Cave diving in Cyprus

Cyprus has no cave diving in the usual sense, but it does have a coast full of shallow sea caves, caverns and swim-throughs with daylight around Cape Greco, Protaras and Ayia Napa, mostly from the shore and guided by a local dive centre. At Pyla you dive into a cave from a boat and surface in an air chamber full of stalactites. The surface water is ~18 °C in February to ~30 °C in August, and in good conditions visibility is 20 m or more. Most dives are open to open water divers, Pyla is a cavern dive; some entries are a 1.5–3 m jump or a rocky shore, and you bring your own torch.

Don't miss

• Caves (Cape Greco): through two swim-throughs and down a large hole to Horse Shoe Cave, then out through the 'Blow Hole', past a rock shaped like Cyprus; take that exit only with a guide who knows it.
• Green Bay Cave (Protaras): caverns with corals, lionfish and moray eels, and often turtles.
• Pyla Pirate Caves (Xylofagou): per Cyprus Tourism the only place in Cyprus where you dive into a cave and surface inside a mountain, with bats in the upper cave and, with luck, a monk seal.

On a rest day

• Cape Greco National Forest Park: Walk the coastal trails to the Kamara tou Koraka natural bridge and along the clifftops above the sea caves, which can only be reached from the sea.
• Ayia Napa Monastery: A monastery from the Venetian period, partly built into the rock, with a fountain in its courtyard and a centuries-old sycamore by the south gate.
• Church of Saint Lazarus, Larnaca: A late 9th-century church over the reputed tomb of Lazarus, with a gilded, carved Baroque iconostasis.