Paphos International Airport to Limassol
About 60 km east; the published taxi tariff is €46.27 by day and €54.26 at night, and intercity buses run from Paphos town rather than the airport.
Cyprus's business capital an hour east along the coast — a marina district of restaurants, the old castle where Richard the Lionheart married, and a seafront park that runs for kilometres.
Every way to get there
Our verdict: for Limassol, a private transfer is the easiest door-to-door option (from €48). Travelling light on a budget? The bus is cheapest (from €6) but slower, with a change in the city.
What it costs for your group
The bus is charged per person, while a taxi or private transfer is one price for the whole car — so the more of you there are, the better door-to-door value looks.
| Group | Bus (per person) | Private transfer | Best value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo · 1 traveller | €6 | €48 | Bus |
| Couple · 2 travellers | €12 | €48 | Bus |
| Family of 4 · 4 travellers | €24 | €48 | Bus |
Which option should you choose?
| If your priority is… | Our pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest price | Bus | From €6, though slower with a change in the city. |
| Speed & comfort | Private transfer | Door-to-door, fixed price, a driver waiting for you. |
| A group of 3–4 | Transfer or taxi | One flat fare splits cheaper than several bus tickets. |
| A late-night arrival | Transfer or taxi | Both run 24/7 when buses and the tram have stopped. |
By transport mode
Taxi
Fifty minutes and a published price, which makes it one of the more predictable long runs in Cyprus. The night rate applies from 20:30 as everywhere on the island.
Where to catch it: Officially tariffed at €46.27 day and €54.26 night, straight along the A6 motorway.
Best for small groups in a hurryBus / shuttle
Around €7 all in but the best part of two hours with the transfer into town. Reasonable on a weekday morning; awkward on a Sunday evening when intercity frequencies drop.
Where to catch it: There's no airport coach east. Ride into Paphos, then take the Paphos–Limassol intercity bus from Karavella station.
Best for solo & budget travellersPrivate transfer
Prices close to the official taxi rate, so the choice is about whether you want a car waiting at a named time. For three or four sharing, it comfortably beats the bus-plus-transfer route.
Where to catch it: The business traffic into Limassol books this way as standard — a quoted figure on the invoice rather than a tariff to argue about.
Best for families, groups & late arrivalsCar rental
If you're flying into Paphos but staying in Limassol, a one-way hire dropped at Larnaca often works out cheaper than two transfers — and the drive takes in the best of the south coast.
Where to catch it: A6 motorway the whole way, passing Kourion and Petra tou Romiou en route.
Best for travellers who want to exploreLimassol & Paphos in photos
Buying tickets in Paphos
Paphos is the island's smaller airport and its public transport is correspondingly thin: two OSYPA routes, both €1.50 paid on board. Route 612 runs to the harbour at Kato Paphos in about 30 minutes but only around every 70 minutes even in season. Route 613 goes to Karavella bus station in the upper town (Ktima) in about 40 minutes, with roughly four departures a day — near 08:00, 10:00, 16:30 and 19:00 — so it works only if your flight happens to land in the right window. Everywhere beyond Paphos itself means changing at Karavella onto an intercity service. Check the board on your way out of arrivals: if the next 612 is an hour away, the rank outside is the realistic option.
Taxi scams & safety in Paphos
Paphos taxis work to a published tariff sheet rather than an open meter, which makes this one of the few airports where you can look up the fare before you land — roughly €24.30 to Coral Bay, €42.77 to Polis and €46.27 to Limassol on the day rate, each rising after 20:30 when the night rate applies. Ask which rate you are being charged if you arrive near that boundary. Because the bus service is sparse, the practical risk here is not overcharging but being stranded, so book ahead if you land late or are heading to a villa. Cyprus drives on the left and hire cars carry red number plates. One contractual point worth knowing: standard rental agreements generally forbid the unsurfaced track to Lara Bay on the Akamas, and driving it voids the insurance — take a licensed jeep tour instead.
Getting from PFO to Limassol
Sixty kilometres east on the A6, about fifty minutes, and one of the more predictable journeys in Cyprus — because Paphos publishes its taxi tariffs and this route is on the sheet. €46.27 on the day rate, €54.26 after 20:30. That's unusual. On most Mediterranean airport runs you find out what it costs when the meter stops; here you can budget it before you book the flight.
There's no airport coach going east
Worth being clear, because Larnaca has one and people assume Paphos does too. It doesn't. Public transport to Limassol from PFO means getting into Paphos first — the 612 to the harbour or the 613 to Karavella station — and then the Paphos–Limassol intercity bus from Karavella. That comes to around €6 to €8 and close to two hours with the transfer. Intercity services run roughly hourly on weekdays and less often at weekends, which is when the plan tends to fall apart. Perfectly workable on a Tuesday morning; awkward on a Sunday evening.
The one-way hire car is the underrated option
Hire runs €22–50 daily, and this is the route where it deserves a proper look. If you're flying into Paphos and out of Larnaca — a common pattern, since the two airports serve different route networks — a one-way hire collected at PFO and dropped at LCA often costs less than two separate transfers, and it gives you the island in between. The A6 passes Petra tou Romiou and Kourion's clifftop theatre, both worth stopping for. Drive on the left; hire cars carry red plates.
Business travel books ahead, and the numbers explain why
A pre-booked transfer runs €48 to €68, essentially level with the published taxi tariff. So the choice isn't about money — it's about whether a car is waiting at a named time with a fixed figure for the invoice. Limassol's inbound traffic skews heavily corporate: shipping, legal, financial services, all clustered in the new seafront towers. That market books transfers as a matter of routine rather than queueing, and the operators here are set up for it. For three or four people sharing, it also beats the bus-plus-transfer route comfortably.
Which Limassol you're going to
The city has stretched. The marina district with its restaurants and berths is reclaimed land that didn't exist in this form fifteen years ago; the old town around the castle where Richard the Lionheart is said to have married still functions as an old town a few streets inland; and the hotel strip runs east along the seafront for several kilometres towards Amathus. Those are three quite different drop-offs and the drive between the far ends is fifteen minutes. Name the hotel when you agree the fare.
What's behind the city
If you're hiring anyway: the Troodos wine villages start climbing immediately behind Limassol — Omodos, Lofou, Vasa — and the Commandaria wine region is up there, along with roads that are genuinely enjoyable to drive. Kourion is twenty minutes west and one of the better classical sites in the eastern Mediterranean. None of it is realistic by bus in a day, and it's the strongest argument for taking a car at the airport rather than transferring in and hiring later.
The stops that make the drive worth doing yourself
If you take a car, two places on the A6 justify breaking the journey. Petra tou Romiou — Aphrodite's Rock — is a sea stack where the road drops back to the shoreline about twenty minutes east of the airport, with a pebble beach and a car park directly opposite. Kourion, another twenty minutes on, is a Greco-Roman city on a clifftop with a theatre still used for performances and a set of mosaic floors under cover. Both are signposted from the motorway and neither takes long. Doing the transfer as a half-day drive rather than a fifty-minute dash is the strongest argument for hiring at Paphos instead of booking a car to meet you.
Comparing the two airports honestly
Limassol sits roughly midway between Paphos and Larnaca — sixty kilometres one way, sixty-five the other, and the transfer costs are similar. So if you're choosing flights, pick on schedule and fare rather than assuming one airport is meaningfully closer. What differs is the public option: Larnaca has the €10 Airport Express coach direct to the city, and Paphos has nothing equivalent. If you're travelling alone and watching costs, that's a real reason to prefer flying into Larnaca.
Summary: €46.27 on the published tariff, or €48–68 booked for a car at a named time. The bus works for under €8 but takes two hours and a change, and if you're flying out of Larnaca, price a one-way hire car before you book anything.
