One week to paphos, cyprus was booked.

It was my first week long solo trip. The tensions were high, and guardedly I stepped out into the humid weather, embracing the cypriot heat. It was instantly different from the UK, and I breathed it in.

Where to now?

My hotel

Please note, I was not sponsored for any of my reviews.

I stayed on the outskirts of Paphos, in an all inclusive hotel – Louis Phaethon Beach hotel.

Why I stayed in an all inclusive hotel- this was my first real solo trip abroad, and although I am sure there are other ways of women to stay safe, having transport sorted out directly to the hotel, with a documented travel route, made me feel safer. It also meant that food was sorted for every part of the trip, and if i felt too unsafe travelling anywhere at night this was available to me. Saying this, for more experienced solo travellers, I am sure this is not a necessity, but and a place to save money if you are happy to forgo this expense.

Honest opinion about the hotel

I arrived late in the afternoon, and as expected for an all inclusive hotel, they had a few people they were expecting to come their way, so there was a bit of a wait before I checked in. Once checked in, one of the staff members kindly helped me get all of my things up to the room.

The rooms were spacious and clean, however the building was much older, and therefore the room keys were physical keys, which i had not seen in some time. The pool area was genuinely beautiful, with multiple pools, with a great DJ playing most of the day, providing entertainment for both kids and adults.

By far the best part of the hotel was the staff and the food. I have yet to be more impressed with the range of food than i was with this hotel. They had themed events as you would expect from a all inclusive hotel, yet with the extra mocktails and cocktails they offered, the food was genuinely amazing. The staff were lovely. Even offering snacks to me on the days I had to leave inbetween meal times and would not be able to make lunch.

Overall a lovely hotel! I would very much stay here again. 4/5 two out of medics stars!

My 5 day solo Paphos itinerary

My best friend on this trip was get your guide.

One of the things I have found in the past, even on the shorter trips is that I love being organised. For those who have ADHD, and lack the motivation once we are on holiday, you can understand the dread of figuring out what to do once you are there. On top of this, when you are alone, and not always having someone instantly to share your journey with, or bounce ideas with can sometimes become a little lonely. Accepting this, one way I dealt with this (which worked for me), was to plan what I would be doing and booking tours before getting there. For me, this built up excitement annd so much happiness even before I get to be on a new adventure.

Day 1

Tour: From Paphos: Troodos Mountains & Villages Guided Day Trip

Website: https://www.getyourguide.com/paphos-l426/100-cyprus-troodos-mountains-and-villages-from-paphos-t490889/

This has to be one of the most valuable and cost friendly tours that I have been on. An 8 hour tour, which encompassed many things, and gave a really nice taste of traditional cyprus.

The tour itself had the following itinerary, please see below for further details.

• Aprodite’s rock
• Old village in the Troodos Mountains
• Monastary
• Milomeris waterfall
• Wine tasting

1. Aphrodites Rock (petra tou Romiou)

IF you have read any of my previous posts, i think you may have figured out that I have a soft spot for legends and myths, and the fantasy that comes along with this. Pair this with history, and architecture and in comes my personal paradise.

Aphrodite’s rock is the supposed birth place of Aphrodite. The cypriot name roughly translates to rock of the roman.

The myth says that Aphrodite was born from the foam of the Mediterranean sea, and carried to the beach here by the waves, at which point she emerged born (supposedly from the remains of Uranus’s genitals after being castrated by Cronus – you learn something new everyday!). This specific section of the beach was named Aphrodite’s rock (or rocks) as the foam that forms here is a reminder of the original story. The local legend says that if you swim around this rock, will be blessed with eternal beauty.

We came on a rather windy day, as you can see. So it was a little bit more chilly, but we got the beautiful views for ourselves, with no tourists around.

The little tunnel that lead up to the sea and the rocks, makes you almost feel like part of a movie.

2. Omodos and Lofou villages in the Troodos mountains

The Troodos mountains are the largest mountain range in Cyprus, with its peak being mount Olympus.

Definitely worth a visit especially if you are in Paphos, as the cost of travelling here is very reasonable. It is about an hour from Paphos, and rising to 1952m in height, it has wetter and cooler weather than that of main cyprus. The tour took us to one of the traditional villages Lofou.

Lofou is one of the traditional villages, with only around 50 inhabitants. You can see the old school, which has now been shut down and made into a museum as has the old town hall.

The village still has some small shops and cafes, which are very sweet, and reminiscent of a mix of cypriot and turkish influences. We stopped at a cafe, during which we saw a little old lady making cypriot coffee, men playing cards annd gambling, and general life just flowing by. It was a really nice place to stop and just enjoy the moment in, and appreciate what we have today.

Omodos village is a bit further into the mountain, and is well known for its wine making as well as the Monastary- the Timios Stavros Monastary.

The oldest church or monastary in Cyprus, is also known as the Holy Cross Monastarty. The name comes from a story which tells a tale of people spotting a fire in the region of where the church is now, once they went to it, there was no fire to be found. This phenomenon occured for several days, until they dug in the area to find a cave, with a cross inside. To be thankful to God, a chapel was built here, which then expanded to the monastary which has been renovated since with this ongoing to today. Sadly we arrived on a rainy day, which meant we could not appreciate this to its full capacity, however we did enjoy our visit there.

3. Milomeris Waterfall

4. wine tasting

I won’t lie, I have never been too much of a wine person, often finding wine too dry or perhaps not understanding the components of wine. This was a definite game changer for me.

Cyprus is one of the oldest countries to produce wine. Omodos is the centre of wine tasting in Cyprus. This was a lovely experience, and very fun. My favourite by far was the local sweet wine production called Commandaria. The wine known as the wine of Gods and Kings.

Overall this tour was the most comprehensive tour and well worth the visit from Paphos. Price wise it is roughly £40 per person (but prices vary at different times of the year). Really worth it for a full day tour!

Also a great tip for solo travellers who aren’t staying in hostels, I met some of the friends i made for the rest of the trip on this tour!

Day 2

1. Paphos Zoo

Well well worth the visit! Depending on how slowly you want to take the day, this is 100% worth it especially if you love animal interactions (very animal friendly, and no animal abuse is involved here, double checked!)

Paphos Zoo offers bus transfers for most places, but check that this is available for your hotel, as it was not for mine. Buses don’t really travel to that area on the weekends, so taxi was the only option for me to get there. However from the centre of the city bus transfers provided by the company are available and can be booked online and is worth checking out.

This was genuinely a wonderful day. Aside from the normal visible animals. the animal interactionns caught my gaze the most. There are two main animal interactions here.

1. lemur walk in.

This was genuinely chaotic. For only 5 euros (you must have cash for the interactions). It was wonderful to feed the lemurs, They come and jump on top of you and are not scared at all. they are very curious animals.You are given a small fruit bowl and enter this. It is very safe, and are given some cleaning gel afterwards to clean up. It was really fun!

2. The elephant walk in

This one really pulled at my heart strings. The elephant they have here is a rescue from Bangladesh. She is very young and was rescued with another elephant from a logging company, who had separated the elephant baby from its mother too early and was being used to take logs from one end to another. The elephant that she was rescued with sadly had too many injuries and died. However, this little lady, was going strong.

She has a tyre with her, and as she is essentially a teenager, apparently uses it as a safety blanket, and is very protective over it. The zoo says they walk her prior to the opening of the zoo for an hour and is allowed to walk around wherever she pleases, with her carer walking with her. From what i could see no animal cruelty overtly, but happy to be corrected if this was not the case.

Roughly speaking the prices for this was 50 euros for up to 4-5 people.

Paphos Harbour castle

Day 3

The tomb of the Kings

One of the UNESCO heritage sites of paphos, this is a 3rd century tomb, made for aristocrats and high end officials, did not actually contain any Kings. The tombs were made to look like homes, and are very impressive some with collumns and pillars. It is a very interesting site, and has huge similarities to the tombs found in Alexandria (suggestion of some Egyptian influence here). Definitely worth a look. The site is very big, and i recommend wearing comfortable footwear, as there are lots of steps and uneven ground!

Day 4

Beach day + archaeological park

There are about 100 beautiful beaches in Paphos. The sun shines high, and it a shame to miss this. This is a beach called Coral Bay. The water is crystal clear here, and genuinely i loved the relaxing time.

Archaeological park of Kato Pafos

Although Cyprus is not part of Greece, it was once upon a time part of ancient Greece.

One of these cities has been well preserved since thought to since the middle ages. 4 main houses – the house of Dionysos, the house of Aion, the house of Thesus and the house of Orpheus.

This is a brilliant site, where the mosaics on the floor have been restored and translated to tell stories. An amazing look into the culture that has been there for such a long time. A great place to visit for history or ancient greek lovers!

Final day

The second and final tour of the trip. Sadly this tour is no longer available. However I will go over the key places we visited!

• EDRO III shipwreck
• Blue lagoon (paphos) + snorkelling
• Aphrodite’s baths

EDRO III Shipwreck

Although a recommended stop for many tourists, probably one that I would be happy to leave off if i was to do this itinerary again. The ship itself broke down in 2011, and is too expensive to move, and so was left there, and is used as a tourist site today. Luckily there were only 7 people on the ship at the time, and all of them survived!

Blue lagoon (paphos)

I mean look at that water! It is genuinely crystal clear!

well worth the visit on this trip! The water was much colder than the weather and perfect for a dip! I can’t recommend a trip here enough!!!

Aphrodite’s Baths

Aphrodite’s Baths Restaurant

There are many restaurants arounnd this area, but this was part of the tour. I cannot explain how beautiful the view is around here. It is worth the visit, just to sit there and take it in. I found the food here rather expensive, but very nice!

ALL IN ALL…

Paphos is a beautiful city, with so much culture, history, beauty and adventure, Many people do stay for longer, and I would have loved to see more of Cyprus. But I managed to fit lots into this little week. Would you see anything else?! Let me know what i’ve missed!