The PERFECT Paphos Itinerary: 4 Days in Cyprus (For Spring with no car)

Planning a Paphos itinerary and not sure where to start?

You’ve come to the right place. Let us introduce you to one of the most charming coastal towns on the island: Paphos Cyprus. From ancient ruins and scenic coastlines to mountain villages and meze feasts, this Mediterranean gem offers the perfect mix of relaxation and exploration.

Whether you’re a history lover, a foodie, or just in need of a sun-soaked getaway, this 4-day Paphos itinerary will help you make the most of your time in Cyprus – no car rental needed based on our experience.

Note that we visited Paphos during Easter Weekend (Wednesday to Sunday), and this itinerary is based on our experience – including how we’d do things differently next time to make it perfect.

The PERFECT Paphos Itinerary: 4 Days in Cyprus for First Timers

If you are short on time, here’s a quick summary of what we think is the perfect Paphos itinerary for 4 days in Cyprus:

• Day 1: Explore Paphos Old Town with a free guided walking tour, sip Cyprus coffee, and enjoy traditional dishes in local restaurants.
• Day 2: Take a full-day guided trip to the Troodos Mountains, visiting charming villages, waterfalls, and a winery famous for its blue wine.
• Day 3: Cycle along the Paphos coast, visit the UNESCO-listed Archaeological Park, and indulge in fresh local seafood.
• Day 4: Relax at Venus Beach with optional coastal walks or day trips to the Blue Lagoon or Lara Bay Turtle Conservation Station for turtle-watching.

How to get to Paphos

The 3 main international airports to Cyprus are: Paphos International Airport (PFO), Larnaca International Airport (LCA) and Ercan International Airport (ECN).

We flew in to Paphos International Airport on a 3.5 hour direct flight from the Düsseldorf Weeze (NRN) airport.

According to this tool that we use (Flight Connections), there are many direct flights to Paphos Cyprus from the following cities, I only listed the popular ones below:

• Greece: Athens and Thessaloniki
• Italy: Rome, Naples and Milan
• Germany: Cologne, Munich, Berlin

Where to stay for your Paphos itinerary

When choosing where to stay in Paphos, we would recommend thinking about the purpose of your trip, whether it would be to lay on the beach to relax or whether you’d like to be active and explore. We would also take into consideration if you plan to rent a car.

If you wanted a more relaxing trip, maybe an all-inclusive hotel would fit you better and if you’re planning for a more active trip, then maybe an apartment would better suit your needs.

For us, we wanted to be super close to the beach, a nice beach view room and one day trips for a semi-relaxing holiday. We didn’t rent a car, so we needed our hotel to be within walking distance of restaurants and the old town.

This is the hotel we stayed in and we would recommend it for the price and quality even though it is a 5-star hotel: Check out prices and availability for Venus Beach Hotel here.

It was perfect because the beach was just out the front so we could go for a morning walk before breakfast or a morning run for Ryan.

Here are the other places we were tossing up between:

• Aliathon Agean Resort (Also close to the beach but further away from old town)
• Laertis Apartments – by IMH Travel & Tours (Closer to the Paphos Promenade, Old Town and has parking)

Day 1: Paphos Old Town

Join a FREE guided walking tour of Paphos Old Town

Start your day with a free guided walking tour that is run by the city’s tourism office. When we were there, they ran it every Thursday and we were lucky enough that our first day in our Paphos itinerary fell on a Thursday.

You can find more details on the official Paphos website but here is the quick summary:

• Frequency & time: every Thursday (starting in March) at 9:30 am until 12:00 pm
• Duration: 2.5 hours
• This walking tour really is FREE – we’re normally used to tipping at the end of a walking tour, but NO one tipped and our local guide didn’t mention anything about a tip-based tour.

If you’ll miss out on the free walking tour, you can join this paid tour that includes the old town, archaeological site and Tombs of the Kings here.

Stop for a Cyprus coffee at this vibey café / restaurant

Location: BEATRIZ KAFENEION / ΜΠΕΑΤΡΙΣ – ΚΑΦΕΝΕΙΟΝ

Lunch at Laona Restaurant & explore the old town area

We had a lovely traditional Cypriot lunch at Laona Restaurant, they have a simple menu on a chalkboard and the owner explained each item to us.

We ordered the grilled octopus in tomato sauce and the traditional Cypriot stuffed vegetables with rice, meat and herbs.

There are some great spots in the old town, we recommend seeing the following spots:

• The Place – a shop perfect to get local art and pottery (Stop by and you could watch live pottery and painting by locals, I was even asked if I wanted to give it a go and I wish now I had said yes)
• Paphos Market – where you can get souvenirs and clothing
• Muse – great views of the old town, perfect for a coffee stop
• Taras widokowy – lovely observation deck

Feast on a Cypriot Meze for dinner at this traditional restaurant

Melania Restaurant is a bit out of the way but it is worth driving to and we saw a lot of people drive here. We walked since it was 10 min from our hotel.

The ceiling is completely covered in fig leaf trees and as a plant mum, I was obsessed. Then you will smell a delicious barbeque scent where the owner takes you to see how they cook the meat in their traditional BBQ rotisserie grill.

Important note: We ordered the Meze which is a mix of dishes and cost €28 per person and IT WAS A LOT between the two of us. They offered this meze menu every Thursday during the time we were there.

We were very full by the end of it and the dishes just kept coming, so if you want to do a meze, just make sure you’re prepared because their servings were huge.

Day 2: Troodos Mountains Day Trip

Book a full day trip to the Troodos Mountains

Since we didn’t rent a car to go around, the next best thing for our Paphos itinerary was to book a full one day excursion to the Troodos Mountains.

We wanted to explore the region outside of Paphos and have heard about the wine region here so we booked Troodos Mountains & Villages Guided Day Trip.

Our guide, Lisa, was hilarious and had a passion for showing us her country, so if you can, ask for her in your booking request. We enjoyed the following stops:

Loufu Village

A charming and picturesque small Paphos village, stopped here for a coffee and a traditional cheese pastry. The locals were also out meeting up in coffee shops since it was Good Friday when we were there.

Lion Spirit Winery & Distillery – Famous for Blue Wine

This place is also previously known as Lambouri Winery. We enjoyed a wine tasting here, the sommelier was also hilarious and presented the wines brilliantly.

They also have a lovely outdoor terrace if you want to drive here and enjoy a tasting yourself.

One unique thing about it this winery is their BLUE WINE – yes you heard it right, they were able to make the colour of the wine blue by mixing a variety of grapes and their skin.

We actually enjoyed it, a bit on the sweeter side but it was nice.

You can also buy them from the airport, which is what we did since we only had hand carry luggage with us – we got two bottles for €14 each.

Millomeri waterfalls

A short stop at these waterfalls, it’s only a quick short walk to get to them (10 mins) so easily accessible.

Omodos Village

This was our last stop at our day trip before heading back to Paphos. It was a lot to see in one day and we would highly recommend the day trip.

We enjoyed a lunch at the Black Geese restaurant. The food here was lovely, we had a pork souvlaki and a moussaka. They have a very cool wine cellar/bar.

Day 3: Paphos Coast, Promenade & Archaeological Park

Take in the views of the Paphos Coast and Promenade by renting a bicycle for 1 Day

This was probably one of my favourite days on our Paphos itinerary, just casually cycling along the coast, taking in all the views and stopping whenever we wanted to.

You have the option to walk it as well /hike if you have more time.

Our bicycle cost us €10 per bike and included the insurance for the day, it was then €5 per day if we wanted to extend. We hired them directly from our hotel which is handy.

We cycled from our hotel or Venus Beach until the Paphos Promenade, parked our bikes there, explored the Archeological Park and had lunch at Minas Tavern.

Paphos Coastline (from Venus beach to Paphos promenade)

Paphos Promenade

Complete your Paphos itinerary by visiting the Archaeological Park

It’s a UNESCO World Heritage site where you can see monuments and floor mosaics / murals dating back thousands of years. You can find more details of what you can see on the Visit Paphos website.

Entry is €4.50 per person. Take note that it was HUGE so remember to allocate 1-2 hours here if you’d like to see all of it. We probably spent 1 hour and a bit here and didn’t see everything since we got hungry and was ready for lunch.

If you are going in summer, take note that it will be quite hot so bring water, a hat and sun screen!

NOTE: Our guide from the day before also said to AVOID walking on areas where there’s no path since there might be snakes around.

She recommended going to the Archaeological site with a tour guide on a guided tour to get more context of what you are looking at. If we had more time, we would have booked this tour.

Enjoy seafood at Minas Tavern

We ordered the calamari and grilled octopus and it included a salad and chips.

Day 4: Beach Day

Venus Beach

Your Paphos itinerary wouldn’t be complete without having a beach day at a Paphos Beach.

Luckily enough, Venus Beach was just outside of our hotel so it was easy for us.

You can rent 2 sun beds and an umbrella for €7.50 for the WHOLE day – I know, we were very surprised with the price.

(We’ve been seriously overcharged in Italy, sometimes paying up to €70 for the day!)

OPTIONAL: BLUE LAGOON OR TURTLE watching day trips

Another optional activity for your Paphos itinerary is a day trip to the blue lagoon, or this Turtle watching day trip.

We considered doing the Turtle watching ourselves but read that the roads were not so accessible without a 4×4 vehicle.

Walk along the Paphos Coast

Because we can’t sit still when we travel, we also walked the opposite direction from Venus Beach and saw some pretty coastal views.

Another option is to extend the bicycle rental and ride along the coast the other way.

Final Thoughts

We would highly recommend to visit Paphos over Easter and although 4 Days in Cyprus was a good amount of time to see the main sites, we would recommend to stay for longer if you can.

If we had more time, we would have happily spent 6-7 days in the area of Paphos and another 7 days for the rest of the country e.g. Nicosia, Limassol, Larnaca.

We hope this helps you plan for your Paphos itinerary!

Thank you for reading – we’d love to hear your feedback!

Mon & Ryan