Our final stop in Cyprus was the larger city of Limassol. While still on the beach, it was quite different from the tourist resort feel of Protaras and Paphos. We got more of a feel for how people actually live in Cyprus, and decided it seemed like a very livable city.

Sleeping

We stayed at the Curium Palace hotel which is in a decent location a couple blocks from the waterfront. The hotel was nice enough, in a faded grand older style way. There is a spa and a nice pool area where we relaxed with a pre-dinner beverage. The room rate included a pretty standard breakfast buffet and we had no problems parking our rental car in front of the hotel.

Eating

The old town and marina area had a variety of trendy, classy and fun looking restaurants. We wished we had more time there! We ate at Dionysus Mansion which was a bit off the beaten path but highly rated. The restaurant features a large back garden patio with twinkling lights and several large trees decorating the space. There is also an interior dining area which wasn’t open when we were there, probably due to it being shoulder season for tourists. The food was an interesting mix of Cypriot modern fusion and quite different from any of our other meals in Cyprus. The highlight was an octopus dish that tasted like pulled pork!

Sights

We didn’t have much time to explore Limassol, but did manage a long afternoon walk along the waterfront from our hotel to the old town area. This route took us through a nice park which includes the city zoo and along a great modern waterfront walkway to the marina. We stopped for coffee along the waterfront and a gin and tonic in old town. There was even time for a quick swim at the beach. After dinner we walked back to our hotel along the waterfront and it was interesting to see how many people use the space! There were lots of families and couples out strolling, runners taking advantage of the cooler evening temperatures and even roller bladers (I didn’t even know that was still a thing…). It was pretty quiet along the water during the afternoon, but is clearly a popular evening spot.

We really enjoyed our quick stop in Limassol and could have easily spent another day or two exploring the city.

Have you done a quick city visit? Any tips on how to maximize a short stop-over in a new city?