A Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour links the harbour town of Paphos with a sandy bay on the west coast and a waterfall pool in the hills of the Akamas. If you are weighing up more days away, our tours in Greece sit one click away.
This page covers what the tour includes, how the day runs, Coral Bay, the Akamas peninsula, the Adonis Baths, the myth of Aphrodite and Adonis and the questions travellers ask.
What does a Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour include?
A Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour takes you to the Adonis Baths waterfall near Kili village. Pickup is in Paphos or Coral Bay, and the same vehicle brings you back.
One operator runs a half-day version with a professional transfer vehicle. The round trip starts from Paphos or from Coral Bay. The entrance ticket to the park is part of the booking. Guests get full access to the swimming areas, the statues and the museum.
Another operator sells full-day trips by minibus and by jeep. Each listing names a tour guide. Each begins with a photo stop at the sea caves and a shipwreck. The jeep trip ends at the waterfall. Lunch and personal expenses are not covered on the jeep trip.
The park’s own website lists private and group jeep safaris, which need a reservation in advance. It says guided jeep tours run daily all year in Greek, English and Russian. The other operator lists English, Polish, Hungarian and Russian for its minibus day. Ask which language the tour guide speaks on your Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour.
Pack for water and for walking. One operator recommends walking shoes for the park paths. Another asks for comfortable shoes, swimwear, a towel, water and sun cream. Those items suit any Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour that ends with a swim.
How does a Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour run during the day?
One operator runs a half-day Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour. Pickups run from half past 10 in the morning in Paphos to 11 in Coral Bay. Then you get 90 minutes at the Adonis Baths waterfall.
This Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour has four pickup points, three in Paphos and one in Coral Bay. The Paphos stops run from half past 10 to ten to 11 in the morning. The Coral Bay stop comes last, at 11.
The same operator offers an afternoon slot as well. Its afternoon pickups run from half past 2 to 3 in the afternoon. You choose the half of the day that suits your holiday.
At the waterfall the operator describes a swimming stop of 90 minutes. You can swim in the pools and walk the park paths. You can see the statues and visit the traditional house museum and the watermill. The driver then returns you to your pickup point. That Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour needs no full day.
One operator’s minibus day starts with a hotel pickup at around 8 in the morning. It stops for photos at the sea caves and the shipwreck. It drives through villages without stopping, then halts for a meal at a local taverna. The Adonis Baths come after the meal, with around 45 minutes for swimming and photos.
That listing puts the full day at up to 8 hours. The return is at around 4 to 5 in the afternoon. The jeep safari from the same operator collects guests at around half past 8 in the morning.
It also ends at the Adonis Baths, with around 45 minutes of swimming. It returns at around 4 to 5 in the afternoon. Both full-day Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour options make a long day.
For the full-day trips, both listings say the exact pickup time arrives after booking. The half-day operator advises a call or message to confirm the pickup time. Swimming at the falls is at your own risk, so follow the safety rules on site.
What is Coral Bay in Cyprus?
Coral Bay is a beach resort inside the Peyia municipality, lying 11 km from Paphos city towards the north. The Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour takes its name from this resort on the west side of Cyprus.
The soft white sand forms a crescent of 600 m, and a limestone headland closes each side. Anyone on a Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour sees a beach with an EU Blue Flag certification. That means the beach meets the standards set by the relevant European Union committee.
Rocky headlands and sea caves mark the coast to the north and south of the resort. The wider Coral Bay area holds a second beach, Potima Bay. It lies about 1.5 km away, next to the edge of Kissonerga village. This rugged shoreline frames the Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour stop at the bay.
Peyia, also written Pegeia, stands on steep coastal hills above the bay. The town lies 14 km to the northwest of Paphos, on the southern tip of the Akamas Peninsula. Travellers on a Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour can see this hillside town above the water.
The name Pegeia is said to derive from the Latin Baia, meaning bay. Cargo vessels of ancient Egypt tied up at Coral Bay, a natural dock. Venetians first settled the village in the period that began in the late fifteenth century.
The town today has a town hall, a church, a police station, bakeries, cafés, restaurants and a fish market. A large share of its residents are British. The old village spring, called the vrisi, is still visible. Newlyweds visit it because wedding ceremonies take place nearby.
What is the Akamas peninsula?
The Akamas is a cape at the northwest end of Cyprus, covering 230 square kilometres. Peyia sits near its southern end, close to where a Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour reaches the coast.
The thickly wooded headland in Ptolemy’s account is the Akamas. He wrote that summits rising towards the north split it in two. Its name honours Akamas, whose father was the hero Theseus. Polis stands on the northeast side, and Peyia stands at the south.
Mountains fill the heartland, so no roads run through the middle. Roads on Cypriot maps are not always sealed. Britain’s army and navy trained here until the year two thousand, and the area served as a firing range. A Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour visits Coral Bay, close to the southern tip of this headland.
The land is hard to reach, so plants and animals have thrived there. According to the European Environment Agency, Europe counts just 22 areas of endemism, and the Akamas is one of them. Of the 128 plant species found only in Cyprus, 39 grow here. The Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour lies beside this rich region.
Cyclamen, orchids, the Cyprus tulip and white rock rose all flower there. Fruit bats, foxes, hedgehogs, lizards, griffon vultures and Cyprus scops owls live on the peninsula. Monk seals are listed among its vulnerable species.
Birds receive protection across the whole peninsula as a Special Protection Area. Of the land proposed for wider protection, Cyprus approved just half. Tourist development still threatens the area, and campaign groups work to protect it.
Visitors to the Akamas tend to want more than sun, sea and sand. Culture, wildlife and hiking draw them. A Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour adds a waterfall to the western side of Cyprus.
What are the Adonis Baths?
The Adonis Baths are a small waterfall and lake in the Paphos district of Cyprus, north west of Kili village. It is the waterfall that a Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour is named after.
The falls lie near Krya Vrysi and Lakkos tou Fragkou, 267 metres above sea level. The Mavrokolympos river flows here, and its waters gather into a small fall. Over the centuries the water wore away the soil and formed a small lake.
One operator runs a half-day transfer to the falls with a 90-minute stop. Its page describes emerald-green natural pools beneath the cascading water. A Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour from another seller can set its own time, so read the listing.
A small park surrounds the falls on a Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour. The place’s own website says a traditional museum stands beside them. A watermill there dates to the sixteenth century. The park holds statues from Greek mythology, and its tallest statue of Aphrodite is 10 metres high.
The same website says the park is open every day all year. Winter closing is 5 in the afternoon, while summer stays open until 7 in the evening. You buy your ticket at the entrance.
The site names Tala, Kamares and Coral Bay as places to reach it from. So Coral Bay and the falls share one route, which suits a Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour.
The name Adonis Baths is recent. Wikipedia credits the landowner around the falls with coining it. Ancient and medieval sources never use it. It differs from the Baths of Aphrodite, which history does record. The river is public land, but a company charges for access to the site.
What is the myth of Aphrodite and Adonis in Cyprus?
In Greek myth, Adonis was the mortal lover of the goddess Aphrodite, and Cyprus is her island. This story gives a Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour its name, though no ancient source names the waterfall.
The Roman poet Ovid says Adonis was the son of Myrrha and King Cinyras of Cyprus. Another ancient writer, Pseudo-Apollodorus, calls him the son of Metharme and Cinyras of Paphos on Cyprus. Either way, the tale starts on the island that a Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour explores.
Aphrodite found the baby and took him to the underworld, where Persephone raised him. When he grew up, both goddesses loved him. Zeus ruled that Adonis must spend a third of the year with each goddess and a third wherever he chose. He chose Aphrodite.
One day, while Adonis was hunting, a wild boar wounded him, and he died in Aphrodite’s arms. His blood mingled with her tears and became the anemone flower. Greek women mourned him each midsummer at the festival of Adonia.
One operator calls the falls the place where the two lovers were said to meet. That is local lore. A Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour gives the waterfall a story, not a record from ancient times.
Homer and Hesiod name Cyprus as the goddess’s homeland, which is why she was called Cypris. Her name Paphian comes from Paphos, where she rose from the sea. Wikipedia names Old Paphos as the leading place to worship her. Its sanctuary dates to the twelfth century BC. On Cyprus, the cult of Adonis gradually replaced that of Cinyras.
A Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour stays in the Paphos district, home of her Paphian name.
So the story ties the region together. Worshippers visited her sanctuary near Paphos until the third and fourth centuries AD. A Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour brings you to a waterfall named for her lover.
What else do travellers ask about a Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour?
Why does a Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour start in Paphos?
The city of Paphos lies on the sea in southwest Cyprus. It leads the Paphos District as its capital. Only Nicosia, Limassol and Larnaca are bigger cities on the island. A Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour begins there because both stops belong to the same district.
Kato Paphos is the seaside quarter, grown around the old medieval port. Hotels and entertainment cluster there. Paphos Castle stands by the harbour. In nineteen eighty, UNESCO named the remains of ancient Paphos a World Heritage Site.
How far are the two stops on a Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour from the city?
According to Wikipedia, Coral Bay lies 11 km north of Paphos city. A route planner states that the road from Paphos Harbour station to the Adonis Baths covers 15.7 km. It puts the drive at about 30 minutes.
The same planner measures Coral Bay to the Adonis Baths at 9.1 km by road, or about 19 minutes. Those figures are driving times only.
Can you swim on a Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour, and what goes in the bag?
One operator lists a swimming stop in natural pools beneath the waterfalls. The website of the park itself also says visitors can see the waterfalls and swim in them.
That operator names walking shoes for the park paths. Its notes add that swimming is at your own risk, and guests follow the safety guidelines at the falls. The listing names no other item, so ask your own operator about the rest.
Do the Baths of Aphrodite and the Avakas Gorge belong to a Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour?
Both are Akamas places, and neither is named in the operator listings we read. Wikipedia counts the Baths of Aphrodite among Akamas attractions, close to Polis. Legend says the goddess bathed there. Another Wikipedia page says nature trails and walks begin there.
The Avakas Gorge cuts the south-western side of Akamas. Its steep walls narrow until they touch, which forms a tunnel with a stream flowing inside.
What are the sea and the weather like in Cyprus in summer?
Wikipedia calls the climate subtropical, with warm to hot summers and mostly dry weather. On the coast in July and August, daytime highs average around 37 degrees Celsius. Nights average around 28. June and September days sit around 30 to 32.
The average sea temperature stays above 20 degrees from late spring to November. In August, depending on the place, it reaches 27 to 28. Bright sunshine lasts over 12 hours daily on average between April and September. A Paphos Coral Bay and Adonis Baths tour therefore meets long sunny days.