Promised the Mrs I would take her away for Valentines for a relaxing break and we always go away for my birthday which is a few days after, problem was come Valentines day nothing was booked yet and you can imagine I was not looking good, also we’d booked the following week off so there was only Friday, Sat or Sun to fly out, anyway, went online and checked out a few site such as lastminute.com, Cheapholidays.co.uk and so on, the prices was out of budget for the sort of location we were looking for.

Decided to jump on telextholidays and was hit with hundreds of holidays within my budget and departure date, came across some good prices for tenerife, fortaventura, eygpt, gran ganeries but decided to go for Cyprus as we found a hotel that had brilliant reviews.

Phoned up the holiday company on the Friday (holiday experts 0161 736 4198) and spoke to Trevor Dixon and he was fantastic, booked the holiday over the phone with no fuss and he made sure everything was sorted.

Obviously once you have booked your holiday over the phone you worry things may go wrong, like the flight not booked, the hotel is bad, the flight is delayed etc, but everything went like clockwork. Received email document from Trevor confirming holiday, he also phoned me back to make sure all was okay, if I had any questions etc.

Due to fly out on Sun from manchester airport for 11.05am we got to check in for around 8.00am and there was the tickets and vouchers. Checked in 20kg cases and even got to pick our seating (That maybe because we checked in 3 hours before)

Flight was 4 and a half hours, landed in Cyprus 3.40 (GMT) on time, only down fall it was raining and cold, was not bothered though as the break was well needed and anything to get away for a few days.

Got to the hotel, checked in nice and easy, staff were polite, hotel was clean, room was fresh and warm and that suits me, weather still rough at this stage, in fact the 1st 2 days the weather was the worst part of the holiday, locals explained it was freak weather and should clear up after the storm comes, guess what…. it did! and boy did we have a great time, hired a car and went to places such as pisourri, The port, Limmasol, Coral Bay, The Habour and other places and was very theraputic.

Went to a nigth club in Paphos called FLAIRS played some banging tunes from RnB to Soulful house and met alot of people from england now living there and they were wonderful, we were treated like royality by Beckie and her friends, met some soliders based in afganistan and got drunk.

One thing I will say about Paphos at this time of year… You get a lot of old folks out there, whatever you do don’t let it put you off, they are great a barrel of laughs and I tell you what some of the old folks would give us a run for our money,

In a nutshell, if you are looking for a quick get away with some sun but very relaxing, I certainly recommend Pahos, Cyprus - Aloe Hotel, food is resonable, it’s got indoor and outdoor swimming pool, suana, gym, internet access (although expensive) and the rooms simple and clean.

Dont go at this time of year if you are looking for a crazy break. Paphos comes alive in June!!!