My Visit to Akrotiri & Dhekelia

The Club
Most of my friends and readers know I’m on a pretty distinct mission: to travel to all 193 countries on the planet. While 193 is the number of UN member nations, there are, however, many other “lists” besides that most-common “193.” The Travelers Century Club counts 329 countries. Their list includes many territories, disputed areas and breakaway republics. Cyprus, for example, counts for a whopping three countries on the TCC list. There’s the Greek Cypriot-controlled “regular” Cyprus, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and then you have the two sovereign British military areas on the island: Akrotiri and Dhekelia.

>>>RELATED: My Mission – Explained.

Go West Young Man
I landed in Larnaka (“regular” Cyprus) on a Tuesday afternoon and would only have three nights on the island to see all three parts. I hadn’t planned too well and quickly had to make a decision on arrival. My hotel for the night was in Larnaka (the same city where I landed) but I’d still need to see Akrotiri and Dhekelia (two separate places) before moving on to Northern Cyprus in two days. Glancing at my GPS, I discovered Akrotiri was all the way to the west – about an hour’s drive from the airport. I reckoned I had a couple more hours of daylight and didn’t want them to go to waste, so I high-tailed it over to check-off Akrotiri.

Lucy, I’m Home
My arrival was a little unceremonious. No fence, no gate, no passport checks. There was a “Welcome” sign, which I instinctively pulled over to take a photo in front of. The main part of the village was up the hill. The sun was setting on this quiet collection of old, low-key Mediterranean-style homes on narrow streets, as a few kids passed by on bikes and cats scurried under cars as I rolled by. I felt a meal was in order to consummate my visit and I saw only two restaurants. I chose the one with the sign that said “traditional food” and enjoyed a great plate, definitely local – which included chicken skewers, sausages and a couple other local items whose names escape me. The waiter’s accent almost sounded Cuban to me, but he was indeed a local. When I told him to give my compliments to the chef, he informed me that “the chef” was his mom. I loved that!

After dinner, I roamed the neighborhood on foot for just a few minutes. It would be nightfall soon and I really wanted to be stationary by dark. I headed back to Larnaka with a full belly and enjoyed listening to local radio on the way. When I arrived at the hotel I was too tired to do anything but go to bed. It was an eventful first quarter of a day in Cyprus, with so much more to do in the coming days.

Dhekelia Drive-Thru
The next morning, I’d head east to a beach resort, still in “regular” Cyprus, but not before rolling through Dhekelia, the other half of Akrotiri and Dhekelia. I crossed in just before 11AM. There was a lot more military signage than Akrotiri (or maybe I just missed it in Akrotiri.) I wandered the small neighborhood outside the base, which was eerily quiet in a Twilight Zone sort of way. Then I rolled into the base area, whose gates were wide open. I was in and out in 40 minutes. I was tempted to take a dip at the beach, but wanted to get going. I was happy I could now check off both Akrotiri and Dhekelia this time!

Short But Sweet
I still had a lot of ground to cover and a short time to do it all, so I bid farewell to Dhekelia and continued east. I really liked both Akrotiri and Dhekelia and was happy to add them to my list. Don’t forget to check out my main Cyprus article HERE.

RELATED: My visit to the ghost town of Varosha, Cyprus.