Cyprus has 56 beaches and two marinas on the 2026 Blue Flag list, awarded at a ceremony held on Nissi Beach on 11 June 2026, and more than a quarter of those beaches are in Ayia Napa municipality. Three of them make an easy tour of the town's coast: Pantachou by the fishing harbour, Limnara, also called Kermia, on the Cape Greco side, and Makronissos, a cluster of small bays at the western end. The Blue Flag is awarded every year, on water quality, environmental management, safety and services, so the 2026 flags say nothing yet about next summer. Our beaches guide lists every Blue Flag beach on the island.
Pantachou, by the harbour
Pantachou is the town beach. It starts at Ayia Napa's fishing harbour, where the boat trips leave, and runs east along Kryou Nerou Avenue for about 1.2 km, which by Visit Cyprus's count makes it the longest beach in Ayia Napa. The sand is fine and golden, the water is usually calm, and in season there are toilets, changing rooms, sunbeds, umbrellas and water sports. The centre is close: the monastery square is about 1.2 km away by road. Ayia Napa Monastery, built like a medieval castle around 1500 and dedicated to the Virgin Mary as Our Lady of the Forests (napa is an ancient Greek word for a wooded valley), is free to visit (donations are welcome) and opens daily from 09:30 to 14:30 between November and April, and until 19:00 from May to October.
Less than a kilometre from the beach, on Kryou Nerou Avenue, the Thalassa Municipal Museum of the Sea keeps Kyrenia II, a full-size sailing replica of the merchant ship that sank off Kyrenia, in the occupied north, around 300 BC. The museum's own website gives Monday 09:00 to 14:00, Tuesday to Friday 09:00 to 17:00, Saturday 09:00 to 14:00 and closed on Sundays. Visit Cyprus also points walkers from Pantachou to the old aqueduct, which it describes as Roman in origin with Frankish alterations: it carried water from the hills between Ayia Napa and Protaras to the monastery and the village's stone reservoirs, and it was conserved between 2006 and 2008.
Limnara (Kermia), on the Cape Greco side
Limnara, which Visit Cyprus places inside the Cape Greco National Forest Park, is a 350 m beach east of the town, mostly in front of a hotel complex. It has the same fine golden sand and calm water, with rock pools at the edges of the bay, and in season toilets, changing rooms, sunbeds, umbrellas and water sports. It is about 4 km east of the monastery square in a straight line and about 5.4 km by road. The park around it is a Natura 2000 site of 385 hectares, and the sea caves, a favourite for boat trips and scuba diving, are about 1.7 km further east on foot. Our Cape Greco guide covers the trails.
Makronissos, three bays and a necropolis
Makronissos, off Nissi Avenue at the western end of Ayia Napa, is really three small bays that spread out to the west, the southwest and the southeast, about 350 m of sand in all, and the southwestern one lies inside a Natura 2000 protected area. It is about 4 km west of the monastery square in a straight line. In season there are toilets, changing rooms, sunbeds, umbrellas and water sports, with a convenience store close by.
About 400 m from the sand, five minutes on foot, are the Makronissos Tombs: 19 rock-cut tombs of the Hellenistic and Roman periods with a small sanctuary and an ancient quarry, free to visit and open daily from 09:00 to 17:00 except on public holidays. Our rock-cut tombs guide describes them. For a longer walk, Agia Thekla beach is about 2.2 km to the west, roughly half an hour, and Nissi Beach about 2 km to the east, with Vathia Gonia about 1 km beyond it.
Getting there by bus
OSEA's coastal routes 101 and 102 serve all three beaches, between Agia Thekla in the west and Cape Greco, Protaras and Paralimni in the east. For Pantachou get off at the 1st or 2nd stop on Kryou Nerou Avenue, a few minutes from the sand; for Limnara at the 25th or 26th stop on Kavo Gkreko Avenue, a few hundred metres away; and for Makronissos at the Makronissos Beach stops on Nissi Avenue, about 10 to 15 minutes on foot from the bays. In the winter timetable, valid from 31 October 2026 to 28 January 2027, each route makes 86 or 87 runs on a normal weekday and 75 to 79 at weekends: about four an hour through the day, more in the late afternoon, and a few through the night. The official open data gives a single fare of 2 EUR.
Before you go
Lifeguards with first aid are on duty at all three beaches from April to October, so between November and March swim with extra care. All three have car parks and are easy to reach on foot or by bike. If a life near beaches like these appeals, our relocation help is here when you need it.
