Cyprus Ports

Cyprus sits where three continents meet, and its harbours have mattered for as long as anyone has been sailing this end of the Mediterranean. The island today keeps two working commercial ports and a handful of smaller harbours that are considerably more pleasant to spend an evening at. This site documents 7 ports and harbours, listed by district further down the page.

The commercial ports

The two that matter for freight and passengers are Limassol and Larnaca. Larnaca Port sits on the south-east coast and operated as little more than an open anchorage until 1973, when proper facilities were built in the area where the marina now stands. Limassol’s new port is the island’s principal cargo gateway, and its position has only grown in importance since Cyprus joined the European Union.

The old port at Limassol is the one worth walking to. Built in the 1950s under British administration as a supplement to the port at Ammochostos, it carried freight and passengers for roughly two decades and has since been given over to fishing boats, restaurants and the seafront.

The small harbours

Paphos Port is the most photographed on the island and deserves it: a stone-paved quay, a medieval castle at the end of it and fishing boats tied up in front of the restaurants. Latsi, at Polis Chrysochous, is the jumping-off point for the Akamas and for the boats that run along its coast.

Pomos, further round the north-west coast in the Paphos district, is quieter still, and Agios Georgios Harbour at Peyia is a working fishermen’s harbour that happens to sit below one of the better stretches of the west coast.

Visiting

The commercial ports are secure areas and are not places to wander around. The small harbours are the opposite — public, free, best in the hour before sunset, and the obvious place to eat fish that came in that morning. For berthing rather than looking, see Cyprus marinas.