North Cyprus: Kyrenia, Famagusta & Nicosia — The Complete 6-Day Guide

North Cyprus is one of the Mediterranean's most unusual destinations — an island with a complicated political status, a turbulent recent history and a concentration of Crusader castles, Venetian city walls, Byzantine monasteries and ancient Greek ruins that would be remarkable anywhere. Add a harbour that looks like a film set, a ghost resort frozen in 1974 and the world's only remaining divided capital city, and you have a place that defies easy categorisation. Our North Cyprus: Kyrenia, Famagusta & Nicosia Tour covers the essential stops over six days — history, coast and the quiet spaces between.

Day 1: Arrival & Nicosia — The Divided Capital

The tour begins at Ercan Airport before heading into Nicosia — the only capital city in the world still divided by a military border, a distinction it has held since Berlin's wall came down in 1989. The Green Line, patrolled by UN peacekeeping forces, runs through the centre of the old city, cutting across streets, through buildings and between neighbourhoods that were once continuous.

The tour enters the walled city through the Kyrenia Gate — an Ottoman addition to the Venetian walls that still carry their 16th-century shape. Inside, the Samanbahçe Houses, the Venetian Column, the Büyük Han (Great Inn), the Arasta Bazaar and Saray Square occupy the northern half. Selimiye Mosque — originally the Cathedral of Saint Sophia, built between 1209 and 1326 in the Gothic style of northern France, with the twin minarets added after the Ottoman conquest of 1571 — is one of the most architecturally startling buildings in the Mediterranean. The Lokmacı Checkpoint allows a crossing into the southern, Republic of Cyprus side of the city.

Day 2: Kyrenia — The Harbour, the Castle & St. Hilarion

Kyrenia Harbour is one of those places that looks exactly as good as the photographs suggest — a horseshoe of stone quays lined with restaurants, the Ottoman castle at one end, fishing boats at anchor on water that is clear enough to count the stones on the bottom. The castle itself contains the Shipwreck Museum, built around a Greek merchant vessel that sank around 300 BC and was excavated from the harbour floor in the 1960s — the oldest ship ever recovered from the sea at that point, with its cargo of wine amphorae still intact.

St. Hilarion Castle, in the mountains above Kyrenia, was the inspiration for Walt Disney's castles — his artists visited the island in the 1950s while working on Sleeping Beauty, and the silhouette of St. Hilarion, perched on a rocky ridge at 732 metres with towers disappearing into the mist, made its way into the film. Built by the Byzantines and expanded by the Crusader Lusignan dynasty, the castle's upper courtyard and queen's window have views across the entire northern coast.

Day 3: Free Day — Kyrenia at Your Own Pace

The middle day is unscheduled — time to swim from the rocky coves below the castle, explore the old harbour lanes, visit the Folk Art Museum or the Icon Museum in the castle complex, or simply sit at the harbour and watch the boats. Optional excursions are available through the guide for those who want to use the day more actively.

Day 4: Kyrenia Boat Tour — Yavuz Beach & the Coast

The boat tour from Kyrenia Ancient Harbour takes the coast road from the water, showing a landscape that is impossible to appreciate from the road. Yavuz Landing Beach — where Turkish forces came ashore during the 1974 Peace Operation — is visible from the sea, the cliffs and the mountain backdrop giving the geography of that landing an immediate physical clarity. Two swimming stops in sheltered bays, lunch on board and the return to the harbour in late afternoon make this the tour's simplest and most purely enjoyable day.

Day 5: Famagusta — Salamis, Varosha & the Venetian Walls

Ancient Salamis was one of the most important cities in the ancient Mediterranean — a Mycenaean foundation that grew into a major Greek, then Roman city on the eastern coast of Cyprus. Its ruins, spread across a large site beside the sea, include a Roman gymnasium, a theatre, the colonnaded street and the baths, with mosaics still visible on the floor. The Monastery of St. Barnabas, built over the tomb of the apostle who introduced Christianity to Cyprus, stands in the olive groves nearby.

Varosha — known in Turkish as Kapalı Maraş — was the luxury resort district of Famagusta before 1974, a strip of hotels and apartments on a long sandy beach that was marketed as the Saint-Tropez of the Eastern Mediterranean. Elizabeth Taylor, Brigitte Bardot and Richard Burton were among those who had reservations here. When the Turkish army advanced in August 1974, the entire Greek Cypriot population fled, expecting to return within days. They never did. The hotels and apartments stood empty for nearly fifty years, their facades slowly deteriorating behind barbed wire. The area partially reopened in 2020, and the tour now walks through the streets where the old hotels stand — an eerie, historically charged experience unlike anything else in the Mediterranean.

Famagusta Castle — the Othello Tower — and Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque (the Cathedral of St. Nicholas, built 1298–1400, the finest Gothic building in the eastern Mediterranean) complete the afternoon. The Venetian walls of Famagusta, begun in 1492, are among the best-preserved in the world — their bastions and ramparts still defining the shape of the old city.

What's Included

The tour covers 6 days and 5 nights with accommodation at the Acapulco Resort Hotel in Kyrenia or equivalent. Included: private vehicle throughout, Kyrenia boat tour, 5 buffet breakfasts, 5 lunches or dinners, all museum and site entrance fees, professional guides, mandatory travel insurance and tour souvenirs. Not included: international flights and personal expenses.

Dates & Pricing

Two departures available: 28 June 2026 (14 spots) and 23 August 2026 (16 spots). Pricing starts from €1,199 per person in a double or twin room.

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