Introduction

The island of Cyprus has a long history including occupation by many countries including Britain. However it can trace its history much further back than most European countries through the archaeological finds which make many places on the island part of a World Heritage Site.

The island is part of the EU and a Eurozone country but it is a right hand drive country following being part of the British Empire although we did see some left hand drive vehicles in the North. Car hire is easy in the South but most companies will not let you take the car into the occupied northern area, although we heard of one company prepared to do so for a 5000€ excess. We didn’t accept their offer.

I was told, and agree that vehicles have letters followed by numbers on their registration plates. Military and UN vehicles have their own system.

Remember this as you review the pictures.

In addition most new vehicles in the south have the EU flag on the plate with CY, whereas vehicles of all ages in the North had a red border around the number plate.

We were based in Paphos, used the service buses quite a bit, travelled to Nicosia by intercity bus where we walked across the passport check point into North Nicosia [Nicosia is the last divided city in Europe], did a couple of coach trips including one to Kyrenia in the North, and hired a car to find The Cyprus Railway Museum.

In the main towns and cities in the South the road signs are in Greek and English. As you move into villages they are in Greek only, apart from brown tourist signs. In the north everything is only in Turkish. Road maps are quite out of date due to diversions etc. Main roads and motorways are well signposted in the south.

Air conditioning is essential on all vehicles due to the heat and humidity. Some hire cars are available at lower price without air conditioning. We didn’t fall into that trap either.

Most of the pictures are taken with a Nikon D5000 DSLR camera and a few are taken with my Samsung compact camera.

Service Buses

Mercedes Benz and Volvo have supplied all the town service buses in a blue livery. In Paphos they have realised the advertising potential of these buses – and are too modern for me to make many comments. More like airport buses they seat 38 with 60 standing and one wheelchair access. However if you want to use the access ramp on the middle doors for getting on or off the buses – it’s a DIY job – the ramp folding nicely into the main floor. The Mercedes had ability to take 3 numbers as part of the digital destination; the Volvos can only manage 2 digits.

Village buses are ~ 25 seat Toyota minibuses, which have an extra fold down seat in each row but in Cyprus these cannot be used as in effect there would be no aisle. These village buses replace the bigger buses on evening services in the major towns.

In Paphos region which essentially is most of the west of the island one trip costs one euro but an all day ticket costs just 2 Euros and covers all towns and villages in that area. Similar prices apply to towns like Limassol and Larnaka. It’s fair to say that buses in the south are heavily supported / financed by the government.

Timetables are published in many languages and freely available from bus stations. There are 2 bus stations in Paphos – the quite new harbour one in the tourist area and the completely opposite in the town.

We only saw one bus in non standard blue livery – a Volvo

Intercity buses

Green Buses run intercity services and again prices are similar for each area with time tables published. There are actually very few of the Green Buses available and so second hand coaches work the services. We did Paphos to Nicosia and back in a day, taking 4 to 4 and half hours each way by motorway. Cost 9 Euros return per person. If we wanted to add Limassol onto the ticket because it’s in the same region we could have bought an all day ticket for 10 Euros.

Timetables are also available on stands at termini, although the terminus at Paphos is a shed often locked between services and at Nicosia it is on the road parking. If you have suitcases – again it’s a DIY job – you have to open the sides of the vehicle and place your case in the hold.

Village buses

In the South these are nearly all Toyota minibuses as mentioned earlier although we did see a few other vehicles. In the North it is again these Toyota minibuses and also a lot of other minibuses – some in better condition than others. We didn’t do a village trip as such because the vehicles tend to lie over for hours at the village and there’s little to do in many of the villages.

We did sample the new Toyota on evening and connecting services. I wouldn’t like to say all village services run as timetabled. In Troodos we saw a bus arrive with what looked like a handful of Japanese tourists, the driver taking care to show them the bus stop for their return and the time he will leave. Very good except there is not meant to be a Sunday service and it was a Sunday.

Coaches

Think I should say very little here as modern vehicles are not my forte. Coaches seen from every known producer and they just looked like ones in the UK but drivers and passengers often close the curtains to prevent the sun shining in.

Below is a selection of 12 various coaches.