Anassa

Most of Cyprus that markets itself abroad crowds the south coast. Anassa sits at the other end, on a green shoulder of land above Chrysochous Bay, where the island runs out into the Akamas and the road more or less gives up. The hotel is built as a village rather than a block. White villas with terracotta roofs step down the hillside around a square and a small Byzantine-style chapel, cobbled lanes between them, the sea in front of you the whole way. There are 166 rooms and suites, with a handful of residences that keep their own pools, though the count matters less than the walk to your door, past fountains and olive trees with the bay opening below. Ask for a room on the seaward side and leave the shutters open.

The table

Anassa runs several kitchens and takes them seriously. Helios is the formal room, French-Mediterranean, tables laid under olive trees on a terrace above the water, now and then a harpist in the corner. Amphora carries the everyday, a grill that leans on seafood and Cypriot meat. Basiliko cooks closer to the island itself, and Pelagos is the taverna by the pool where lunch tends to run long. The bars, Armonia and Meltemi, fill the hours between. For a hotel this size the cooking holds its line.

Why it's in VANE

This is a large hotel, family-minded and full in August, and we will not pretend it is a hideaway. What earns its place is the ground it stands on and the restraint it shows. The Akamas behind it is one of the last undeveloped stretches of the Mediterranean, protected and empty, with the Baths of Aphrodite a walk up the coast. The Thalassa spa, built around a Roman pool, is among the best in this corner of the sea. A Leading Hotels of the World member, and on the evidence it belongs there.