Nissi Avenue Ayia Napa

Meze feasts are a highlight of a trip to Cyprus and there are a number of excellent traditional restaurants to be found in Ayia Napa. Cypriot cuisine is very similar to Greek food, however it also features Middle Eastern, Italian and Turkish influences.

Here are some great places to enjoy Cypriot specialities in Ayia Napa…

Tony’s Taverna

This traditional Cypriot restaurant serves mouth-watering meze and regional dishes. Located on Nissi Avenue, among the bars and clubs, the restaurant is quite a hidden gem and very popular among locals and clued up tourists.

Dinners for large groups in Cyprus usually consist of a steady flow of 20 to 25 of the restaurant’s best small dishes. We began each meal with warm, freshly-baked Cypriot bread served with a feta mixed salad and a selection of houmous, tahini, taromasalata, tzatziki and marinated olives.

Some of our favourite dishes included fried halloumi, potato wedges marinated in red wine, keftedes, roasted pork belly and pork strips in Antonio’s secret sauce. We also enjoyed ravani (semolina cake drenched in a sweet syrup) for dessert, followed by glyka (candied bitter orange treats) – a delicious end to the meal. Tony’s Taverna was my favourite restaurant of the trip, as every dish was incredibly tasty and the pretty ‘Mykonos style’ restaurant had lots of character and charm.

Taverna Mousikos

Taverna Mousikos is a popular restaurant located in a converted traditional village house in nearby Sotira Village. Most of the fresh ingredients come from the owner’s farm and there’s a delightful terrace for outdoor summer eating.

Happily, the menu was once again a feast of delicious meze, yet the style of cooking was slightly different to Tony’s Taverna. Moreish dishes included Cypriot Kibbeh, their signature baked halloumi, kolokasi chips, grilled mushrooms, macaroni cheese, courgettes stuffed with minced meat and bechamel, smoked pork tenderloin, snails, lamb kleftikos and pork souvlaki.

Napa Mermaid Hotel

For a pre-dinner apéritif, stop by the pretty Napa Mermaid Hotel for cocktails by the pool or in the Andama Cocktail Lounge. Recently redesigned, this slick design hotel has a cool Miami vibe and the outdoor bars are sure to be the place to chill out in the summer.

The cocktails are very affordable, particularly for a luxury hotel, and my Mai Tai was delicious and expertly-mixed. If you plan to stay for dinner, try the sleek, minimalist Flavours Restaurant – the chef’s carvery looked particularly tasty.

Sotira Village

We were treated to a real taste of Cyprus over lunch at the Sotira Village home of Mrs Rita Ioannidou. Formerly part of the Visit Cyprus team, Rita has created an enviable, idyllic life at her Mykonos-style home surrounded by stunning gardens, lemon trees and vegetable allotments.

Rita and her daughter Sophia prepared lunch while we sipped fresh home-made lemonade on the terrace and foraged for lemons, onions and herbs. The guys in our group were delegated barbecue, salad preparing and potato peeling duties, while the girls chatted over beers – an amusing gender role reversal in the still traditional Cyprus!

Our lunch banquet was epic and full of delicious flavours. We munched on feta salad, artichokes and carrots in a lemon, olive oil and dill sauce, grilled garlic mushrooms, keftedes, spicy sausage and an impressive roast rack of lamb and potatoes.

Not only is Rita a great cook with a beautiful home, she’s a real character and very hospitable. She occasionally offers cooking demonstrations and lunch for visiting groups – perfect if you want to experience a more personal side of Cyprus (just email for her contact details).

Isaac Tavern

This low-key seafront restaurant on Ayia Napa harbour specialises in fresh fish and seafood. It doesn’t look like a destination restaurant but it has a friendly, relaxed atmosphere and the food is pretty good.

We ate chargrilled sea bream, red snapper, whitebait, grilled prawns, garlic mussels, seafood rice and Cypriot potatoes (really good home-made chips). For dessert, it was sticky semolina and crushed almonds with rosewater syrup.

Looking for a stylish hotel by the beach in Ayia Napa or nearby Protaras? Read my reviews of the five star luxury Grecian Park Hotel and the peaceful four star Nissi Beach Resort.

All photos by Chérie City (except Napa Mermaid Hotel)

Chérie City was a guest of Visit Cyprus

Ayia Napa has the reputation of a hedonistic party town – an alternative to Ibiza where the UK garage scene migrated and took over the beach bars and clubs in the summers of the late nineties. The clubbing scene is still going strong in the summer – it’s now all about dubstep – but there’s so much more to Ayia Napa than raving and cheap fishbowl cocktails…

Out of the high season, Ayia Napa is peaceful, quiet and warm without being blisteringly hot. There are few tourists, so it’s a chance to enjoy the uncrowded beaches, get a decent table at the best restaurants and chat with the ever-so-friendly locals.

The main strip on Nissi Avenue is very commercial and not the prettiest resort centre I’ve visited, but there are plenty of hidden gems and picturesque spots to be found in Ayia Napa…

Ayia Napa Monastery

This is a must-see for its beautiful, historical architecture and tranquil courtyards. Originally built around 1500AD, the monastery is dedicated to ‘Our Lady of the Forests’, referencing the ancient Greek word for wooded valley, ‘napa’. A newer church was built around a cave where an icon of the Virgin Mary was said to be found and the ancient sycamore tree in the grounds is believed to be 600 years old.

Agioi Anargyroi-Konnos Trail

For an exhilarating yet easy walk with breathtaking views of the coast, try the Agioi Anargyroi-Konnos Trail at Cape Greco. Discover sea caves and vegetation such as wild asparagus and Phoenician juniper along the 1.4km route – a leisurely 30 minutes walk. Finish with a picnic of traditional Cypriot delights at Konnos Bay, prepared by the nearby Grecian Park Hotel.

Take a Boat Trip

A stay in Ayia Napa wouldn’t be complete without a boat trip. Of course there are the typical ‘booze cruises’, as seen on Sun, Sex and Suspicious Parents, but our half-day on board the Agia Trias III was a much classier affair.

We set sail from the Golden Coast harbour in Protaras and cruised, with ice-cold beers and Cypriot coffee in hand, to Cavo Maris for watersports, followed by a barbecue lunch on board. Sailor Lambros is a real hoot and looked after us well. If you’re lucky, you might see dolphins jumping out of the water alongside the boat.

Ride a Crazy UFO

Watersports are a must in Ayia Napa, as the jewel-coloured water is so inviting and calm. I loved zooming across the waves on a jet ski followed by chilling in the sun on a pedalo. The braver ones in our group tried parasailing and held on for dear life on a Flying Fish. I was coaxed into joining the others on a Crazy UFO and found it terrifying yet thrilling – not for the faint-hearted (here I am, second from the left).

Visit a Museum

Back on dry land, a fun, educational activity for the family is the Thalassa Municipal Museum of the Sea. Located in the centre of Ayia Napa in a cool, contemporary building, the museum explores the importance of the sea in Cyprus.

Visitors can marvel at ‘Kyrena II’, a life size exact replica of the ancient ship of Kyrenia, of the Classical period. Also on display are Cypriot antiquities, fossils and taxidermy models of seabirds, fish and enormous sharks.

Prophet Elias Chapel

If you’re feeling limber, climb the steep 153 steps to Prophet Elias Chapel in Protaras, where you will be rewarded with stunning views over the region. Look out for the tree of remembrance and visit later in the day to watch the sunset.

For more destination ideas, read my post on Dining in Ayia Napa, from the best traditional tavernas to stylish poolside cocktails.

All photos by Chérie City