Given a choice, try to avoid the fierce August heat (remember, Cyprus is just off the coast of the Middle East). If high summer is unavoidable, make sure your hotel/car has air conditioning. The autumn, too, can be remarkably hot and humid, so don’t bank on cool, pleasant weather in September or even October.
Best time to visit Cyprus
The best time to visit Cyprus, as a tourist, hiker, cyclist or lover of nature, has got to be the
spring, when skies are blue, the air is warm and balmy, the uplands are a luxuriant green, the streams and reservoirs are full of water, migrating birds fill the air and there are wild flowers everywhere.
To further refine your choice, try if possible to be in Cyprus during the Greek Easter – it’s a major celebration in the Orthodox calendar, and there are colourful events going on in towns and villages across the island. Much of this advice applies to the north as well as the south, though festivals will in general be Muslim rather than Christian, and the north coast can be cooler than the rest of the island thanks to mountain breezes from the Kyrenia Range.
During winter your experience of Cypriot life is likely to be far more authentic and less touristy, but a lot of places will be shut, and the weather will be more unsettled and even quite cold. That said, during the winter you can head to the slopes to enjoy the island’s limited skiing opportunities.
Festivals and Holidays in Cyprus
In both north and south Cyprus there are two types of
festivals and
public holidays – those associated with religion or politics and local festivals.
The south
Inevitably, given the importance of
Easter in the
Greek Orthodox Church (much more important, for example, than Christmas), a lot of the festivals relate to Easter – the run up to it, the day itself, and its aftermath. This is why Easter flights to Cyprus can be so expensive – there’ll be competition from Cypriots wanting to go home for the holiday, and it’s a great time to visit the island, with weather that’s not too hot and lots of spring flowers.
The main festivals that are celebrated across the republic are as follows.
Winter
Christmas
(Dec 25). Although never as important as Easter in the Greek Orthodox Church, Christmas is increasingly celebrated as in the rest of Europe with church services and feasting. Children go from door to door, singing the traditional “Kalanda” Christmas songs in return for small sums of money, and special Christmas sweets (such as
kourabiedes and
melomakarona) are eaten.
New Year’s Day
(Jan 1). The feast day of Agios Vassilos, New Year’s Day is celebrated by the eating of a special cake called “vassilopitta” baked the previous evening, and containing a coin which confers good luck on the person who finds it in their share.
Epiphany (Phota)
(Jan). Together with Easter, one of the biggest religious festivals in the Greek Orthodox calendar. Epiphany celebrates the baptism of Christ, and the festivities culminate on Jan 6 with the “blessing of the water” – a religious procession walks through the streets to the sea or nearest lake, a cross is ceremonially baptized by being thrown into the water, then young men dive to try to retrieve it.
Green Monday
(Feb/March). Green Monday (also known as “clean Monday” or “pure Monday”) marks the beginning of Lent, and is celebrated across the island with outdoor music, dancing, vegetarian food and kite flying. In Lemesos the period is celebrated by a full carnival lasting a fortnight, with parades and fancy-dress parties, and much drinking and eating – meat during the first week, cheese during the second.
