Summer 2011: Holiday tips for Cyprus

- Wine, music and dance: the best festivals on Cyprus
- New design: the refurbished SENTIDO hotel on Cyprus presents new offers

Oberursel, June 2011 – For culture fans, summer is an especially attractive holiday time on Cyprus thanks to countless traditional festivals. The Commandaria festival, for example, which is dedicated to the local and oldest wine, the Commandaria, can be recommended. Or the Wine Festival in Limassol in September, which is a homage to the wine god Dionysus and the goddess of love and beauty Aphrodite. At this year’s Aphrodite Festival in Paphos the opera ‘The Tales of Hoffmann’ by the well-known composer Jacques Offenbach (who is regarded as the founder of the modern operetta) will be performed.

The accommodation tip for holidaymakers on Cyprus is the newly-renovated design hotel SENTIDO Kouzalis Beach Hotel. This small beach hotel has just re-opened its à-la-carte restaurant as a specialist restaurant for Cypriot cuisine. Thanks to a new lighting design with toned-down interior and exterior lighting, the property is now particularly atmospheric.

From the SENTIDO Kouzalis Beach Hotel it is just four kilometres to the town of Protaras. Larnaca airport is 45km away.

SENTIDO Hotels & Resorts can be booked on the internet portal www.sentidohotels.com or through tour operators such as Thomas Cook and Neckermann Reisen.

Background information about the festivals:
The world’s oldest wine, the Commandaria, is celebrated in the Commandaria Festival in 14 villages in the Troodos mountains at the end of July. The dessert wine has a rich history stretching back to ancient Greece. The villagers celebrate with Cypriot and Greek music and dances. Visitors can view the production process and can taste the wine, accompanied by local dishes.

The Limassol Wine Festival takes places from 8 - 18 September 2011 and attracts about 15,000 visitors. Local wine producers offer free tasting of their wines. Traditional music and dances create a unique atmosphere. During the festival, men wearing traditional costumes lead visitors into giant tubs filled with grapes in order to perform the traditional wine dance together. The festival was held for the first time in 1961. It is designed to pay tribute to the long-standing tradition of wine production and is dedicated to Dionysus, the god of wine, and Aphrodite, the goddess of love and beauty. The symbol of the festival is Vraka, a giant man who towers over the entrance and who welcomes visitors with the greeting: “Drink wine to be healthy.”

The Aphrodite Festival in Paphos takes place in the harbour’s medieval castle from 2-4 September 2011. This year Jacques Offenbach’s operetta ‘The Tales of Hoffmann’ will be performed on three evenings.

SENTIDO Hotels & Resorts is an international hotel brand founded in 2009. It unites 30 hotels & resorts in Egypt, Greece, Kenya, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey and Cyprus, as well as two cruise ships on the Nile. The hotels are all in the Four-Star-Plus segment, located near beaches and operated under franchise contracts. The concept is aimed toward discerning singles, couples and small families, who, besides quality and service, also value a health-conscious cuisine and wellness facilities along with a wide-ranging sports and entertainment programme. The SENTIDO Entertainment Concept, introduced in 2010, was developed by international experts and comprises three modules: “Body & Mind”, “Family & Kids” and “Culture & Entertainment”. Travellers can book the hotels directly online through the internet portal www.sentidohotels.com. In addition, the hotels are offered in all renowned international tour operator programmes. The company is part of the Thomas Cook tourism group. The SENTIDO head office is in Oberursel, near Frankfurt am Main, Germany.