Visiting Varosha: what is open and how to see it
Last verified 19 October 2026
Varosha (Varosia in Greek, Maraş in Turkish) was Famagusta’s beach resort district, a strip of high rise hotels and apartments along Golden Sands that was among the busiest holiday destinations in the eastern Mediterranean in the early 1970s. It was fenced off in 1974 and stayed empty for 46 years. In October 2020 the authorities in the north opened part of it to visitors, and it has since become one of the most visited places on the island.
What you see is a town stopped in time: shuttered shops, collapsing hotel balconies, cars and signage from the early 1970s, with sand and trees reclaiming the streets. Most of it is still closed, and much of it is unsafe to enter.
What is open
Visitors can walk, cycle or ride an electric scooter along a set of designated streets inside the fence, including Kennedy Avenue, the main road behind the hotel strip, and down to the beach. Most of the area beyond those streets remains a military zone, with fences and signs marking where you cannot go. Entering buildings is prohibited everywhere, both because of the rules and because many are structurally unsound.
The beach is open, and since 2022 a section of Golden Sands has operated as an organised beach with sunbeds and umbrellas. Swimming here, with the abandoned hotels behind you, is the image most visitors come for.
Since the first opening in 2020 the open area has been extended once, in July 2021, when the north’s authorities lifted military status from about 3.5 per cent of the fenced district. The UN reported no further formal openings in its July 2026 report, though renovation work continues in places. What is open can change, so check locally before you set out.
Getting there
The visitor entrance is a short walk south of the walled city of Famagusta, so it combines easily with a day in the old town and at Salamis.
From the south, the nearest crossing is Deryneia (Derinya), around 45 minutes to an hour from Ayia Napa or Protaras, and Strovilia is the other option on that side. You need your passport or ID card at the crossing, and time in the north counts towards any 90 day limit you are working to. Our guide to the crossing points has the details. If you are driving a hire car, check your contract first: many southern hire firms do not allow their cars into the north, and their insurance will not cover you there. See taking a hire car across the border. Organised coach tours also run to Varosha from the Ayia Napa and Protaras resorts.
From within the north, Famagusta is roughly an hour from North Nicosia and a little more than that from Kyrenia, and about 45 minutes from Ercan airport.
Private cars are not driven around the open area. You park outside and go in on foot, by bike or by scooter.
At the gate
- Entry is free. Reports from 2025 and 2026 agree there is no charge.
- Opening hours run from 8am to the late afternoon or early evening, longer in summer than in winter. Published times vary between sources, so check the times posted at the gate rather than relying on any website, this one included.
- Bags are searched at the entrance.
- Carry your passport or ID. Some visitors report not being asked for it at the gate itself, but you will need it to cross from the south anyway.
- Bikes and electric scooters can be hired at the entrance. Prices are in Turkish lira, have risen sharply since 2020, and recent reports say payment is by card only.
- Drones are banned, and that is enforced.
Practical tips
Photography. You can photograph freely within the visitor area, but not military positions, personnel or anything behind a sign telling you not to. Soldiers do patrol the area. If you are asked to delete a picture, delete it.
Heat. There is very little shade on the open streets, and in July and August the middle of the day is punishing. Go early or late, take water, and consider a bike rather than walking the whole route.
Food and water. There are a few kiosks at the entrance and a café near the beach, but do not count on much inside. Bring water.
Respect. For many people Varosha is not a curiosity. Greek Cypriots who lived there lost their homes, and many former residents and their families find the site painful to see. For many Turkish Cypriots it is part of a history they also lived through. Visitors are welcome, but treat it as a place where people’s lives were interrupted, not a theme park.
Why Varosha is contested
Varosha’s status is one of the most sensitive questions in the Cyprus dispute, and the two sides see the reopening very differently.
The UN position. UN Security Council Resolution 550 (1984) says that attempts to settle any part of Varosha by people other than its inhabitants are inadmissible, and calls for the area to be transferred to UN administration. Resolution 789 (1992) called for UN control to be extended to include Varosha. The Security Council condemned the 2021 announcement and called for it to be reversed, and the UN says its position is unchanged.
The Republic of Cyprus and the EU regard the reopening as a breach of those resolutions and want Varosha returned to its former inhabitants under UN administration. The European Union has called for the steps taken since 2020 to be reversed.
The Turkish Cypriot authorities say the land belongs largely to Evkaf, the Islamic religious foundation, and that former owners who want their property back or compensation can apply to the Immovable Property Commission in the north. Hundreds of applications have been reported. They present the reopening as bringing a dead town back to life, and say Varosha’s future belongs in any overall settlement.
There is no agreed plan for Varosha’s future. As far as we have been able to find, the Republic has taken no action against ordinary tourists for visiting, but visiting is a choice some people on both sides feel strongly about, and that is worth knowing before you go.
Visitor numbers
The authorities in the north say more than two million people had visited by late 2024. That figure comes from them alone and has not been independently verified, but either way Varosha is now one of the most visited sites in the north.