The Krasochoria, from the Greek words for wine and villages, are the vine-growing villages in the hills north-west of Limassol. The Krasochoria of Lemesos route, one of seven signposted wine routes run by Visit Cyprus, links 20 villages with 16 wineries between them, and most of the wine is made from the local Xynisteri (white) and Mavro (red) grapes, out of 23 varieties grown. The craft is old: residues in Chalcolithic jars from Erimi, near Limassol, suggest Cypriots were making wine by about 3500 to 3000 BC. These are the villages where you can taste, look round a museum or catch a festival.

Omodos, at about 800 metres and 42 km from Limassol, is the best known. Visit Cyprus lists it as famous for its wine, zivania, needle lace and arkatena bread. Its paved square, which dates from 1910 and covers about 3,000 square metres, faces the monastery of Timios Stavros (Holy Cross), which tradition says keeps a piece of the rope that bound Christ, and every 14 September the village holds a three-day religious fair there. In the village centre stands the Linos, a medieval stone wine press about 13 metres long that has been declared an ancient monument. One correction to a common claim: Omodos is not a Commandaria village. Its vineyards belong to the Krasochoria Lemesou protected designation, and Commandaria comes from 14 other villages, among them Kalo Chorio, Zoopigi, Monagri and Laneia, which have their own signposted route.

Three Omodos wineries publish visiting details. Linos Winery, run by a family that has made wine since 1825 and under the Linos name since 1986, produces about 200,000 bottles a year and offers tastings in its historic winery, including a blue wine it says is the only one made in Cyprus (+357 25 422700). Oenou Yi on Demetri Liperti Street runs tours and tastings daily from 10:00 to 18:00, by reservation only (+357 25 446000). Just outside the village, at about 900 metres, Ktima Gerolemo, open since February 1987, runs tours and tastings from Monday to Saturday, 11:00 to 15:00; its guided tasting of seven wines costs EUR 15 a person for groups of ten or more and EUR 20 for smaller groups (+357 99 696025).

Vasa Koilaniou, at about 750 metres, still ranks among the island's leading raisin producers, according to its community council, and is home to the Zivania Museum, which the community calls the only one in Cyprus and which opened on 10 July 2013. At the Argyrides Winery, the family began turning their 200-year-old listed ancestral home into a boutique winery in 1993; its eight hectares of vines grow at 950 to 1,100 metres, and tours and tastings are by appointment only (+357 25 945999).

Koilani, at 820 metres, is known for its wines and grape products, its arkatena rusks and its glitzista pastries, and its lace-makers still work pipilla needle lace. Two small museums open by appointment, free of charge: the Ecclesiastical Museum in the church of Monogenis, whose exhibits include an iconostasis from 1735, and the Viticulture Museum in a village house nearby, with old winemaking equipment (+357 25 471008). Ayia Mavri Winery, founded in 1983, makes about 50,000 bottles a year and opens for tastings from Tuesday to Sunday, 11:00 to 16:00 (+357 25 470225). On the Vouni side of the village, Vlassides Winery, in a building completed in 2012, runs guided tours from Monday to Saturday for EUR 10 a person, booked at least a day ahead (+357 97 789560). Koilani's Afamia wine festival fills the square on the first Sunday of October; the 2024 edition was its 42nd.

Neighbouring Vouni, at 800 metres, ranked third for vineyard land, after Pachna and Omodos, until the 1990s, with 40% of its land under vines, though viticulture has shrunk as the village has emptied; it keeps a folk art museum and a Byzantine museum. In Arsos, at 850 metres, the Folk Art Museum, founded in 1997 in a restored 18th-century house, keeps a traditional linos with large clay jars and a press in its cellar; it opens by appointment and entry is free (+357 25 943223).

Nearer Limassol, Zambartas Wineries in Agios Amvrosios, 20 years old in 2026, opens Tuesday to Friday from 10:00 to 17:00 and at weekends from 10:00 to 18:00. Its tastings with a cellar tour cost EUR 15, EUR 20 or EUR 25, and the EUR 20 option includes a barrel sample of its Commandaria; book ahead, as walk-ins cannot be guaranteed a tour (+357 25 942424). In Pachna, Monolithos Boutique Winery, 500 metres north-east of the village at 750 metres, has offered a five-wine tasting for EUR 6 on Fridays, weekends and public holidays; ring before you go, as its published schedule dates from January 2024 (+357 99 557457).

Autumn is the time to go. In 2026 the villages held their grape and wine festivals, several of them named after palouzes, the grape-must pudding, between 6 September in Agios Amvrosios and 4 October in Koilani and Potamiou, with Malia, Vouni, Vasa, Lofou, Arsos and Pachna in between, and the Limassol Wine Festival, held since 1961, filled the Limassol Public Garden from 26 September to 4 October, 19:00 to midnight. Visit Cyprus publishes the dates each year in its list of village festivals.

Commandaria itself is a sweet wine made only from sun-dried Xynisteri and Mavro grapes and aged for at least two years in oak barrels, and in December 2025 it was added to UNESCO's list of intangible cultural heritage. Visit Cyprus bills it as the world's oldest named wine still in production, and Guinness World Records lists it as the oldest manufactured wine. The Cyprus Wine Museum in Erimi, 13 km west of Limassol, is the first stop on the Krasochoria route.

If the slower pace of the wine villages appeals, Cyprus Decoded offers relocation help for settling anywhere on the island, hill villages included.