SIGH-PRUS

IT WAS certainly the white place to go for a family holiday.

A villa in Cyprus with whitewashed walls hand-moulded by a sculptor next to a pool of cool blue - all set against the backdrop of a palm-tree-speckled private Mediterranean beach.

And Andreas Limbourides didn't stop when he built ours. Along came more and more, stretching along the coastline of Ayia Thekla like a string of pearls in the baking sun.

Arrive at this place after a three-and a half hour flight, and just one look at it is enough to start the chill-out process long before the first cork has been popped.

Even our children, Leo, 14, and 11-year-old Chloe were impressed by the wow factor as they toured the three- bedroom villa's spacious rooms before plunging into the square of inviting shimmering blue outside.

Paradise

And the combination of pool plus a beach with excellent snorkelling less than 30 seconds away was enough to make it difficult to winkle them out of their paradise.

If that wasn't enough, the fact that Andreas - who lives at the end of his string of pearls - had the foresight to install wi-fi made it home from home as the kids were able to relax poolside and exercise bragging rights to mates back home from the laptop in the shade.

In the distance, as we lapped up the peaceful surroundings, lay the skyline of clubbers' paradise Ayia Napa - but we were well away from it in our family haven.

And we had the perfect base to explore the island home of the goddess Aphrodite.

One thought-provoking trip we took - on the advice of Andreas - was to the closed "ghost town" of Famagusta. He used to live there and was forced to flee his home, along with thousands of Greek Cypriots, when the 1974 invasion by Turkey split the island.

Now it remains empty and frozen in time - and across the border, through binoculars, you can see shell holes in buildings just as they were left more than 30 years ago.

Cyprus is certainly the place to escape an English summer. The sunshine is wall to wall, so much so that locals we came across struggled to remember the last time they had to run for shelter from the rain.

In fact the island averages only 40 days of rain a year, whereas at home we only seem to get 40 days of sun.

Temperatures stay in the high 30s in summer so mid-20s spring is the best time to go. If the heat gets too much, a couple of hours' drive sees you up in the cooler air and breathtaking scenery of the Troodos mountains.

The highest peak at 1,592m is Mount Olympus and in the winter it manages to become a small ski resort - though it's hard to imagine any snow ever surviving long on this baked island.

Want more bustle? Then try Nicosia. It's the world's last divided capital city, sliced through the middle by the Green Line - a frontier complete with barbed wire and watch towers - which separates Turkish northern Cyprus and the Republic of Cyprus.

You can take a walk alongside the "line" before strolling the Old City's streets and sampling Cypriot coffee at one of the many lovely little cafes that abound here.

A long open-air lunch is a must and you'll be spoiled for choice. There are loads of great restaurants and tavernas with tables outside selling mouth-watering kebabs and tasty Greek salads at very reasonable prices.

We found good places to eat wherever we went in Cyprus, but the family's favourite was undoubtedly the family-run Kalamaras in the nearby village of Sotira. The food was consistently brilliant and, because it was a backwaters place frequented mainly by locals, the atmosphere was wonderful.

You can feed a family of four for just over £30. And beer is, inevitably, cheaper than in Britain.

Nights were mainly spent eating outside in the balmy Kalamaras garden before retreating to the air-conditioned villa for board and card games followed by a good night's sleep in very comfortable beds.

We even plucked up the courage to go into Ayia Napa - but only in the hours of daylight of course.

Despite its reputation as a rowdy club resort, there are plenty of decent restaurants on offer in the town. And it's fairly quiet at lunchtime.

Peaceful

But, like Cinderella, it's wise to leave the ball well before midnight when any family atmosphere the resort might have goes pumpkin-shaped.

The clubbers' presence - and the huge amounts of money they spend - is what has turned Ayia Napa from a quiet fishing village to what it is today.

But the town's authorities want to change its image to attract more families and the police have cracked down on opening hours and the inevitable fisticuffs that arise from a few too many lagers.

Back in Ayia Thekla, however, all was peaceful night after night after night - until the first splash of the morning in the glass-smooth water. The white way to start the day.

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