Elysium Hotel, Paphos, Cyprus

Inspired by Byzantine architecture complete with arches and columns, and with a rich use of local honey-coloured stone, marble and wood, the Elysium manages to be both palatial and welcoming.

Elysium offers a combination of accommodation options including lavish rooms, family maisonettes, suites and Villas with private pool

Guests’ dining experience is considered to be a journey of tastes. There are five restaurants, two bars, the Mare Nostrum Pool Bar and the Astria Bar, and the beautiful, newly refurbished Café Occidental. Locals in the know will tell you it’s a lovely indulgence to take afternoon tea with pastries or an evening cocktail in this elegant bar-cum-informal dining space presented in a new décor inspired by the sea.

Ristorante Bacco, serves Tuscan-inspired cuisine and is designed to resemble a wine cellar with a vaulted ceiling. A glass-fronted wine-storage cellar tempts with serious vintages, with price tags to match.

Mediterranean and Cypriot dishes are served in the open-air Mediterraneo Taverna (don’t miss the theatre of its open kitchen and the chefs’ excellent choices from fresh sea food to traditional Cypriot dishes like Moussaka), while sushi and Pan-Asian cuisine is the specialty of O’Shin and international a la carte cuisine is served in the refurbished Epicurean restaurant.

Breakfast is served buffet-style in the Lemonia Piazza with a seemingly endless selection of fruit and cereals which can be enjoyed on the terrace.

A library and a seriously stylish wellness centre offering ESPA beauty treatments, swimming and a gym. Within the grounds are further multi-level pools, tennis courts and a children’s play area. A Byzantine-style chapel is popular for weddings.