Chloe's House, Pano Akourdalia, Pafos district... with your dog

Traditional oven between our apartment (left) and the main house

I was looking for a picturesque, traditional holiday apartment for a weekend away. Searching on the Cyprus Agrotourism website: (http://www.agrotourism.com.cy), which lists a large number of lovely looking houses, studios, apartments, even spas, in all areas of Cyprus, I found a suitable looking place in a village called Pano Akourdalia, in the Pafos district. A little more searching and I got the phone number of the house owner, and called to ask if I could bring Sage too.

Chloe Stylianou, who rents out the house and studio apartment, immediately put my mind at rest about bringing Sage. We stayed in the smaller apartment, which admittedly does not have the beautiful furniture, traditional wooden four-poster beds with hand woven bed covers, nor traditional Cypriot pottery that the 2 bedroom house does.... but she allowed us all in to the house to have a nose while we were there, and invited us to come and stay there in the future.

Breakfast outside the apartment

Our apartment was very basic. The furniture was old and quirky, in quite an interesting way, although not exactly what you'd consider 'traditional' (for example, matching faded cameo panels on the white wardrobe and matching bed head). Dotted around the terrace were a variety of kitchen containers, now housing slightly sad looking geraniums. Below the terrace was a field of dense vegetation. We had a spider above the bed on the first night that could pretty fairly be called a tarantula - which meant that it took me half an hour to get the courage to go to the bathroom in the night, checking every wall and floor surface...

But in case this all sounds negative, I actually had lovely time. The village was peaceful. The views from the terrace were lovely. The surrounding mountains were beautiful - the drive up to the village from Pafos was spectacular. Built in 1900, and tastefully restored in 1999, the main house looked gorgeous. It was great not to worry too much about tidying up after ourselves (I did sweep, but Sage leaves a trail of black hairs and mud wherever she goes). It really felt like an escape to a place that was comfortable, and was ours.

The apartment had a double bed, a kitchenette, and bathroom. The terrace was shared with residents of the house next door. Sage particularly liked all the outdoor space, the terrace, the field, all enclosed with a sturdy gate. We paid 50E per night for the apartment; the house costs 80E per night and sleeps up to 5 persons.

The village was a bit of a disappointment. We arrived fancying a glass of wine on the terrace, to enjoy the evening light over the fields - but there was no shop in the village. There was nothing much of anything in the village. It seems these villages now survive only for this kind of agrotourism, with very few people managing to live there permanently. There was something called a "Herb Garden" (http://kypros.org/Projects/Laona/), which looked intriguing, with a kafeneio inside - but it was closed whenever we went by.

On the other hand, I loved the area more generally. The nearby village of Kathikas had some lovely places to eat (I'll be writing about that later), the town of Polis was quite inviting, the Akamas Peninsular was fantastic (again, for a later post), the Avakas Gorge was amazing - and all this was reachable within a 15-20 minute drive. After the dry, flat plains of much of southern Cyprus, and the busy, sprawling towns, it was just lovely to be out on winding mountain roads, enjoying the small villages, trees and fields and green spaces of this part of the island. I absolutely recommend it for anyone who likes being out and about in nature, especially if you have a dog.

Sage at Avakas Gorge