Ineia, the wine village looking out over Lara

Ineia is the Laona village that looks most towards the sea. From its edge you can see the whole of Akamas and, below, Lara Bay, and a trail links the two. Here’s what to see, which is more than you might expect. The wider area is set out in Akamas peninsula.

A village named after wine

Akamas Municipality explains that Ineia takes its name from inos, the word the ancient Greeks used for wine, and that old signs spelt it Oinia. It sits about 625 m up on the Laona plateau, 30 km north of Paphos, surrounded by vineyards, and is part of the Laona-Akamas wine route. In 2021 it had 319 residents.

The centre has cafés, shops, a paved square with benches and clay pots and an old olive mill, and in summer the village amphitheatre hosts open-air performances. The Avakas Gorge is about 12 km to the south-west.

What to see in Ineia

The basket weaving museum preserves the craft the village is known for, with baskets, trays, wall decorations, containers and fish traps made here. It’s free and wheelchair accessible. From October to May it opens on weekdays in the morning, 11:00 to 13:00, and again from 15:00 to 18:00, and from June to September the afternoon session runs from 16:00 to 19:00; Saturdays are mornings only and Sundays by appointment.

The Inia-Lara Turtle Museum, in the centre, opened in June 2023 as the first museum in Cyprus given over entirely to sea turtles. It covers 200 million years of turtle history, right up to the beaches of Lara where loggerheads and green turtles nest, with shells, dioramas, films and interactive games.

The medieval church of Agios Iakovos, with the chapel of Agios Agapios attached, dates from the 12th century and has something rare in Cyprus, two sanctuaries side by side. It keeps traces of frescoes, and villagers call it the chapel of Agios Iakovos and of Christ.

If you are staying the night, see the best hotel deals in Ineia for your dates: the well-placed rooms go fast.

The Aphrodite trail

Akamas Municipality describes a themed route of about 2.25 km through the west of the village, starting at 550 m at the information centre opposite the chapel of Archangelos Michail, built in 1950. It heads down a cobbled lane between dry-stone walls, passes the little Vota fountain, whose water isn’t drinkable, and reaches the Esso Pigi fountain, with three arches and the old washhouse where women did the laundry with ash water.

From there it continues to the 12th-century church and to Mega Pigadi, a stone dam from 1950 that still supplies the village, and ends by the Alykou rock, made of quartz sandstone. Local myth says Aphrodite gave birth there after her encounter with Adonis and the rock split in two from the pain. At the end there’s a rest area with views down to the sea and Lara beach and its turtles.

Getting there

Ineia is on route 648, which makes four daily runs from Polis to Coral Bay and back, via Drouseia, Pano Arodes and Kathikas. On the 641, which joins Polis and Paphos, there are two services each way, Sundays excepted.

So you do not lose the morning at the ticket office, browse tickets and tours in Ineia on GetYourGuide.

If you would rather go at your own pace, see the car hire deals in Polis: the earlier you book, the more cars are left to choose from.

If you are staying the night, see the best hotel deals in Ineia for your dates: the well-placed rooms go fast.