Cyprus — How To Get Around Cyprus and What To Expect
Practical Travel Tips To Know Before You Visit Cyprus
Cyprus is an amazing country that has it all — beaches, mountains, historical places, delicious food and wine, and more. Here are a few travel tips before your journey to Cyprus.
Language
Cyprus has 2 official languages — Greek and Turkish. In practice, the vast majority speaks (Cypriot) Greek. You don’t need to worry though, we got around easily with just English. Except at the police station when we needed it most, but we’ll get to that later. The biggest surprise was the number of signs in Russian. Later we found out that about 25 percent of all tourists were from Russia until recently.
Currency
They use the euro (€) in Cyprus. If your country uses the euro as well, consider bringing some cash with you as many places don’t accept cards. In addition, most ATMs I’ve seen belong to Euronet that charge unreasonable fees. I withdrew cash from a Cypriot ATM using my Revolut card and surprisingly didn’t pay any fees. If you travel often, you might want to create a Revolut account too*: https://revolut.com/referral/jakuboeex
Transport
Buses
Buses are the only available means of public transport in Cyprus. You’ll find reliable connections of city buses and also intercity buses for a good price, for example:
1.50€ — from Paphos City Centre to a Paphos suburb
7.00€ — from Paphos to Nicosia
4.00€ — from Nicosia to Larnaca.
The downside is that you won’t find them on Google Maps. I’d recommend to use Rome2rio website or google a Cypriot website for the city you’re in (e.g., Paphos bus).
Bolt
Bolt is the only ride-hailing app in Cyprus (as of February 2023). In addition, there are not many Bolt drivers, especially at night. So don’t rely on it if you need to go to the airport. Regular cabs are not the worst either, we took a 7-seater cab (not Bolt) for a 15-minute ride to the Larnaca airport in early morning and it cost 30€.
Food
The cuisine of Cyprus is fantastic! You have to try all traditional dishes. Because the Cypriot cuisine is so good, competition is generally high, and therefore even Indian, Chinese and other restaurants we’ve visited were fabulous. So if you get bored of halloumi and souvlaki, don’t hesitate to explore other cuisines.
Meze in Cyprus
You can taste almost one of each from the traditional dishes of Cyprus if you order a meze platter. A meze consists of more than 5 small traditional dishes (souvlaki, fried halloumi, sheftalia, moussaka, tzatziki, pita and many more). Usually you can choose a meat meze or a vegetarian meze. Both are great, definitely give it a try!
Cyprus — the island of cats
Cyprus is called the island of cats for a reason. Allegedly, there are more cats (1.5 million) than people (1.2 million). According to several stories, badass cats were brought from Egypt to Cyprus to fight snakes in 326 or even earlier. So expect to see them everywhere.
Safety
Cyprus is generally a safe country and a popular destination among tourists. However, pickpockets can be found here like in any other touristy place. During our trip, a pickpocket deliberately bumped into one of us, stole an iPhone out of the pocket, literally ran away and got lost in the streets of Paphos in broad daylight. The “best” part is that when we tried to report it, there was no one at the police station who could speak English, so it stayed unreported. So keep an eye on your iPhones and other belongings.
Although the article ends with an unfortunate story, this can happen anywhere in the world. So don’t worry about visiting Cyprus, have fun, enjoy your visit and stay safe! :)
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