The journal
Everything we have written about Cyprus
Neighbourhood picks, budget breakdowns, rankings and seasonal notes — the full archive.
Comparisons & rankings
Beachfront hotels in Cyprus with sea-view rooms, ranked
Nine stretches of Cypriot coast where a sea-view room is worth the upgrade, with nightly bands from €90 in April to €420 in August.
Comparisons & rankings
Hotels with private pools in Cyprus
Swim-up rooms, plunge-pool suites and full pool villas across five regions, priced from €160 a night in April to €650 in August.
Comparisons & rankings
Best adults-only hotels in Cyprus
Where the genuinely child-free hotels are, what the 16-plus loophole costs you, and shoulder-season doubles from €120 a night.
Comparisons & rankings
Family hotels in Cyprus with kids' pools and beach access, ranked
Six resort areas ranked on shallow water, shade and walkability, with family-room bands from €140 to €520 a night.
Comparisons & rankings
Best spa hotels in Cyprus for thalassotherapy and hammam
Seawater circuits, restored Ottoman baths and winter spa breaks, with day passes from €35 and treatments from €65.
Day trips & escapes
Best beaches in Cyprus, ranked
Ten beaches judged on water clarity, shade and crowding, from a 40-metre shallow shelf to a turtle beach reached by a 40-minute dirt track.
Food & drink
Best places to eat meze in Cyprus, ranked
Where to eat a 20-dish meze properly, ranked by region, with prices from €18 a head inland to €35 for fish on the coast.
Area guides
Paphos guide for tourists: where to stay by the sea
A neighbourhood-by-neighbourhood guide to the west coast's best base, with hotel bands from €70 in January to €300 in August.
Area guides
Limassol guide for tourists: sea, city and the Amathus strip
Cyprus's most urban seaside city, decoded by district, with hotel bands from €80 in the old town to €420 on the beach in August.
Budget & prices
Cyprus on a €50 a day budget
A realistic daily breakdown — €22 bed, €14 food, €6 transport, €8 sights — and the months when €50 stops working.
Seasons & events
When to visit Cyprus: month-by-month
Twelve months of sea temperatures, hotel rates and events, from 17-degree water in February to 28 degrees in September.
Transport
Getting around Cyprus without a car: buses, shuttles and taxis
There are no trains and no metro — here is the real network, from €1.50 city singles to a €65 airport taxi, and where it fails.
Neighbourhood picks
Which Cyprus coast should you stay on? West, south and east compared
Four coastlines, one decision — compared on water, walkability, winter opening and hotel rates from €70 to €420 a night.
Area guides
Where to stay in Nicosia: which part of the divided capital suits you
The only Cypriot city with no coastline, room rates roughly 30 per cent under Limassol, and an old town you can walk end to end in 25 minutes.
Area guides
Where to stay in Limassol: old town, Molos or the Amathus strip
Cyprus's most expensive city for a bed, with a 4-kilometre seafront promenade and a resort strip that starts 6 kilometres east of the old port.
Area guides
Larnaca area guide: Finikoudes, Mackenzie or the villages behind
The cheapest coastal base in southern Cyprus, with the island's main airport 6 kilometres from the promenade and a beach you can reach on foot from almost any central hotel.
Area guides
Kato Paphos or Ktima: which part of Paphos to book
Two towns stacked on one hillside, 130 metres of altitude apart, with room rates that differ by €40 a night for the same standard.
Area guides
Where to stay in Ayia Napa: the Square, Nissi Beach or Grecian Bay
Four distinct districts within three kilometres, an April-to-October season, and an August premium that can double what the same room costs in May.
Area guides
Protaras area guide: Fig Tree Bay, Pernera or Kapparis
The family half of the east coast, eight kilometres from Ayia Napa's clubs, with high-season rooms running €30-60 a night under equivalent Nissi Avenue stock.
Area guides
Where to stay in Kyrenia: the harbour, the western strip or the eastern coast
The prettiest harbour in Cyprus, room rates roughly 30-40 per cent below the south for equivalent standards, and a mountain wall 1,000 metres high right behind the town.
Area guides
Famagusta area guide: the walled city, the Salamis road or the beaches
Cyprus's most extraordinary set of ruins inside 3 kilometres of Venetian wall, with a hotel supply so thin that most visitors sleep 8 kilometres out.
Area guides
Where to stay in Polis Chrysochous: the quiet top of Paphos district
A working market town 35km north of Paphos where a double room runs €50 to €95 depending on the month, the beach is a ten-minute walk through a eucalyptus grove, and nothing at all happens after 11pm.
Area guides
Latchi or Polis: which to book on Chrysochou Bay
Three kilometres separate a fishing harbour and a market town, and the choice moves your nightly rate by €20 to €40 and decides whether you can reach dinner without driving.
Area guides
Pissouri area guide: village square or the bay below?
Halfway between Limassol and Paphos there are two Pissouris, 2.5 kilometres and 200 vertical metres apart, and the wrong one costs you a €10 taxi every time you want dinner.
Area guides
Where to stay in Coral Bay: the family end of the Paphos coast
Twelve kilometres north of Kato Paphos, a 600-metre sand crescent with lifeguards, a one-street strip of restaurants and rooms at €70 to €150 — and a bus that stops running earlier than you think.
Area guides
Troodos area guide: who should actually sleep at 1,700 metres
Cyprus has one alpine address, and it holds fewer than a dozen buildings — here is what a night at 1,700 metres costs, what you can walk to from the square, and when to sleep 600 metres lower instead.
Area guides
Platres or Troodos Square: which mountain base to book
Eight kilometres and 600 vertical metres apart, the two Troodos bases differ by roughly €30 a night, one has restaurants open in March and the other has the ski lifts.
Area guides
Omodos area guide: where to sleep in the wine villages
A cobbled square that hosts a thousand day-trippers between ten and four and forty residents at nine at night — plus stone houses at €70 to €130 and the case for staying exactly two nights.
Area guides
Where to stay in Lefkara: lace-village nights 35 minutes from Larnaca airport
A hill village at 650 metres with UNESCO-listed embroidery, stone houses at €55 to €110 a night, and an evening quiet so complete that half of visitors find it perfect and half find it unnerving.
Area guides
Where to stay in Pyla: the buffer-zone village above Larnaca's beach strip
Pyla sits 11 km east of Larnaca and 2.5 km uphill from a sandy public beach, with village studios from about €45 a night and four-star beach blocks on the coast road below from around €95.
Area guides
Kakopetria or Platres: which Troodos village to book
Kakopetria sits at about 670 m on the north slope and Platres at roughly 1,100 m on the south, a difference that decides your temperature, your drive and about €20 a night on the room rate.
Area guides
Governor's Beach area guide: white cliffs, dark sand and where to sleep
Twenty kilometres east of Limassol, a run of chalk-white cliffs and dark-grey sand coves offers beds from about €55 a night — the cheapest sea-swimming base between the island's two biggest resort coasts.
Area guides
Where to stay near Cape Greco: Konnos Bay, Protaras or Ayia Napa?
Nobody sleeps inside the 385-hectare national forest park at Cape Greco, so the real question is which of three bases within 5 km you book — and they differ by up to €120 a night in August.
Area guides
Episkopi area guide: staying between Kourion and the Limassol coast
The Episkopi below Kourion is 12 km west of Limassol, has village rooms from about €50 a night, and puts a Greco-Roman theatre 3 km uphill from your breakfast table.
Area guides
Where to stay in Kiti: quiet villages, Perivolia's coast and airport nights
Kiti sits 11 km southwest of Larnaca with a sixth-century mosaic in its church, beds from about €45 a night, and the airport just 10 km up the road — which cuts both ways.
Comparisons & rankings
Hotels with EV charging in Cyprus, ranked by charger and area
Nine kinds of Cyprus stay where you can actually plug in overnight, from 22 kW posts in Limassol basement garages to the single three-pin socket a Troodos guesthouse will run out to your bonnet.
Comparisons & rankings
Hotels with free parking in Cyprus, ranked by area
Eight areas graded on whether your hire car sleeps for nothing or costs you €12 a night, and the two towns where free parking is essentially extinct.
Comparisons & rankings
Pet-friendly hotels in Cyprus: where dogs are actually welcome, ranked
Eight kinds of Cypriot stay that take dogs without flinching, the fees to expect from €10 to €25 a night, and the two resort towns where you should not even ask in August.
Comparisons & rankings
Best aparthotels with kitchenettes in Cyprus, ranked
Nine self-catering areas graded on kitchen quality, supermarket distance and what €90 a night actually buys, plus the one grade of Cypriot tourist apartment worth avoiding.
Comparisons & rankings
Stone-house village stays in Cyprus: agrotourism guesthouses ranked
Eight Cypriot villages where restored stone houses take guests, ranked on altitude, dinner, winter warmth and whether your hire car can reach the front door — from €70 a night.
Comparisons & rankings
Hotels with heated indoor pools in Cyprus for a winter stay, ranked
Seven areas judged on whether the pool is genuinely warm between November and March, including the two coasts where half the hotels shut and the mountain option nobody expects.
Comparisons & rankings
Step-free and accessible hotels in Cyprus, ranked by area
Seven areas assessed for genuine wheelchair access, from the flat Larnaca promenade with its beach ramps to the two hill towns that are effectively off-limits, with the eight questions to ask before you book.
Comparisons & rankings
Golf hotels in Cyprus: where to stay for the courses, ranked
Cyprus has four championship courses and they all sit within 25 km of Paphos — here is where to base yourself for them, with green fees from €70 and the months worth playing.
Comparisons & rankings
Hotels with free parking in Cyprus for a self-drive trip, ranked
Nine places to base a hire car where the space is free, shaded and 20 seconds from your room — plus the 3 spots where you will pay every night.
Comparisons & rankings
Hotels with EV charging in Cyprus, ranked (and how to plan the drives)
Where destination charging genuinely exists across 8 areas, what it costs per kWh, and why the 55 km climb to Troodos needs a third of your battery.
Comparisons & rankings
Best self-catering aparthotels in Cyprus with kitchenettes, ranked
Ten areas where apartment hotels beat half board, with realistic weekly food costs of €120-200 for two and the kitchen questions to ask before you pay.
Comparisons & rankings
Best village stone houses in Cyprus with fireplaces and courtyards, ranked
Nine mountain and foothill villages ranked for restored stone houses at €70-150 a night, with the honest catch on each — stairs, cold floors and closed tavernas.
Comparisons & rankings
Cyprus training-camp hotels for cyclists, runners and swimmers, ranked
Eight bases ranked for a February to April block, including the 55 km climb to 1,900 m, secure bike rooms and where to find a 50 m pool.
Culture & sights
The 7 best painted churches in the Troodos, ranked
Ten Troodos churches carry UNESCO listing; these are the 7 worth the mountain roads, ranked by how much paint survives and how easily you can get inside.
Culture & sights
The 8 best ancient sites in Cyprus, ranked
From Neolithic roundhouses to a Roman theatre above the sea, these are the 8 archaeological sites worth your entry fee, ranked by what actually survives above ground.
Comparisons & rankings
The 7 best coastal walks in Cyprus, ranked
Seven shoreline walks from 2 km to 12 km, ranked by scenery per kilometre, with honest notes on shade, footing and which months will cook you.
Food & drink
The 6 best wine villages in Cyprus, ranked
Six wine villages ranked on what is actually in the glass, with tasting fees from €8 to €20, the indigenous grapes to ask for, and how to drive it without losing your licence.
Comparisons & rankings
The 8 best sunset spots in Cyprus, ranked
The island's sun sets into the sea only on the west, and these 8 spots exploit that best — ranked, with arrival times, drive distances and what a drink costs.
Food & drink
The 6 best places to eat fish in Cyprus, ranked
Six fishing harbours and coastal villages where the fish is local and the pricing honest, ranked, with what a whole fish per kilo should really cost.
Area guides
The 7 best mountain villages in Cyprus, ranked
Seven Troodos and foothill villages ranked on whether they still work as villages, with drive times from the coast, room rates from €70 and the month each is at its best.
Day trips & escapes
The 6 best boat trips in Cyprus, ranked
Six boat trips ranked by what you actually see, with prices from €25 to €130, the right months, and the party cruises to avoid.
Culture & sights
The 7 best archaeological sites in Cyprus, ranked
From a Neolithic hill village to a Roman theatre on a sea cliff, these are the 7 archaeological sites worth your entrance fee and your morning, ordered by what you actually get for the walk.
Culture & sights
The 7 best Cyprus wineries and wine villages, ranked
Indigenous grapes nobody else grows and vineyards up at 1,000 metres: 7 wineries and wine villages ranked by what you actually taste, plus what a tasting costs.
Culture & sights
The 8 best castles and fortresses in Cyprus, ranked
Crusader keeps on 700-metre ridges, a sugar-mill tower and a harbour fortress holding a 2,300-year-old shipwreck: 8 Cyprus castles ranked by what survives and what you see from the top.
Culture & sights
The 6 best markets in Cyprus, ranked, and what to buy at each
Halloumi from the maker, carob syrup, Lefkara lace and a covered hall built in 1917: 6 Cyprus markets ranked, with prices for the things worth carrying home.
Day trips & escapes
Troodos in two days: a driving route from Limassol to Kalopanagiotis
A 130 km north-bound mountain route with 4.5 hours of real driving, four painted churches, one waterfall walk and two very different villages to sleep in.
Culture & sights
Nicosia in one day on foot: a walking route across the divided old city
A 6.5 km loop with twelve stops, one border crossing and two lunches you will have to choose between, timed from 09:00 to 20:00 inside the Venetian walls.
Day trips & escapes
A long weekend in Polis and Latchi without a car: three days by bus and boat
Three days on the north-west coast for under €40 a day in transport, using two bus routes, one boat and about 14 km of walking.
Culture & sights
A rainy day in Limassol: an hour-by-hour indoor plan
Nine indoor stops within 15 km of the old port, sequenced from 09:30 to 22:00, with entry fees from €2.50 and a wet-weather fallback for every one.
Day trips & escapes
Larnaca with kids in two days: a stop-by-stop plan
Two days built around six stops that children actually like, with entry fees from free to €10, and nothing more than 25 minutes from the seafront.
Day trips & escapes
The Krasochoria wine route: two days through Limassol's wine villages
Two days, eleven villages, six wineries and one 5,000-year-old sweet wine, with tastings at €5-15 and a driving problem that has three honest solutions.
Culture & sights
A castle route across Cyprus in three days: crusader forts, sea walls and mountain keeps
Nine castles in three days, from a €2.50 Hospitaller keep in the vineyards to a mountain crag at 700 m, with one border crossing and about 320 km of driving.
Culture & sights
Nicosia in two days: a walking route across the divided capital
Two days, about 14 kilometres on foot, 11 Venetian bastions and one passport-in-pocket crossing — a stop-by-stop route through the walled city, with where to sleep at the end of each day.
Culture & sights
The Troodos painted churches: a two-day driving route
Ten UNESCO-listed churches, roughly 190 kilometres of mountain road across three valleys, and two days of hairpins — a stop-by-stop drive with keyholders, timings and where to sleep in between.
Day trips & escapes
A long weekend in Latchi and the Akamas without a car
Three nights on the northwest coast using one bus route, one boat and about 20 kilometres of walking, with every leg costed and a bed booked within walking distance of dinner.
Day trips & escapes
Larnaca to Cape Greco: a three-day driving route on the east coast
About 165 kilometres over three days and 14 stops, from a sixth-century mosaic to a buffer-zone coffee shop, with three different beds and a sunrise that requires a 04:45 alarm.
Day trips & escapes
Cyprus in winter rain: a two-day indoor route from Limassol to the wine villages
Roughly 120 millimetres of January rain falls on the south coast in two or three fronts a year, so here is a two-day plan built entirely around roofs, cellars and one flamingo-watch you can do from the car.
Day trips & escapes
Five days in Cyprus with kids: Paphos, the coast and the mountains
Five days, two bases, two waterfalls and a strict 45-minute limit on every ruin — an itinerary built for 4- to 11-year-olds, with where to sleep each night and what it all costs.
Seasons & events
Cyprus in winter: what's actually open between November and March?
Roughly half of Ayia Napa shuts its doors from 1 November, while Paphos runs all winter on 3-star rooms at €35-55 a night — here is the closure map, resort by resort.
Seasons & events
When is the sea warm enough to swim in Cyprus? Sea temperatures month by month
The Cypriot sea runs from a February low of 17C to a September high of 28C, which gives you a genuine seven-month swimming season from mid-May to the end of November if you know where to get in.
Seasons & events
Orthodox Easter in Cyprus: what closes, what costs more and what to book
Easter here can land anywhere from early April to early May, shuts the shops for four days and pushes mountain village rooms up by 60-80 percent — this is how to plan around the biggest week in the Cypriot calendar.
Seasons & events
Skiing in Cyprus: the Troodos snow season, January to March
Mount Olympus tops out at 1,952 metres and runs four lifts on a season that averages eight to ten weeks — here is when the snow actually arrives, what a day costs and where to sleep.
Seasons & events
Is August too hot for Cyprus? Heat, crowds and the 15 August shutdown
Nicosia hits 40C on roughly a dozen August afternoons while the coast sits at 32-34C with 28C sea, and a 4-star beach room that costs €95 in October costs €200-280 — here is whether it is worth it.
Seasons & events
October or May in Cyprus? The two shoulder months compared
The sea is 25-26C in October and 22-23C in May, both months rent the same room for €90-140, and the decision comes down to four things — here is how they actually differ.
Seasons & events
Troodos in winter: snow days, the ski lifts and what a mountain room costs
Mount Olympus holds skiable snow for roughly 8 to 10 weeks in an average year, and a Platres room that costs €60 midweek can hit €140 on the first white Saturday.
Seasons & events
Limassol Carnival and Green Monday: how to plan a February trip to Cyprus
Carnival runs ten days and ends on Green Monday — 23 February in 2026 — and it is the one week when a €75 Limassol seafront room becomes a €120 one.
Seasons & events
When is the sea warm enough to swim in Cyprus?
The sea bottoms out around 17°C in February and peaks near 28°C in August, which gives most people a real swimming window of about 24 weeks — from late May to early November.
Seasons & events
Which Cyprus resorts shut for winter — and where to stay from November to March
Something like two-thirds of Ayia Napa and Protaras beds close between November and March, while Limassol, Larnaca, Paphos and Nicosia trade all year from about €45 to €140 a night.
Seasons & events
When Cypriots take their own holidays: the local peak weeks that fill the hotels
Four dates — Green Monday on 23 February, Easter week from 12 April, Kataklysmos on 1 June and the 15 August weekend — move Cyprus room rates more in 2026 than any airline schedule does.
Seasons & events
Cyprus wine harvest season: what happens in the Krasochoria in September and October
Xynisteri comes in from mid-August and the last high-altitude reds by mid-October — about eight weeks when the small wineries are open, village guesthouses run €70 to €120, and the sea is still 26°C.
Transport
Driving in Cyprus: which side of the road, hire cars and the rules tourists get wrong
You drive on the left, hire cars wear red plates, there are no tolls anywhere on the island, and the whole south coast is under two and a half hours end to end.
Transport
Crossing the Green Line in Cyprus: checkpoints, car insurance and what to expect
Crossing is legal, free and takes about ten minutes on foot at Ledra Street, but a car needs separate insurance bought at the booth for roughly €20-45 and your phone will stop being on an EU tariff the moment you walk through.
Culture & sights
Is it safe to swim in Cyprus? Flags, lifeguards, urchins and the days the sea turns
Yes — Cyprus has no tides, more than 60 Blue Flag beaches and lifeguards on around a hundred of them from May to October, but the west coast picks up swell in minutes and the sun does more damage than the sea ever will.
Budget & prices
What is not in your Cyprus hotel rate: service charge, sunbeds, parking and the rest
Cyprus levies no tourist or city tax at all, and the 9% accommodation VAT is already inside the rate you were quoted, so the extras that inflate the final bill are the ones you choose: sunbeds at €10-15, dinner at €25-35 a head and city parking at €8-15 a night.
Culture & sights
Cyprus with a wheelchair or limited mobility: what actually works
The coast is far better than the guidebooks suggest and the interior is far worse — you get three kilometres of flat, continuous promenade in Limassol and beach ramps on the main municipal beaches, but almost every hill village and half the archaeology is out of reach.
Culture & sights
What is open when in Cyprus: siesta, Sundays and the holidays that shut the island
Tourist strips run seven days a week and often to midnight, but everything else follows two calendars — the afternoon siesta from around 2pm to 5pm, and an Orthodox year in which Green Monday on 23 February 2026 and Easter on 12 April close almost everything.
Transport
Can tourists cross into northern Cyprus? Green Line crossings explained
Yes — nine crossings are open, the paperwork takes about ten minutes, and the only real cost is roughly €20-45 of insurance for your hire car.
Culture & sights
Is Cyprus good for wheelchair users? Beaches, ruins and pavements, honestly
Cyprus is better than most Mediterranean islands for a flat seafront holiday and worse than almost anywhere for its old towns, with around two dozen beaches carrying access ramps and almost no adapted taxis.
Culture & sights
Do you need to speak Greek in Cyprus?
No — English works almost everywhere on the island, but four things will still trip you up, starting with the fact that most road signs spell the same town two different ways.
Budget & prices
Hidden costs in Cyprus: the extras that quietly add €250 to a week
Sunbeds, cover charges, car-hire add-ons and beach parking are the four leaks, and for a couple on a seven-night trip they total somewhere between €180 and €320 that nobody puts in the spreadsheet.
Culture & sights
What's open in Cyprus: siesta hours, Sundays and public holidays
Plan around three closure patterns and nothing will catch you out: the 2pm to 5pm afternoon gap, near-total Sunday shutdown outside the resorts, and 15 public holidays in 2026 when even the supermarkets shut.
Doing good is the business: every booking through Stay Cyprus funds one verified tonne of carbon removal — same room, same price, no markup.
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