A slow family holiday in Cyprus
This blog post contains affiliate links for hotels, which means I get a small amount of money if you shop through my link at no extra cost to you.
2026 is the year I finally made it to Cyprus. There was no grand plan to visit, but when I found myself floating the idea of a second summer holiday and quickly fell down a rabbit hole of options, this unfamiliar island came out on top.
Our holiday package
Having returned from Menorca not long before, I felt pretty confident with all the logistics and packing for our baby. And it’s always fairly simple when you book your flights, hotel, and transfers in one.
Last time we flew with Jet2Holidays, but this time we chose to travel with easyJet Holidays. I’ve flown with easyJet many times before, but this was my first holiday package and I really can’t fault them. The experience was much the same at Jet2 and we didn’t encounter any hiccups along the way.
Our package included return flights with generous baggage, return airport coach transfers, and seven nights at a four-star hotel, with breakfast, dinner, and selected drinks included within our Half Board Plus package.
I did everything possible to get this holiday cheaper, but we ended up paying roughly £1,100 per person for the above. It was more expensive than some of the options I’d been looking at, but it turned out to be worth it.
Our flights
Because travelling with a baby is challenging enough, I wanted to keep things simple for this trip, so I replicated our last trip by booking an almost identical flight time of 9 am departing from London Luton Airport.
I wish I could say this flight was as easy as our last, but it wasn’t. Our daughter was teething and had a rough time for almost all of the four-and-a-half-hour journey, and we learned the hard way that a window seat is not a good choice in that situation.
Our flight home left Larnaca Airport at 4:15 pm, which proved to be a great flight time as we landed just under five hours later, gaining back the two hours we’d lost on our way out to Cyprus.
The flight home was virtually the same as the way out, which was very humbling after our breezy flights to and from Menorca.
Our hotel
I’ve written a detailed review of our stay at the Cavo Zoe Seaside Hotel on Substack, but long story short, we absolutely loved our time here.
It was really beautifully designed, it offered a ton of space and epic sea views, our meals and drinks were high quality and extremely good value for money, we enjoyed live music on three evenings, there was an on-site gym and spa, and the location was excellent with shops and key bus routes right on our doorstep.
My only complaint is the lack of shade. Every sun lounger has umbrellas, but they’ve definitely gone for the aesthetic look over practicality.
Exploring more of Larnaca
I didn’t set particularly ambitious goals for getting out while we were there because it was unbelievably hot every day, but we still managed to see more than just the surroundings of our hotel, thanks to the frequent and beautifully air-conditioned 101 and 102 buses.
Our first little adventure was an early morning walk to Fig Tree Bay, which took about 40 minutes with the pushchair. We spent the morning paddling in the water, walking along the promenade, and refuelling on freddo cappuccinos before taking the bus back to our hotel.
Our next day out took us to Nissi Beach in Aiya Napa. We didn’t stay here long because it was rammed with tourists, leaving almost nowhere to seek shade, but we accidentally got off at the wrong stop on our return trip, which took us on an unexpected visit to Kavo for a beer with a view, a swim at Glyki Nero Beach, and a quick photo stop at the Bridge of Love where people would jump into the ocean.
We had planned to visit Cavo Greco too, but it’s not pushchair friendly and it was way too hot to put her in the carrier, so we had to give that a miss.
Otherwise, we spent some of our favourite days at Green Bay Beach and Nisia Loumbardi Beach, only a 10-minute walk from our hotel. Paralimni is home to some truly beautiful sandy coves, so you don’t need to go far at all.
After the suffocating heat I was definitely glad to get back to my home comforts, but this week away was another lovely opportunity for our little family to make some new memories.
You can see more from this trip on my Instagram, and if you need tips on what to pack for a baby, you can find all of this and more in my post about Menorca.
