Famagusta City Tour with Salamis & 'Ghost Town' from Paphos

This was a great trip to the ancient site of Salamis and the walled city of Famagusta and Varosha all in the Turkish controlled part of Cyprus. Eva our guide gave us a very moving account of her personal experiences of the 1974 invasion and Mario our driver drove us around with great care. This trip gives and insight of the events of 1974 and more recent times. We saw the ancient theatre and surrounding ruins of Salamis and had an excellent lunch in the walled city of Famagusta. We then walked around part of the "ghost city" of Varosha which was bombed in 1974 and has been completely left uninhabited. Eva gave us great historic information and I would thoroughly recommend this trip to what seems like a different country.

We booked through Viator many months before our trip and entered all of our information properly. I also thoroughly reviewed the booking information. No where did it say that Canadian passports would not be able to cross the checkpoint (I have since looked and seen that on other booking sites it does state that information). We got on the bus and the tour operator did not ask to see our passport and had all of our booking information properly printed (again, I clearly filled out all information with Viator at the time of booking). The tour then started driving, picking up more passengers. About 5 mins after picking up the last passengers, the tour operator came to collect passports so I handed ours to them. A few minutes later she walked back asking about nationalities and I said “Canadian”. She then made the bus turn around and drop us off at a bus stop near the last hotel. We had to pay our own way on a bus on a 10 min ride back to near our hotel. And then I tried to get a refund via Viator and they denied the refund because “the tour operator did not authorize”. So, even though all of my residency information (home address, my credit card info) would all show my residency, no one bothered to mention this to us before the tour started. The tour operator even messaged me many weeks ago to advise of our pick up time and spot, but did not mention anything. No one checked this before we got on the bus. I thoroughly read all of the Viator information and all it told me was that we had to have valid passports. I also even researched to make sure we didn’t need a Visa or something to get in to Turkey and we did not. The tour provider said, on TripAdvisor’s booking site (which I did not book through and only looked at after we got kicked off the bus) that the particular checkpoint they use only allowed certain types of EU passports through. THIS WAS NOT SHOWN ON THE VIATOR TOUR DESCRIPTION AT THE TIME I BOOKED, so I will continue to hound these scammers until my refund is fully issued. I don’t care if this comes from Viator or the tour operator. I did not screw up - one of them did.

We were picked up from our hotel and driven in a comfortable coach . It’s a long day but well worth it. The tour guide Katerina was very knowledgeable and passionate about the places we went. For us the tour to Famagusta was an eye opener and quite emotional actually.

They did not show up. This is the first time when the company did not show up. They clams that I was on a different hotel, but my pick up is set in-front of another hotel, which is not through because they sent me a confirmation mail. Never book this company. My initial mistake was that I disregarded similar experiences described by another tourists. This is a shame if a company. Totally untrustful.

The whole trip was very good. The guide talked a lot about the history of Cyprus and of the tourist sights. In the morning we received half an hour coffee break but I used the time to run through the UNESCO world heritage site nearby.

Too bad. I was refused to join tour when I met guide. I asked tour opperator about skip to go back way. However I can't contact opperator everytime by email. Refuse could accept but I asked about refund they didn't reply until now.

Tour guide was very informative and knew lots of information on all of the locations we visited. Lots to see and history to be told Long day but worth it

The pick up location given wasn't appropriate at all. I requested to change it. I was answered it was ok. So I confirmed the new address, and got no further assistance. So that I couldn't take part. That wasn't serious at all.

The guide, escort and driver were all fabulous. Be prepared this was a 12 hour trip door to door - a LOT of driving. The border was slow and the passport checks took a while. The ruins were amazing (50c fee to use toilets) and the Venetian walls were impressive. We never really had time to eat and food is not provided. It was a very very long day. The north is not nearly as nice as the south.

One of the best day trips I've done recently with a very knowledgeable tour guide (Eva Voss), absolutely recommendable. I loved the all the places we stopped.