Mount Olympus, the highest point in Cyprus

The Olympus of Cyprus has nothing to do with the Greek one apart from the name, so don’t arrive expecting an alpine peak. It’s a rounded, pine-covered mountain that you enjoy more by circling it than by conquering it. To tell you what’s up there and how I’d use my time, I rely on three sources, the Troodos Development Company, the ski club and UNESCO.

The roof of the island

The Spanish Foreign Ministry and the Cyprus Statistical Service give it 1,953 metres, and that’s the figure I use. The ski club says 1,951 and the company says 1,951 or 1,952, depending on the page, so don’t be surprised by differing numbers. The same company also calls it Chionistra, and uses that name for the road that climbs to the ski area.

It’s the summit of the Troodos Mountains and lies just two kilometres from Troodos Square, which is where you park, eat and pick up information. From Platres it’s twelve winding kilometres.

Two trails round the summit

What I like most about Olympus are its two loop trails. Artemis is 7 kilometres long and circles the top at about 1,850 metres, with views in every direction. It starts 300 metres from the junction of the Chionistra road with the Troodos to Prodromos road, and passes two black pines around 500 years old and the remains of fortifications the Venetians threw up in 1571, as they tried to hold out against the Ottomans.

Atalante is its longer sibling. It leaves from the square, runs for 14 kilometres and loops round the mountain at 1,700 to 1,750 metres through black pine and juniper. Along it grows one of the area’s biggest junipers, about 800 years old, and you pass the entrance to the old chrome mine, shut in 1982. Both lie inside Troodos National Forest Park. I go into detail in the Artemis trail and the Atalante trail.

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

Flowers found only here

The company makes a point of the endemic plants you see on the way, such as the Troodos rose, whose scientific name, Rosa chionistrae, comes from the mountain itself, Troodos sage and Cyprus skullcap. Spring is the time to see them in flower. Among the birds it lists are Bonelli’s eagle and two endemics, the Cyprus warbler and the Cyprus wheatear. And if you want to understand why the summit rocks look so different from those on the coast, the centre of the Troodos Geopark explains it very well.

Olympus in winter

From January to March, when there’s snow, its slopes become the country’s only ski centre. The Cyprus Ski Club runs four lifts split between the North Face and Sun Valley, and I cover prices and hours in skiing in Cyprus. Even if you don’t ski, seeing snow-laden pines an hour from the beach is one of the island’s oddest sights.

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

Before you go

The summit has value beyond tourism, as Cyprus added it in 2002 to its Tentative List for UNESCO, the step before joining Cyprus’s World Heritage Sites. I haven’t found official information on what stands on the exact summit point or whether you can reach it, so I won’t promise it. Bring a jacket even in summer, as it’s cooler up there, and in winter check the road conditions on the ski club’s website first. If views are what you are after, compare it with the other viewpoints in Cyprus.

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

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