Canyon & Gorge Trails

Where to start

• Avakas Gorge (short) — the island's best-known gorge, a limestone corridor cut by the Avgas river, 1.1 km in from the Akamas coast. The long version carries on for 4.1 km and climbs 329 m.
• Kakkaristra — a flat 1.5 km loop on the edge of Nicosia, through a gorge whose walls hold 1.8-million-year-old marine fossils.
• Anerades — a 4 km circuit through a gorge near Miliou in the Paphos hills, at its best when the wildflowers are out.
• Vritzi — 600 m of canyon forms and caves in the Larnaca countryside, short enough for small children.
• Kannoures – Agios Nikolaos Stegis — the long one: 8.1 km down the Karkotis valley, losing 891 m, to a UNESCO-listed painted church.

Good to know

Gorge walls give less shade than you would expect. By our shade model only Vateri, in old Kakopetria, counts as shady; Avakas takes eight to nine hours of direct sun on a midsummer day, and Kakkaristra more than twelve. In summer, go early.

A gorge is also where the water goes. Streambeds can be wet or running from winter into spring, and Vasa Kilaniou becomes impassable when the river rises. Stay out of the narrow ones during heavy rain and just after it.