ALECOS MICHAELIDES may be an old man, but his grip on my arm is as firm as a teenager’s. “Look here,” he murmurs, his white hair glinting in the sun, “bougainvillea, beautiful? Hibiscus, beautiful? Cottages, whitewashed, beautiful?” I nod repeatedly as we take a leisurely stroll around the grounds of the Anassa hotel for the second time.

My first lap was with the hotel’s general manager, Jan Verduyn, but he is now relegated to bobbing around in the background as the venerable Mr Michaelides points out the beauties of his finest hotel.

The Anassa, tucked away on the western edge of the island, close to the unspoilt Akamas peninsula, set a new standard for Cypriot hotels when it opened in 1998: a coolly elegant, defiantly upmarket alternative to the interchangeable high-rises that previously dominated the country’s coastline.

Over the intervening years a clutch of similarly top-end resorts has opened: the Columbia Beach, the Elysium, the Thalassa — the world’s first all-butler hotel. And still they come: the latest contender is the Aphrodite Hills, a massive development of villas, a 290-room InterContinental hotel, golf courses and a new-build “Cypriot village” with shops and tavernas, which opened this week.

The island itself is not, at first sight, the most obvious candidate for such top-end properties. Much of the coastal landscape is bleak and arid and the big resorts, such as Limassol and Paphos, are mainstream, bucket-and-spade destinations with little indigenous charm. But top-end Cypriot hotels operate in a similar manner to those in the Maldives or Dubai — they are a destination in themselves, constantly competing to offer something different.

“Cyprus has become the testing ground for hotels in Dubai,” Jorgen Jorgensen, general manager of the Aphrodite Hills, told me proudly over lunch, “and there is a whole new generation of resorts on the island that are at the cutting-edge of hotel development. Cyprus had the first infinity pools, the first thalassotherapy spas in Europe; as a destination it leads the way.”

Strolling around the Retreat, the spa at the Aphrodite Hills, it’s clear that he’s not exaggerating. Built to a traditional Graeco-Roman style, it is truly state of the art; thermal sequencing rooms of ice and steam and four hydrotherapy rooms in addition to nine treatment rooms, rooftop pool and sprung-floor studios. Outside, the gardens and courtyard are filled with citrus trees and flowering plants to aid relaxation, pairs of sunbeds tucked away in secluded corners.

The Retreat was famous even before it was completed: Kelly Holmes and company took up residence during the Olympics, before parts of the building were finished.

Suddenly, Cyprus has become the spa destination of the Med: Cypriot spas combine the indulgence and pampering of new-style hotel spas with the more medically orientated therapies and programmes of traditional health resorts — and you can opt for either or both.

“I was really impressed by how advanced the spas were when I came to the island,” said Nina Raith, the Swedish spa manager at the Columbia Beach Resort. “I think it’s partly because of the attitude of Cypriot women; they really take care of themselves. All my female colleagues have their own masseuse or beautician that they go to regularly. It’s a cultural thing, a specific mentality and it translates into the spas that are built here.”

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In Cyprus, a thalassotherapy spa doesn’t mean somewhere that has stuck a couple of seaweed wraps on its treatment menu. Book into Le Meridien, which boasts the island’s biggest spa (3,000 square metres of health-infused space) and the true meaning of thalassotherapy is unveiled: four outdoor pools, all different, with a set amount of time in each.

Floating in the magnesium pool may sting a bit, but the chance to drift around in the dead sea pool is an unmissable experience; the high salt content creates such buoyancy that you feel totally weightless.

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