Guides ·Food & drink

Limassol Central Market

Limassol's covered municipal market sits in the old town near Saripolou Square, a stone-arched hall surrounded by the streets of Genethliou Mitella and Anexartisias. It trades from early morning through to roughly 1pm on weekdays, with Saturday busiest and Sunday closed. Inside you will find crates of Cypriot potatoes grown in the red soil around Kokkinochoria, mountain herbs, barrels of olives, village halloumi wrapped in mint, coils of sausage and slabs of lountza. Prices are marked and haggling is not really a thing, though asking for a taste is.

Work the perimeter as well as the hall. The surrounding lanes hold spice sellers, a couple of old-school butchers and small coffee shops where market traders take their break; a Cyprus coffee here costs €2 and comes with an audience. This is a ten-minute walk from the Old Port and the castle, so it slots neatly into a morning that ends with lunch at the Old Carob Mill. From the Amathus hotel strip, take a coast-road bus for €1.50 or a taxi for around €12.

Nicosia: the old town and the Bandabuliya

Inside the Venetian walls, Nicosia's covered municipal market a couple of minutes off Ledra Street is the capital's food heart: produce stalls, cheese counters, a fishmonger or two and cheap cooked-food stands where a plate costs under €8. It runs mornings, Monday to Saturday, and is at its liveliest by 9am. On Saturday mornings, a separate farmers' market sets up at the Constanza Bastion on the city walls, selling small-producer honey, carob syrup, wine and organic vegetables, and it doubles as a social event.

Cross the Ledra Street checkpoint on foot with your passport and, five minutes on, you reach the Bandabuliya, the historic covered market of the northern old town, restored and now mixing produce with craft and food stalls. It sits close to the Büyük Han, a beautifully restored sixteenth-century caravanserai with a courtyard of workshops and a café where the coffee is under €3. The two markets, separated by a few hundred metres and a checkpoint, are the single most interesting hour of shopping on the island.

Paphos: the Ktima market

Upper Paphos, known as Ktima, keeps the district's market in a nineteenth-century covered hall on Agoras Street, a couple of minutes from the town hall and Kennedy Square. Half of it has drifted toward lace, leather and souvenirs, but the produce and cheese end is genuine and the surrounding streets are full of greengrocers, bakeries and the sort of grill houses where locals eat at noon. Mornings are the time; by mid-afternoon much of it has shut. Buses 610 and 615 connect from the Kato Paphos hotel strip for €1.50.

Around the market you will find the best-value eating in Paphos, including Fettas Corner on Ioanni Agroti, a long-running family taverna where a full plate lands well under €15. Buy carob syrup, dried figs, Cypriot delight and a bag of local almonds here rather than at the harbour, where the identical goods carry a tourist premium. If you are self-catering along Poseidonos Avenue, the market plus a supermarket run makes a week of beach picnics for a fraction of hotel prices.

Fish: Potamos Liopetriou, Zygi and Latchi

Potamos Liopetriou, between Ayia Napa and Larnaca, is the most photogenic working fishing shelter in Cyprus: a narrow creek lined with painted wooden boats. Come between roughly 7 and 9am to see the catch landed and sold, and stay for breakfast or an early fish lunch at the tavernas on the water. It is a 20-minute drive from Ayia Napa and there is free parking at the creek. Bring cash and low expectations about English being spoken among the fishermen.

Zygi, on the coast road between Limassol and Larnaca, is a village that turned its fishing fleet into a street of fish tavernas; the catch does not travel far. On the west coast, Latchi harbour near Polis lands its boats each morning and the harbour restaurants buy on the spot. None of these are markets in the formal sense, but if you want to buy or eat fish that was in the sea a few hours earlier, they are where it happens, at roughly €50 to €70 a kilo for local species.

Village and mountain markets

The Troodos villages sell direct, and the goods are worth the drive. Omodos, in the Limassol wine villages, has a cobbled square ringed with shops selling soutzoukos, the string of almonds dipped in grape must, spoon sweets, dried herbs and the village's own wine; the monastery of Timios Stavros anchors the square. Anogyra is the carob village, with a working carob mill and syrup for sale. Kalopanayiotis in the Marathasa valley has small producers selling honey, rosewater from nearby Agros and preserved fruit.

Lefkara, halfway between Limassol and Nicosia, is the lace and silver village, where lefkaritika embroidery is on UNESCO's intangible heritage list. Prices for genuine handmade work start high, around €60 for a small piece, and the machine-made imports are obvious once you have compared them. Everywhere in the hills, roadside stalls sell whatever is in season: cherries around Pedoulas in June, grapes in September, oranges in winter. Carry small notes, since nobody up here runs a card terminal.

Kyrenia, Larnaca and practical tips

Kyrenia's municipal market sits a short walk inland from the horseshoe harbour and is the place to see northern produce, spices, dried fruit and cheeses; morning is the time and cash is essential. Larnaca has its municipal market near Ermou Street in the old town, plus supermarkets and produce stalls along the streets behind the Finikoudes seafront. Neither is a tourist attraction so much as a working shop, which is exactly what makes them useful for a self-catering week.

Three rules for all of them. Go early: most are winding down by 1pm and closed on Sundays. Bring cash in small denominations, plus a bag, since plastic ones cost extra. And buy the things that travel: halloumi vacuum-packed for the flight, carob syrup, dried herbs like wild oregano from the Akamas, Commandaria, zivania and the anari-and-honey combination that will not survive but is worth eating on the spot. Supermarket chains cover everything else at lower prices but no atmosphere.

Frequently asked questions

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Rooms worth pairing with this guide.

Kyrenia Hotel Pia Bella

4.2/5 €216/ night

Limassol Parklane a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa Limassol

4.7/5 €529/ night

Limassol Four Seasons Hotel

4.8/5 €514/ night

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