Nicosia Transportation

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In Nicosia you can walk accross at Ledra Street, there is no public transport (public transport in the south is, particular on the weekend, not good) between north and south.
With a EU passport there should be no problem crossing.
Nikosia to Girne by Dolmus.
Hydrofoil and Ferries from Girne to Tasucu every day, to Alanya only in summer.
If you need a visa for Turkey , Immigration might insist on $ 20 instead of €15 visa fee.

Cyprus is very well served by international airlines from across Europe and the Middle East. But the main airport isn't in Nicosia. The main airport of the capital closed down in 1974, after the invasion by Turkey. That airport lies in the no-man's-land of the UN buffer zone, and is home to many an abandoned airliner.

Today the capital is served by two international airports, Larnaca and Paphos. Larnaca is the busiest, and has shuttle buses to Nicosia running every day, and all through the night on Monday's and Saturdays. The shuttle bus costs 7 euros and takes about 40 minutes. Taxis are quite expensive, and it's quite far to the airport.

In south Nicosia the bus station is in Solomus square, and is a scruffy place. There do not seem to be bus stop signs. When you ask where does the Limossol bus go from? They just say overthere. The bus was 15 minutes late arriveing so i was looking at every bus that came in. The fare to Limossol was 6 euro , and took an hour and half. There are shared taxi if you know the number ( this could be one 22 730888 ) At sept 2009 times of buses to Limossol were 7.30,8.45,10.00,11.00,12.30,14.30,15.30,16.30, and 17.30 mon to Fri. Sat and Sun they are differant.

You can take a bus directly from Larnaca Airport to Nicosia. The ticket cost CYP3.5(as of April 14, 2006). The ticket booth is the last booth inside the airport building. When you get off the airport building, walk to your left and there's a bus stop there. My bus was supposed to leave at 4pm but didn't come til about 4.20pm. The trip took about 1 hour and a half for me because I had to change a bus but usually it shouldn't take more than an hour.

I arrived at Larnaca airport on Saturday when there was no public bus service. I took a taxi to go to the Travel & Express office in Larnaca city, then took a service taxi of this company to go to Nicosia. I paid 5 Cyprus Pounds to go to the Travel & Express office but only 3.6 Pounds to go to Nicosia.

There are almost no public transports in Nicosia. I have seen a few bus stops but it took me three weeks after moving here to spot one! A friend came for a visit and acutally used it to get to the centre of town. Taxis are very inexpensive. The best way to get around is by car so I strongly suggest you hire one if you want to make the most of it.

If you are based in Nicosia then you can catch a service taxi which are shared to other towns. You have to call them in advance to book and they will pick you from wherever you are. See below for useful numbers.

Useful numbers:
Taxi in Nicosia
22 666 000
22 318 318

Taxi Express Nicosia
22 730 888

Taxi Express Larnaca
24 661 010

Most people fly to Cyprus. The only other way is to go by boat, and as most people don't have time for this, flying is pretty much essential.

If you wish to fly to Cyprus without going via an intermediary country (Turkey), then you have to fly to the Republic of Cyprus (South) as the North is not recognised by any other country that Turkey. This means that you will be flying in to either Larnaca airport (in the South East), or Paphos airport (in the South West).

Cars are completely banned in the whole of Nicosia, so if you want to get around, you have to get yourself a donkey...

Actually no, this is not true at all. I have no idea what was going on here, it is pretty unusual to see someone with a donkey in the middle of Nicosia which is why I took the picture! BTW, If you look carefully, you can see the old Venetian Walls of Nicosia behind the donkey.

Car is a great way to get around in Nicosia, the drivers there are very well mannered and if you are British, they even considerately drive on the left too (a hangup from the days when Britain controlled Cyprus). I would go so far as to say that Nicosia is by far the easiest Capital city I have ever driven in, although parking can be a little difficult sometimes if you don't know where you are going.