Located in the very East of Cyprus you will find amazing beaches, impressive cliffs and sea caves, and Ayia Napa is more or less the central town to all of this spots. There are hundreds of hotels, supermarkets and restaurants, so usually this place is for sure quite crowded during summer – but not this year… Our favourite beaches were Nissi Beach and Vathia Gonia Beach, and if you are looking for a cute wedding chapel check out the cute chapel of Agios Nikolaos.

Konnos Bay is about 15-20 minutes driving from Ayia Napa, and I guess this was our favourite beach here in Cyprus. The water there is so clear that it looks like a giant swimming pool, and you can choose between walking in from a sandy beach or jumping down from some rocks, which is a lot of fun! There is also a small restaurant selling drinks and snack, so nothing speaks against spending a whole lazy day here at Konnos Beach.

Next to lovely beaches, the East coast of Cyprus also offers a breathtaking coastline with steep cliffs. Two spots you shouldn’t miss are the Love Bridge of Ayia Napa, a natural bridge over crystal clear water, and the sea caves of Ayia Napa, both located just a few minutes apart. For the sea caves, you will be standing at the cliffs wondering where the caves are located, but you just need to step down between the rocks at the edge of the cliff near the parking lot and you will find yourself at the entrance of the sea caves, offering a really nice view over the turquoise sea.

Lefkara is a really cute village in the mountains, a 40 minutes drive from Larnaca. Usually it must be quite crowded here, but we were the only car in the parking lot and had the whole village more or less to ourselves. It is famous for its narrow streets and its colourful doors and windows. Don’t miss out on the famous “Tasties Café”, which is really the most colourful spot in the whole village and offers delicious food and drinks if open.

This UNESCO World Heritage site in Paphos is a big necropolis where you can visit the underground tombs dating back to 400 BC. It reminded me a little bit of Egypt, and as you might know, I absolutely love to visit historical sites. The place does not only offer several cool underground rooms with old pillars, but it also offers a nice view of the sea as it is located at Paphos’ coast. 

The sea caves of Peyia are really a spot you shouldn’t miss. About a 30 minute drive from Paphos, you will find a parking lot and some really impressive cliffs reaching into the sea. From the parking lot, start walking North along the coast, and you will find small coves which offer a lot of privacy, some natural bridges and even natural pools. We came here twice as we loved it so much. 

Here you can see our rough map with some of our stops. Driving from the east coast to the west coast will take you only 2.5 hours. We spent 9 days in total in Cyprus, which was really adequate to explore some of the most beautiful spots on the island. I would say that even 7 days are good for exploring most of the island :)! The northern part of Cyprus, officially the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, is a Turkish-occupied zone and during the pandemic tourists were not allowed to enter that part of the island. 

The climate in Cyprus is humid, so even if the temperatures do not rise far above 30 degrees Celsius in summer, the humidity makes it feel much much hotter. Cyprus also offers more than 320 days of sunshine every year, so good weather is almost guaranteed! We didn't see a single cloud during our stay ;)!

As mentioned above, we always recommend to rent a car. However, one thing you should consider when renting a car in Cyprus is that you will have to drive on the left side, so for most Europeans this might sound quite challenging. But keep calm – in the beginning it was really weird, but after just a few days you are getting used to it J!

As there were so many questions about travelling in times of face masks, disinfection and social distancing, we wanted to add a few side notes about our personal experience in Cyprus in July 2020:

FLIGHTS: our flight with WizzAir was not even half full, so we could keep our distance to other people and felt quite safe. Masks are required on every airport and also during the flight. We were the only plane arriving in Larnaca and in 15 minutes we were sitting in our rental car.

HOTELS & RESTAURANTS: the hotels we stayed were just sparsely booked and we could keep our distance. At the breakfast buffets we were not allowed to take the food ourselves, there was always staff who gave out the breakfast. Sometimes this took a few minutes but that was totally okay. Masks not required by guests. Many restaurants were closed and the few which were open seemed quite desperate as there weren’t many tourists around. The whole party mile was also empty LIn restaurants and bars, as well as hotels, the staff had to wear masks, but not the guests.

SHOPPING: You didn’t have to wear masks in supermarkets or shops, only in big shopping malls they took your temperature at the entrance, but that was all.

CROWDS: As written above, there were really just a few tourists in July and keeping our distance was in our opinion much easier than at home in Austria, where places got really crowded during summer. Some of the famous beaches had a decent amount of visitors, but at smaller beaches we were sometimes completely on our own. We always felt very safe and would repeat this trip without any concerns J.