We have booked a holiday to northern Cyprus in early October.

We fly in to the Larnaca in the south, and intend to get a hire car when we cross over in to the north.

The area has obviously had a chequered past, which sort of concerns me but hopefully that is all in the past?

We will be staying in near a place called Girne ? on the north coast.

Has anyone been? What would recommend as things to do and see?

Ta

Been a few times to North cyprus but always flown direct and hired in the north. There are things to note. First check the hire company will allow you to take your car across the boarder. You will need to buy insurance for driving in the north which is about 35 euros but its 3rd party only.

Jonk – We will hire a car in the north to avoid the insurance issue, transfers over to the north have already been arranged.

Any must do places / things to see?

The north appeals as we have heard it isn’t ‘touristy’ compared to other places in the med etc?

keep meaning to go back.

Being a son of the military I was born there 52 years ago, left aged 3 & never been back.

What’s the temperature like there in October?

Mid 20’s 8)

October temperature is nice – just about bearable to swim in the sea and might expect a rain shower in the afternoon. Spent some time visiting the UN Peace Keeping mission and the Green Zone, including the airport – unfortunately the only places not readily accessible to tourists. Expect car hire is a problem as you’re effectively going from EU to non-EU country. Lots of cheap, knock-off stuff in the souks in the North – how many fake Rolex’s do you want?

I know it well, my Inlaws have had property out there for a long time in the Kyrenia mountains overlooking bellapais, it’s an amazing place & we’ll be out there for a few weeks in September. Temp wise in September will still be mid – high 30’s, by early October you’ll still be early 30’s late 20’s I’d have thought. We go about 2/3 times a year but fly into the north usually.

It only really drops too cold to go in the pool outside at about early / mid November.

Girne is Kyrenia, which is one of the main tourist areas to be, so you’ll be in a good location. Where are you staying? There are plenty of bars for drinks down by the harbour & in the town. They have released buzzards back into the wild in the mountains, that you can usually see circling too.

As for things to see in he local area, there is bellapais abbey, the blue house, buffavento castle, Kyrenia castle, turtle beach, vouni palace & or if the weather is a bit cooler / early in the morning St Hillarion castle, but it’s a long way up in the heat!

The Karpas peninsula is great to see the donkeys & the beaches are amazing. There are some wooden huts out there that you can hire for the night to sleep, but I can find some more details out if it’s of interest. There is a monastery over on the Karpas too dating back to the 12th century.

Alternatively, you can go the other way out toward Morfou Bay. I think it’s amazing out there. just pick up the coast road out of Kyrenia & keep going. There is a little cafe along the coast to sit by the sea & have a drink along the route and carry on out.

Famaugusta is worth a visit & Nicosia is too, but don’t go on a hot day. You can walk on foot over the green zone

its a pretty modest way of life out there, especially out of the main towns, but that’s all part of it appeal & there are some brilliant places to eat, drink & see.

Drop me a line if you want any more advice or info

ChrisA thanks for that most helpful!

I may well drop you an email when I have done a bit more digging around myself.

it will be Mrs FD and 6 yr old Jnr FD so bars / night life not an issue. More just nice beaches, mountains to explore (and hopefully for me to run in)

low key sounds good, we are not really in to busy areas.

I think the villa is roughly here

You’ll be fine where you are you’re about 10 minutes out of Kyrenia by car. The inlaws place is in the top side of Çatalköy so the other side of the main road from the beach where you are but in the mountains with a sea view. Good places to eat change pretty quickly out there & we’ll just be coming home as you go so feel free to drop me an email if needs be.

The local supermarkets stock just about everything you need too including the Efes beer, so no need to pack loads of stuff.

There are a couple of good local places where you are & turtle beach is just down the road too which is a big sandy with a nice cafe

Can only echo what’s already been said. Don’t worry about the chequered past you won’t feel any tension while you’re there. You can see evidence of it, the remains of a Russian tank in the mountains, bullet holes in the church at Famagusta and the bathroom massacre. Military bases all over the place, the one mile no-mans land with all the deserted hotels and beaches is eeery. It’s a beautiful place, very relaxed (hardly any crime) not a theme park/entertainment type holiday, unless you like gambling in the numerous 5 star hotels or the Russian mafia run strip joint out in the countryside!

They can be a bit arsey at the border crossing but treat British people well. You go through the Greek checkpoint then the Turkish side but it’s mostly a show your passport get waved through affair. Occasionally short queues at busy times, nothing to worry about though.

Drinking eating and smoking is dirt cheap over there!

The British guy who does scuba diving at Alagadi Beach is reasonably priced.

The mountain top castles St Hileron, Buffavento and Kantara are worth a visit if you like that sort of thing. It’s refreshingly cooler up there in the mountains!

The Roman city at Salamis is worth a visit if you like history.

I’ll stop short of recommending places to eat as they can be variable from year to year, depending on owners, chefs, same as here.

The only downside is the Turks lax attitude toward rubbish in some public places. Particularly the public barbecuing spots you can identify by the billowing smoke! Oh and if you like H&S supervised safe environments you don’t get much of that!

Didn’t do any biking when I was there 😥 there must be loads to go at though!

ChrisA, or others.

I had intended to do some running whilst out there, but I am now injured, however I can still bike.

What is road riding like? Can you hire decent road bikes anywhere? Or are the roads best avoided?

Thanks

Well just back from the week in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

Had a lovely week in a quiet corner of the island in a village called Camlibel. Chris A – Not where I originally said I would be!

I didn’t do any biking in the end, mainly from being unable to source a bike!

Thoughts – I would avoid Kyrenia, horrible big city/town. Once out of Kyrenia though you get some great traditional villages.

I saw a handful of people on decent mtbs, but they were all on road. The range of hills behind Kyrenia are stunning, and have fantastic road running along them that would be great for road riding. Country roads would also be pleasant for road riding, but the main coastal strip is not great.

Off road – there is allegedly an off road route running coast to coast, we looks like it would be an amazing ride, but I couldn’t actually locate it physically. All the ‘nice’ off road areas had Army camps in them, so were no go areas.

It does look as though a walking/biking/nature area is being developed just outside Camlibel at a dam.

However the ‘routes’ are all just 4×4 tracks that have been bulldozed in to the hill side, so are not challenging skill wise, but are very very steep in places! Note all the rubbish though in the first picture, which again is literally by the side of every trail.

Walking up in the hills.

The one thing that put us off Northern Cyprus was rubbish. It is everywhere, and people do not appear to be bothered about it, or do anything to stop making it worse. 🙁

I went to the west coast as ChrisA suggested, and found Caretta ‘Turtle Beach’ which was literally a rubbish dump, the picture doesn’t show just how bad it is. 🙁

It is very much like Northumberland, but hot sea and temperatures, if you can put up with the rubbish.

The remains of one tank at turtle beach.