Somehow all the planning and preparation of booking flights and arranging car hire and is worth the effort when the aircraft touches down at your destination airport several hours away from your regular comfort zone. Cyprus is a firm favourite with many British people who have either made the island a permanent or second home – and the destination of choice when travelling independently to enjoy a well earned break.

Arriving safely at your rental villa or apartment to ‘rest and play’ is the sign of a job well done. You can certainly reassure yourself that doing business with Hestia Holidays is the sign of making an informed choice when searching for exemplary service and an unrivalled portfolio of luxury villas and apartments in Cyprus.

Of course, the wise traveller will also plan for the unexpected. Although everything may go to plan, things can and do go wrong – often through no fault of our own. We have no personal control over aircraft delays or baggage going astray. Having suitable travel insurance is therefore a ‘must’. Not only does it provide peace of mind – it also ensures that you get suitable help when and where you need it.

Planning for the unexpected includes knowing where to go and who to contact if and when an emergency occurs. In the UK there is the universally recognised ‘999’ telephone number to reach the Police, Fire and Ambulance emergency services. If you are staying in Cyprus, the same type of service exists – although the telephone numbers are different – and worth remembering. Cyprus uses ‘199’ or the internationally recognised ‘112’.

Obviously, emergencies come in many forms – and the organisation you need to contact will vary. The emergency you face may not necessarily be life-threatening but still in need of urgent attention. For example, you may wish to report a fault to the Water, Telephone or Electricity authorities – or perhaps find an overnight pharmacy open outside normal trading hours.

Here are a few useful contact telephone numbers in Cyprus.

Divisional Police Headquarters;
22 802020 – Nicosia
25 805050 – Limassol
24 804040 – Larnaca
26 806060 – Paphos
23 803030 – Famagusta

Telecommunications – CYTA;
Customer Call Centre – 132
Directory Inquiries: 118192
Faults Report: 80000197

Electricity – E.A.C;
90 901 420 (Electricity Faults)

Water Supply;
90 901 430 (General – Faults Report)

24 hr Pharmacies;
Famagusta: 90 901403
Larnaca: 90 901404
Nicosia: 90 901402
Limassol: 90 901405
Paphos: 90 901406

A comprehensive list can be found at the Cyprus government website:
www.cyprus.gov.cy/portal/portal.nsf/dmlepn_exp_en?OpenForm

Recent moves by the European Union have placed strict controls on what the mobile phone companies can charge for making and receiving calls between countries – and price reductions have now come into force for what are known as ‘roaming’ calls. This is when a call takes place away from the country where the phone account is registered. Although the technology is brilliant, it’s wise to be mindful of the cost!

For those using the Cyprus mobile phone service Cytamobile-Vodafone, life is not so complicated – and is arguably a much better deal, price-wise, than other parts of Europe. If you are a permanent resident or a visitor to Cyprus and want to keep in touch with the folks back home, an excellent investment is the ‘so easy’ Connection Pack. You can use your existing (UK) mobile phone – as long as it is Vodafone compatible or has been unlocked – and simply install the new SIM card provided in the joining pack. This comes in the form of a CD-type package with full instructions on how to connect to the Cytamobile-Vodafone mobile service. The cost of £15 Cyprus Pounds includes £3 worth of airtime. Once connected, you’re ready to make calls to landlines and mobile numbers within Cyprus or in the UK – or anywhere else for that matter.

If you are a regular traveller to Cyprus, you can do what many others do – they have a mobile phone dedicated to the Cyprus number and use it whenever they return. As with other pay-as-you-go schemes, there are no contracts, no monthly subscriptions and no monthly bills to worry about. Using your phone to access the information, just keep a regular check on the remaining credit and before it runs out you can top-up your account anytime, anywhere, by simply buying the soeasy Top-Up Cards widely available in various retail outlets including the ‘periptero’ (kiosks) and supermarkets across the island. It really is as simple as that!

so easy Top-Up Cards are available in three different values: £5,00 (€8,54), £10,00 (€17,09), and £20,00 (€34,17), all of which have a validity period of 12 months. If you top-up using the £10,00 (€17,09) and £20,00 (€34,17) Top-Up Cards you also get a bonus. The bigger the top-up, the bigger the bonus!

With soeasy pay as you go you can enjoy a full range of services including – National and International Calls; Calling Line Identification Permission (CLIP); Calling Line Identification Restriction (CLIR) – per call; Call Waiting; Call Hold; Call transfer (only to voicemail); Call Barring; Voicemail; SMS Messages; MMS Messages; Call me Back; Missed call notification; Mobile Internet; Fax Calls.

ALL incoming calls, regardless of their origin, are free. There is a comprehensive description of the tariffs for the various services at the website:
www.cytamobile-vodafone.com

In common with other mobile phone services, costs will vary according to the time of day, the length of the call made and the service being used. That said, comparable costs are much lower in Cyprus than in the UK. It is perhaps for this reason that many people in Cyprus appear to be connected to their mobile phone for much of the time. Note that it is illegal to use a phone whilst driving – and police are liable to take a dim view of anyone risking the safety of themselves and others if caught doing this.

Otherwise, being connected is literally ‘so easy’!

Thankfully perhaps, those days are definitely a thing of the past. The advent of the Channel Tunnel and Eurostar gets us to France or Belgium at breakneck speed. We don’t even need tickets before travelling to an airport – online bookings for low cost airlines mean we can simply turn up, take off and within a few hours be soaking up the sunset over Aphrodite’s Rock near Paphos on the beautiful sub-tropical island of Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean. A journey of a few thousand miles in time and space takes us to a different world of luxury in our rented villa or apartment – relaxing by the pool or driving the hire car we booked online with Hestia Holidays to a romantic beachside restaurant to enjoy a Cyprus Meze or freshly-caught fish!

Although you may be worlds apart from where you began your epic journey to this land of ancient monuments and Blue Flag beaches, absence can make the heart grow fonder. The urge to phone home can be hard to resist, if only to commiserate with friends and family on their plight of living through yet another deluge as the heavens decide to open up. Of course, you can do the phoning yourself – but if your loved ones want to show they miss you and care, they can call you!

Going back to those bygone days, at one time it wasn’t so easy to either phone home – or get home to phone you. However, progress is a wonderful thing and these days you can forego the pleasure of having to book a call via the international operator – and simply make the call yourself. If friends and family want to phone you they can do so directly through normal BT or other landline services. If so, they will probably be paying more than they need to.

In much the same way that low cost flights have given people greater freedom of choice about where they go and what they do, the advent of cheap international phone calls using a simple access number from a normal landline helps more people keep in touch with each other than ever before. This service offers a cheap, no-frills, easy to use way of contacting friends, family – or anyone else for that matter – outside the UK.

All you need to do is dial a dedicated ‘access number’ – 0844 5524506, from a UK landline, followed by the International number in full. For the low cost of just 5p per minute this service can be used for calling landlines and mobiles in Cyprus and also most other countries including Australia, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Portugal, Thailand and the USA.

The beauty of this service is in its very simplicity – no contract, no account, no credit card. All you do is dial abroad for the price of a UK call and save money!

Now there’s no excuse for the folks back home to take a little time out and call you!

To download the image below; right-click and ‘save picture as’, will allow you to save the image onto your computer – you can easily print this to leave by the phone, you can email or print and post or give to your friends, family, colleagues or associates…