Pyla to Fig Tree Bay

The bus that drops you at the start will not be there at the finish. From Limassol take the intercity to Larnaca and change at the Central Station onto bus 424, which runs out to its last stop, UCLan University in Pyla — and that stop is the trailhead, 240 m and about three minutes from where the route begins. The first 424 in reaches Pyla at 06:30 on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, and at 07:30 on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday; midweek it comes about every half hour, Thursday and at the weekend about hourly, so the morning is not tight. The end is the awkward half. You finish at Fig Tree Bay, on the far side of Protaras rather than back at Pyla, and the stop there is about 200 m from the last step of the route. Bus 102 leaves it constantly — first at 05:46, last at 23:58 on weekdays and 23:30 at the weekend — and takes you to Pernera and Paralimni, where you change for whatever comes next. The direct intercity toward Larnaca, route 36, passes Vrisi Beach 1.2 km from the finish at 07:42, once a day, which is hours before a walker could arrive. So plan the return around the 102 and a change rather than a straight ride home, and treat the last bus as a deadline: 23:58 midweek, 23:30 at the weekend.

The numbers make the choice for you. The route runs between 4 m and 123 m above the sea, and not one of the 841 samples in the recorded profile sits on a steep gradient — 675 are flat, 131 easy, 35 moderate. What this walk asks of you is distance, not climbing, and it gives back almost nothing for shade: of fifty canopy samples along the way, eight fall inside mapped woodland. Most of the 44 km is spent under open sky, so the season you pick is really the season of the sun. I walked it in October 2023, and that is the frame I keep — dry ground, warm but not punishing, the light low enough by late afternoon that the plateau stopped burning. Spring is the other good window, March and April, when the fields are still green and the heat has not arrived; either gives you a real chance to finish in daylight. Summer I would only attempt in the dark: with four samples in five in open ground, 44 km in July means walking with nowhere to hide, and the first bus in reaches Pyla no earlier than 06:30 midweek and 07:30 otherwise. Winter is the mildest of the four on this coast, but December does not give enough daylight for a 44 km day, and the last bus home is gone before midnight. Whatever month you come in, carry water for the whole distance — the route spends most of its length away from buildings.