Our Holiday -

The Journey -

We arrived at Ercan at about 3.30pm local time. Our flight was with Turkish Cypriot Airlines and in terms of puncuality and food etc they could not be faulted. Perhaps the only gripe would be that I couldn't understand some of the things said in English as the Turkish accent was quite strong and they spoke quite fast. The holiday rep was there to greet us and we headed off to our accomodation in a mini bus.

The first sight if TRNC was a bit off putting to say the very least. Before going I read about teh Northen part of Cyprus being an unspoilt land of culture and history (which it is in parts). However the main route from the airport to Girne was fairly much covered in litter. The litter problem is probably the worst thing about the place and something I will come back to.

Getting around and about -

It isn't too expensive. We hired a Suzuki Jimini for 25 pounds a day from Sun Rentals. It was a brand new car and pleasant to drive. It only had four seats though which was a bit squashed for us. I would recommending hiring a car through your holiday tour operator before leaving England as they are in demand in high season.

The best beaches seem to be to the East of Girne although Escape beach to the West is mean to be good although we didn't go there. We did go to Camelot beach to the West of Grine and had to pay to get in but found ourselves snorkelling with carrier bags etc floating past so we didn't bother with the beaches to the West after that.

Algadi Beach - Turtle Beach - lovely long beach, very shallow but absolutely filthy - bottles left by the side of bins, excremement on the beach, people hanging their clothes out to dry on the cages put up to protect the turtle nests. The amount of litter could put many people visiting the place and should be sorted out as a top priority.

TRNC is a meat and fish lovers paradise. Not too bad for vegetarians either as three of us in our party were. Whilst there are good holiday deals to be had which give free Half Board eating out at night was certainly one of the highlights for us, particularly in pretty Ozankoy village and in the Harbour at Girne.

There are numerous restuarants along the harbour and we eat out in the habour three times. The first was not very nice - I had an appalling spagetti dish with a sauce which was vile. But the other two times we ate at the Corner Restaurant on the habour which was fine.

St Hilarion Castle. Absolutely amazing and we were full of wonder at how such an edifice could have been built on the side of a mountain. A bit of a killer in the heat (as it is visiting any where which isn't a beach or pool). Good cafe with a wooden verana looking out over Girne.

Near Girne in the hills. Very peaceful old abbey. They hold music festivals here - there was a Mozart festival held when we were visiting but unfortunately we didn't get a chance to go. Although when we visited there was an orchestra practising in the Hall and we sat and listened as the breeze wafted in to the room from huge windows. Even my tetchy adolescents enjoyed that.

(Also known as Famagusta) Three of us visited Gamagusa for the day. The former St Nicholas Cathedral was very nice (Now a mosque but you can go in for a look for a small fee). We visited Othello Tower which my husband enjoyed but I found it had a quite disturbing atmosphere (although he said I was wierd so that may be the case).

Negative points -