Peppered with quaint villages and archaeological sites, connected with impeccable, right-hand-drive roads, Mark Micallef finds Cyprus can be a great destination for an easygoing driving holiday.

When you think of Cyprus, you’re likely to picture sun and sea, possibly museums, but mostly plenty of precariously-sunburnt tourists flocking the coastal towns. Like every cliché this one is not wholly accurate.

Cyprus is an intriguing mix of western and eastern influences. A fellow member of the EU, Cyprus is set squarely in the West in terms of its economic infrastructure and its current cultural outlook.

However, its history and the inevitable entanglement with Greece, Turkey and the Middle-East gives this island a unique character that is finally being utilised effectively, following a few decades of developing a touristic product that caters for the not-so- discerning tastes of mass tourism from Britain.

These are the two sides of Cyprus that present themselves to you as a tourist. If you’re looking for the sun, the sand and the nightlife, head for the seaside tourist hubs of Agia Napa, Lemesol (Limasol) or Paphos. There’s plenty on offer there for you.

If you’re a tad more adventurous, there’s a plethora of villages, rolling countryside, mountains and archaeological gems that you can savour at leisure, following your whims.

What’s more, if you’re new to driving abroad and are a bit apprehensive about it, this is the ideal place for trying out such a holiday.

The roads are very good (not only by Maltese standards), motorists are largely civilised and, more importantly, thanks to the generous population-to-geography proportion (3,571 square miles to 867,600 people as opposed to Malta’s 122 square miles to almost half a million people), you can drive for an hour on the highway and only come across a dozen cars.

I spent four days in all, accompanied by my hassle-averse but discerning wife and a trusty Mazda 2 – a relatively good deal at €250 for the full stay, including fully comprehensive insurance.

We headed first for the Troödos Mountains, a range, roughly in the middle of the island, which offers gorgeous scenery and a melange of quaint perched villages.

The road from the capital to the mountain is very straightforward. We had a GPS but we could have got by on the signage alone for most of the journey – everywhere is marked clearly.

The weather was a bit grey as we drove up the mountains, but when the sun was out it revealed a beautiful tapestry of brown, bronze, gold and green.

Our favourite village was by far Kakopetria, a picturesque little place, set in the orchards of the Solea valley some 700 metres above sea level. It’s a perfect stop on the way to the mountain which gives you an early walking break.

The sound of the water flowing from a small river flowing through the old centre makes meandering around the village’s cobbled streets all the more relaxing. I couldn’t help venturing into the side alleys (most probably private property) to get a closer look at the period houses, built mostly of mud and brick, which a small group of lucky villagers call home.

Most houses have their own private patch of woods, usually overlooking a beautiful view.

Take time to visit the water mills and the surrounding forest which has some excellent walking trails, but mostly make sure you stop to for a bite and take in the vista from The Mill – a five-storey wooden restaurant built on the side of a hill, offering a magnificent view of the whole village.

If you’re the checklist kind of visitor, you are very likely to miss great opportunities to savour some of the hidden trails or the quirkier options offered by the mountains: random gems like the Psilo Dendro – a fully-fledged trout farm-cum-restaurant nestled in the woods.

The trout (not a personal favourite of mine anyway) was nothing to write home about but we just couldn’t resist the idea of eating at a fish farm perched in the mountains.

We spent half our stay in the south mostly hopping from one village to the next. Unfortunately we did not have enough time to dedicate to archaeological sites, of which Cyprus boasts an impressive list.

However, the Tombs of the Kings in Paphos are particularly worth seeing. No kings were actually buried here – the name stems from the opulence of the tombs, which belonged to 100 aristocrats who lived and died in Paphos beginning in the 3rd century BC.

The catacombs are large chambers carved out of solid rock, some featuring Doric pillars and frescoed walls. Some tombs are reached through stairs that lead into sunken courts surrounded by Doric columns carved from the rock.

We dedicated the second half of our short stay to the north, technically another country – The Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

You actually require a visa to visit but it’s no big deal; with all the effort Turkish-Cypriots put into emphasising that the border is the gate to a constitutionally-distinct territory, the border crossing is really quite a quaint experience.

We showed up at a border checkpoint in Nicosia, I got out of the car and presented the customs officer with both my passport and my wife’s.

The officer took a good look at me and my passport photo, asked me (with a grave tone) if it was my first time in the north and then proceeded to stamp both our visas, without having so much as glanced at my wife, who stayed in the car five to 10 metres from where the officer was standing.

Once through the border, you get to drive through the buffer zone, a mile-long no-man’s land, imposed by the UN following the Turkish invasion in 1974.

The Turkish side feels different straight away. It’s hard to put your finger on it, if you don’t count exaggerated displays of national pride, like the massive flags that adorn every other road or banners at the border saying: ‘How happy to say I’m a Turk’.

The landscape is similar, but the coast is less developed, in a positive sense.

We headed for Keryneia, about an hour’s drive from Nicosia.

It’s a picturesque port town that boasts a (probably) Byzantine castle. This is a place definitively worth stopping in, but if you’re tight for time the best attractions are further east.

If, on the other hand, you have time on your hands, Keryneia also boasts a mountain range which is worth visiting, for the vista if for nothing else.

Another known spot is the walled city of Famagusta or Ammochostos – almost every town in the north has both Turkish and Greek-Cypriot names).

By far, the most impressive part of the north is the Karpas (Kırpasa) Peninsula – the pointy tail of Cyprus’s fish-like geography, which points longingly to the east.

This is by far the most rural and least developed part of Cyprus we came across. At this time of year, the countryside is spectacular, dotted by small villages frozen in time, fields carpeted with flowers and (if you’re lucky) the occasional wild donkey, which can still be seen roaming fields and beaches in some parts of the north.

This is the destination for those looking for drives and walks in untouched countryside and pristine beaches. It can be the perfect highlight at the end of your stay in Cyprus or the place you’ll be bound to return to if you make it your first stop.

Tips for your Cypriot stay

Getting around: Avoid making rigid plans, head for a particular area and mark on the map a few more places of interest that you plan to visit – this will allow you to be flexible and make the most of the easygoing nature of this type of holiday.

Rental car: Book in advance and if you are staying in Nicosia, collect your car there instead of the airport. There are good shuttles and you will avoid paying the airport surcharge and the hassle of charting your way to the hotel right after a flight. Also don’t accept the fuel charge, which allows you to return the car on empty. Agree with your agent to return the car with the same amount of fuel you left with and get the agency fee refunded. The fuel charge invariably includes a surcharge.

Accommodation: We stayed at the Hilton in Nicosia, a very good hotel which provides a good base in the centre of the city. Had we stayed longer I would have explored the possibility of staying for a day or two in a converted B&B in one of the villages near the Troödos Mountains, and used that as a base to explore the south.

Driving into the north: Be aware that the insurance for a rental car picked up from southern Cyprus does not cover you for an accident in the north. When you cross the border, you are asked to pay €20 for separate insurance, however, locals do not have much faith in this and the paper you are given does seem quite random. That said, the sparse traffic means there is less chance of an accident.

Nightlife and Easter

Unless you’re seriously into exploring the Orthodox religious rituals, try to avoid a trip that coincides with Easter celebrations on the island: most bars, restaurants and clubs are closed for almost three days.

We found little choice for evening entertainment in Nicosia on Friday and Saturday. That is not true for the rest of the year though. From a ghost town, the old Nicosia centre started buzzing again on Sunday evening, with dozens of cafés and bars to choose from, and even a butcher and veggie shop – in case, you are missing something at 10.30 p.m.

The old town is a bit of a works in progress, with many renovation projects and conversions taking place, but the direction they have taken is definitely the right one: you will find a good choice of hip haunts, nestled in the most unexpected little corners.

The best thing about the nightlife is that the new joints have a distinctive, vernacular feel to them.

Mark Micallef travelled to Cyprus courtesy of Emirates. Emirates Airline flies between Malta and Cyprus daily. For more details call 2557 7255 or visit www.emirates.com.mt.