In September 2022 it was announced there would be a public holiday to mourn the Queen’s death. Sam and I took that opportunity to book a last-minute break to Spain. A few months later, there was talk of yet another public holiday to celebrate the new King’s Coronation. With bated breath we waited, and in November 2022 it was announced that there would indeed be an additional public holiday in early May 2023. It wasn’t just an extra day off work for us. People from all over the world would swarm London for this once-in-a-generation celebration. For the pair of us who Airbnb our place while we travel, this meant big bucks which would heavily subsidise our trip.
We wouldn’t be the only Londoners looking to get out of town while monarchistic tourists flooded the streets. We had to look and book quickly before prices shot up. I had just handed my notice in at work when the bank holiday date was announced and I didn’t know what I would be doing the following spring. A long weekend seemed like a safe bet. We found Avios flights with British Airways to Larnaca in Cyprus for an extended Thursday night to Monday night weekend. Even better, we booked business class for the outbound. Now we could enjoy an open bar service on what was an extravagant five-hour flight just for a long weekend.
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Getting into Cyprus for the weekend
We landed late and got a taxi to our neither expensive nor inexpensive hotel by the beach. The Josephine Boutique Hotel was comfortable, had a rooftop pool, and was very conveniently located for us. We didn’t arrive until 1am, and crashed on arrival. We planned to spend the following day at the beach.
I had envisioned Cyprus as perhaps a Greek island with Turkish influence, or vice versa. I had no basis for this assumption other than geographic location and a poor to vague knowledge of its recent history. Upon walking around the next morning, though, I learned that Larnaca was quite modern outside of a couple of key landmarks, and full of British and Russian influence. Who knew! (Sam probably knew).
I also assumed that early May would bring scalding temperatures, but instead, there was a yellow warning for thunderstorms. Storms were forecast in Cyprus for the whole weekend. Fortunately they never really hit. The temperatures were far from scalding though – with the breeze it was a bit chilly – and the beach was a bit meh. Uh oh!
Our first day in Larnaca, Cyprus
It wasn’t the morning we were expecting for the start of our Cyprus weekend. Undeterred we walked out to the roadside Souvlakia Peroutsious charcoal grill for lunch.
We ordered large pork wraps. This was before we had acclimatised to the island’s portion sizes. Pitas the size and weight of bricks were served.
They were mixed with salad, spicy sauce and tahini, and were absolutely delicious. We had two beers each with these ridiculously sized wraps and spent less than £8.50 each. We hauled ourselves back to the beach and slept off the food.
In the evening we had a proper walk around the small historic town of Larnaca. From one end to the other it took only 20 minutes. We stopped for a drink at The Secret Garden. It did indeed have a very nice – but maybe not-so-secret – garden patio out back. Our plan was to go to To Sieradiko, a restaurant with live music and serving only a set meze on Friday night. We thought that a light meze dinner would be a good idea after eating so much at lunch. We made an in-person booking earlier in the day – be sure to do the same as many people were turned away while we dined.
Cypriot meze dinner at To Sieradiko
When we arrived back at 8:30pm, we were just the second group in the dining room. A platter of tasty yet light meze came through and we ate it all, not stuffed but sufficiently sated.
At 9pm the music started, and people started filling the rest of the seats. Another platter of food came out. And then another, and another. And grilled meat, and then more grilled meat, and we lost track of all of the different plates we were served. We ordered a couple of beers to start and then moved on to a bottle of white wine from an indigenous grape of Cyprus called Xynisteri. It was delicious. Everything was delicious. The music was fun. It was a great evening and we felt very rotund when asked for the bill.
‘Guess the bill’ is a game we like to play when dining abroad. It is usually reserved for times we are either scared for the total, or are anticipating excellent value. In this case it was the former, but we laughed out loud when, with four beers and a bottle of wine, the endless flow of food came to €70 for the pair of us. This was our first traditional Cypriot meze and this quantity of food was par for the course.
We would have stayed to see off the musicians, but we were getting picked up early in the morning to go on a vineyard tour. This was booked through Viator for £50 each and included visits to three wineries, a tasting at each, a lunch (more Cypriot meze), and transfers to and from hotel. The tour company was called Cyprus Taste Tours.
A day in the vineyards of the Troodos Mountains
We drove for about 90 minutes before we arrived at our first winery in the Troodos Mountains.
Zambartas is a very chic outfit, but they don’t produce the wines on-site.
The tour was brief and the wines were excellent.
Oddly, the two other women on our wine tour didn’t drink alcohol. The sommelier didn’t allow them to sit at our table while they drank their coffees, lest they ruin the nose of our wines.
Our second stop was at a very special winery called Ayia Mavri.
The elderly but spritely owners greeted us in what looked like a family home converted into a winery.
The business has been passed down through the family for a few generations. The house was atop the hill where the grapes were grown, and the winery itself was in a big open space.
We were treated to eight different wines and a grappa, each of which was unique and excellent.
The bottles and labels were a testament to the wines themselves: unique, carefully thought out, and beautiful.
Lunch in the Troodos Forest of Cyprus
After a such ridiculous feast the night before, we really did not need a lot of food the next day. Instead we had our second Cypriot meze in the space of 18 hours. This was a meal of about 20 dishes at Makris Restaurant.
The food was excellent and the dishes were distinct from the night before. Apparently, every Cypriot restaurant has their own little take on meze dishes. The most unique dish on this menu was a pumpkin and egg dish. And I loved the fresh halloumi in a warm pita. Again, we overate, and there were still so many leftovers (which the other, local group on the tour took home). We finished with a Cypriot coffee, similar to a Turkish coffee in that there is sediment left at the bottom of the cup, and headed off for a walk around the small town of Omodos.
The historic Omodos Village of Cyprus
Omodos was a beautiful old village and – compared to the much more modern Larnaca – was much more in line with what I was expecting Cyprus to look like. The streets were cobbled and lined with fruit trees.
We visited a 17th-century monastery famous for housing a piece of the rope that bound Jesus to the cross. There were several free museums containing incredible, distinctive artwork. A small building in the alleyways housed a retired medieval grape press which was 700-800 years old.
Orange trees were ubiquitous and you could reach up to pick the fruit. I wish we had been able to spend the whole day here. Especially as there are a few vineyards nearby as well. If we came back to Cyprus a second time, we would definitely come to Omodos ourselves to spend a couple of days here.
We still had one vineyard to visit, and so we set off for Monolithos Winery.
Here everything was grown and produced on site. The winery was in a building surrounded by rolling grapevine-covered hills.
The setting was absolutely stunning. We had five wines here, and while they weren’t as incredible as the previous vineyards we visited, the setting definitely made up for it.
Overall we had a great day on the tour and it was incredible value at £50 each. This included travel, three wine tours and tastings, and lunch with drinks.
Saturday night in Larnaca
We got back to Larnaca at about 7pm and were ready to hit the town. We had drinks at what became our go-to pre-dinner drinks spot, To Perasma.
This place looked like someone’s living room, but with a bar inside and a couple of tables on the street. Two bottles of beer served in frozen mugs set us back £7.
Our tour guide from earlier had suggested we visit The Tudor Inn right by the medieval fort. This was an English-themed pub which we could have skipped! It did have a nice back garden though.
We considered skipping dinner for the night after so much back-to-back gluttony, but in the end decided to grab a wrap at Takis Kebab.
This was a tasty and very casual affair.
We then headed to what looked like the Camden Town of Larnaca. An area edgy in vibe with a few bars sharing a large patio space and full of people enjoying the warm evening. We made a home out of Savino’s, which had a lot of bar space to sit at as well as a massive patio space out front.
A day in Larnaca
The following day we headed for the beach again and had a late lunch at Stou Roushia.
The food was great and the patio space felt very Greek, with stone flooring, white stucco walls, and flowers lining the area.
They were incredibly busy so service was a bit slow, but everything was delicious. The house white was ridiculously cheap and generously served. The bill was less than £35.
With plans for an afternoon on the beach thwarted by the rain, we ducked for cover at the beach bar Bloom’s. This is the type of bar we would normally avoid but it was fun to grab a couple of beers sitting at the bar while we watched that rainstorm that had been brewing on the island since we arrived. I had a local hoppy lager called Eanty’s which I got to drink a couple of times over the weekend in Cyprus.
We went Greek for dinner at Valtou Rigani, opting for somewhat healthy skewers, grilled sausage, and tomato salad. The restaurant was on the modern side. Everything was served on branded parchment paper.
We headed out for the evening, but it was Sunday and Cyprus was noticeably quieter than the Saturday night. Our favourite bumping square was dead so we instead opted for a game of pool at Hot Shots.
Bars in Cyprus were very quirky. This one in particular was especially odd with its hilarious barman and a light-up jack-o-lantern. Sam beat me at pool and we had a nightcap at Savino’s before heading home.
The end of a long weekend in Cyprus
Our last day of the weekend was spent on the gloriously hot beach following the thunderstorm that Cyprus obviously needed to get out of its system. We relaxed for the whole day on our rented loungers (€5 for two chairs and an umbrella for the day) and had a quick wrap lunch at Souvlaki.gr.
We liked it so much that we picked up a couple more on our way back to the airport.
Our flight was at 7pm and with the airport only 10 minutes away we could go back to our hotel for a shower at 5pm. It’s worth noting that our hotel generously offered us an evening shower even though we had checked out in the morning. The bonus for the day was that the Larnaca airport lounge had outdoor patio seating, which is always a treat.
All in all, we had a very fun long weekend in Cyprus. The food and drink was the real highlight of the island. If we were to come back, we would definitely want to check out Paphos and also the Turkish side, but we made the right choice to stay in Larnaca when we only had a weekend in Cyprus. We would maybe venture out to a different, less convenient and more beautiful beach. We would also want to spend a full day or two around Omodos where we only got to spend an hour. The Cypriot people are friendly and welcoming, and Cyprus was a perfect long weekend away.
