Kalopanayiotis village
Sulphur springs, a UNESCO monastery and a valley that has been restored without being polished flat.
Cyprus Passion / Hidden Gems
The places you only find by asking — remote monasteries and forest bridges, cave chapels, quiet coves and mountain villages a first-time itinerary never reaches.
Every place here is somewhere we have actually been — reached down a dirt track, up a long flight of steps, or on the say-so of someone in a village café. None of them are secrets exactly, but you will rarely see them on a first trip: an abandoned monastery in an empty valley, a Venetian bridge deep in the forest, a church cut into a cave, a cove with no sign to it.
This is not a list of the island's best-known sights — you will not find Nissi, Kykkos or Aphrodite's Rock. Filter by where you are staying; most of these sit within an easy drive of a city or a mountain village.
Nothing here for that region yet — try another, or clear the filter.
Sulphur springs, a UNESCO monastery and a valley that has been restored without being polished flat.
Best known for the 13th-century chapel of Panayia tou Moutoulla and its steep-pitched wooden roof.
A little gem bordered by dense forest in the Marathasa valley, near Prodromos and Pano Platres.
Pitsilia terraces, stone bridges and a village square that still functions as one.
An 11th-century church south of Nikitari, and some of the finest Byzantine painting on the island.
St Nicholas of the Roof, near Kakopetria — well-preserved frescoes under a steep timber roof.
A centuries-old pilgrimage monastery high in the pines above Platres.
Opposite Kalopanayiotis in the Marathasa valley — UNESCO-listed since 1985.
A tall, narrow fall a short walk from Pano Platres.
A quieter fall on the Dhiarizos river, near Foini and Platres.
The largest Venetian bridge on the island, in forest at 440 metres.
A 16th-century arch over the Setrachos, built to link Kalopanayiotis village with the monastery on the far bank.
Founded in 1170 by the monk Neophytos, who carved his hermitage out of the rock.
Our Lady of the Golden Pomegranate, founded in the 12th century above Pano Panayia and still working — with a winery in the courtyard.
A 16th-century monastery in the Xeros valley near Pentalia — long abandoned, and among the finest Byzantine buildings left standing in the district.
Turtle bay in the Akamas — no facilities, a rough track in, and nesting loggerheads.
A church inside a cave near Kato Deftera — ‘golden cave’ — early Christian, and closed whenever it rains.
A small chapel below the peak of Koroni hill at Mitsero, with panoramic views over the Nicosia district.
‘Old village’ in Greek — a Pitsilia village of painted churches in the Nicosia region.
A small Nicosia-district village on the Palaichori road, resettled after an 18th-century epidemic.
Restored stone houses on a hill 800m up, 26km from Limassol and a world away from it.
Its name means ‘small mountain’ — 800 metres up, 35km from Limassol city.
Vineyards and apple orchards at 770m, a few minutes below Platres.
Lefkara’s quiet neighbour: beekeepers, a folk museum and almost no traffic.
A fishing village turned fish-tavern strip: whatever came in this morning, grilled whole, on the quay.
One of the best-preserved Neolithic settlements in the eastern Mediterranean, UNESCO-listed since 1998, with five round houses rebuilt on site.
A small cove ringed by low rock on the eastern edge of Ayia Napa — quiet by day, one of the best sunset spots on the coast.
A whitewashed chapel on the rocks above Ayia Thekla beach, with the older cave church cut into the ground beside it.
A narrow tidal inlet in the Kokkinochoria lined with fishing boats and boathouses — the closest thing on the island to a working creek.
A limestone sea arch in the Cape Greco forest park, cut by the sea over millennia and reached on foot from the coastal path.
A white chapel built on the cliff edge at Cavo Greco in the 1950s, with steps down to the sea cave below where the saints are said to have kept vigil.
Clear, shallow water below the Cavo Maris headland in Protaras — small, sheltered and easy to reach on foot from the strip.
The most unlikely church on the island — hidden inside a cave in rough ground near Profitis Elias, and easy to walk straight past.
A small church on a rock above Protaras, reached by a long flight of steps — and worth the climb for the view back over the bay.
Half the pleasure is the drive. Many of these are remote — take fuel and water, and a little patience for the last rough kilometre. Mountain signal comes and goes, so save the map before you set off rather than relying on it at the turn.
The churches, chapels and monasteries are quiet, working places, not exhibits. Cover shoulders and knees, keep your voice low, and check the hours — several close for a long midday break, and a few only open when a keyholder is nearby.