After a long, dark winter, many Brits will be keen to see more sun at home and abroad this spring and summer. If its sunshine hours you’re after, there is one European capital that sits head and shoulders above all others. It has been revealed that the city with the most sunlight hours annually is Nicosia in Cyprus, with an astonishing 3,388 each year - according to travel booking site Omio.
Cyprus’s capital has a huge 358 more sunshine hours every year than the next brightest city, Valletta in Malta. Making up the rest of the top five were Lisbon in Portugal with 2,838 sunshine hours a year, Athens in Greece with 2,773 and the Spanish capital Madrid with 2,712. The list was compiled by travel booking site Omio using data from Weather and Climate and, perhaps unsurprisingly, does not feature London in the top 20, as it receives an average of 1,675 sunshine hours every year and ranks 35th. However, Londoners do enjoy more sunshine than others, including Prague, Amsterdam and Dublin.
The sunniest European capital is actually two cities in one. Nicosia is the capital of the Republic of Cyprus, recognised internationally and a member of the EU, while it holds the same distinction for Northern Cyprus, a country only recognised by Turkey.
This divide exists because of an invasion by Turkey in 1974, which was prompted by a Greek Cypriot nationalist coup.
Greek Cypriots wanted the island to unite with Greece following independence from Britain in 1960, but Turkey established the Northern Cyprus state in 1983 for Turkish Cypriots, to widespread international condemnation.
The city itself is beautiful, walkable and, as we know, very sunny, with all major tourist attractions within easy walking distance of each other.
There is Ledra Street, the main shopping strip in Nicosia, which is notable for its history. It was infamous in the 1950s for Cypriot nationalist attacks on British military personnel and was nicknamed “Murder Mile”.
Just off this street is Shacolas Tower, which tourists can climb to the top of and find a small museum about Nicosia while taking in views of the city.
There are also city walls and gates marking the older districts, which form a perfectly circular wall.
Built by the Venetians in the 1500s, the walls are still intact, while the old moat that once ran round them now features a running track, gardens and sculpture park.
It is easy to cross the Green Line between the Republic of Cyprus and Northern Cyprus, across which the city sits, unless you entered Cyprus via Turkey.
In that case, it is possible you will not be allowed to pass.
