Paphos to Limassol: bus, taxi or hire car?

The cheapest way from Paphos to Limassol is the direct Intercity Buses coach, at a published 5 euros one way for a journey the operator times at about an hour and fifteen minutes. Driving takes closer to fifty minutes, and a taxi is the only option that starts and ends where you actually are. The bus is good value and genuinely direct. The catch is the two ends: it starts from a terminal in upper Paphos and finishes at the New Port in Limassol, and neither of those is where most visitors are staying.

That is the detail the route-comparison sites tend to flatten. “Paphos to Limassol” looks like a single 60 km line on a map, but the journey you are actually planning starts at a hotel in Kato Paphos or Coral Bay and ends at a seafront apartment or the Old Town. Getting the middle right is easy. Getting the first and last twenty minutes right is what decides whether the bus is a bargain or a nuisance.

One more thing to settle before anything else: if you are flying in, you are not planning this journey at all. Paphos Airport is a separate service with a separate operator, and the section below explains why.

The quick answer: which option fits your day

Your situation	Best default	Why
Changing base, travelling light, flexible on time	Intercity bus	Direct, cheap and frequent enough on weekdays
Two or more cases, a pushchair or an early start	Taxi or pre-booked transfer	Door to door, no terminal transfer at either end
You want to stop at Aphrodite’s Rock, Kourion or Kolossi	Hire car	The good stops are on the road, not at the destination
Dinner in Limassol and a late return to Paphos	Car or taxi	The last bus back is earlier than you think
Arriving at Paphos Airport	Airport shuttle or transfer	The intercity bus does not serve the terminal

The intercity bus: the fares and the bit about terminals

Intercity Buses is the operator for the direct town-to-town service. Its published route information gives a total journey time of about one hour and fifteen minutes and the following fares for this route:

Ticket	Price	How it is bought
One way	€5	Paper ticket from the driver, or the motion card e-wallet
Return	€9	Paper motion card at points of sale
Weekly	€40	Plastic motion card at points of sale
Monthly	€90	Motion card, from the driver or at points of sale

The return ticket is the one that catches people out. At €9 it is a clear saving, but it is sold at points of sale rather than on board, so a traveller who turns up at the stop expecting to buy one from the driver ends up paying €5 each way instead. If you know you are coming back the same week, sort the ticket before you set off.

Now the terminals. Paphos departures start from the New Terminal Pervola Karavella, which sits in Ktima, the upper town, rather than down by the harbour. The service then calls at the Courts on Neofytou Nikolaides about three minutes later, and at stops near the police station, the Stelios Kyriakides stadium and the Blue Cross Clinic on Dimokratias Avenue within the first ten minutes. If you are staying in Kato Paphos or along Tombs of the Kings Avenue, one of those later stops may be an easier walk than the terminal itself.

At the other end, the timetable starts and finishes at the New Port passenger building in Limassol, with intermediate stops at Primetel on Omonoias Avenue, the Social Insurances building on Franklin Roosevelt, Saint Antonios Church and the Old Hospital on Archiepiskopou Leontiou A. For the Old Town and the marina, the Old Hospital stop is usually the most useful of those. For a hotel in the eastern tourist area, expect a local EMEL bus or a short taxi on top.

Frequency is the other thing worth planning around. On weekdays the published timetable runs from early morning until around nine in the evening, at roughly hourly intervals with gaps. At weekends and on public holidays it thins out considerably and does not start until eight in the morning, with the last departures in the early evening rather than late. Timetables change, so treat these as the shape of the service and confirm your own date on the operator’s route page.

Paphos Airport is a different journey

This is the single most common mix-up on this route, and it is the reason some aggregator pages give contradictory answers. The intercity coach is a town service. It does not begin at Paphos Airport.

Arriving passengers heading for Limassol normally use the Limassol Airport Express shuttle instead, which the operator prices at €10 for adults and €5 for children and times to flight schedules. It is a different vehicle, a different ticket and a different set of stops, including a station at Agios Georgios Havouzas with free parking.

If Paphos itself is your destination rather than a connection, our Paphos Airport to Paphos guide covers the bus, taxi and car options from the terminal. For the wider picture of how the island’s separate bus networks fit together, read our public transport in Cyprus guide, which explains why an airport coach, an intercity route and a local resort bus should each be planned as its own leg.

Driving: quick, easy and the only version with stops in it

The drive is straightforward. The A6 motorway links the two towns and is the fast option, usually around fifty minutes to an hour without stopping. Cyprus drives on the left, signs are metric, and there are no tolls, which makes this one of the least stressful motorway drives a UK visitor is likely to do on holiday. Our driving in Cyprus guide covers the speed limits and habits worth knowing, and the car hire guide covers the checks to make before you collect the vehicle.

The more interesting route is the older B6 coast road, which runs nearer the sea and passes the things you would otherwise only read about. That is what turns a transfer into a day out, and it is the one argument for a car that the bus cannot answer.

Stop	Where it is	How long to allow
Aphrodite’s Rock	About 25 km east of Paphos on the B6, near Kouklia	30 to 60 minutes, and use the clifftop viewpoint, not just the car park
Kourion	On the coast west of Limassol	Two hours if you want the theatre and the mosaics without rushing
Kolossi Castle	Kolossi village, 14 km west of Limassol	About an hour, and it parks more easily than Kourion

Three stops is one too many for a travel day with luggage. Pick one if you are changing base, or two if you are driving out and back from Paphos with nothing to check into.

When a taxi or transfer is the right answer

A taxi solves the two ends, which is exactly the part the bus does not. It is the sensible choice with several cases, an early flight connection, a pushchair, limited mobility or a group who would otherwise need two sets of tickets and two local buses.

Fares are not fixed for a journey of this length, so agree the basis before you set off rather than after. Our Cyprus taxi guide explains the difference between an urban metered ride, a rural taxi and a pre-booked transfer, and why a written quote for your specific address beats a “from” price on a search result. For a one-way trip with luggage, a booked transfer is usually the calmer arrangement; for a spontaneous afternoon, a metered ride from a rank is fine.

Getting back is the harder half

Almost every problem on this route happens on the return leg. The intercity timetable finishes in the evening, earlier at weekends and on public holidays, which rules out a bus back after a long dinner in the Old Town. If you want a Limassol evening from a Paphos base, either drive with a sober driver, book a taxi for a stated time, or stay the night.

That last option is not a defeat. Our weekend in Limassol itinerary shows how the city works over two days rather than four hours, and our Limassol Old Town guide covers the walkable core if you are only there for an afternoon. If the beach is the point rather than the city, the Limassol beaches guide is the better starting page.

The short answer

Take the intercity bus if you are travelling light and flexible: €5 one way, about an hour and a quarter, and a direct service that genuinely works, as long as you plan the walk or local bus at each end. Take a taxi or transfer when luggage, timing or the group makes the terminals the problem. Drive when you want Aphrodite’s Rock or Kourion in the middle of the journey, or when you want a Limassol evening and a return the same night. And if you are coming from Paphos Airport, ignore all of the above and look at the airport shuttle instead.

Sources for changing details: the Intercity Buses Limassol to Paphos route page for the timetable, stops and fares quoted here (taken from the operator’s published route page as archived on 5 March 2026, because the live site blocks automated access, so check it yourself before travelling); Limassol Airport Express for the airport shuttle fares; and the Cyprus Deputy Ministry of Tourism’s transport information for taxi tariffs and the island’s bus categories. Timetables, fares and stop locations change, so confirm your own date with the operator before travelling.

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Hero photograph: “Intercity Buses (Paphos)” by CAPTAIN RAJU, Wikimedia Commons, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped for this page.