Lara, the turtle beach of Akamas

Lara is the beach in Cyprus I’d most like to see stay exactly as it is. Sand, low scrub, nothing built and sea turtles coming back every summer to nest. Here’s why it’s special, the rules and how to get there. The wider area is covered in Akamas peninsula.

Two bays and a reserve

Akamas Municipality explains that Lara is two bays. The southern one, Lara or Loura, is less than 1 km from the Peyia to Lara coast road, and the northern one, Ammoudi, a kilometre further, with the turtle hatchery. Between them lies a small natural salt pan where seawater evaporates after storms and leaves white salt behind. According to OpenStreetMap, the beach is about 6 km north of Agios Georgios.

The whole shoreline from Lara to Toxeftra, on the peninsula’s south-west side, is a designated marine life protection area. Remains of a Mycenaean-style wall, similar to the one at Maa-Palaiokastro, have also been found at Lara.

When can you see the turtles at Lara?

The Pafos tourism board explains that females come up the beach at night between May and August to lay their eggs, and that the hatchlings emerge 50 to 70 days later and head for the sea. The bay’s conservation station protects the nests with cages and monitors how many hatchlings make it. Guided tours run in the nesting season.

Akamas Municipality supplies the numbers. Around 100 green and 300 loggerhead turtles nest there each year, and between 25,000 and 30,000 hatchlings are born. For turtle conservation, Akamas counts as a top-priority area.

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The rules, seriously

The tourism board asks for four things. Keep away from marked nests, don’t use flash, keep your distance if you see a turtle and, in capital letters on its website, don’t put sunshades in the sand. It adds that the beach has no facilities and you should bring water. I’d add a fifth, which is just common sense, leave nothing behind.

Getting there

You reach it on the coast road out of Peyia, through Agios Georgios at Peyia and Toxeftra. Pafos Buses route 616 only goes as far as Agios Georgios. Akamas Municipality says Ineia’s Aphrodite themed walk ends at a viewpoint over Lara, from where a track drops down to the coast road.

Before or after, I’d call in at the Inia-Lara Turtle Museum, which opened in June 2023 in the centre of Ineia and is the first in Cyprus devoted solely to sea turtles. To stay nearby, the closest area with hotels is Coral Bay. I would go early in the day with a hat and plenty of water, because you can’t put up a sunshade and there is nowhere to buy anything. The others, from Limassol to Protaras, are in Cyprus beaches.

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

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

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