The beach is filled with young women in tiny bikinis displaying their tanned flesh, the music is pumping from the beach bars and the time on my watch is only 11 AM. I am taking my third can of Pepsi from my ice-bag and tell to myself: “This is the good life.”
Ayia Napa is the premier seaside resort of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. Over 50 hotels and hundreds of restaurants and pubs are located in the former fishing village that became a resort in the 1980s. The majority of the 2.5 million annual tourists who visit Cyprus go to Ayia Napa or the neighbor resorts of Fig Tree Bay and Protaras.
The golden beaches are just one of the reasons for the rise of tourism in Ayia Napa. The other and most important reason for tourism development is the conflict between Cyprus and Turkey which made the seaside 40 km north of Ayia Napa a wasteland occupied by the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus. Suddenly all the tourist development at the beaches in the north had to move south, and Ayia Napa was deemed the best location.
My friends back in the UK often refer to me as Mister Ice Cold Napa. The reason is that I run an ice cream bar in Ayia Napa. I chose to settle in Ayia Napa because it is the most lively holiday resort in Cyprus. When I say “lively”, other people say “drunken and rowdy.” But that’s just the few bar streets in the months of July and August. The rest of the year the resort is pretty pretty quiet. Ayia Napa is also used by pensioners and families with children, so no worries.
Enough of all the general info about Cyprus and the resort. My life as an ice cream bar owner in Ayia Napa has learned me three specific and important things which I want to pass on to you:
1. You only have to be 17 years old to buy beer in Cyprus, hence the Swedish girls populate the place.
The not so strict alcohol laws in Cyprus (compared to rest of Europe) makes it a popular place for teenagers to drink and have fun during the summer. That’s probably why we see so many young Scandinavian people here.
When they come to my ice cream bar, most of them prefer vanilla and lemon ice creams.
2. The Russians are everywhere.
You may not see so many Russians in Ayia Napa, but their money is helping out running several restaurants and night clubs. And a few strip joints as well. If you go to a strip club in Ayia Napa you will always lose more money than you think (Important lesson learned for me).
3. Tired of the music at Nissi Beach? Walk 500 metres and go to Golden Beach.
If you are staying in Napa for 14 days you will get tired of the constant loud music at Nissi, I advise my friends to head over to the neighbour beach of Golden beach for some relaxation in the sand.
The ice cream bar owner also runs a honest Ayia Napa travel guide which shows you all the little dirty secrets of the resort. He thinks that a vacation in Ayia Napa is money far well more spent than a city break in cities like Istanbul or Tel-Aviv.
