Blog Day trips & escapes

2026-06-245 min readThe cyprus hotel sea editorial team

Six boat trips ranked by what you actually see, with prices from €25 to €130, the right months, and the party cruises to avoid.

How to judge a Cyprus boat trip

Almost every coastal town sells boat trips, and the difference between a good one and a wasted €40 is the destination, not the boat. A trip that reaches somewhere you cannot drive to — the Blue Lagoon in Akamas, the Cape Greco sea caves, the Zenobia wreck — is worth paying for. A trip that motors 3 km along a shoreline you can see from your sunbed while music plays is not. The ranking follows that logic, then weighs group size, swim stops, whether food is included and honest value at each price band.

Season matters more than in most places. The good window is May to October, with July and August warmest but also windiest in the afternoons on the west and north-west coasts, where the sea gets up after 14:00. Morning departures are calmer, less crowded and better for snorkelling visibility. From November to March most small operators pull their boats out entirely; the exceptions are dive charters and the larger vessels from Limassol and Larnaca. Sea temperature runs about 18°C in March, 25°C in July and a peak near 28°C in September.

1. Latchi to the Blue Lagoon

First place, and not a close call. From Latchi harbour, small boats run west along the roadless Akamas coast to the Blue Lagoon at Cape Arnaoutis, where the water sits over pale rock in a shade of turquoise that photographs look faked. Half-day trips are roughly €25 to €35 a head with one or two swim stops; full days at €45 to €60 add a barbecue lunch, drinks and a longer anchorage. The bays here — Fontana Amoroza, Manijin Island — have no road access at all, which is the entire point. Departures cluster around 10:00 and 14:00.

Choose by boat size. The larger 60-to-100-passenger vessels are cheapest and busiest, and the lagoon can hold five of them at once by noon in August. The small 10-to-20-seat boats cost €10 to €15 more and are worth every cent for the anchorage and the crew's attention. Better still, hire a self-drive boat from Latchi — no licence needed for the small engines, around €120 to €190 a day plus fuel — and be at the lagoon at 09:30 before anyone arrives. Latchi is 10 minutes from Polis, 50 from Paphos.

2. Cape Greco sea caves from Ayia Napa or Protaras

Second: the run from Ayia Napa harbour or Protaras' Fig Tree Bay round Cape Greco, past the sea caves, the Kamara tou Koraka natural bridge and Konnos Bay, with swim stops in water that stays extraordinarily clear because there is no river silt on this coast. Small-group trips of two to three hours cost €25 to €45 with a snorkel stop; the better ones anchor inside the cave zone rather than pointing at it from 300 m. Some include a look at the sunken 'Liberty' wreck, in shallow water and visible with a mask.

The trap on this coast is the volume trade. The pirate-ship and party cruises at €35 to €50 with unlimited drinks are exactly what they sound like: 200 people, foam, and a route that barely leaves the bay. If that is the holiday, fine — but do not confuse it with seeing Cape Greco. Book the 09:00 or 09:30 departures for calm water and empty caves, take reef shoes because the entry rocks are sharp, and expect operators to cancel and refund when the easterly wind is up, which happens perhaps four days a month in spring.

3. Diving the Zenobia off Larnaca

Third, and the only entry here that requires a qualification: the Zenobia, a 172 m Swedish ro-ro ferry that capsized off Larnaca in 1980 and now lies on her port side in 16 to 42 m of water, consistently rated among the best wreck dives in the world. Lorries are still chained in the holds. Two-tank boat dives from Larnaca marina run about €90 to €130 including cylinders and weights, with the shallow deck at 16 m accessible to Open Water divers and the interior strictly for the technically trained.

Visibility is typically 20 to 30 m and the boat ride out takes ten minutes, which makes this the least seasick-inducing trip on the list. Best months are May, June, September and October, when the sea is warm and the surface traffic thinner; July and August are fine but the dive centres run at capacity, so book a week ahead. Non-divers can do a snorkel or introductory dive package for €70 to €90 and see almost nothing of the wreck — better to spend that money on the Akamas boat instead.

4. Paphos harbour cruises, and 5. Kyrenia and the north coast

Fourth: the boats from Kato Paphos harbour heading north past Coral Bay towards the Akamas, typically a five-hour day at €35 to €50 with lunch, sometimes a stop at the Adonis Baths' coastline or a swim at Lara. The virtue is convenience — you walk from your Kato Paphos hotel to the quay — and the scenery from the sea, with cliffs and the Akamas ridge, is genuinely good. The catch is the transit: an hour and a half of motoring before anything happens. The two-hour €20 mini-cruises are not worth the ticket.

Fifth, Kyrenia harbour in the north, where day boats run west towards Escape Beach and Alagadi or east along the empty coast for €30 to €45 including a barbecue lunch and swim stops. The setting — a Venetian horseshoe harbour under a castle, with the mountain wall behind — is the best departure point on the island. It requires a checkpoint crossing with passport and separate car insurance; 40 minutes from Nicosia over the pass. Alagadi is a protected loggerhead nesting beach, so respect the rope lines from June to September.

6. Limassol and Protaras glass-bottom family trips

Sixth, the trips built for children. From Protaras and Ayia Napa, glass-bottom boats do 60 to 90 minutes over the rocky shelf for around €15 to €25 a head, and they work: the water is clear enough that you genuinely see fish, and the running time matches a small child's patience. From Limassol marina, larger catamarans do half-day cruises east past Amathus with a swim stop and lunch at €45 to €65, useful because Limassol otherwise has the weakest boat offering of the coastal cities.

Set expectations. A glass-bottom boat is not snorkelling and the marine life on this coast is modest — bream, wrasse, the occasional octopus — so the trip's job is entertainment, not wildlife. Sit at the stern to avoid the engine noise, take a hat because the shade is limited, and skip the add-on 'submarine' branding, which means the same hull with more windows. If your children are over eight and confident in water, the Cape Greco snorkel trips at €30 deliver twenty times more for a few euro extra.

What to skip, and how to book

Skip the all-inclusive-drinks party cruises unless drinking is the objective; skip any harbour tout who cannot tell you the boat's passenger capacity; and skip 'turtle-spotting' trips that promise sightings, because loggerheads and greens surface unpredictably and the honest operators say so. Also skip the fishing trips sold at €40 for four hours in July, when the daytime catch off Paphos and Ayia Napa is thin — a dawn departure in October is a different proposition. And be firm about cancellation terms: the good operators refund fully for wind, the volume ones offer a voucher.

Book at the harbour the day before rather than through a hotel desk, which adds a commission of €5 to €10 a head. Ask three questions: how many passengers, how long at anchor, and what time you return. Pay attention to the return time — a 17:00 dock in Latchi means a 50-minute drive back to Paphos in low sun. If you only take one boat all holiday, spend €45 to €60 on a small-boat full day from Latchi to the Blue Lagoon; nothing else on this coast is close.

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Before you book

The questions people ask about Paphos, answered with this month’s numbers.