Latchi

Skippers tout from the pontoons on the harbour's western arm from about 9am. Half-day trips with two or three swim stops run €25 to €45; the Blue Lagoon itself is roughly 45 minutes out along the Akamas coast. Choose a boat carrying under twenty people — the big ones arrive at the lagoon together and ruin it.

The tavernas immediately behind the mooring wall price fish by the kilo, generally €55 to €70. Ask what came off the boats that morning and expect bream, bogue, red mullet or, if you are lucky, grouper. Meze arrives whether you asked or not; two people rarely need more than one fish.

Three kilometres west along the coast road, ending at a shaded grotto and spring beneath a fig tree, with a botanical garden and a small visitor centre. It is a five-minute look, not an attraction, but the car park is the trailhead for the Aphrodite and Adonis routes and the view back over Chrysochou Bay is the postcard.

The dive centres on the harbour road run boat dives on the reefs and the wreck sites west of the peninsula; a two-tank morning is around €80 to €100 with kit. Snorkellers do fine straight off the rocky coves 500 m west of the harbour, where the bottom is limestone shelf, urchins and plenty of small bream.

Any table on the western end of the harbour front from about half an hour before sundown. The peninsula turns copper, the day boats come back in one by one, and a glass of Cypriot white — ask for Xynisteri — runs €4 to €6. This is the single best free thing in Latchi.

Booked from the harbour kiosks, typically €55 to €70 for a full day. The track leaves the tarmac past the Baths of Aphrodite and grinds over the Akamas to Lara, a turtle-nesting beach with no facilities at all. Take water, a hat and low expectations about your spine.

From Paphos Airport allow 55 minutes by car — A6 west, then B7 and E709 through Stroumbi to Polis, then the coast road west for three kilometres. A taxi runs €70 to €90. On public transport, take the shuttle into Paphos, board route 645 at Karavella station for the hour-long run to Polis, then the local 622, which shuttles between Polis, Latchi and the Baths of Aphrodite through the day in summer and only a handful of times in winter. Within Latchi you walk everywhere; the harbour to the far end of the beach is fifteen minutes. Harbour parking is free but fills by 9.30am on summer boat days.

The half-day Blue Lagoon run on a small boat carrying fewer than twenty passengers, leaving around 10am or 2pm, for €25 to €45. Afternoon departures reach the lagoon after the morning fleet has left. Avoid the large boats with music systems; they anchor together and the water fills with people. Book on the pontoon the day before rather than through a hotel desk.

Yes, with one caveat. The beach east of the harbour has coarse sand and a gentle entry, the water is calm most mornings, and the restaurants are used to children eating at eight. But the shore shelves faster than at Coral Bay, and there is no promenade of shops or arcades to fill a rainy day. Bring a car and treat Polis as your supermarket.

Rooms are more expensive at the top end and similar in the middle: the flagship sea-view hotels start near €180 in January and pass €400 in August, while an apartment behind the harbour sits at €70 to €110 in shoulder season. Fish dinners run €30 to €40 a head against maybe €22 in a Paphos back street. You are paying for emptiness and the Akamas.

Some things. Two or three harbour tavernas trade through the year, the big hotels run reduced operations or close for maintenance in parts of November to February, and the boat trips largely stop. Polis, three kilometres away, keeps its bakeries, supermarkets and cafeneia open all winter, which is the practical answer to where you eat between December and March.