Pano Lefkara is a hilltop village in Cyprus known for silver and lace-making. The village is popular with tourists who usually visit for a day trip, but it’s well worth spending a few days here. Just a 30-minute drive into the hills from Larnaca airport (or an hour from Nicosia), the Agora Hotel offers an ideal base to explore the town and local area.
You’ll find pretty stone-built houses with blue doors, a 14th-century church and plenty of traditional shops where locals will welcome you in to watch traditional lace-making over strong Cypriot coffee. One of the reasons the Agora’s owners, Aleksander Eng and Emilie Green Novel, chose to build their hotel in Lefkara is due to the proximity of the Cyprus mountains, which offer excellent – and seemingly almost undiscovered – options for cycling: steep mountain roads, but also quiet pine forests and winding trails up hills and through olive groves. There’s more than a nod to Soho House here – the Agora is the sort of boutique hotel that attracts ‘creative’ types.
Co-working is encouraged in the library, and several tables surround the pool where guests can mingle over cocktails or coffee. Owners Aleks and Em conceived the hotel as a place to meet and connect with other like-minded travellers looking for an escape from the stresses and demands of everyday life, and as a getaway for couples to spend quality time together. So although the interiors are achingly chic and Instagrammable, this isn’t a place you’ll .