Troodos Mountains holidays
The peaceful Troodos Mountains risked falling silent due to depopulation – but responsible tourism is helping to revive some small communities.
The Troodos Mountains, Cyprus’s largest mountain range, cover a third of the island. And while they are seemingly uniformly pine-covered, they are remarkable multifaceted. This a place where you can climb Mount Olympus (1,952m: so high that it has Europe’s most southerly ski resort), or visit a church painted floor to ceiling in Byzantine frescoes – one of ten UNESCO-listed churches in the area. You can even see the bottom of the prehistoric ocean, captured in the rock that comprises the mountain slopes. There are hundreds of plant species – so many that there’s a botanical garden dedicated to them – including some truly ancient pines and junipers. The mountains were once the site of copper and asbestos mining – to the extent that copper’s name in the ancient world meant ‘metal from Cyprus’. Now, though, the mountains are the place to go for walking, cycling, a peaceful painting retreat – or just, a place to relax.
Because the Troodos have long been a retreat. Monasteries were built here to be far from the temptations of the towns and closer to heaven. They are also closer to the cooler air – a reason that many Cypriots go into the mountains in summer. You might also feel like you are retreating from the loudness of the modern world as you move away from the coastal resorts – towards monasteries, mountain villages, and the possibility of seeing the rare Cyprus mouflon.
Yet by the start of the 21st century, these mountains risked retreating into silence. There was a mass exodus from the island after Turkish forces invaded in 1974. With few economic opportunities in many inland towns, young people have been leaving for decades.
The Troodos Mountains, Cyprus’s largest mountain range, cover a third of the island. And while they are seemingly uniformly pine-covered, they are remarkable multifaceted. This a place where you can climb Mount Olympus (1,952m: so high that it has Europe’s most southerly ski resort), or visit a church painted floor to ceiling in Byzantine frescoes – one of ten UNESCO-listed churches in the area. You can even see the bottom of the prehistoric ocean, captured in the rock that comprises the mountain slopes. There are hundreds of plant species – so many that there’s a botanical garden dedicated to them – including some truly ancient pines and junipers. The mountains were once the site of copper and asbestos mining – to the extent that copper’s name in the ancient world meant ‘metal from Cyprus’. Now, though, the mountains are the place to go for walking, cycling, a peaceful painting retreat – or just, a place to relax.
Because the Troodos have long been a retreat. Monasteries were built here to be far from the temptations of the towns and closer to heaven. They are also closer to the cooler air – a reason that many Cypriots go into the mountains in summer. You might also feel like you are retreating from the loudness of the modern world as you move away from the coastal resorts – towards monasteries, mountain villages, and the possibility of seeing the rare Cyprus mouflon.
Yet by the start of the 21st century, these mountains risked retreating into silence. There was a mass exodus from the island after Turkish forces invaded in 1974. With few economic opportunities in many inland towns, young people have been leaving for decades.
Cycling in the Troodos mountains, Cyprus
Self-guided cycling & cultural holiday in Troodos
From
€810
7 days
ex flights
Troodos mountains self guided walking holiday
Troodos mountains walking holiday in Cyprus
From
£830
8 days
ex flights
Cyprus painting holiday
Full board art holiday based in Cyprus mountain village
From
€950
7 days
ex flights
Short break in the Troodos mountains, Cyprus
Walking or cycling & culture in Cyprus' mountain villages
From
€315
4 days
ex flights
Hiking in the Troodos mountains, Cyprus
Self-guided hiking and cultural holiday in Troodos, Cyprus
From
€625
5 days
ex flights
Contact Us
Call us for a chat about our holidays. We are happy to discuss your holiday and help in any way we can. No bots, queues or awful hold music.
01273 823 700
Call us until 6pm
Calling from outside the UK
I can absolutely categorically say that without us other villagers wouldn’t have been able to restore their homes – you need something to kickstart it.![]()
A revived village
In 2008, the village of Kalopanayiotis had just 200 elderly residents, down from around 1,500 people. John Papadouris, returning to his childhood home after years of working abroad, wanted to save his village – and set about opening a hotel to encourage its revival. He fixed up ruined buildings and helped other residents apply for EU grants to do the same. That same year, he opened Casale Panayiotis, a hotel that now supports a whole ecosystem of makers and producers in the surrounding area.
“We source our cheese and cured meat from a local butcher, we work with the local baker to source the bread, we work with the man from the village who has beehives to produce honey. We’re partnering with the local community to help this revival,” says Alexa Papadouris, John’s daughter, who is now the owner and director. “It’s quite interesting that regenerative hospitality is on the rise but we didn’t even know the term at the beginning of our journey,” she says. “We just know the area, we love it and want to regenerate it, and we have sought ways to do that that are true to its history.” The locality has a history of sulphur bathing, which the hotel has honoured with a spa.
If you’re worried this sounds a bit too much like the Disneyfication of a village for the benefit of tourists alone, think again. “We’re extremely popular with local people,” says Alexa. “Fifty to sixty percent of our business is with residents of the island. When a guest comes to us from abroad, they are staying in a place with local people. It’s not a silo, it’s not a resort – people sitting at the table will invariably be Cypriot or long-term residents of the island.”
The hotel has even helped build a nursery – for there are now young people staying and raising families, both here and in neighbouring villages.
“We source our cheese and cured meat from a local butcher, we work with the local baker to source the bread, we work with the man from the village who has beehives to produce honey. We’re partnering with the local community to help this revival,” says Alexa Papadouris, John’s daughter, who is now the owner and director. “It’s quite interesting that regenerative hospitality is on the rise but we didn’t even know the term at the beginning of our journey,” she says. “We just know the area, we love it and want to regenerate it, and we have sought ways to do that that are true to its history.” The locality has a history of sulphur bathing, which the hotel has honoured with a spa.
If you’re worried this sounds a bit too much like the Disneyfication of a village for the benefit of tourists alone, think again. “We’re extremely popular with local people,” says Alexa. “Fifty to sixty percent of our business is with residents of the island. When a guest comes to us from abroad, they are staying in a place with local people. It’s not a silo, it’s not a resort – people sitting at the table will invariably be Cypriot or long-term residents of the island.”
The hotel has even helped build a nursery – for there are now young people staying and raising families, both here and in neighbouring villages.
East of the mountains
“The area we’re in is probably the lowest inhabited area of southern Cyprus – unlike the Troodos Mountains, which have many villages and a high number of tourists. Ten, 15, 20 buses a day go up there in summer. We don’t have anything.”
Our partner Fire Gallery are based in the village of Agioi Vavatsinias, on the edge of the mountains, where founder and owner Tim Price runs art retreats and walking trips. As well as bringing tourism income to a quiet area of the island, Tim, a sculptor, and his team support refugee artists who live here, helping them monetise their work by printing it on tote bags, posters and postcards.
“People don’t want to spend €300-400 on a painting, but they will spend €3 or €4 on a poster,” explains Tim. Tourists who stay in the village for a retreat become part of a growing art community: they can buy work from displaced artists and learn about everything from spoon carving to portraiture – from local residents.
“We’re an act of art community,” says Tim. “We’re trying to attract artists to come and live in the village. our village used to have 500 people and now it’s only 70. We have a personal goal to have five full-time artists in the village over the next few years.”
Our partner Fire Gallery are based in the village of Agioi Vavatsinias, on the edge of the mountains, where founder and owner Tim Price runs art retreats and walking trips. As well as bringing tourism income to a quiet area of the island, Tim, a sculptor, and his team support refugee artists who live here, helping them monetise their work by printing it on tote bags, posters and postcards.
“People don’t want to spend €300-400 on a painting, but they will spend €3 or €4 on a poster,” explains Tim. Tourists who stay in the village for a retreat become part of a growing art community: they can buy work from displaced artists and learn about everything from spoon carving to portraiture – from local residents.
“We’re an act of art community,” says Tim. “We’re trying to attract artists to come and live in the village. our village used to have 500 people and now it’s only 70. We have a personal goal to have five full-time artists in the village over the next few years.”
Now there are so many running races and people on the trails. And they regard us as the people who introduced them to their own trails.![]()
Discovering forgotten trails
Inland Cyprus is threaded with paths. They connect villages, but where once the main mode of transport was on foot or by donkey, now, with Cyprus’ very good road network, these paths have fallen out of use.
Tourism – and the rise of active and adventure tourism – has revived interest in these old ways. Old paths are being rediscovered and mapped. Alexa’s team has mapped the routes around their village for walkers and cyclists. Others have even larger ambitions.
“I’m South African and I started trail running there, but most of my life I’ve been a foreign correspondent. Wherever I went, I found the trails – I was always looking for trails,” says Bryan Peazon. “Then I got to Cyprus and found an amazing number of trails with no one on them. With my wife, I started Cyprus Trail Runners, and started promoting trail running on the trails, organising races and routes. Now there are so many races and people on the trails. And they regard us as the people who introduced them to their own trails.”
Bryan guides walking, trekking and running holidays for Fire Gallery. He and partner Christelle de Jager have rediscovered existing trails and even improved some of the routes through their extensive exploration. The E4, for instance, one of Europe’s 12 long-distance trails, runs across the island from Larnaca to Paphos, but sticks mostly to asphalt, gravel and well-established forest trails. “It’s really soul destroying… you’ve got a 20km stretch of tarmac that’s not much fun,” says Bryan. Instead, he can take guests on largely unknown routes.
“We made a race called Sea-to-Sky Cyprus,” says Bryan. “You start at the ocean and you run up to the highest point. It’s a 135km race. It’s a beautiful route, we worked it out ourselves. We go through some villages but mostly we go to the remote areas far from the tourist areas, through the mountain valleys and up and up. That’s what we want from the trekking too – to explore these magnificent trails.”
Beyond asbestos and frescos, there is new life in the mountains, and people who can’t wait to show it to you.
Tourism – and the rise of active and adventure tourism – has revived interest in these old ways. Old paths are being rediscovered and mapped. Alexa’s team has mapped the routes around their village for walkers and cyclists. Others have even larger ambitions.
“I’m South African and I started trail running there, but most of my life I’ve been a foreign correspondent. Wherever I went, I found the trails – I was always looking for trails,” says Bryan Peazon. “Then I got to Cyprus and found an amazing number of trails with no one on them. With my wife, I started Cyprus Trail Runners, and started promoting trail running on the trails, organising races and routes. Now there are so many races and people on the trails. And they regard us as the people who introduced them to their own trails.”
Bryan guides walking, trekking and running holidays for Fire Gallery. He and partner Christelle de Jager have rediscovered existing trails and even improved some of the routes through their extensive exploration. The E4, for instance, one of Europe’s 12 long-distance trails, runs across the island from Larnaca to Paphos, but sticks mostly to asphalt, gravel and well-established forest trails. “It’s really soul destroying… you’ve got a 20km stretch of tarmac that’s not much fun,” says Bryan. Instead, he can take guests on largely unknown routes.
“We made a race called Sea-to-Sky Cyprus,” says Bryan. “You start at the ocean and you run up to the highest point. It’s a 135km race. It’s a beautiful route, we worked it out ourselves. We go through some villages but mostly we go to the remote areas far from the tourist areas, through the mountain valleys and up and up. That’s what we want from the trekking too – to explore these magnificent trails.”
Beyond asbestos and frescos, there is new life in the mountains, and people who can’t wait to show it to you.
Four ways to experience the Troodos Mountains
Walking & running
The walking ranges from relaxed strolls between villages and vineyards to more demanding trekking, and even a four peaks challenge, which involves climbing Cyprus’s highest mountains: Kionia (1,447m), Papoutsa (1,554m), Madari (1,613m), and Chionistra (also called Mount Olympus, 1,952m). Cyprus is suitable for tailor made, self guided walking holidays, as well as more structured small group trips.
Cycling
“The cycling was amazing,” says traveller Jan Lucas, who went on our Troodos Mountains cycling holiday. “My husband is a frequent cyclist, and I'm not so I took the e-bike option and paced him up the many steep hills. The mountains have many tracks suitable for bikes, and the roads were extremely quiet during the week (and no potholes).”
Art retreats
The Troodos Mountains are famous for their UNESCO-listed painted churches, the interiors of which are covered in iconography – the tradition of icon-painting lives on in Cyprus to this day. It’s just one discipline encountered on a painting holiday, where you can exchange tips on different media with village artists. When it’s too hot to lift your brush, you can simply go higher up the mountains to paint in the shade of the pine forests.
Culture & relaxing
Spoon sweets are a traditional Cyprus delicacy. Fruits like figs, cherries and oranges are candied through several days of being boiled in sugar. They are served on a silver spoon at weddings, hence the name. You can learn to make them – alongside halloumi, Cyprus’s more famous delicacy – on relaxed cultural breaks in Troodos mountain villages. Or, if you’re feeling inspired, why not dash out a novel or a poem (a la Nobel laureate winner Giorgos Segeris, or Daphne du Maurier, who wrote part of Rebecca here).
Yet again, the best way to enjoy the Troodos Mountains might be to retreat, relax –and just do absolutely nothing.
Yet again, the best way to enjoy the Troodos Mountains might be to retreat, relax –and just do absolutely nothing.
Best time to go to the Troodos Mountains
The best times for visiting the Troodos Mountains are March to May and September to November – this is when the most walking trips run, and when it’s not too hot to visit other parts of the island.
Summer sees the mountains at their busiest. The Cypriot coast gets very hot – up to the mid 30s°C in high summer and people – including buses of tourists – come up seeking cooler air. The mountains normally sit in pleasant mid-twenties temperatures in summer. The mountains might be at their most crowded, but they’re far calmer than the resort towns.
Winter sees more rain, and even snow, but spring comes soon. “Cyprus spring is much earlier than in northern Europe,” says Tim. “We’re a floral kingdom as early as February. Visitors mustn’t wait for the traditional UK spring: we’re already harvesting our apricots and our peaches!”
Summer sees the mountains at their busiest. The Cypriot coast gets very hot – up to the mid 30s°C in high summer and people – including buses of tourists – come up seeking cooler air. The mountains normally sit in pleasant mid-twenties temperatures in summer. The mountains might be at their most crowded, but they’re far calmer than the resort towns.
Winter sees more rain, and even snow, but spring comes soon. “Cyprus spring is much earlier than in northern Europe,” says Tim. “We’re a floral kingdom as early as February. Visitors mustn’t wait for the traditional UK spring: we’re already harvesting our apricots and our peaches!”
More Cyprus articles
Our Cyprus travel guide leads you to the archaeological sites, Blue Flag beaches and mountain viewpoints.
Our best time to go guide offers handy weather advice, travel tips from our experts, and ideas for things to do.
Cyprus holds outstanding areas of natural beauty where mountains and coastline collide with history.
From the rugged ridge over the Akamas Peninsula to the flat coastal stretches either side of Kyrenia.
If you want to know the reasons behind the divide, from both sides, read on...
