Cyprus has an abundance of beauty and versatility and its countryside has indeed many treasures to reveal. As modern day living takes over, it seems inevitable that village life, with its long standing traditions and customs will, unfortunately, slowly disappear. Indeed, many beautiful villages have gradually been abandoned by their inhabitants who have left in search of a better, easier life and many more are on the verge of being completely depopulated.
In view of this, and in an effort to reverse the inevitable, the Laona Project and the Cyprus Tourism Organisation have set up a programme to encourage people to return to their roots. The Cyprus Agrotourism project has been very carefully devised and especially designed to give life back to the villages thus saving century long traditions and customs as well as the Cypriot identity. The project won the prestigious British Airways and ‘Wish you were Here’ Tourism for Tomorrow Award for Europe in 1999. Old derelict houses are being tenderly restored, right down to the last detail and are being brought back to their former glory. The past now becomes the present, able to compete with modern life yet still offering the real taste of Cyprus. Even if it is for a fleeting moment, we welcome you to live like ‘the real Cyprus should be lived’.
Enjoy and even sometimes participate in the making of ‘Halloumi’, the traditional Cyprus cheese, the making of the ‘Zivania’, a raki type strong alcoholic drink and in the picking of the grapes and olives. You will appreciate the tranquillity and easy pace of life, the narrow stone-paved streets, the ‘gossip of the day’ at the ‘kafenio’ and the scenic beauty of the hills and valleys. But, be warned, our village houses are not set in trendy holiday complexes or sophisticated ‘Tuscan style’ hamlets but in authentic working villages, where the sights, sounds and smells of rural life are to be expected, where the locals start their day early and nightlife must be sought elsewhere.
Our Representative: You will not be visited by a Sunvil representative at many of the village properties as these may be a long way from our Paphos base. However, you will find our owners helpful and, should there be a problem they cannot solve, then do please contact our Paphos office. Welcome packs will be provided on single centre village house holidays.
Please view our selection of village houses in Cyprus:
