Paphos, Cyprus

Mark Gibson on 12 April 2016
We spent a week in the Paphos area of Cyprus as we were visiting a good friend who lives there and was our guide and taxi driver during our stay. We arrived at the beginning of April and despite being still quite cold when we left England on arrival in Paphos the temperatures were between 21-24 degrees Celsius and we were lucky enough to have blue sky every day so great for sun worshippers. In actual fact Paphos is practically an all year round destination for people looking for warm weather and enjoys over 300 days of sunshine per year.

We drove over the hills that are the backdrop to Paphos and are the foothills to the Troodos Mountains with Cyprus’s highest peak Mount Olympus and arrived at the village of Latchi. Latchi is a fishing village with a nice harbour and promenade boasting a good selection of restaurants with a reputation for excellent fish dishes. Boat trips can be hired from the harbour and go all along the coast and there is a nice beach.

Coral Bay about 5 kilometres from Paphos has an excellent beach and plenty of tavernas and restaurant. If you want your fix of shopping there is a very good mall between Coral Bay and Paphos with a lot of the major retail chains and has a multiplex cinema and coffee shops.

During our stay I took the opportunity to visit two hotels. The first was on the seafront in Paphos which was the four star Athena Beach Hotel which has excellent facilities as well as being directly on the beachfront. The hotel has around 400 rooms and has a wide choice of restaurants, sporting facilities such as tennis as well as a great spa. I also visited the five star Elysium which is closer to Coral Bay and the hotel is luxurious and in beautiful surroundings. Again Elysium had a wide choice of dining experiences and a wonderful spa. I would recommend both hotels to future visitors to Paphos.

We also visited Aphrodite Hills which offers luxury villas and apartments as well as a hotel located around 20 km from Paphos. The Resort offers an 18 hole golf course, great spa, all manner of sports and a village square with a selection of restaurants and bars as well as large swimming pool. A number of the villas also come with their own private pool and are well worth considering for your holiday.

Paphos and the surrounding area have a lot to offer to travellers including a number of archaeological places of interest. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Paphos and look forward to going back again.