Tsambika

The Tsambika area has two attractions: a surprisingly undeveloped beach, and the monastery of Panagia. Tsambika, known also as Kyra, a tiny white building perched on top of a huge cone-shaped hill that towers to a height of 287m above the beach. Tsambika's fine swathe of sand and lack of background buildings are definate pluses, but they ensure the beaches popularity by day and there are watersports available here during the season.

The monastery is reached by a concrete road that twists steeply up from the highway, just before the beach access road. You park just beyond the Panoramic Restuarant and finish the journey on foot up winding stone stairs through pine trees. Its a long haul - there are 307 steps, marked at 100 step intervals. The monastery is no more than a tiny chapel and courtyard, but the views are spectacular, and the chapel contains a greatly revered icon of the Annunciation that legend says arrived miraculously and inexplicably form Cyprus.