Cyprus basics: plugs, driving, language and money
Last verified 24 August 2026
For British visitors, Cyprus is one of the least foreign places you can fly five hours to reach. Decades of British administration left the island with UK plugs, left-hand driving and everyday English, and those three things hold on both sides of the line. What changes when you cross is the language on the signs and the money in your pocket. Here are the basics, in the order people ask about them.
Plugs: bring nothing
Cyprus uses the same three-pin Type G sockets as the UK, at 240 volts, on both sides of the island. Every charger, hairdryer and laptop lead you own plugs straight in. No adaptor, no converter, nothing to buy at the airport. Travellers arriving from mainland Europe are the ones who need adaptors here, which makes a pleasant change. The one wrinkle you may meet is the hotel key-card slot that cuts power when you leave the room; any card in the slot keeps the air conditioning running, though your hosts would rather you didn’t know that.
Driving: left, like home
The whole island drives on the left, another British inheritance, so a UK driver needs no mental adjustment at all: roundabouts flow the familiar way, the driver sits on the right, and your UK photocard licence works on both sides with no international permit. Distances and speed limits are posted in kilometres, north and south, which is the only recalibration required. Roads in the south are excellent, with proper motorways linking the towns; the north’s main roads are good and its rural ones slower. The two driving cultures are more relaxed than the UK’s about indicating and more enthusiastic about speed, so drive your own game. If you plan to drive across the line, the car needs paperwork even though you don’t; our hire car crossing guide covers it.
Language: three tongues, one of them yours
Greek is the language of the south, Turkish the language of the north, and English the language both sides use with visitors. Almost everyone in tourism, and most people under fifty, speak it comfortably; menus, road signs and official notices in the south are routinely bilingual, and the north is much the same in the towns. You can live a whole holiday, or frankly a whole retirement, in English on either side, though a kalimera in the south or a merhaba in the north opens doors that English alone does not.
Two details worth knowing. Place names differ by side: the town the south signs as Kyreneia the north signs as Girne, Famagusta is Gazimağusa, Nicosia is Lefkosia in Greek and Lefkoşa in Turkish. Satnavs and paper maps pick one convention, so knowing the pairs stops you missing turnings. And the Greek alphabet on southern signs always appears alongside a Latin transliteration, so nothing needs deciphering.
Money: one island, two currencies
The south uses the euro; the north uses the Turkish lira, with euros and pounds widely accepted in tourist areas at whatever rate the till decides. Cards are normal everywhere in the south and standard in northern towns, though the north remains fonder of cash, and lira prices there move with Turkish inflation, which can make the north feel remarkably cheap for sterling earners. Crossing for the day needs no preparation beyond a card and a few notes; the crossing points guide covers the rest. One practical tip either side: when a card machine offers to charge you in pounds, decline and pay in the local currency, because the conversion offered is never in your favour.
The short version
Pack as if for Britain with better weather: no adaptors, no international permit, no phrasebook required. The only genuinely foreign object in your week is the Turkish lira, and even that is optional if you stay south of the line.