When we decided to move to Cyprus it didn’t take us long to decide that we wanted to live on the east coast, at first however we found it hard to convince the property companies of that! We went to a big property show in the UK and we found time and time again that sales agents would either try and sway us towards the west coast or not even deal with the east at all, every company it seemed assumed we wanted to live in Paphos.
One company even told us that the East was no good to live in as it ‘closes’ in the winter…… it closes? Completely? What a stupid statement – surely people live there all year!
What they meant was parts of it close and apparently they were under the impression that we wanted to live like tourists 365 days a year.
Protaras in particular does ‘almost’ close for the winter, the main ‘strip’ I believe only has one bar open all year. Venture away from that street though and you will find a couple of places open. Agia Napa has slightly more places open all year round but caters for a different clientèle during the winter months with most of its visitors coming from Scandinavian countries.
We chose not to live in either of those places, not because they ‘close’ though, because we didn’t want to be surrounded by tourists day and night for 6 months a year. We live not far away though which gives us the option to go there when we choose and escape when it all becomes an overload of quad bikes, ‘special offer day trips’ and sunburnt Brits.
It often comes as a surprise to people that we don’t go out every night and to the beach every day. Once I was asked how we got our washing done like there was some kind of room service – they seemed surprised when I told them we had a washing machine and I did it just like they did in the UK!
We are currently in a lovely time of year to live in Cyprus – the ‘calm before the storm’ the days are longer and warmer and these places are still relatively quiet (well, if you ignore the mad refurbishment and tidy up operations going on everywhere!) This is the ideal time to get out before the masses arrive and enjoy the lovely island at peace.
