A Nicosia tour walks the old town inside the Venetian walls, crosses the Green Line of the last divided capital in Europe and visits its museums, churches and caravanserai. Find more trip ideas on Greece Tours.
Below we compare the walks, the audio tours and the day trips from Paphos, Larnaca, Limassol and Ayia Napa, with the booking rules.
What is a Nicosia tour?
A Nicosia tour is a guided or self-guided visit to the capital of Cyprus. The city lies practically in the centre of the island. Walks run from 2 to 6 hours, and coach day trips from the coast run from 6 to 10 hours.
Lefkosia, the Greek name of the city, is the only divided capital in the world, according to Visit Cyprus. Its history dates back to the Bronze Age, and in antiquity the city carried the name Ledra.
The old centre, the “Chora”, sits inside 16th century walls with museums, old churches and medieval buildings. A Nicosia tour centres on this walled core. In the Lusignan period the city gained royal palaces and churches.
Which Nicosia tour formats can you book?
Five formats exist: private walks, Green Line walks, audio tours, themed city tours and coach day trips from the coast. Each Nicosia tour format suits a different amount of time.
GetYourGuide lists a 2-hour north Nicosia walk, a 3-hour Green Line walk and a 4-hour private tour.
Coach tours add the coast. GetYourGuide lists a 6-hour trip from Larnaca and Ayia Napa. It also lists 8-hour trips from Paphos and a 10-hour walk from Ayia Napa and Protaras. Each of these coach trips includes hotel pickup.
The city’s own tourism site, Visit Nicosia, lists five themed tours: the walled city, archaeology, museums, religion and architecture. The next sections follow those themes, then the day trips from each coast. Compare other regions on our Cyprus tours page.
What does a Nicosia tour show inside the Venetian walls?
The Venetian walls form a circle of about 5 km with 11 pentagonal bastions. Three gates open the ring: Paphos, Famagusta and Kyrenia. A Nicosia tour walks the old town inside this ring.
Eleven families of the Italian aristocracy donated funds for the walls, and each bastion carries a family name. The Caraffa to Tripoli bastions lie in the southern half of the city. The Roccas to Loredan bastions lie in the north. The Flatro Bastion stands in the UN Buffer Zone.
The Famagusta Gate is the chief gate. A dome 11 metres across crowns its vaulted passage, which is wide enough for two vehicles. A circular opening in the centre of the dome lets in light, in the style of the Pantheon in Rome.
The walls also mark the end of Venetian Nicosia. Ottoman forces began the siege on 22 July, and the city held out until 9 September. On that day they breached the wall at the Podocattaro Bastion.
Where does a Nicosia tour walk in Laiki Geitonia?
Laiki Geitonia is a pedestrian quarter inside the walls, opposite the D’Avila bastion and 0.3 km from Eleftheria Square. A Nicosia tour walks its narrow winding streets, where houses date from the end of the 18th century.
The restored houses show traditional Cypriot city architecture. Builders used wood, sandstone and mudbrick. The houses now hold craft shops, souvenir shops and tavernas.
The main Tourist Information Centre of Nicosia sits in Laiki Geitonia. Musement describes the streets as a maze with churches, squares and ornate buildings.
GetYourGuide sells a Nicosia tour from Paphos that walks through the quarter inside the Venetian walls. ToursPoland describes a walking route through the partly car-free old town within the same walls.
What is the Green Line on a Nicosia tour?
The Green Line is the United Nations buffer zone through the centre of Nicosia. It splits the city into a southern and a northern section. The zone runs 180 km, with Paralimni at its eastern end and Kato Pyrgos at its western end.
Major-General Peter Young drew the first ceasefire line on a map with a green chinagraph pencil, and the name stuck. Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, Nicosia has remained the last divided capital in Europe.
The zone varies in width from less than 20 metres to more than 7 kilometres. The United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, UNFICYP, patrols it.
GetYourGuide sells a 3-hour guided walk in the buffer zone. This Nicosia tour has 97 reviews and a 4.9 star rating. It passes abandoned buildings, checkpoints and the 16th-century city walls, then samples local coffee. The walk is wheelchair accessible.
A ToursPoland writer describes buildings unchanged since the war. Bullet holes still mark the walls, and old Greek signs stand in the dead zone.
How does a Nicosia tour cross the Green Line?
A Nicosia tour crosses the Green Line on foot at a checkpoint on Ledra Street. Carry a passport or an ID card. EMAN Travel names an EU identity card, and Musement and ToursPoland list the same papers.
Ledra Street runs about 1 km from south to north, starting at Eleftheria Square. A short stretch at its northern end, beyond the buffer zone, lies in the northern part of the city.
GetYourGuide sells a 4-hour private tour of both sides. The guide explores the old town, crosses the Green Line on Ledra Street and shows North Nicosia. Time for shopping follows. Small groups travel together, and the tour holds 4.8 stars from 15 reviews.
Citizens of any country can generally cross, Wikipedia notes. On coach trips the crossing stays optional. EMAN Travel offers it during free time, and a GetYourGuide Larnaca trip adds “if eligible”.
Children need extra paperwork. Musement asks single parents, and families travelling without both parents, for a letter of authorisation. The letter comes from the missing parent and covers anyone under 18. It also asks for supporting papers. Examples are a birth certificate, a passport copy of the missing parent or a court order.
What does a Nicosia tour show in north Nicosia?
North Nicosia holds the Büyük Han, the largest caravanserai in Cyprus. A ToursPoland Nicosia tour from Limassol visits the Büyük Han and the Ayia Sofia Church in the north.
The Ottomans built the Büyük Han the year after they took Cyprus from the Venetians. The inn has two floors and 68 rooms around an open courtyard. A mosque with a fountain stands in the courtyard centre.
The British used the building as the central prison of Nicosia. It now works as an arts centre with galleries, workshops, courtyard cafes and souvenir shops. The Evkaf Administration requires tenants to sell only goods they make themselves.
The Selimiye Mosque, historically the Cathedral of Saint Sophia, also stands in North Nicosia. The name comes from “hagia sophia”, which means holy wisdom. The church was the coronation church of the kings of Cyprus.
The interior measures 66 by 21 metres, and the mosque holds 2,500 worshippers. GetYourGuide sells a 2-hour private walk of North Nicosia, which is wheelchair accessible.
Which museums does a Nicosia tour visit?
The Cyprus Museum, the Leventis Municipal Museum and the Ethnological Museum are the museum stops. The Cyprus Museum has fourteen display halls, and the Leventis Museum tells over 5,000 years of city history.
The Cyprus Museum arranges its halls around a square central area. The displays run in order from the Neolithic period to the Roman period. The collection has outgrown the building, so only a small fraction is on display at any time.
The Leventis Museum was the first historical museum in Cyprus. Its galleries guide visitors from present-day Nicosia back to the Chalcolithic period. The collections include costumes, medieval pottery, maps, engravings, jewels and furniture.
ToursPoland says the guide waits outside the Leventis Museum for visitors who want to go in. Visit Nicosia’s museum tour adds the Municipal Museum of Engraving and the Cyprus Numismatic Museum.
The Hadjigeorgakis Kornesios Mansion houses the Ethnological Museum. It is an important surviving example of urban architecture from the late Ottoman period. Its renovation won a Europa Nostra prize.
A private walk on GetYourGuide visits the Shacolas Tower Museum and Observatory along Ledra Street. The 3-hour walk is customizable and led by a local guide.
Which churches does a Nicosia tour stop at?
A church stop on a Nicosia tour is St John’s Cathedral. This late Gothic building from the 17th century is known for its frescoes. Musement’s walking tour makes it the first stop.
The Archbishop’s Palace stands next to the cathedral on Archbishop Kyprianos Square. The building looks older than it is, because it dates from the 20th century in Venetian Revival style. A Byzantine museum inside holds the largest collection of religious icons on the island.
Visit Nicosia’s religious tour lists these stops, among others:
- the Church of Saint Eleftherios
- the Exarchate of the Holy Sepulchre
- the Old Catholic Church of Saint John
- the Church of Saint Kassianos
- the Chrysaliniotissa Church
- the Faneromeni Church
Faneromeni Square was the centre of Nicosia before the division of the city. It holds the Faneromeni Church, a school and a library, and the Mausoleum of Cypriot National Martyrs.
What does an architecture-focused Nicosia tour cover?
Visit Nicosia lists Eleftheria Square, the Venetian walls, Jean Nouvel’s Tower 25 and Chrysaliniotissa for this Nicosia tour. A team led by Zaha Hadid and Christos Passas redesigned the square.
Eleftheria Square means Liberty Square. The Nicosia town hall stands on the D’Avila bastion above it, and Ledra Street leads off its northern side.
The square carried the name Metaxas Square until a competition renamed it. In the late 19th century the site was a wooden bridge from the walled city to the growing suburbs. A concrete bridge replaced it and survives today.
An international competition drew entries from 35 offices, and the Hadid team won. Construction lasted six years, and the square opened to the public in stages. The project shared first place in a State Architecture Award for a remarkable architectural project.
Can you book a private Nicosia tour with a local guide?
Yes. GetYourGuide lists a private Nicosia walk with a local guide that lasts from 2 to 6 hours. Viator lists a private custom walking tour of Nikosia with a guide. Both are tailored to the guest.
The local guide’s walk suits a private or small group. It lists pickup, wheelchair access and 4.6 stars from 43 reviews. Booking needs at least 3 days of notice.
GetYourGuide also sells a 3-hour private tour called City Discovery. A private guide takes you across divided Nicosia to see both sides. The guide explains the history beyond the headlines. The listing shows pickup, a small group and wheelchair access.
The two private Nicosia tour options differ in length. The City Discovery tour keeps a fixed 3-hour slot, while the local guide’s walk flexes between 2 and 6 hours.
Can you follow a self-guided Nicosia tour with an audio app?
Yes. Clio Muse Tours offers a free self-guided audio tour of Nicosia, the last divided capital. The app runs on iOS and Android. The European Union research project RePAST funds the tour.
The tour covers the troubled past of Cyprus before the invasion, during it and after it. The coup of the Greek colonels led to the Turkish invasion and the occupation of one third of the island. The Cyprus University of Technology contributed to the tour.
Download the audio before your visit, because the mobile signal at the sites can be weak. Charge your smartphone and bring earphones for the audio.
The app works offline, and an interactive map guides you step by step. You can repeat the tour at any time. Clio Muse calls its audio tours multilingual.
The City Hall of Nicosia also publishes a mobile app called The City of Nicosia. It lists sights, museums, theatres, galleries, libraries and markets, plus a city map, in Greek, English and Russian.
Which Nicosia tour starts in Paphos?
GetYourGuide lists Nicosia day trips from Paphos that last 8 to 9 hours. They pair Nicosia with Lefkara or Larnaca and include hotel transfers. Musement adds that transfer times can reach two hours, depending on the hotel.
The 9-hour Larnaca highlights tour adds the Larnaca salt lake and Lefkara to Nicosia. This Nicosia tour has 796 reviews at 4.2 stars. Its listing mentions touching holy relics and washing your face with holy water.
An 8-hour Nicosia and Lefkara guided tour covers Lefkara’s lace-making and historic Nicosia. Then it crosses the Green Line to the Büyük Han. A 9-hour lace tour adds St John’s Cathedral and the Monument of Liberty.
A walking version covers the cobbled lanes of Lefkara, its lace and silverwork, then Laiki Geitonia in Nicosia. An 8-hour self-guided option leaves free time on Ledra Street for shopping at your own pace.
Our Paphos tours page lists the other trips from the resort.
Which Nicosia tour starts in Limassol or Larnaca?
From Limassol, GetYourGuide sells a 9-hour grand tour of Nicosia and Larnaca. From Larnaca, it sells a 6-hour partly guided coach trip. Both list pickup.
The Limassol grand tour covers the Venetian walls in Nicosia. In Larnaca it visits the Agios Lazaros Church and Tomb and the Finikoudes Promenade.
The Larnaca coach tour stops at the Cyprus Handicraft Center. This outlet produces and sells traditional folk art and crafts. The Walled Old Town Center follows, with free time to explore.
ToursPoland describes a full-day Cross the Line tour from Limassol. It visits the Liberty Monument and walks the partly car-free old town. A traditional confectionery serves coffee and a sweet. The tour ends at the hotel in Limassol.
Larnaca also has sea trips. Our Larnaca boat trip page lists the cruises that leave the marina.
Which Nicosia tour starts in Ayia Napa or Protaras?
GetYourGuide lists an 8-hour trip from Ayia Napa and Protaras through Larnaca and Lefkara to Nicosia. It also lists a 10-hour Nicosia walking tour and an 8-hour trip that adds the Troodos Mountains. All three list pickup.
The 8-hour Nicosia, Larnaka and Lefkara tour comes with an English-speaking guide. It holds 4.7 stars from 118 reviews.
Musement lists a similar Nicosia walking tour that crosses the Green Line and tells the history of the city. The group then returns to the southern side. Guests explore Ledra Street and modern city life on their own.
The Troodos option visits Nicosia, the Troodos Mountains and Omodos on a guided tour. It strolls through traditional villages. For the mountains, see our Troodos Mountains tour page, and our Ayia Napa tours page lists the resort’s other trips.
Do Nicosia tours continue to Kyrenia and Famagusta?
Yes. Viator sells a Famagusta, Kyrenia and Nicosia three-city tour from North Cyprus. GetYourGuide sells a Nicosia and Kyrenia day trip from Ayia Napa. These Nicosia tours reach the north of the island.
The Ayia Napa trip runs in Polish. It shows the city walls and old town of Nicosia. Then it visits Kyrenia Castle and the 13th-century Bellapais Abbey.
Viator also lists a private Nicosia and Kyrenia tour from Limassol and Larnaca. Its list adds a Northern Cyprus all-in-one private day trip from Nicosia. It also has a Famagusta and Kyrenia circular tour from Nicosia and a full-day tour called Nicosia: Split in Two.
Which months suit a Nicosia tour?
Nicosia has a hot semi-arid climate. Summers are long, hot and dry, and winters are mild. Plan a Nicosia tour around those two seasons, and expect the rain in winter.
The city sits in the rain shadow of the Troodos Mountains, which keeps the annual rainfall low. Snow accumulation is particularly rare, and light frost can touch winter nights.
On 4 September, Nicosia recorded 46.2 °C, the highest temperature ever recorded in Cyprus.
How do you book a Nicosia tour?
Book a Nicosia tour on GetYourGuide or Viator by choosing the start city, the length and the format. Every GetYourGuide tour named on this page offers free cancellation.
The booking window differs by tour. The Green Line walk and the City Discovery walk need 10 hours of notice. The local guide’s walk needs 3 days. The Paphos Larnaca highlights tour needs 3 hours.
Musement’s Nicosia walking tour refunds the full price for a cancellation made 1 day ahead or earlier. That tour does not follow Musement’s general cancellation policy.
GetYourGuide lists pickup on the private walks of 2 to 6 hours, 3 hours and 4 hours. It also lists pickup on the coach day trips. Read each listing for the meeting point before you book.
What do travellers ask about Nicosia tours?
Who designed the Venetian walls?
The Venetians commissioned the Italian military engineers Giulio Savorgnan and Francesco Barbaro to design the new fortifications.
What is the population of Nicosia?
The expanded Nicosia municipality has 111,433 residents. Nicosia District counts 350,035 people in the government-controlled areas. Strovolos is the largest single municipality in the urban area, with 70,823.
Which Nicosia tours suit wheelchair users?
GetYourGuide flags six walks as wheelchair accessible:
- the 3-hour Green Line walk
- the City Discovery walk
- the 4-hour both-sides tour
- the 2-hour north walk
- the Shacolas Tower walk
- the local guide’s walk
Musement says its coach-and-walk tour is not suitable for guests with reduced mobility.
Does a Nicosia tour include lunch?
On the EMAN Travel coach tour, lunch is an optional extra. It falls in the free time in the Walled Old Town Center.
Which languages do Nicosia tours use?
GetYourGuide lists tours with English-speaking guides and tours in Polish. Clio Muse calls its audio tours multilingual.
Who patrols the buffer zone around Nicosia?
A British contingent patrols Sector Two, under UNFICYP. The sector covers 30 km, from Mammari west of Nicosia to Kaimakli east of it.