Cyprus fits in a week. Book the water first.
Which Blue Lagoon boat stops long enough to swim. What a jeep into the Akamas costs. Whether the Troodos villages beat a second beach day. Reviews of every tour you can book on the island.
★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · Cape Greco Blue Lagoon and Ayia Napa Tour
A lagoon with no road, the mountain villages, a gorge and the Zenobia.
The four bookings a first week in Cyprus hangs off. What each one costs, and what the people who took it say.
01The boat dayBlue Lagoon (Akamas) Bus & Boat Tour with Water Slide from PaphosOver the headland by bus, then the lagoon itself from Latchi. The water slide is why half the deck is under twelve.
02The mountain day100% Cyprus – Tour to Troodos mountains and villages (From Paphos)Painted churches, a village lunch and the road over Troodos. The one good argument for leaving the coast.
03The rough oneJeep Safari to Akamas National Park: Avakas Gorge Tour from PaphosJeep up the Akamas track to Lara Bay, then the Avakas Gorge on foot where the walls close overhead.
04The divePrivate Diving at Zenobia Wreck in LarnakaThe Zenobia, twenty minutes out of Larnaca marina. A ferry lying on her side in clear water.
In Cyprus the good day usually starts at a jetty.
Boats out of Latchi for the lagoon at the tip of the Akamas, sunset runs from Paphos harbour, and a sunken ferry off Larnaca that divers fly in for. More of this coast is reached by hull than by road.
Six towns, and the best day out from each.
A harbour and Roman floors at Paphos, a palm promenade at Larnaca, sea caves east of Protaras and Ayia Napa, wine villages above Limassol, and a walled capital in the middle of the island.
Paphos: mosaics in the morning, the Akamas after lunch.
All of Paphos →
The Roman floors behind the harbour take an hour. Everything else runs west and north: the boat to the lagoon from Latchi, the dirt track into the Akamas, and the wine villages climbing towards Troodos.
The lagoon, by boat from Latchi
Out past the Baths of Aphrodite to the bay at the tip of the peninsula. The longer boats anchor twice and put the ladder down; the short ones look at it and turn round.
Akamas by jeep, gorge included
Coast track up the peninsula to Lara Bay, then the Avakas Gorge on foot, where the limestone closes to a few feet apart overhead. The only way to reach the far tip by land.
Up into Troodos from the coast
The road climbs out of the heat into chestnut and pine, through villages that still press their own wine and a painted church or two under a roof built to shed snow.
The days out more travellers take than anything else in Cyprus.
The full Cyprus catalogue →What fills the boats and the minibuses right through the season, and what earns each one its place.
1
Blue Lagoon (Akamas) Bus & Boat Tour with Water Slide from Paphos
Spend about eight hours exploring Cyprus by coach and boat. From Paphos, visit the Edro III shipwreck, sea caves, Latchi, the Baths of Aphrodite, and Polis before cruising to the Blue Lagoon for swimming, snorkeling, fresh fruit, and a water slide. Guides such as Anna, Galina, and Liga are known for clear explanations and warm service.
From · $54
Read our review →
2
Cpt Marko – Blue Lagoon & Turtle Cruise with Optional Lunch
from $42
3
100% Cyprus – Tour to Troodos mountains and villages (From Paphos)
from $66
4
APHRODITE II -LAZY DAY CRUISE-BLUE LAGOON,TURTLE COVE, with LUNCH
from $54
5
Stardust Variety Dinner Show
from $72
6
Blue Lagoon Cruise with Sightseeing from Latchi Harbour
from $30
7
Half-Day Scuba Diving Tour – Discover Scuba Diving!
from $100
8
Wave Dancer Half Day BBQ Cruise – All Inclusive
from $83
The Akamas has no road. That is rather the point.
North-west of Paphos the asphalt gives out and the peninsula is left to goats, turtles and anything with four-wheel drive. Jeeps run the coast track to Lara Bay, buggies take the dust behind them, and the Troodos roads climb the other way into the pines.
- 1Value for money Quad & Buggy Tour to Lara Bay and Adonis Fallsfrom $72
- 2Caves Jeep Safari from Protaras & Ayia Napafrom $60
- 3Jeep Safari to Akamas National Park: Avakas Gorge Tour from Paphosfrom $84
Cyprus by price: what a day out really runs to.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. A good number of the best Cypriot days come in under the price of dinner.
Harbour cruises, glass-bottom boats, town walks and the short runs out to Cape Greco.
The full-day standards: the Akamas lagoon, the Troodos villages, jeep safaris and the wreck dives.
Private guides, chartered boats and the once-a-trip splurges that earn it.
- 1Private Diving at Zenobia Wreck in Larnakafrom $187
- 2NORTHERN CYPRUS ALL-IN-ONE Private Day Trip from Nicosiafrom $216
- 3Scuba Diver Coursefrom $492
Three things that only happen in Cyprus.
Turquoise bays and grilled halloumi turn up all round this sea. A ferry lying on her side in clear water, a lagoon with no road to it, and painted churches under barn roofs do not.
The Zenobia
A Swedish ferry that rolled over on her maiden voyage out of Larnaca in 1980 and settled on her port side with the lorries still chained to her decks. She lies between roughly sixteen and forty-two metres, in water clear enough to follow her whole length, twenty minutes from the marina. Divers fly to Cyprus for her alone.
- 1Half-Day Scuba Diving Tour – Discover Scuba Diving!★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 669 reviews
- 2Private Discovery Dive + Photos & Videos★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 577 reviews
- 3Discover Scuba diving★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 504 reviews
The Akamas Blue Lagoon
At the tip of the peninsula the limestone shelves away into a bay so pale that the water reads turquoise from the cliff above it. No asphalt reaches it. You arrive by boat from Latchi or along a dirt track that shakes the fillings out of a hire car, and by eleven in July both routes are busy.
- 1Blue Lagoon (Akamas) Bus & Boat Tour with Water Slide from Paphos★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,496 reviews
- 2Cpt Marko – Blue Lagoon & Turtle Cruise with Optional Lunch★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,955 reviews
- 3APHRODITE II -LAZY DAY CRUISE-BLUE LAGOON,TURTLE COVE, with LUNCH★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 1,395 reviews
The painted churches
Ten small churches in the Troodos range carry Byzantine wall paintings under steep timber roofs built to throw off snow, and the set of them is on the UNESCO list. Most sit in villages an hour or more apart on switchback roads, so two or three in a day is honest going.
- 1100% Cyprus – Tour to Troodos mountains and villages (From Paphos)★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,562 reviews
- 2Troodos Mountains Villages: All Inclusive Food & Wine Day Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 610 reviews
- 3Troodos Peaks & Mountain Flavors Day Tour from Paphos★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 316 reviews
Four Cypriot bookings that will not wait.
Most of this island can be arranged over breakfast. These four run on a boat timetable, a certification check, a nesting season and a checkpoint, and none of them takes any interest in when your flight lands.
- 01Private Diving at Zenobia Wreck in LarnakaDive boats take a fixed number of divers and the operator checks your certification before the place is held. It is a deep wreck and the good slots go early.
- 02Blue Lagoon (Akamas) Bus & Boat Tour with Water Slide from PaphosThe Latchi boats leave on a set timetable and the bay has no road. Miss the sailing and the alternative is an hour of dirt track in something with high clearance.
- 03Value for money Quad & Buggy Tour to Lara Bay and Adonis FallsLara Bay is a protected turtle beach and access is restricted through the summer nesting season. The tours that go are built around what is open that week.
- 04Ghost-Town Famagusta Mini Bus Tour from Protaras and Ayia NapaThe minibus crosses the line into the north, so travel with the passport you entered Cyprus on. There is no talking your way through the checkpoint without it.
In August the middle of the island hits forty. Plan around it.
July and August do the same thing every year. The coast is pleasant at nine and punishing by two, and Nicosia, an hour inland with no sea near it, is hotter still. The answer repeats too: be on the water early, or be up in Troodos, where the pines take ten degrees off the day.
Cyprus gets a great deal easier to like after six.
The heat drops, the harbours fill, and the boats go back out with a grill lit on the stern. Sunset sailings from Paphos and Protaras, BBQ decks, and the odd night cruise that finishes with fireworks over the water.
By town — coast, capital and mountains
By kind of day — deck, dive, dirt track or dinner
Paphos, Limassol, Troodos, Larnaca, Protaras: the loop almost everybody does first.
Just reviewed, Paphos to Protaras.
More new Cypriot reviews →
Relaxing Adults-only Blue Lagoon Catamaran Trip from Protaras
Read our review →
Cyprus Wines Tasting in Larnaca city with Transfers from Ayia Napa and Protaras
Read our review →
The Mermaid Cruise by Medusa Cruises – 2:30-Hour Family Adventure
Read our review →
Guided snorkeling trip to the turtles in Protaras
Read our review →
San Antonio Premier Sunset Adults Only Cruise from Protaras
Read our review →
San Antonio Premier Morning Adults Only Cruise from Protaras
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3-Hour Sunset Cruise from Protaras with Fruit & Champagne
Read our review →
