A boat trip out of Ayia Napa or Protaras costs €30–50 per person for three and a half to four and a half hours on the water. Lunch is in the price on three of these boats, and the child fare is €20–25 where the operator publishes one.
Checked against the operators' own sites on 16–17 September 2026
- €30–50per person for the trip; children €20–25 on three boats
- 3.5–4.5 hourshow long each of the boats in the table stays out
- 30–60 minswimming at each stop — that is what separates the fares
Cape Greco splits this coast in two. The boats out of Ayia Napa harbour run east towards the cape and Konnos Bay; the boats out of Protaras run the same water the other way round. The two resorts lie about 5.6 kilometres apart in a straight line by the official beach coordinates, and the road, which goes round the cape, is roughly twice that.
Which end do you start from?#
Ayia Napa harbour — the old fishing shelter the locals call Limanaki, one of the small harbours the Department of Fisheries and Marine Research looks after — is where most of these cruises begin. It is not the Ayia Napa marina, which is a separate object further along the coast, so if a booking simply says «marina», check which one is meant.
At the Protaras end the berth needs pinning down too: Medusa Cruises' route map names Golden Coast Harbour, its three-hour cruise description says Pernera Harbour and its Google listing sits at Protaras Harbour — all in the same resort, all different quays.
Where do the boats actually stop?#
The swim stops on this coast are the Blue Lagoon on the Ayia Napa side of the cape and Konnos Bay just east of it. Konnos is a 200-metre beach four kilometres east of the centre of Ayia Napa, the last one before Paralimni begins; its official card names a transit point for small craft, anchorages in the neighbouring bays and access from the sand up into the Cape Greco National Forest Park, 385 hectares of Natura 2000 land with a two-kilometre coastal trail.
How long you get in the water is the real difference between fares: thirty minutes at each stop on the Medusa cruise, a full hour at each on the Scubacat morning cruise. Only the Santa Napa's published route goes further east, to the viewpoint over the abandoned quarter of Famagusta.
Is lunch in the price?#
On most of these, yes, and the meal separates them more than the hull does: chicken with traditional Cypriot potatoes, salad and tzatziki on the Santa Napa; chicken, potatoes, rice, coleslaw, tzatziki and bread on the Black Pearl; a barbecue grilled on deck while you are in the water on the Scubacat catamaran, with halal-certified chicken and a vegan plate if you say so when booking; a buffet on the Ocean Queen.
The evening Scubacat departure is the one that carries no meal at all: fruit treats are in the ticket and nothing is grilled. Medusa is the exception that makes the point — €30 without lunch and €40 with it, so a family that would rather eat ashore does not pay twice. Drinks are bought on board everywhere.
Carry cash as well as a card: Cyprus has used the euro since 2008, and the official guidance says hotels, larger shops and restaurants take cards — it does not extend that to a harbour kiosk or a boat bar, and the Scubacat snorkel masks need a refundable €20 in cash.
- Limanaki
- the old fishing harbour of Ayia Napa, where most of these cruises start. Not the Ayia Napa marina — that is a separate place further along the coast.
- Blue Lagoon
- the swim stop west of Cape Greco; boats from Protaras reach the same water from the other side of the cape.
- Konnos
- a 200-metre beach four kilometres east of central Ayia Napa, the last one before Paralimni begins.
When does the season run?#
On the operators' pages the months were simply not stated, so the dates have to be asked for; the one exception is CYCRUISES, which says its cruises run mostly in a summer period that usually starts in April and ends in October, and opens its 2026 schedule on 31 March. What is on the public record is the state's frame, and it is two frames rather than one: Cyprus defines its bathing season — the period when the Department of Environment monitors water quality in designated bathing zones — as 1 May to 31 October, while the official cards for the Blue Flag beaches here put lifeguards on duty from April to October.
Those are different periods about different things.
The weather points the same way: at the Paralimni station, over the 2002–2011 averaging period the Cyprus Department of Meteorology reported through the WMO, the mean daily maximum stays above 26 °C from May to October and summer rainfall is close to zero, against 15.9 °C and 97.3 mm in January.
Sea temperature along this coast runs roughly 17 to 28 °C over the year, but that figure comes from a secondary source measured at Larnaca rather than from the Cypriot meteorological service — an order of magnitude, not a forecast.
Getting to the quay#
There are no railways on Cyprus. Larnaca is the nearer of the island's two airports, about forty kilometres from Ayia Napa in a straight line; the road is longer, and neither an official road distance nor a journey time is published. Kapnos runs the airport shuttle towards Ammochostos with stops at Ayia Napa Square, Nissi Avenue, Protaras Avenue and Pernera Avenue; intercity buses connect Agia Napa with Protaras and Paralimni and with Larnaka; town and village services are run by M.E.
Ammochostos Buses. None of those carriers publishes fares or timetables, so check with them directly. Taxis run on a compulsory meter at an official tariff: €3.80 to hire plus €0.95 a kilometre between 06:01 and 20:30, €4.80 and €1.10 at night, and €1.40 for each piece of luggage.
- The quay, by name — especially in Protaras, and especially if the vessel is the reason you booked: one Santa Napa party arrived to find themselves assigned to a larger boat alongside.
- The days of the week. The Medusa four-hour cruise sails Wednesday, Friday and Sunday; the Santa Napa Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; the Scubacat morning cruise every day, and its sunset departure on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
- What happens if the sea cancels a swim stop. Every route line CYCRUISES publishes carries the words «weather permitting», and one guest describes a four-hour trip that became three with no partial refund.
- The refund rule before you pay. The Santa Napa tickets are pre-sale and non-refundable, though a date change is sometimes allowed free; the Ocean Queen refunds nothing once bought, including a no-show, but refunds in full if it cancels for weather.
- The language of the commentary, in writing. Ocean Queen's crew states English, Greek, Russian, Ukrainian, French and Arabic; the other operators state no language at all, and one Black Pearl guest rated the trip two stars because the Russian commentary he was promised did not happen.
Important
The water either side of Cape Greco is protected. The Department of Fisheries and Marine Research lists MPA Kavo Gkreko (R.A.A. 115/2018), MPA Ayia Napa Sea Caves (R.A.A. 46/2023) and two artificial-reef areas at Ayia Napa and Paralimni; restrictions apply inside marine protected areas, but the decrees exist only in Greek, so ask your operator what holds on the day rather than trusting a list.
Turtles are the same kind of question: the Scubacat operator says they are seen on over 90 per cent of its cruises and names Konnos Bay as the place to look, but nobody here guarantees them, and the nesting beach named by the tourism authority is Lara, on the far west coast of the island.
