Miles of sandy beach, high-rise hotels, bright lights and bars are the hallmarks of Limassol, Cyprus's second-biggest city. It's a lively resort, even more so in September during the wine festival— and Limassol has become the island's centre for wine and spirits. Much of the old city has disappeared, in earlier times through earthquake and invasion and post 1974 under ready mix concrete. Following the fall of Famagusta to the Turks, Limassol became the best available port in south Cyprus. A tourist boom led to a major expansion and the city suburbs now extend for about 12km east along the coast. Hurried, cheap and relatively unplanned development is conspicuous everywhere and the main tourist centre, in particular, is a disfigured mish-mash of bars, restaurants, traffic and ugly neon.
Limassol does have some saving graces - the tiny old city is being revamped and gentrified and many restaurants and bars have extended their menus beyond steak and chips. But this is still a downmarket tourist town for lovers of the cheaper luxuries offered by all-in holiday hotels. There is a long beach of dark coarse sand and pebbles about 3km to the east. Dassoudi is the resort's main beach of dark grey pebbly sand with the usual facilities, changing rooms, snack bars, car park and water sports.

Set in attractive gardens on the west side of the old city, the squat, square castle of Lemosos was built in the 14th century over the remains of an earlier Byzantine fortress. Its dull outward appearance belies a rich history. Richard the Lionheart put Limassol (Lemesos) on the map when he arrived to rescue his sister and his fiancee Berengaria of Navarre, who had been shipwrecked and held here. He defeated the local ruler Komninsos, married Berengaria in the castle chapel and promptly sold the island of Cyprus to the Knights Templar. The Knights held sway for 200 years until the Genoese, then the Saracens, took Limsassol and the rest of the island in the 12th and 13th centuries. However there's not a great deal to see inside the castle. There is not even a decent view from the roof as the castle is not particularly high. In the gardens is an olive press said to date from the 7th century though it doesn't belong to the castle, it was found nearby.
You get a better appreciation of the castle in the Medieval Museum where there are plenty of interesting exhibits, many of them tranferred from Nicosia when the northern half of the capital was overrun by Turks. There are several room with thematic displays that include Ottoman pottery, suits of armour and weapons, religious artifacts and some tombstones.

Sited at the junction of Vyronos and Kaningos this is a fairly boring collection of ancient artifacts that is unlikely to impress the non-specialist visitor. There is some Mycenaeen pottery and various domestic utensils dating from neolithic times. There is also some jewellery, glassware and oil lamps but little of real interest unless you are really into this sort of thing.

Well, it's cheap to get in but once inside you quickly get to understand why. There is a less than exciting display of traditional costumes, some wood carvings, jewellery and several household utensils. The artefacts are housed in an old mansion at Agiou Andreou, not far from the city centre.

For a real taste of middle-eastern life you could do worse than visit the hammam at Loutron, near the Grand Mosque on Genethliou. It's not actually a tourist site but a working public baths in the old tradition and recently restored. Here you can get a steam bath or massage from about C£5, just the ticket after walking the streets of Limassol.

Limasol municipal gardens are a two acre oasis of calm in the centre of the town with many tropical and sub-tropical plants to enjoy. There are also plently of benches beneath the shady trees and you can get refreshments at the restaurant. There is also a kiosk selling snacks and soft drinks and a children's playground is within easy reach. The park is also home to the annual wine festival when it is overrun by merrymaking Cypriots.

Limassol is the heartland of the Cyprus wine industry and visitors have a chance to tour the town's largest distillery and brewery at KEO. The plant is on Franklin Roosevelt just beyond the old port and there is plenty of parking outside. Alternatively catch a 19 or 30 bus from the town centre. The free 30min tour starts at 10am and you get to see the beer and wine vats, the cellars and bottling plant and an interesting talk on making wine, beer, brandy and sherry. The tour ends with a wine tasting session. Though you can often just turn up to join the tour it is probably best to book in the high summer as the tours are very popular.

As a major tourist centre there is plenty in and around Limassol to entertain holidaymakers. One of the latest additions is the Time Elevator on Vasilissis. It is a virtual ride through a potted history of the island that adds roller coaster thrills to a suitably dumbed down commentary. Other places place popular with families are the giant water theme parks. There are two in Limassol but the most convenient and popular is the Wet 'n Wild water park set back from the tourist strip. There are the usual raft rides and wave pools. Near Limassol is the huge Fasouri Watermania, the biggest on Cyprus, with about 30 slides set on a 25 acre site.

Accommodation
There's the wide range of hotels and apartments available in Limassol but almost all of them are spread along the 9km tourist strip and almost all cater mainly for package holiday bookings. There are a few however in the old town with the cheapest to be found to the east of the castle and many only have basic facilities. The best hotels are found in the north east at the end of the tourist strip.

Eating out
There are a huge number of restaurants in Limassol and, like the hotels, are strictly divided between Cypriot and tourist. The main beachside tourist strip is jammed with burger and chip restaurants and cheep lager bars while the old town has more authentic Cypriot cuisine at more reasonable prices. Cypriot food is similar to Greek and Turkish meals.

Pubs and clubs
Limassol boasts of being a city that never sleeps and there is no end of discos and clubs. Enough for a different one every night even on a month-long holiday. The same goes for the bars, most of them noisy and lively, catering for the younger tourist crowd. There are the usual British style pubs for those missing home.

Transport
The city bus station is on Georgiou Gennadiou, near the municipal market where there are buses to the port, Kolossi and the main tourist strip. The Cyprus Tourist office has a useful timetable. There are also daily buses from the castle to Kourion and to Governor's Beach. As for visiting local sights you are best hiring a car. Public services are few and infrequent.
There are daily inter-city bus services to Nicosia from the bus stop north of the castle and services to Larnaka from the old fishing harbour. Daily buses to Paphos leave from the Panikos kiosk on the main promenade and from the old fishing harbour. For details and prices visit the tourist office in the old harbour.
Service taxis are also common with regular runs to Nicosia, Larnaka and Pafos. your hotel will have the details and taxis will usually pick you up from the hotel on the way.

Money
There is no shortage of banks and ATMs in both the city centre and along the tourist strip. Many people will accept English money if a small tip is thrown in.

Limassol Town is not known for its good beaches. Sands are long and flat with regimented lines of sun loungers. Much has been done to make the seafront area reasonably attractive with small parks and green spaces. Limassol beaches are dominated by all-inclusive hotels which means heaving bodies and massed ranks of sunbeds with endless watersports and other beach diversions. It is Blackpool with knobs on and, if you don't enjoy the crowds or yearn for more than the hotel-pool-beach-pool-hotel walkabout, then you will need a car or bike. For the best sands Limassol visitors will need a car.

Governor's Beach
The name derives from a former British governor who spent much of his time sunning himself here, such were the demands of high office. This beach is about 30km east of Limassol and well beyond the city tourist strip, but it is still popular enough to get a daily bus service. The beach lies down some steps well off the main Nicosia/Limasol highway at the bottom of white cliffs, which are in sharp contrast to the dark sand below that gets very hot in high summer.
It's a pleasant enough beach with a couple of restaurants and some small hotels. The outlook is spoiled by the presence of the huge Vasilikos power station some 3km towards Lemesos but it is easily enough ignored. There is a campsite here although most of the spaces seem to be filled with caravans rather than tents.
The waters are shallow so it's fine for children and there is an area of spectacular white rocks for those who like snorkeling. There are also many good walks on nature trails in the hills nearby. There are several attractive villages within a short drive including Pentakomo, the interesting and newly discovered neolithic site at Mesovouni and the monastery of Aghios Georgios Alamanos where the nuns will sell you flowers and plants. There are several small sandy bays here with tavernas above.

The British have a large military base here thanks to a deal done when the island became independent in 1960. The new-born republic ceded 158sq km of territory on the Akrotiri peninsular and another large area at Dhekelia, west of Ayia Napa. The lands are called Sovereign Base Areas (SAB). British expats occupy virtually the whole of the Akrotiri peninsular and housing layouts are reminiscent of home counties England - they even have cricket pitches. British squaddies use the local beaches and regular punch-ups with locals were notorious before a big clampdown on troop behaviour.
The southern end of the peninsular, near the military garrisons, is out of bounds to visitors but there are giant-sized antennae under which you can drive, though you are not allowed to stop. Beaches are open to the public and Akrotiri village has a few pleasant tavernas. Villagers here have the dubious privilege of dual nationality. Other than that there are only salt flats, citrus plantations and the beaches.

Lady's Mile Beach
The beach was named after a anothere former governor who rode his mare here. It is a 7km stretch of undeveloped flat sand that stretches down the east coast of the Akrotiri peninsular from Lemesos port to the RAF base. It is sandwiched between the sea and Akrotiri salt lake behind, a stopping off point for migratory birds and a winter home for thousands of flamingoes. It is accessible to the public though there are no buses.
The beach is made up of a series of parallel sand ridges. There is very little vegetation because the surface is so close the salt water-table so you get very little in the way of shade. The port end of the beach is mostly pebble, but the other end is fine sand with a shallow incline into the water, making it suitable for toddlers and weak swimmers. There are half a dozen restaurants spaced along its length.

Button Beach
Further south is Button Beach where small coastal sand dunes have grown and there is some low vegetation. It's an unspoilt area and popular with Cypriots. On the edge of the salt lake is the oddly named Holy Monastery of St Nicholas of the Cats, first built in AD327 and so named after the many cats that were bred there to rid the area of snakes. The snakes have mostly gone but there are still plenty of cats to be seen and just four nuns in residence. There is also, not surprisingly, now a cat sanctuary in Akrotiri village.

Kourion Beach
The eastern side of the Akrotiri peninsular is mostly inaccessible cliffs until you reach the village of Episkopi and Kourion or Curium beach some 17km from Limassol. It's a long swathe of exposed sand and pebble within the British Sovereign Base Area. It is popular enough to get a daily bus service and three big beach tavernas provide facilities for visitors. The southern end of the beach is unsafe for all but the strongest swimmers and prominent signs warn of the dangers but the northern end is good. Access is easy enough for the visitors like to drive their unsightly 4X4s onto the sands. The main attraction of the area though is the spectacular archaeological site, one of the best and most visited on the island and many combine a walk around the ruins with a day on the sands. (see Limassol sights)

Heading west along the coast leads to several interesting sights. Drivers take the old B6 coast road or the A1 highway depending on their inclination and how quickly they want to reach the resorts.

Avdimou Beach
Some 16km west of Kourion beach is Avdimou. It is wide and sandy and more protected than Kourion and much safer for swimming, but there is little in the way shade. It is mostly a huge expanse of sand with some stone hugging the shoreline and too big to ever get crowded, though RAF squaddies favour the beach. The sea is shallow here and good for children. There is no bus service though, so a car is needed for a visit. The Kyrenis beach taverna opens in the summer with the usual basic menu.

Melanda Beach
Near to Avdimou and signposted from the main road is Melanda beach, a small shelf of sand and pebble. It's biggest problem is the seaweed which heaps up on the shoreline at this rather exposed spot. A sandstone bluff at the western end offers some shelter and there is windsurfing and jet skis for the visiting squaddies to play around on. The beach is mostly shingle with some sand at the eastern end. The Melanda Beach restaurant provides facilities but it's mainly fish and chips for the troops.

Pissouri Bay
The most popular beach along this stretch of coastline is Pissouri Bay, 10km west of Avdimou and midway between Limassol and Pafos. Package tour companies have set up here but it is still a pleasant enough beach. There are two distinct communities. Pissouri village is about 3km up the steep hillside and a working village with a mix of farmers and British ex-pats. Several bars and tavernas now hold popular Cyprus nights and recently the village has added a new theatre.
The beach area is very much a tourist resort, with numbers swelling to more than 1,000 each summer. The centre of the beach is the busiest with a large array of sun-loungers serviced by a narrow paved walkway. The beach sweeps around the bay for a kilometre in both directions, flanked by low rock cliffs on both sides. It's mainly shingle and pebbles in the middle with sand elsewhere. There are the usual water sports and tavernas.
Pissouri is a popular winter holiday location too with tavernas open for the new year. Holiday villages and apartments are springing up everywhere and the area is in danger of overdevelopment. At the moment though it is still a relatively tasteful resort.

Petra tou Romiou
Around 7km west of Pissouri is Petra Tou Romiou (Romios Rock) also known as Aphrodite Beach, so called because Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, supposedly emerged from the sea here. The rock is a massive boulder sitting in the sea, though some visitors are confused by the larger fan-shaped rocks at the other end of the beach. The actual Petra tou Romiou is the one furthest west and about 1km from the car park.
The Greek folk hero Digenis Akritas is reputed to have kept marauding Saracens at bay by heaving the rocks into the sea and destroying the enemy's ships. Romios is another word for Greek so the name literally translates as Rock of the Greek.
Apart from looking at a rock there's not much to do, though many come for the spectacular sunsets, best viewed from a tourist pavilion built for the purpose and complete with gift shop. There is a passable pebble beach here which splays out each side of the rock but it shelves very steeply and strong currents make it one for decent swimmers only. An underground tunnel leads to a cafe and car park across the road.

The medieval Kolossi castle is a major tourist attraction about 10km west of Limossol on the edge of the village of the same name. As a castle it's not particularly interesting, its is more of a tower house. There is a rooftop walkway but even this is in not particularly high - despite the Kolossi tag - and there's not much to see beyond Akrotiri. The present building dates from the 14th century. It was probably built over an earlier structure by Louis de Magnac whose coat of arms can be found on one of the walls.
You enter over a drawbridge into some large chambers and a spiral staircase leading to the upper level and then to the roof. The rooms are bare and empty so there's not much atmosphere to the place. To the east of the castle is a large and impressive wharehouse that was used at one time to process sugar cane.

Hordes of visitors descend daily on the settlement built on a high bluff overlooking the sea. If you prefer not to see it crawling with camera-bedecked tourists it's best to come early morning or early evening. For most of the day it is heaving and many day excursions combine it with nearby Kolossi Castle and sanctuary of Apollo Ylatis. A prosperous settlement since 1400BC it was expanded under the Romans and the centre of an Apollo cult.
It is dominated by the magnificent 3,500-seater amphitheatre built in 5th century AD, now reconstructed and still in use for open-air music festivals. The apostle St Paul is said to have preached here. The views of the sea, fields and hillside are breathtaking.
Nearby is the House of Eustolios with remarkably preserved mosaics. Built on the ruins of an earlier palatial private residence, which was destroyed by earthquakes, the present house dates from 4th-7th century AD with more than 30 rooms. An early Christian basilica also has mosaics as does the House of the Gladiators, so called because of the mosaic motifs of fighters in combat dress. Kourion has suffered invasion and earthquake. including one in 365 AD that reduced much of it to rubble. Reconstruction has also been haphazard with mismatched columns and other parts looking curiously new. Much of the treasures excavated here are now found in museums in the US and Germany.

About 2km west of Kourion is Apollo Ylatis, the sister site of the ancient Kourion and well signposted off the main road. As Apollo was god of the woods you might expect a few more trees but there is precious little vegetation now and the scattered ruins can look a little forlorn. The remains are mainly Roman and the site was leveled in the massive earthquake in 365. The main sanctuary has been partially restored and looks strangely odd as a result. You can also make out a sports arena, baths and priests quarters. There was once a stadium here seating 6,000 spectators but there is little to be seen of it now.

This quiet and unassuming village lies about 14km west of Limassol, in an ideal spot to explore this part of the coastline and the archeological sites. It makes for a good alternative to those who prefer to give the hotel strip of Lemossos a wide berth. The village has a good museum with lots of terracotta pottery from local archeological sites signposted off the main road. It is a large village of about 4,000 people with a wide variety of tavernas, coffee shops and several minimarkets. It's about 15 minutes drive time from Limassol and 40 minutes from Pafo. The beach at Kourion (Curium) is a five minute drive.

Once one of the island's ancient kingdoms, Amathous is now a vast area of ruins that are hardly recognisable as an ancient city. Scholars are unsure of its origins (some say 300BC) but it flourished until the 10th century. Archaelogists have uncovered an acropolis, temple, forum, harbour, basilica and two necropoles. The temple to Aphrodite dates to 100AD and recent excavations have uneatherd city walls and gates. Most of the important finds have been hauled off to museums around the world. Today the site looks a desolate mess. Many of the orginal carved limestone blocks used in building were transported to Egypt or used by neighbouring villages to build homes. But once this was a wonder of the world and one of the reasons Cyprus was once known as Amathousia.

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