Ayia Napa

Ayia Napa has two reputations and they’re both true. It’s the south-east corner’s beach jackpot — Nissi’s shallow white-sand bay, the limestone sea caves and Blue Lagoon swims at Cape Greco, and a string of beaches that genuinely rank among the best in the Mediterranean. It’s also Cyprus’s nightlife capital, where the town square and bar street run clubs and pumping bars until 4 or 5am every night through the summer. The mistake UK travellers make is booking the cheapest hotel near “the centre” without realising the centre is the noise, then losing half the holiday to no sleep — or, the opposite, booking a quiet family resort and discovering the real beaches need a hire car to reach.

So the one call that shapes the whole trip is which strip you sleep on. The town square is for people who came to go out and want to fall into bed five minutes from the last club. Nissi Avenue and the beach end is the all-round sun-and-swim base — lively by day, quiet enough to sleep. The harbour is the smarter, calmer evening base where the Blue Lagoon boats leave. And the Makronissos and Cape Greco end, out east, is the family and couples choice: the same world-class coastline without the bassline, with the even quieter resort of Protaras ten minutes further on. Pick by whether you came to dance or to switch off, and the rest of Ayia Napa falls into place.

Three to four days is enough for the highlights — a Nissi beach day, a Cape Greco and sea-caves day, a Blue Lagoon boat trip from the harbour, and WaterWorld if you’ve got kids — with the square’s nightlife slotted in as much or as little as you like. A full week works as a pure beach base, but plan for a hire car or scooter to reach Cape Greco and the quieter sand. You fly into Larnaca, 45 minutes away; pre-book the transfer rather than haggling at the rank. The structured planning below — areas, beaches, costs in pounds and the airport run — picks up from here.