My Life in Travel

Few years ago, when I had visited Cyprus for short 3 days, I promised myself to come back and spend some more days in this amazing island. And after long time with being home I bought my tickets to Larnaca and started planning a week of vacation in Cyprus. As I cannot stay in one place and spend a lazy (whole) day at the beach, even if you think there can be nothing better than that, I started to plan a trip to different places around. That was going to include mostly Ayia Napa and Paphos areas. And the main important part of this trip was the transport. In this article I’m going to share with you my experience of using public transport in Cyprus, and hopefully it will help you to plan your next visit to Cyprus more easier.

First you need to know that there are two type of bus services in Cyprus – Intercity buses, which can take you from one side of the island to another, and usual buses, that run in the same region. I already shared few words about Intercity buses in my previous notes about Nicosia, but today I will give you more detailed information on this.
As you see from below table taken from Intercity Bus official web page, there are different type of tickets you can buy for each route. If you will need to use the ticket only once in a day, you just need to buy a one way ticket. Otherwise there are more options for daily, weekly or even yearly tickets. If you are a student in Cyprus, you can buy a Students ticket with reduced price 😉

During our trip we had to move from Ayia Napa to Paphos. In the available routes I found the Paralimni & Ayia Napa – Pafos option with cost of 9€ for one way ticket. In the “Routes” page was mentioned that the bus starts at 7:30am from Paralimni. The list of all stops was also mentioned in the page, but what was missing in my opinion was that it was not mentioned that at which time bus will reach at any stop. As we were going to take the bus from Ayia Napa, which was 11th stop in the route, we had to know when we shall be waiting for bus at the bus stop. I’ve contacted a Support team of Intercity Bus via email and in a few days got a reply, that bus will be there at 8:00. And yes, we came to the bus stop a bit earlier, around 7:45am, but the green bus to Pafos came exactly at 8:00am! Yes, the green bus. Intercity buses are easily recognized by their green color, so once you see them, you can know that this is not a regional, but intercity bus! The way from Ayia Napa to Paphos took around 2h 40min, with a short stop in Larnaca. The ride was smooth and comfortable. The driver was willing to help everyone to find the bus stop they needed, as most of the passengers were tourists and didn’t know which stop they shall take for their needed location.

But believe me, your help will start directly from the Larnaca airport. When you go out from the “Arrivals” hall, on your left side you will see a big table and a sweet lady. My bad, didn’t ask her name, otherwise I’d mentioned it here, but hope she will see my post. She really deserves to be known as the service she provided was (and is) priceless. Usually when you meet some Information providing service table, workers just share few words learnt by heart. This lady spent all her time to provide detailed information about the transportation service in Cyprus. All you need to know about Intercity and Regional buses can be found here.

Here you can also buy your travel card that you can use in any kind of buses. There are two kind of Plastic Smart Cards: one is anonymous (not personilized) card, which cost 2€, and the personalized one, with your picture on it, like an ID card. This one is free of charge. All you need to do is to fill a special form with your information details, charge your card and start using it. If you add money to your card directly here (you can pay with credit card as well), your travel card will adjusted immediately and will be ready to use. Otherwise you have an option to recharge your card from Cyprus Public Transport webpage, but the adjustment will be done within 24h, so don’t expect to recharge online and take a bus, you might meet an unpleasant surprise 🙂 Also you should note, that adjustment needs to be done in 5€, 10€, 15€ etc. In case you lose your card, you can always request to get a new one and will not use the money you had on your card, as they are personalized with your details and with the card number.

The pricelist for the public transport is simple. Most used ticket prices are shown below:
Single route $1.50
One day multiple routes $5.00
One week multiple routes $20.00
But these prices are available only on day time. Starting from 21:00 the price of the ticket is else. Take in mind that here also you can find reduced fare and free tickets. All the information about the pricelist can be found here. However, you can always pay to the driver in bus with usual money.
The lady in the airport also showed a mobile application of the Cyprus Public Transport, where you can easily find the bus you need. Just entering your start and end points you will have a list of bus numbers with routes and timetables. The same is available on the webpage as well.

By the way, if you have a flight from Larnaca airport, you can take a bus N425 from Larnaca Foinikoudes station (next to Marina), and in 15-20 minutes you will be next to the Airport entrance. This route is also available on the webpage with all stops and timetable information. At the Larnaca Central Station (the same as Foinikoudes) you will also see a scoreboard with upcoming bus details (the end station information and the minutes left). This will help you to take the correct bus that you need. And if you come early, it’s a good place to take a fresh juice or energizing coffee with a beautiful view!

Overall, the public transport in Cyprus is well organized, if you check needed routes (especially intercity ones) in advance, you will never be lost, as the buses run in time, are clean and comfortable, with the best helpful drivers. Just take in mind that wearing masks is mandatory during your trip. If you don’t have a mask, driver will not let you in. For your own safety 😉
But this shouldn’t stop you! Come to Cyprus, travel as more as you can, as the buses allow you to do that, and enjoy life!

Following will come some interesting stories from my last trip to Cyprus, where I will also share my experience of using public transport to travel around Ayia Napa and Paphos. Stay tuned!