Guides ·Experiences

Limassol old town: Saripolou and Ayiou Andreou

Saripolou Square, behind the covered market, is the single best place to start a night in Cyprus. Tables spill across the pedestrianised square from about 8pm, the crowd is mixed local and expat, and a bottle of Keo or Leon runs €3.50 to €4.50, cocktails €9 to €13. It fills after 10pm and stays loud until 1 or 2am, later at weekends. Adjacent Ayiou Andreou Street, the old shopping spine, carries the overflow into wine bars, small live-music rooms and a handful of gin bars in restored 1930s buildings.

The Old Carob Mill complex beside Limassol Castle is the polished alternative: courtyard tables, a good beer list, dinner-then-drinks pacing, and a five-minute walk to the marina. Limassol Marina itself has waterfront lounges with sea-facing terraces where cocktails hit €14 to €18 — worth one round for the view of the yachts and the lit castle behind you. The whole old-town circuit is walkable, which matters, because Cyprus enforces a 0.22 mg/L breath-alcohol limit hard and runs checkpoints on the coastal road.

Beach clubs and sundowners on the Limassol strip

The Amathus coastal road east of Limassol is where the island's beach-club scene lives. Guaba Beach Bar at Parekklisia is the long-running favourite: free entry on ordinary days, sunbeds around €10 to €15, and ticketed guest-DJ parties from roughly €15 to €25 that run from late afternoon into the night. Music starts mellow around 5pm and hardens after nine. Book a bed online at weekends in July and August or you will be standing. Taxis back into Limassol centre cost about €20 to €25; Bolt operates island-wide and is usually cheaper.

The hotel bars along this same strip are the quiet luxury option and the reason many visitors book a sea-view room here in the first place. The rooftop and pool bars at the five-star properties between Agios Tychonas and Pyrgos serve cocktails at €14 to €20 with an uninterrupted horizon and no cover charge for non-residents at most of them; a smart-casual dress code applies after 7pm, meaning no beachwear and closed shoes for men. Sundowner hour, roughly 6:30 to 8pm in summer, is the best value slot before dinner prices arrive.

Nicosia: the island's most grown-up drinking

The capital has no sea and no tourists to speak of after dark, which is exactly why its bars are good. The old town within the Venetian walls — Faneromeni Square, Onasagorou, the lanes off Ledra Street, and the Trypiotis quarter — is dense with small cocktail rooms, mezze-and-wine spots and courtyard bars in restored townhouses. Lost + Found Drinkery is the best-known serious cocktail bar; expect €12 to €15 a drink and a queue after 11pm on Fridays. Craft beer from Cypriot microbreweries costs €5 to €7.

Nicosia runs later than the coast because it is a student and office city: bars fill at 10pm and clear around 2am, later on Friday and Saturday. Nothing is expensive by capital-city standards and taxis across the old town rarely exceed €8. Cross-town, the Engomi and Stasikratous areas hold the polished cocktail-lounge crowd. Note that Nicosia empties out in August, when residents decamp to Limassol and Ayia Napa; visit the capital for nightlife between October and June instead.

Paphos: harbour and old town, not Bar Street

Paphos has two nightlife identities. The good one is the harbour front and the restored old town around Ibrahim's Khan and the municipal market, where courtyard bars, tavernas with live bouzouki and a couple of decent wine rooms serve until midnight or one. Beer €3.50 to €4.50, a carafe of local wine around €8. Kato Paphos seafront near the castle is pleasant for a slow evening, and it is a ten-minute walk from most of the four- and five-star sea-view hotels along Poseidonos Avenue.

The one to approach with caution is Agiou Antoniou Street — universally called Bar Street — in Kato Paphos. In peak season it is a corridor of promoters pushing shot deals and free-entry cards, karaoke rooms and clubs that empty out by 2am. If you are under 25 and want cheap shots, it delivers exactly that. Everyone else should skip it, or at least ignore the flyer handlers and choose a venue by looking inside first. Never accept an invitation from a street tout to a private 'hostess' bar: inflated bar bills there are a documented, recurring complaint.

Ayia Napa and Protaras: go early, or don’t go

Ayia Napa's club square — Nissi Avenue, Ayias Mavris and the streets around the monastery — is a genuine international clubbing destination for about eleven weeks a year. From late June to early September the big rooms run from midnight to 4am, entry €10 to €25 depending on the DJ, and beach parties at Nissi Beach start mid-afternoon. Drinks are the island's most expensive after the marina bars: €6 to €8 for a beer, €14 upwards for cocktails. Water and pacing matter — daytime temperatures still sit near 32°C at 8pm.

Outside those weeks, skip it. In May and October half the venues are shuttered and the square looks like a film set between takes; in winter it is closed. Protaras next door is the family-holiday version, with quiet seafront bars, the Ocean Aquarium and no club scene at all — good for a nightcap, wrong for a night out. If you are staying in a Protaras hotel and want the square, budget €15 to €20 each way for a taxi and agree the fare before you get in.

Kyrenia, casinos and the practicalities

Kyrenia in the north wraps its nightlife around the horseshoe harbour: candlelit tables under the castle walls, meze dinners that stretch to midnight, and a handful of bars on the quay. It is atmospheric rather than late, and the drive back over the Kyrenia mountain pass to Nicosia takes about 40 minutes, so plan a stay or a driver. Large hotel casinos operate on that side of the island and run free shuttles from Kyrenia and Famagusta; treat them as a curiosity rather than a night out.

Island-wide practicalities: public buses stop between 8pm and 11pm depending on the route, so nights out mean taxis. Bolt works in Limassol, Nicosia, Larnaca and Paphos, with typical city fares of €5 to €10 and surge pricing after 2am. Licensed taxis are metered; a short hop is around €7 minimum. Smoking is banned indoors and enforced. Legal drinking age is 17, and clubs card at the door. Most bars take cards, but small old-town places sometimes want cash — carry €30 to €40 in notes.

Frequently asked questions

What people ask before they set off on this one.

Rooms worth pairing with this guide.

Nicosia Hilton Nicosia

4.5/5 €224/ night

Troodos Troodos Hotel

3.8/5 €78/ night

Limassol Parklane a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa Limassol

4.7/5 €529/ night

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