Cyprus: Off the Beaten Track by Simon Heptinstall
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Lunch had been enormous again, the afternoon sun was now really hot and the waves making a gentle rhythm on the shore. So it didn’t take long before I was peacefully dozing on the deserted sandy beach.
A sudden wet sniffling sound right in front of my face woke me with a start. I don’t know who was more shocked - the goat or me. He and the rest of the herd ran off in a panic. I jumped up as if I’d had an electric shock. In the fields at the back of the beach I saw an old man chuckling to himself as he gathered up the goats with a walking-stick.
The goat-herder waved at me with a huge grin. He had a funny story to tell at the taverna that night. And me... well, I’d found that if you head off the beaten track in Cyprus you can find a lot more than solitude.
Get away from the main resorts and you’ll find an island full of ancient culture, rural traditions, and fascinating friendly people. Armed with a good map and guide book I found wonderful country churches full of so many icon paintings it seemed the inside of the building had been gold-plated. I visited traditional village tavernas where you could eat course after course of delicious local produce and drink as much local wine as you like for less than a fiver. And most importantly, I discovered beautiful beaches that were empty.
But what is the best way to escape Cyprus’s crowded coastal resorts? There are plenty of coach excursions from tourist hotels but they tend to go to the same few places - the capital Nicosia, the Baths of Aphrodite or the lace town of Lefkara. I took several coach trips like these only to find there were more tourists when I got there than I’d left behind on the beach.
I decided the best way to see the truly unspoilt Cyprus is to hire a car. This is fairly cheap by Mediterranean standards and you won’t spend much on petrol but by law you must take out Collision Damage Waver insurance - this costs around £5 a day.
Stick to a reputable company - some cowboy Cypriot rental cars are notoriously badly maintained. If you fancy heading right off the beaten track, a small jeep may be the best choice as many minor roads are unsurfaced and pot-holed.
The best news if you come from the UK is that Cypriots drive on the left, have similar road signs and highway code. But where do you drive to? If the information from your guide book, tour operator or the Cypriot Tourist Board doesn’t inspire you, simply ask a local.
When I chatted to a hotel receptionist called Helena she pointed me in the direction of the Troodos Mountains. It was just a few miles inland from Cyprus’s biggest resort Limassol but the scenery was spectacular, the villages quaint and historic... and the roads were empty.
I stopped for lunch at an open-air cafe in the main square of a pretty village called Lania. Dozens of painters, potters and craftworkers live and work along winding little alleys between whitewashed stone walls and flowery courtyards. It’s a good place to buy presents to take home. That night I met a friendly businessman called Sofronios at a taverna and told him I was looking for unspoilt parts of Cyprus. “Right!” he announced. “Tomorrow I’ll show you the White Rocks.”
The next day he proudly took me to the most undeveloped coastline I saw on the whole island - and it’s only 15 miles from Limassol.
“I bet no journalist has been here before,” he said, with a worried frown. “Please tell your readers not to spoil it!”
The White Rocks coast is a nature reserve stretching between St George’s Monastery and Governor’s Beach. It’s six miles of pure white smooth rocks with scores of tiny beaches each just big enough for one family. There’s only a rough rocky track and no cafes, hotels, houses or even shade... so it’s important to take an umbrella and plenty of drinking water.
Sofranios told me he used to come here as a boy to fish for snappers, later he learned to swim here... and much later he used to bring girlfriends here.
“Listen to me,” he confided. “The sunset is so beautiful here that if you bring a girl that you want to go out with, she’s got no chance.”
Unfortunately I didn’t get the opportunity to test his theory.
But the next day a waiter called Andreas recommended another route - to the coast north of Paphos, where he promised: “You’ll only see farmers.”
So I took a drive along the east side of Chrysochou Bay. From the small busy town of Polis to the border with the Turkish sector is a sequence of tiny villages with the steep wooded mountains behind. In many places the fields of orange, banana and lemon trees reach right down to the sandy beaches.
I stopped for coffee in the only cafe in Porto Pomos next to a tiny fishing harbour. Lunch was in Pachyammos where a fabulously decorated church sits right on the cliff overlooking the beach. I strolled past stone farmhouses and overgrown fields down to the beach, and decided Andreas was right - there were only farmers here. Oh... and a few goats too.
Planning a trip to Cyprus? Be sure to check out these flights to Cyprus before you go, and browse our fab collection of luxury hotels in Cyprus.