Three days in Limassol: the city Cypriots actually live in, with Kourion down the road
Two nights by the old harbour, one day west for the Roman theatre and the crusader keep, and an ancient city on the drive out.
- Length
- 3 days, 2 nights
- Where you stay
- Limassol
- Places
- 6 across 3 days
Limassol is not the pretty one. It is the island's biggest port, its shipping and finance capital, and a city of about two hundred thousand people who are mostly getting on with something other than tourism. The historic quarter is small, the seafront is long and modern, and the container cranes are visible from most of it.
That is also why it is a good base. Everything on the southern half of Cyprus is within an hour, the eating is better and cheaper than in the resorts, and nobody is trying to sell you a boat trip. Twenty minutes west is Kourion, an ancient city on a headland with a theatre still used for performances and mosaic floors under cover.
Two nights is the right length: an afternoon in the old town, a full day out to the west, and the ruins of Amathus on the coast road as you leave.
Highlights
- The theatre at Kourion, cut into a cliff with the sea a long way below it
- Kolossi, a square crusader keep standing alone among the vineyards that made Commandaria
- Limassol Castle, where Richard the Lionheart is said to have married in 1191
- Carob Mill warehouses beside the castle, now the best row of tables in the city
- Amathus on the shore east of town, a city kingdom that was old before the Romans arrived
Where to stay
Limassol, two nights
Stay in or beside the old town, around the castle and the marina. It is the only walkable part of the city, it has the restaurants worth crossing town for, and it puts you at the right end for the drive west in the morning.
The long strip of hotels east along the shore towards Germasogeia is where most package visitors end up. It has the sandier beaches and almost none of the character, and it means driving to dinner.
Day by day
Day 1 in Limassol
The castle, the carob warehouses and St Catherine's
The castle is a squat stone block in the middle of the old town, and its fame rests on a wedding: Richard the Lionheart, blown off course on his way to the Third Crusade, took Cyprus in 1191 and is said to have married Berengaria of Navarre here. The building you walk into is mostly later, rebuilt and reinforced by the Ottomans, and it now holds the island's medieval museum of tombstones, armour and pottery.
Around it are the Carob Mill buildings, warehouses from when carob pods were a serious Cypriot export, converted into a run of restaurants and bars with tables out on the flagstones. This is where to eat on the first night.
Ten minutes along the seafront is St Catherine's, the Catholic church finished in 1879 for the city's Latin community, a reminder that the Venetians and the Genoese were here for centuries before anybody thought about tourism.
- 16:00
Limassol Castle
HistoricA blunt stone block a street back from the marina, holding the medieval museum, with a roof terrace over the town.
- 17:45
St. Catherine's Church
ReligiousThe Catholic church of 1879 on the seafront side of the old town, small, and usually open when nothing else is.
- 19:30
Draught Microbrewery
EatA brewpub in the old carob warehouses beside the castle, strong on grills, with the best outdoor tables in the city.
With more time: The marina east of the castle is a good half hour at sunset, and the walk out along the breakwater gives you the whole city with the mountains behind it.
Day 2 in Limassol
West to Kourion and Kolossi, back by way of the sea
Go early. Kourion sits on a cliff above the sea about twenty minutes west, and there is no shade anywhere on the site. The theatre is the picture everybody has seen, cut into the slope with the water a long way below, and it is still used for concerts and plays in summer. Behind it are the mosaic floors of the Roman houses, one with a scene of Achilles, under modern roofs.
The sanctuary of Apollo lies a couple of kilometres further along the same road and is quieter and, for some people, better: a colonnade, a temple front and a great deal of open country.
On the way back, stop at Kolossi. It is a single square keep rebuilt in the fifteenth century by the Knights Hospitaller, who ran the sugar mills and vineyards around it and gave their name to the sweet wine still made in these hills. You can climb it in twenty minutes and see the whole plain.
Then swim. Lady's Mile is a long strip of pebble and sand on the way back into the city, with fish tavernas at intervals and a salt lake behind it that fills with birds in winter.
- 08:30
Kourion
HistoricA hilltop city above the sea, with a working theatre and Roman mosaic floors under modern roofs. No shade anywhere, so go early.
- 12:00
Kolossi Castle
HistoricA fifteenth century Hospitaller keep among the vineyards, climbable in twenty minutes, with a sugar mill beside it.
- 13:30
Lady's Mile Beach
NatureA long pebble and sand beach west of the city with fish tavernas along it and a salt lake behind.
- 20:00
Kyrenia Fish Tavern
EatA fish meze in a beachside tavern east of the centre, worth the drive and worth arriving hungry for.
With more time: With a spare afternoon instead of the beach, the wine villages of the Krasochoria are half an hour up into the hills behind Kourion, and most of the small producers will pour for anybody who knocks.
Day 3 in Limassol
Amathus on the coast road out
Amathus was one of the old city kingdoms of Cyprus, occupied for something like two thousand years before it was abandoned, and what is left of it lies on both sides of the coast road ten minutes east of the centre: an agora with its columns re-erected, a basilica, and the acropolis on the hill above with a temple to Aphrodite at the top.
It takes an hour, less if you skip the walk up, and almost nobody stops, so you will probably have it to yourself. Part of the ancient harbour is still there under the water and can be seen from the shore on a calm day.
From here the motorway runs east to Larnaca in about forty minutes, which makes this an easy last stop before a flight.
- 09:30
Amathus
HistoricAn abandoned city kingdom on the shore east of town, with a re-erected agora at road level and a temple site up the slope.
With more time: For a later flight, Governor's Beach is another twenty minutes east, a run of small bays under white chalk cliffs with fish restaurants above them and much darker sand than anywhere else on this coast.
Before you go
Getting around
Hire a car. Limassol's own old town is walkable and the seafront has a long cycle and walking path, but Kourion, Kolossi and the wine villages in the hills are not realistically reachable on buses that run a few times a day. Driving is on the left and the motorway along the south coast is fast and empty.
Both airports are convenient: Larnaca is about fifty minutes east, Paphos about the same to the west, which makes an open jaw booking easy.
Eating and drinking
Meze is the thing to do here, and it is a commitment: fifteen to twenty small dishes arriving over two hours, ending with grilled meat or fish when you are already full. Order it for the table, do not order anything else, and do not eat lunch that day.
The hills behind the city are the island's wine country, and Commandaria, the sweet wine the Knights Hospitaller made at Kolossi, is the one to try at least once. The dry local grapes, xynisteri and maratheftiko, have improved beyond recognition in the last twenty years.
When to go
The coast is warm enough to swim from May into November, and the sea is at its best in September and October when the crowds have gone. High summer on the south coast is hot but survivable because of the sea breeze, which Nicosia inland does not get.
Winter is mild and green, and it is the only time to walk in the Troodos in comfort, though there is snow on the tops and Kourion is exposed and windy.
Limassol will not charm you in the first hour. It is a port city that works for a living, and the good parts are a small old town, a very long seafront and a set of ruins nobody queues for.
Give it two nights, drive west on the middle day, and eat one proper meze slowly enough that it takes the whole evening.
Or make it a longer trip
These trips pass through here on the way somewhere else.
Make it your trip
Every stop, day and place here lands in your account as an editable trip. Move the days around, swap a city, add your own bookings and costs, and share it with whoever is coming.
Common questions
- Is Limassol worth staying in, or should I base myself in Paphos?
- Limassol if you want a city and good food, Paphos if you want a resort and a beach outside the door. Limassol is more central for the island: Kourion and the wine villages are twenty minutes away, Nicosia is an hour, and both airports are about fifty minutes.
- Do I need a car?
- For Kourion and Kolossi, effectively yes. Buses exist but run infrequently and turn a half day trip into a whole one. Within the city itself you can walk and there is a long seafront path, so hire the car for the middle day only if you would rather not drive on holiday.
- What is Commandaria?
- A sweet wine made from sun dried grapes in the hills above Limassol, which the Knights Hospitaller produced commercially from their base at Kolossi and named after the estate. It is served small and cold, usually after dinner, and is not remotely like a modern dessert wine.
- Can I rearrange the days?
- Yes. The only ordering that matters is doing Kourion in the morning rather than the afternoon, because the site is completely exposed. Load the plan into a trip and move the rest to fit your flights.