there are plenty of coves in which to discover a small beach of your own. But head inland by hire car, scooter or local bus, and there is an open air museum to explore in terms of abbeys and castles.
By far the most famous is Bellapais, and rightly so. A few minutes walk from that idle tree, the graceful abbey church, great refectory, vaulted cloisters and chapter house are no less impressive than its hillside location with soaring Cyprus trees (what else?).
Head into the Besparmak mountains, to the castle of St Hilarion which at 2,400 feet above sea level is said to have been the model for Walt Disney’s castle in Snow White.
Having scaled such heights, you may want to come right back down to sea level, in which case one might suggest some of the best beaches at Famagusta, or Gasimagusa in local parlance.
Stretching north from Famagusta there are several miles of fine white sand and, while no one is going to pretend you will be completely by yourself in the high season, you certainly won’t get sand kicked in your face by a noisy mob next door.
Which isn’t to say that the town itself hasn’t got a great deal to offer. Prove this for yourself by walking round the ramparts of the old town and noting the fine sea gate and famous harbour citadel of Othello’s Tower, which you will of course readily connect with the Shakespearean play.
Having looked down, then you can then descend and look up, at the truly amazing Lala Mustafa Pasa Mosque, which was once St Nicholas’ Cathedral, around which the shops and market stalls sell everything from local crafts to herbs and spices.
Once you have appreciated the two most popular towns in North Cyprus it is time to head off the beaten track. Firstly, head west to Guzelyurt on the coastal plane. It means “beautiful place” in Turkish, and as you drive through the orchards of orange trees and see the lemons, strawberries and pomegranates growing against the backdrop of the Trodos mountains, you will admit that they have a point.
Then you can head off for the adventure of the Karpaz Peninsula and swim with the turtles. You can do this at several places on the Peninsula, including at Alagadi Beach, 10 miles from Kyrenia.
On the “panhandle” of the Karpaz Peninsula you can swim from deserted beaches, pass a car on the road every few hours, and walk for miles without seeing another person, let alone a bus load of sight-seers.
Conversely, therefore, we should end our tour of North Cyprus in the busy capital of Nicosia/Lefkosa. Being inland it escaped the battering that many of the coastal towns took from the regular invaders.
Instead, Nicosia has become a town of transformations. Archbishops’ palaces turned into offices, churches metamorphosed into public baths and cathedrals into mosques.
And that’s the whole point about this under-developed side of Cyprus. It has evolved gradually over the years at a pace that is all its own. No one has desecrated beautiful beaches with hotels of doubtful architectural style. No one has turned restful villages into binge drinking bazaars or thought to put the prices up either.
So the environment remains untouched, the turtles swim, the lemons grow and the visitors carry on ever since they have done since the 4th century Byzantines.
Isn’t it about time you joined them?
- Contact the North Cyprus Tourist Centre, 29 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3ED. Tel. 0207 6311930 or go online at: www.go-northcyprus.com.
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