A base in Cyprus

What to do in Paphos

Picked for the mosaics, kept for the sunsets. The harbour end is flat and walkable; the Akamas, Lara Bay and Avakas are up a road you cannot walk.

Without a car

Kato Paphos and the harbour are walkable; the old town is a bus ride uphill.

• Kato Paphos Archaeological Park at opening

  €4.50 · Morning

  The House of Dionysos mosaics are the best on the island and there is almost no shade. Go at eight, not at noon.

• Tombs of the Kings

  €2.50 · Afternoon

  Rock-cut tombs on a clifftop above the sea, largely unroped. Half an hour, and better in low light.

• Coral Bay, then a fish taverna

  €20 · Afternoon

  The one proper sandy bay near town, with the drop-off gentle enough for children. Eat at Pegeia afterwards, not on the beach.

• Paphos harbour, the castle, and the sea wall at dusk

  €2.50 · Evening

  Walk out to the fort, then back along the front as the light goes. Free, and the reason people book Paphos.

• Paphos old town and the covered market

  €5 · Morning

  The bit of Paphos that is a working Cypriot town: coffee at a traditional coffeeshop, a restored khan, a market that still sells vegetables.

• Bar street on Agiou Antoniou

  €25 · Evening

  Compact, loud, and entirely aimed at visitors. Which is fine at one in the morning. Walkable back to most hotels.

What a car adds

Akamas, Lara Bay and Aphrodite’s Rock all need one. Bus 615 gets you to Coral Bay and back.

• Avakas Gorge

  Free · Morning · Oct–May only

  A riverbed walk between walls thirty metres high that narrow to arm’s width. Wet feet guaranteed. Not after heavy rain.

• Lara Bay and the turtle beaches

  Free · Afternoon

  A rough track down to wide empty sand where loggerheads nest. Nothing there. Bring water and shade.

• Blue Lagoon by boat from Latchi

  €28 · Morning · Apr–Nov only

  The only comfortable way to see the Akamas coast. Half-day boats include a swim stop; the water really is that colour.

• Aphrodite’s Rock for sunset

  Free · Evening

  Twenty minutes east, a pebble beach and a sea stack. Busy at golden hour and worth it anyway. Swimming there is rougher than it looks.

• Agios Neophytos monastery

  €2 · Morning

  A hermit’s cave carved into the cliff with frescoes he commissioned himself. Cover shoulders and knees.

• The Baths of Aphrodite and the coast path

  €4 · Afternoon

  A grotto, a spring, and the start of the Aphrodite trail with the peninsula opening out ahead of you.

• Sea caves at Agios Georgios Pegeia

  Free · Afternoon

  Wave-cut caves and a tiny harbour with a chapel above. Sunset here beats the Rock and nobody is there.

Air and sea, by month

Long-run averages for the coast, rounded to the degree.

What things cost

Checked August 2026, away from the resort strips. Cars, taxis and restaurant meals move with the season, so treat them as the middle of a band. Accommodation is not listed: you have already booked yours.

Questions

The other bases

Approximate drive from Paphos, off-peak.