Visit Cyprus: when to go, budget and itineraries

Larnaca serves as the main gateway with its 9th-century Church of Saint Lazarus and Finikoudes promenade lined with palm trees. Twenty minutes on, Ayia Napa's Nissi Beach draws a young summer crowd, while Cape Greco national park offers quieter coastal trails and sea caves best explored early morning. Somewhat like on Malta, this is where the island's densest beach offer sits, all of it under 40 minutes from Larnaca airport, which makes it a natural first or last stop.

Since the 1974 Turkish invasion, Nicosia has been split by the Green Line, a UN buffer zone crossed on foot along Ledra Street with a passport or ID card, usually in under ten minutes. Turkey, barely 65 km north, has backed the occupied part of the island ever since. On the southern side, the Cyprus Museum and the old Laiki Geitonia quarter, with its craft workshops and courtyards, make for an easy half-day visit.

The island's highest point at 1,951 metres, Mount Olympus overlooks a range hiding ten UNESCO-listed painted Byzantine churches and Kykkos Monastery, founded in the 11th century and still one of the wealthiest in Cyprus. The cobbled wine villages of Omodos and Lofou can be reached in a day's drive from Nicosia, with two to three-hour hikes leading to Caledonia Falls and, further west, the slopes used for skiing between January and March.

Paphos archaeological park lines up near-intact Roman mosaics across more than 2,000 m², next to the Tombs of the Kings, a rock-cut necropolis dating to the 4th century BC. An hour further north, the Akamas peninsula is explored by 4x4 or boat trip out to the Blue Lagoon's shallow turquoise water, with Lara Beach hosting protected loggerhead turtle nests from May to October each year.

Halloumi, the grilled cheese with its distinctive squeak, gained protected designation of origin status in 2021 and stars in a meze spread that can run to fifteen or twenty small dishes, a tradition not unlike what's found in Greece. Commandaria, a sweet dessert wine produced in Troodos villages since antiquity, ranks among the oldest named wines still made anywhere in the world today.