Makronissos Beach, Ayia Napa: three bays, the tombs and how to get there

Makronissos Beach is a cluster of three small, sheltered bays of fine golden sand on a low headland at the western edge of Ayia Napa, about 5 km from the resort centre. It holds a Blue Flag for 2026, has lifeguards from April to October, sunbeds, umbrellas, toilets and changing rooms, and a free archaeological site of 19 rock-cut tombs behind the sand. OSEA buses 101 and 102 stop outside it. Pick it over Nissi when you want the same water with less noise, and arrive before 11:00 in July and August.

Most pages describe Makronissos as a single beach. It is really a headland with sand on three sides, and which side you walk to decides what kind of day you have. This guide covers that choice, the details the top results leave out (bus stop names, the 2026 timetable and fares, the tombs’ official hours) and the neighbouring beaches.

Makronissos Beach at a glance

Detail	Makronissos Beach
Location	Western edge of Ayia Napa, Famagusta district, off Nissi Avenue
Layout	Three bays around a headland, facing west, south-west and south-east; about 350 m of sand in total
Blue Flag	Yes, on CYMEPA’s 2026 list
Lifeguards	April to October
Facilities	Toilets, changing rooms, sunbeds, umbrellas, watersports, kiosks and restaurants nearby, parking
Nearby	Makronissos Tombs (free), Landa Beach 1.3 km, Nissi Beach 1.7 km, WaterWorld 2.3 km, Ayia Thekla 2.7 km
Bus	OSEA 101/102, stops Makronissos Beach 1 and 2
Best for	Families, calm shallow water, a quieter alternative to Nissi
Less good for	Nightlife, a long walk along the sand, anyone who wants to be in the centre

Three bays, not one beach

Visit Cyprus, the official tourism site, describes Makronissos as “a picturesque cluster of three bays” that extend in different directions from the well-sheltered main beach: out to the west, the south-west and the south-east. That geography is the whole point of the place. Whatever the wind is doing, one of the three sides is usually calm, which is why it works for small children and nervous swimmers when the long open stretches elsewhere are choppy.

The main bay, in the photo above, has the rows of sunbeds, the gentlest shelving water and the facilities, so it is the default for a family with a cool box and a buggy. The smaller bays either side are quieter and a little wilder, with rock at the edges and fewer loungers. Visit Cyprus notes that the south-western part lies within a Natura 2000 protected area, which is why that side has stayed undeveloped.

Several sites, including one on page one of Google, place Makronissos 5 km east of Ayia Napa. It is west: out along Nissi Avenue past Nissi and Landa, the last headland before the marina and WaterWorld.

Facilities, Blue Flag and lifeguards

Visit Cyprus lists toilets, changing rooms, sunbeds, umbrellas and watersports on the beach, a convenience store close by and restaurants and kiosks in the area. Lifeguards with lifesaving equipment and first aid are stationed on the beach from April to October, and there is parking behind the sand.

Makronissos is on the official 2026 Blue Flag list published by CYMEPA, the national operator of the scheme in Cyprus, as one of 13 beaches in the enlarged Ayia Napa municipality to hold the flag this year. The others are Landa, Nissi Beach, Nissi Bay, Vathia Gonia, Pantachou, Glyki Nero, Ammos tou Kambouri, Konnos Bay, Limnara, Pernera, Ziatzi and Ayia Thekla, and the Ayia Napa Marina holds a marina flag. A Blue Flag is awarded for the season and can be withdrawn, so look for it flying at the lifeguard tower rather than trusting a list.

Two timing points matter if you are reading this in autumn. The lifeguard season ends on 31 October, so a November swim is unsupervised, and Cyprus put its clocks back on 25 October 2026, which brings sunset at Ayia Napa forward to about 16:57 that day and 16:38 by mid-November. The sea itself stays swimmable: the official Deputy Ministry of Tourism climate table gives an average sea temperature of 25°C in October and 22°C in November, warmer than May. Our Cyprus sea temperature guide has the full monthly table.

The Makronissos Tombs

Behind the eastern bay is one of the most interesting free sights in Ayia Napa, and one that the beach pages barely mention. The Makronissos Tombs are 19 rock-cut tombs, a small sanctuary and part of an ancient quarry. Visit Cyprus and the Ayia Napa municipality both date them to the Hellenistic and Roman periods, with the sanctuary’s few surviving offerings placing it in the Cypro-Classical and Hellenistic periods. They are not Mycenaean, a label that appears in several guides, including until today two pages on this site, which we have corrected.

The tombs had been looted since at least 1872, and the municipality funded a proper excavation between November 1989 and January 1990. Each tomb has a stepped passage down to a rectangular doorway once closed with one or two stone slabs. Inside, most chambers are almost identical: a rectangular trench in the middle and three benches around the sides, where the dead were laid in clay sarcophagi covered with three flat tiles. Traces of pyres on the surface show Greek burial customs, and some tombs were damaged by the quarry that kept working beside the cemetery.

Visit Cyprus lists the site as open daily from 09:00 to 17:00 all year round, closed on public holidays, with free entry, and warns that hours can change without notice. The public holiday rule matters this week: Ochi Day on Wednesday 28 October 2026 is a public holiday, so expect the gate to be shut. Our Cyprus public holidays guide lists the rest of the year. Allow 15 to 20 minutes, wear shoes rather than flip-flops on the rock, and go before the beach rather than after.

Landa and Ayia Thekla, the neighbours

Landa Beach sits 1.3 km east, halfway between Makronissos and Nissi. Visit Cyprus describes it as a 400 m natural bay of fine golden sand with calm, clear water, and says its name means “pond” in the local dialect. It has the same facilities and lifeguard season as Makronissos, plus a special wheelchair at the lifeguard tower so that visitors with reduced mobility can enter the sea with help. A pedestrian path links Vathia Gonia, Landa and Makronissos along the coast, and there is a picnic site. Our Ayia Napa beaches comparison notes that the district tourism board calls Landa well protected but quite deep, so confident swimmers will like it more than toddlers will.

Ayia Thekla, 2.7 km west and named for the small chapel on the shore, is also on the 2026 Blue Flag list, sits on the same bus corridor, and is the beach to move to when the three Makronissos bays are full.

WaterWorld, the water park on Ayia Thekla Road, is 2.3 km away and the bus terminus is there, so beach in the morning and slides in the afternoon is an easy family day. Our WaterWorld Ayia Napa guide has the current tickets and hours.

How to get there

By car. From the centre of Ayia Napa follow Nissi Avenue west and keep going past Nissi and Landa; Makronissos is signed on the left. From the Larnaca side leave the A3 motorway at the Ayia Napa exit and follow signs for Nissi Avenue and the marina. Drive times from OSRM routing, retrieved on 25 October 2026:

From	Distance	Drive time
Nissi Beach	1.7 km	4 min
Ayia Napa harbour	8.6 km	11 min
Paralimni centre	10.9 km	14 min
Fig Tree Bay, Protaras	16.7 km	21 min
Larnaca Finikoudes	42.2 km	42 min
Larnaca Airport	53.7 km	47 min
Limassol old port	107 km	1 h 32 min

The harbour figure looks odd beside Visit Cyprus’s “5 km from the centre”, but that is the straight-line distance; the road loops inland along Nissi Avenue. Parking behind the beach fills by late morning in August. If you are coming straight from the airport, our Larnaca Airport to Ayia Napa guide covers the shuttle, bus and taxi options.

By bus. The Famagusta district operator OSEA runs routes 101 and 102 along the whole resort coast, and both serve Makronissos. From the Ayia Napa central bus station (opposite the Pierre Anne hotel, behind the Paliatso fun fair) and Ayia Napa Square, the westbound 102 runs along Nissi Avenue past the MUSAN underwater museum, Vathia Gonia, Nissi Beach and Landa Beach to the stops named Makronissos Beach 1 and 2, then on to Ayia Napa Marina and the WaterWorld terminus. The 101 runs the same road in the other direction, from WaterWorld through the centre and on to Cape Greco, Protaras, Pernera and Paralimni, which makes Makronissos a straightforward day out from Protaras as well.

The 2026 summer timetable, valid every day from 25 May to 31 October, shows 101 departures from the WaterWorld end from 06:05 to 04:00 the next morning and 102 departures from Paralimni from 05:20 to 03:30, roughly every 10 to 15 minutes through the day and every 20 to 30 minutes late in the evening. The full route takes 75 minutes; the centre to Makronissos is a short hop at one end of it. OSEA’s Live Arrivals app is the thing to use for the last bus back. A winter timetable replaces this one from 1 November and had not been published at the time of writing, so check osea.com.cy before relying on these times.

Fares, from OSEA’s tickets page: a single is 2 euros between 04:00 and 21:00 and 3 euros at night, a day ticket 6 euros and a seven-day ticket 25 euros; under-sixes travel free. Pay the driver in cash with notes under 50 euros, and keep the ticket, because the on-the-spot fine is 150 euros. Our public transport in Cyprus guide explains how the regional operators fit together.

On foot or by bike. The coastal pedestrian path from Vathia Gonia via Landa is the pleasant way to arrive from the Nissi hotels. From the centre of Ayia Napa it is 8 km by road and not a summer walk; take the bus.

When to go

The eastern end of Cyprus is the hot end. The Meteorological Service’s Paralimni station, 4 km inland and the nearest to Ayia Napa with published normals, averages a daily maximum of 33.3°C in August, 31.2°C in September, 27.7°C in October and 21.7°C in November, with overnight lows still at 18°C in October. That makes late September and October the sweet spot at Makronissos: lifeguards still on duty, sea at 25°C, sunbeds half empty and the three bays doing their job against the first autumn winds.

In July and August the beach is full by 11:00; go early, claim the main bay, and move round to the smaller bays once the loungers run out. In May the air is warm but the sea is only around 21°C. In winter the bays are empty and the tombs still open, but the sunbeds and lifeguards are gone.

Is Makronissos worth it?

Yes, and for most families it is the best beach choice in Ayia Napa. It has everything Nissi has (Blue Flag, lifeguards, sunbeds, watersports, shallow golden sand) without the music and the crowds, and it adds a free 2,000-year-old cemetery you can walk round in your swimming shorts. The trade-offs are honest ones: it is a bus or car ride from the centre, it is small, and you will probably move bays at least once to find the one that suits the wind.

If a long beach walk matters more than shelter, our Protaras beaches guide and the Nissi Beach guide cover the alternatives, the best beaches in Cyprus puts Makronissos in national context, and for everything beyond the sand see our things to do in Ayia Napa.

Sources for changing details: Beach layout, facilities, lifeguard season and the Natura 2000 note from Visit Cyprus and its Landa Beach page. Tombs’ hours, fee and description from Visit Cyprus and the Ayia Napa municipality. Blue Flag 2026 list from CYMEPA. Bus routes, stop names, the 25 May to 31 October 2026 timetable and fares from OSEA and its tickets page. Drive times from OSRM routing on OpenStreetMap data. Climate normals for Paralimni from the Meteorological Service (Cyprus) table reproduced on Wikipedia’s Climate of Cyprus page; sea temperatures from the Deputy Ministry of Tourism’s 2011 to 2020 climate table. Sunset times calculated for 34.98N 33.96E. All checked 25 October 2026; confirm hours, timetables and prices before you travel.

Hero photo: Makronissos Beach, Ayia Napa, by Marek Ślusarczyk, via Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY 3.0. Cropped for the header.