Car Rental in Paphos
Overview
Paphos consistently offers the cheapest rental prices in Cyprus, and some of the best reasons to actually use the car. The Akamas Peninsula – the wild, undeveloped northwest corner of the island – is reachable only by car (or a very long hike), and it is the single most impressive landscape in Cyprus. The Troodos wine villages, scattered across the mountain slopes above Paphos, are connected by narrow roads that wind through vineyards and have tasting rooms that do not appear on any tourist map. None of this is accessible by public transport, and the tour buses do not come here. It is car-rental territory.
Paphos Airport (PFO) is smaller than Larnaca but handles a steady flow of European budget carriers. The agency selection is good – international chains alongside locals like A-Z, Panda, and Petsas. Pricing tends to run a few euros per day cheaper than Larnaca, particularly in the off-season, when economy cars drop to 10-16 EUR per day. This makes Paphos one of the cheapest rental pickup points in our entire ten-country coverage area. In the shoulder months, 14-22 EUR per day is standard for an economy car with CDW included.
The left-hand driving factor applies here just as it does everywhere in Cyprus. If you are flying into Paphos as your entry point to the island, the same advice holds: drive directly to your accommodation on the main road, get comfortable with the left-side positioning, and save the narrow village roads for the next day. The road from the airport to Kato Paphos (the tourist area along the coast) is a straightforward dual carriageway and a gentle introduction to driving on the left.
Driving tips
Paphos is the best base in Cyprus for scenic driving. The road north to the Akamas Peninsula via Coral Bay and Peyia is paved until you hit the Akamas turn-off near the Baths of Aphrodite. From there, the tracks into the peninsula are unpaved – rutted dirt roads that are manageable in a standard car in dry weather but genuinely challenging after rain. Most rental agencies explicitly exclude the Akamas tracks from their coverage, meaning any damage there is on you. If you want to explore the peninsula interior (the Smigies trail, the Avakas Gorge, Fontana Amorosa), consider renting a basic SUV or 4x4 for the relevant days – the daily premium of 10-15 EUR is cheap insurance against an undercarriage claim.
The coastal road east from Paphos to Limassol (the A6 motorway) is excellent: smooth, fast, and scenic, with views of the coast for much of the 70 km distance. About 25 km east of Paphos, you pass Petra tou Romiou – the rock formation where, according to myth, Aphrodite rose from the sea. There is a parking lot and a viewpoint. Stop. It is one of those places that actually lives up to the legend.
The Troodos mountain roads from Paphos climb steeply from the coast through the villages of Pano Panayia, Chrysorroyiatissa, and Kykkos. The road to Kykkos Monastery (the most important religious site in Cyprus) takes about 1.5 hours from Paphos and winds through dense pine forests at altitude. The road surface is good but narrow in places, with hairpin turns above steep drop-offs. There are no guardrails on some of the higher sections – a common feature of Cypriot mountain roads that takes some getting used to.
Speed enforcement in the Paphos area is less intense than around Larnaca and Limassol, but mobile camera units do appear on the B7 road between Paphos and Polis and on the approach to Coral Bay. The motorway speed limit is 100 km/h, and the open road limit is 80 km/h. In villages, it drops to 50 km/h and sometimes 30 km/h near schools.
The drive to Polis Chrysochous (35 km north, about 40 minutes) is worth doing even without the Akamas connection. The road climbs through banana plantations and avocado groves (both real crops here, not decorative) before dropping into the Chrysochou Bay. Polis itself is a sleepy town with good fish restaurants and a fraction of Paphos’s tourist traffic. From Polis, the Baths of Aphrodite are 10 km west – the starting point for the Aphrodite Trail and the last paved road before the Akamas wilderness begins.
One thing to know about Paphos driving: the goats are real. On the mountain roads and some coastal stretches near Akamas, goats wander across the road with complete indifference to traffic. They are not fenced. Drive the mountain roads at a pace that lets you stop for livestock, especially in the early morning and late afternoon when the herds move between grazing areas.
Parking
Parking in Paphos is relatively easy compared to larger cities. The harbor area near the archaeological park has a large surface lot that charges about 1 EUR per hour. In summer it fills up by mid-morning, but you can usually find space in the side streets of Kato Paphos within a five-minute walk. The area around the Tombs of the Kings (north of the harbor) has a dedicated parking lot that handles most of the visitor traffic.
Metered street parking along the main Kato Paphos strip (Apostolou Pavlou Avenue) runs 0.50-1 EUR per hour and is free after 6 PM. This is the practical option for evening restaurant visits – drive down, park for free, eat, walk the harbor.
Coral Bay, 12 km north of Paphos, has a free beach parking lot that is large enough to handle most days. On hot summer weekends it fills up, but overflow parking along the access road is usually available. The beach itself is the best sandy beach near Paphos and worth the short drive.
For the wine villages in the Troodos foothills, parking is rarely an issue. Most villages have a small lot or open area near the main square, and traffic is minimal. The exception is Omodos on busy weekends, when the cobblestone village square fills up and you may need to park at the village entrance and walk down.
The Tombs of the Kings site (3 km north of Paphos harbor) has its own parking lot with room for a few hundred cars. Entrance is 2.50 EUR, and the site deserves at least an hour – the underground tombs carved into solid rock are unlike anything else on the island. Arrive early in summer; by midday the sun makes the exposed rock walkways uncomfortable, and the parking lot bakes.
Overall, Paphos is one of the most car-friendly cities in our coverage. The combination of cheap rentals, easy parking, and genuinely rewarding driving destinations makes it the city where the math of renting works out most clearly. You will spend 14-22 EUR per day on the car and gain access to coastline, mountains, wine country, and archaeological sites that are simply not reachable any other way. The only place where a car becomes optional is within Kato Paphos itself, where the harbor, restaurants, and archaeological park are all walkable from most hotels.
