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Holidaymakers can enjoy a variety of holiday destinations combining the blue sea and the cool mountains or the city bustling with life and the peaceful rural life of a village.

Hotels and hotel apartments in Cyprus offer all the facilities you demand from a fine hotel. You can find 3-star, 4-star and 5-star hotels, all of them complying with internal standards. Elegant and luxurious hotels with the finest cuisine, local and international, swimming pools, health clubs, golf-courses, tennis courts etc.

Both the managers and the staff vow to make your stay here is comfortable and enjoyable as possible. Many in order to prove how committed they are to this promise, adopted packages offering full board for the price of half board and certain arrangements for families and groups. However, if you you prefer go it alone, you can stay at a hotel apartment or in small family-run properties where you can cook your own meals.

Hotels in Cyprus are usually built on extensive grounds offering a wide range of facilities enabling you to either relax or enjoy outdoor and indoor activities. Hotels and hotel apartments can prove the base for a relexed holiday away from the noise and the crowds or the base for painting the town red! All hotel complexes include swimming pools and restaurants as well as other facilities, ranging from beauty and hair saloons to tennis courts, gymnasiums, jacuzzi, sauna, aromatherapy and thalassotherapy treatments, water sports, art galleries, gift shops, bookstores, ballrooms, live orchestra and non smoking areas in restaurants.

The happiness and fun of very young visitors is a top priority, therefore the overwhelming majority of hotels host special children's animation. Furthermore, hotels make special arrangements offering free child accommodation or adiscount for children and even babysitting.

Restaurants prepare special dishes for vegeterians and gourments. For those who would like to taste traditional Cypriot dishes, special Cypriot tavernas and provided. Children can order from a menu designed especially for them.

Restaurants and tavernas offer local dishes, the traditional meze as well as international dishes. You can enjoy a memorable meal overlooking the sea or the mountains, with live bands or background music or you can enjoy a romantic dinner under the candlelight. Modern restaurants in the heart of the city or quiet, small traditional restaurants in picturesque villages are here for you to enjoy. The choice is yours!

Cyprus is only a step away from other historically significant places in the region. Regular cruises are organized wekkly to Greece and the Greek island in the Aegan Sea, the Holy Land and Egypt. Come to Cyprus and seize a unique opportunity to visit a region which was the cradle of civilization and revive the atmosphere of years past at a remarkably low cost! Live the romanticism and bravery of the past and while you are at it, why spoil the atmosphere! If you are thinking of getting married, do not delay it any longer. Now Cyprus can offer you a wonderful wedding experience. At the City Halls of all Cyprus cities and tourist resorts, there is a special service for those who choose Cyprus to get married. Suites in hotels are ready to offer you an unforgetable honeymoon. Afterall Cyprus is the birthplace of Aphrodite.

These are just a few places of interest attracting not only foreign visitors but Cypriots as well. They could mark the beginning of a long and memorable journey.

The Monastery of Panayia tou Machera is one of the most significant active Orthodox monasteries in Cyprus. It was founded during the last years of the XIIth century and itis surrounded by the beutiful forest land of Macheras, in Troodos on the road to Nicosia. It is only a stone throw away of the village of Lazania and the peak called Kionia, which is also known as the peak of Macheras at an altitude of 1,423 metres. This area is south of the monastery. The monastery is built 870 metres above sea level and it can be reached via the village of Kapedes.

The three aisled church, which stands to date, was built between the years 1892-1900 replacing a previous church burnt to the ground. The woodcarved iconostasis dates back to 1919. The church is surrounded by various edifices belonging to the monastery while the whole complex forms a square . The abovementioned edifices were built after 1892. The cloister is 19 metres high and was built in 1900.

The miraculous icon of Panayia tou Machera is considered to be one out of 70 such icons painted by Luke the Evangelist. An unknown hermit clantestinely transferred the icon to Cyprus from Asia Minor, during the reign of the iconoclasts between the IIXth and IXth centuries. This unknown hermit sought refuge on the mountains of Macheras where he lived in a hermitage. Following his death the icon remained there until the arrival of hermits Neophytos and Ingatios at approximately 1145. Urged by divine revelation they found the cave covered by bushes. Tradition has it that the two hermits used a knife given to them by a divine hand in order to cut down the bushes and reach the icon. Thus, the icon was named Macheriotissa (macheri = knife) or as it is more commonly called "Panayia tou Machera". The monastery bearing that same name was built on the very spot where the icon was found. The epithet "Macheras" which was given to Panayia also refers to the mountain and the wooland.

The monastery of Panayia tou Machera is one of the three active stavropygiac monasteries of Cyprus. Originally the monastery was used as a small hermitage. Neophytos and Ignatios were the first monks who inhabited the place. Following Neophytos' death, another old man called Prokopios shared the hermitage with Ignatios. At approximately 1172 the two monks visited Constantinople and asked for support from the emperor, Manuel Komninos, who would grant them fifty coins annually and would suggest that a monastery should be erected on the mountain.

Uppon their arrival, the two monks built a small chapel dedicated to Our Lady sa well as cells for the monks. After the monastery had been built, monk Prokopios died living behind Ignatios and a few monks who in the meantime had come to the hermitage. Following Ignatios' death, Nilos became the new father superior of the monastery. He built a church, added more cells for the monks and erected walls to surround the premises.

Later the numbers of monks living in the monastery was reportedly very high. They were shepherds, farmers, bakers, vine-growers, coppersmiths, agriculturalists e.t.c.

Nilos was succeededby loakim. We have no information as to the fate of the monastery until the year 1231. In 1340, Queen Alice, wife of the Frank King, Hugo IV, was cured after the expressing ing her faith in the Holly Gross. According to the chronicler Leontios Macheras, three years earlier, in 1337, Alice was punished by Panayia tou Machera because she forced her way in the monastery and entered the sanctuary of the church. In 1385, King James I spent 39 days in the monastery along with his wife Eloise. In 1393, when a plague epidemic spread in Cyprus, King James along with his wife and his court were again housed at the monastery for a very long time.

Based on an inscription engraved on a stone engraved on a stone plate, the monastery of Macheras was completely destroyed in 1530, when a fire broke out and only the icon of Panayia was saved. This incident marked a great gap concerning the fate of the monastery, while the first reports after that came in the XVIIth century. Leontios was the new father superior who raised money in order to restore the monastery and in 1697, he had the church of the monastery renovated. His successor is unknown whereas in 1720, Parthenios who was of Arabic origin, was estimated to have been father superior. Parthenios came to Cyprus at a very early age. He learned Greek and later on he became a monk at the monastery of Macheras. Parthenios was gifted with supernatural powers which he used to benefit the monastery.

According to Archimandrite Kyprianos, Parthenios restored the monastery adding to it many more dependencies, vineyards and other lands. In 1760, he had the monastery's privileges enchanced by a patriarchal sigillium. Parthenios died in 1766 and was succeeded by loannikios II who carried on with the restroration of the monastery. In 1873, he sent the archimandrite and the treasurer of the monastery as well as deacon Kyprianos - who was later to be consecrated Archbishop of Cyprus - to Moldovlachia in order to raise funds. In 1794, a second mission was sent to Moldovlachia to raise money. In 1795, the privileges conferred upon the monastery were renewed by the Cypriot Patriarch in Constantinople, Gerasimus III. In 1796, Ioannikios was succeeded by Germanos who remained in his position until 1827.

Germanos' successor saw to the repayment of a great part of the monastery's debt's. When he ordained father superior the monastery's debt amounted to 48.000 grocia while by the day of his death the debt was reduced to 15.000. Between the years 1843 and 1848, Kallinikos became father superior and was later succeeded by lezekiel. In 1857 Kallinikos I was replaced by Kallinikos II until 1868. Kallinikos II was succeeded By Christoforos. He, in his turn, was succeeded in 1892 by Ignatios II who held his position until 1900.

On 5-9-1892, a fire that started at the chandlery of the monastery burnt once again the monastery of Macheras to the ground. The monks managed to save its treasures and icons. Metrophanis became futher superior of the monastery from 1900 to 1937. Following Metrophanis' resignation in 1937and until 1948, the post remained vacant due to the laws passed by the British Authorities following the turmoil of 1931. The archimandrite of the monastery, Gregorios, acted as father superior. Gregorios resigned in 1948 and Ireneos was ordained new father superior. He remained in that position until 1960 when he was removed by the Holy Synode. Ireneos was replaced by Elpidios until 1964. From that date onwards until 1987 archimandrite Dionysios headed the monastery as father superior. Upon decision by the Holy Synode, Dionysios was replaced by archimandrite Charitonas in 1987.

The task of copying ecclesiastic books had been taken up in the monastery of Macheras since the XVIIth century with the majority of father superiors having reportedly taken up this endeavour. At the same time a shop of bookbinding functioned at the monastery.

During the Frankish period, the monastery of Macheras had many dependencies and enormous stretches of land, which were offered to it by the faithful. The monastery played a vital role during the four-year armed struggle of 1955-1959. Special connection is drawn between the monastery, the hero Gregoris Afxentiou and his sacrifice in his hiding-place which lies near the monastery of Macheras. The monastery houses a small museum with memorabilia of Gregoris Afxentiou. The monastery's contribution in the years of the Ottoman Rule was also of great importance. It was a pillar of religious and national identity. It was a significant centre for medical treatment and supported the population. During the years of the Ottoman Rule it hosted a Greek school.

Throughout the Ottoman Rule, the monastery was persecuted. Violence escalated in July 1821 when large scale massacres of the Greeks on the island were waged by the Turks. Germanos, who at the time was father superior of the monastery, fled with great difficulty. He was one of few church confiscated much of the monastery's property, which seems to account for the significant increase of its debt during Germanos' time.

The Monastery of Macheras attracts local as well as foreign travellers. Many excursionists visit the woodland of Macheras wishing to come closer to nature in a peaceful environment. The road leading to Kapedes and the Monastery of Macheras passes throught the forest of Macheras. Stations and a good telecommunications system are also available. A place specially developed for excursions called Kionia lies within the forest area and is ready to host up to 250 people. East of the peak of Kionia we find a similar place called Mandra tou Kampou hosting 350 people.