Nicosia

No district spreads as far as Nicosia: thirty-six routes, from a park inside the capital to the high valleys of Marathasa and Pitsilia. If you are in the capital you do not need to drive far — or, on eight of these trails, at all.

Walking without leaving town

Athalassa National Forest Park sits on Nicosia's southeastern edge and carries eight of our trails on its own, from a 0.9 km stroll to a 5.7 km loop. They are flat, linked, and genuinely shaded in places: Athalassa: Sculpture Park, a 1.9 km circuit past contemporary works by Cypriot artists, takes just 1.8 hours of direct sun on a midsummer day — one of the shadiest walks we cover anywhere on the island, and it is inside the city. For an after-work walk or an outing with children, this is the answer to "trails near me" in Nicosia.

The lay of the land beyond it

Head north-west and the district climbs into Solea and Marathasa. Kalopanayiotis alone has seven numbered routes radiating from the village, graded so you can pick your day: The River Trail is an easy 4 km past a Venetian bridge, sulphur springs and the monastery of St John Lampadistis, while The Discovery Trail is 11.3 km with 710 m of climb.

The other draw here is the painted churches. Agios Theodoros – Asinou walks 5.5 km through Solea countryside to Panagia tis Asinou and its UNESCO-listed murals, with views out to Morphou Bay; Stavros tou Agiasmati – Panagia tou Araka links two more across 7.6 km. And for something stranger, Kakkaristra follows a gorge whose walls hold fossils around 1.8 million years old, with Apalos climbing the hill above it.

When to go

Pick by trail, because this district spans the range. The mountain routes around Kalopanayiotis and the Adelfoi forest work through summer mornings — Kalopanayiotis: The Discovery Trail takes 4 hours of sun, Vateri near Kakopetria 4.5. The gorges do not: Kakkaristra and Apalos both stand in the open for 12.7 hours, and are cool-season walks only. In Athalassa, the shaded routes are usable year-round if you go early.

Four to start with

• Athalassa: Sculpture Park — flat, shaded, full of sculpture, and twenty minutes from the centre of town.
• Kalopanayiotis: The River Trail — watermill, Venetian bridge, sulphur springs and a monastery in 4 km.
• Agios Theodoros – Asinou — countryside walking to one of the great painted churches of Cyprus.
• Xyliatos — an easy 3.6 km loop around the dam through pine and oak, with a picnic area at the end.

Practical notes

Water is unusually easy here: all ten picnic sites in the district have drinking water, including Athalassa and Parko ton Ethnon in the city park, Fraktis Xyliatou at the dam, and Asinou by the church.

Distances from the capital shape the day more than the trails do. Athalassa is a city park with a visitor centre and botanical gardens, so it needs no planning at all. Kalopanayiotis, Asinou and the Pitsilia villages are an hour or more of mountain road each way — go early, and make a day of it rather than squeezing one trail in.