Excur­sions

Pafos

Sit­u­ated on the south-​west coast of the island you will find the his­tor­i­cal for­mer cap­i­tal of Cyprus, Pafos. Leg­end has it that Pafos is the birth­place of the Greek God­dess of Love, Aphrodite, who emerged out of the foam of the sea, at Petra tou Romiou, one of Cyprus’ most daz­zling “must see” places. Pafos is a mag­i­cal city rich with fas­ci­nat­ing things to see and areas of exquis­ite nat­ural beauty. All sorts of ancient ruins can be found here, like the House of Dionysos with its mosaic floors dat­ing from the 3^rd to the 5^th cen­turies A.D. and is con­sid­ered among the finest in the east­ern Mediter­ranean. By the pic­turesque fish­ing har­bor, one can find the Pafos Cas­tle a Byzan­tine fort built to pro­tect the har­bor. Here there is a vast vari­ety of fish tav­er­nas and open air cafes to suit every taste any time of day or night.

Not far from Pafos one can find Lara Bay, famous for its tur­tle sanc­tu­ary. The Aka­mas National Park, is a deserted unspoilt region in the far north­west cor­ner of Cyprus. It is an area with spec­tac­u­lar land­scapes and has become a habi­tat for sev­eral species of flora and fauna unique to the Mediter­ranean. Most of the area is now offi­cially pro­tected and the only way to visit the area is by 4X4 jeep.

Lar­naka area

As home of the island’s main inter­na­tional air­port, Lar­naca offers many vis­i­tors their first taste of Cyprus. Larnaca’s links with Chris­tian­ity go back to the very begin­ning, for the town’s first bishop was none other than St.Lazaros, who chose to spend his “sec­ond life“ there after Jesus had raised him from the dead. A church built in his name exists on the spot where his remains were said to be found. One of the first sights is the beau­ti­ful salt lake, which in the cooler months is home to colonies of grace­ful flamin­goes and other migra­tory birds. Larnaca’s pic­turesque seafront prom­e­nade, lined with mature palms is full of cafes and restau­rants, mak­ing this a pop­u­lar spot for vis­i­tors and Cypri­ots alike. Amongst archae­o­log­i­cal sites worth vis­it­ing in the region, Choirokoitia is one of the best pre­served sites of a pre­his­toric set­tle­ment brought to light in the East­ern Mediter­ranean, and has been declared a UNESCO World Her­itage site. The church of Angelok­tisti, in the vil­lage of Kiti, has one of the finest exam­ples of Byzan­tine art of the Jus­tin­ian period, a rare 6^th cen­tury mosaic of the Vir­gin and Child.

The vil­lage of Lefkara is per­haps one of the most pic­turesque vil­lages on the island. With cob­bled streets and stone houses and a his­tory of pro­duc­ing won­der­ful hand­i­crafts such as fil­i­gree sil­ver­ware and a tra­di­tional kind of lace known all over the world as “lefkar­i­tika”. Accord­ing to leg­end dur­ing a visit to the vil­lage Leonardo da Vinci bought an altar cloth, which he donated to Milan cathe­dral.

Limas­sol area

Limas­sol, suc­ces­sor of two city-​kingdoms (Kou­rion to the West and Amathus to the East) and host to a Royal Wed­ding in the Mid­dle Ages, is well known by its archae­o­log­i­cal sites and its medi­ae­val cas­tles. Today Limas­sol is a major port, a busy com­mer­cial cen­ter, the home of hun­dreds of off­shore com­pa­nies, and a pop­u­lar tourist resort with a cos­mopoli­tan atmos­phere, where the old and the new co-​exist in harmony.

In the old quar­ter of Limas­sol, close to the old har­bor is the Cas­tle, built in the 14^th cen­tury, where Richard the Lion Heart mar­ried Beren­garia of Navarre and crowned her Queen of Eng­land. The Cas­tle is now a Medi­ae­val Museum. A very recent addi­tion to the area is the mag­nif­i­cent Limas­sol Marina, a unique water­front devel­op­ment com­bin­ing ele­gant res­i­dences and a full ser­vice marina with exclu­sive restau­rants and shops.

A few kilo­me­ters out­side Limas­sol stands Kolossi Cas­tle, Head­quar­ters of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. Very nearby one can find the famous ancient Kou­rion ancient site, with the Greco-​Roman the­atre still host­ing sum­mer con­cert under the stars.

Troo­dos Mountains

In the heart of the island stand the majes­tic Troo­dos Moun­tains. Here one can dis­cover the true hid­den trea­sures of the island. Ris­ing to almost 2,000 meters above sea level, the Troo­dos peaks pro­vide panoramic scenes to all cor­ners of the island, a cool retreat from the heat of the coast and pop­u­lar for tak­ing in the healthy moun­tain air and enjoy­ing nature. It hosts the major­ity of the painted churches of Cyprus. Superb exam­ples of Byzan­tine art, ten of the churches have been put on UNESCO’s World Her­itage List. Scat­tered all over the moun­tains, most of the island’s monas­ter­ies can be found with the Kykkos Monastery hold­ing a promi­nent posi­tion as the island’s rich­est monastery. It houses one of the three sur­viv­ing icons painted by St.Luke ded­i­cated to the Vir­gin Mary.

Explore the vil­lages and expe­ri­ence the warm Cyprus hos­pi­tal­ity of the locals. Taste the local made del­i­ca­cies which you are bound to be offered while vis­it­ing any of the moun­tain villages.

The moun­tain range is also renowned for excel­lent Cyprus wines, a num­ber of small winer­ies wel­come vis­i­tors on wine tast­ing tours. A num­ber of scenic nature trails can be found in the moun­tains, to suit any fit­ness level.

Nicosia

The only divided cap­i­tal in the world, Nicosia com­bines the old and the new and has plenty to offer to its vis­i­tors. Numer­ous themed muse­ums can be found in Nicosia, with the national archae­o­log­i­cal museum being the most famous hous­ing a won­der­ful col­lec­tion of arte­facts dat­ing from the Neolithic Age (7000 BC) to the early Byzan­tine period and Myce­naean relics. The beau­ti­ful so-​called Old City 19^th cen­tury quar­ter, is sur­rounded by mas­sive Venet­ian walls. Stroll the nar­row streets full of small art gal­leries, sou­venir shops, open air cafes and restau­rants, known as Laiki Yito­nia (replica of an old neigh­bor­hood). In the same area one can find the archbishop’s palace home of the Cathe­dral of St. John and the Byzan­tine museum, which houses the largest col­lec­tion of icons on the island. Nicosia is not suit­able only for sight­see­ing. It is also a shopper’s par­adise, offer­ing a vast vari­ety of inter­na­tional known brands as well as local made prod­ucts.

Guided excur­sions are oper­ated to the above places of inter­est from var­i­ous areas in Cyprus in sev­eral lan­guages, depend­ing on period of vis­it­ing.

Tailor-​made pri­vate excur­sions from 1 – 50 pax can be offered on request.

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Please make sure to give us some infor­ma­tion about the amount of peo­ple par­tic­i­pat­ing, the area you will be stay­ing and any spe­cial inter­est of your party.