Nature And Outdoors in Cyprus

The outdoors in Cyprus splits between the Akamas peninsula and the Troodos massif, and they could not be less alike. Akamas is the wild northwest corner: no roads worth the name, gorges running down to the sea, and the Lara beach where loggerhead and green turtles still nest under protection from May to August. Hiking in Cyprus starts here for most people, on the Aphrodite and Adonis trails out of the Baths of Aphrodite — two to three hours each, both circular, both ending back at the car.

Troodos is the other half and works on a different calendar. Mount Olympus tops out at 1,952 metres, the Artemis and Atalanti trails circle the summit through black pine, and the Caledonia trail drops past a waterfall along a stream — the one route in Cyprus that stays cool and shaded in July. In winter there is enough snow on the north face for four ski lifts, which means you can genuinely swim and ski on the same day in January if you feel like proving a point.

Between them sits everything else: the Avakas gorge where the walls close to a few metres apart, the salt lakes at Larnaca and Akrotiri where flamingos winter in the thousands, and the Cape Greco sea caves. Nature tours in Cyprus run best in spring, when the island carries roughly 140 endemic plant species in flower and the orchids are out on the Akamas. Summer walking means starting at seven or not at all.