Varosha experience tour by the Original Red Bus

Free Cancellation

Language: English

Mobile voucher accepted

Duration: from 2 hours to 4 hours

Guided Tour

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Why you’ll love this…

Visit the forgotten resort of Varosha

Open-top bus tour and free time

Recently reopened to the public

What to expect

Once a thriving holiday resort, Varosha has lain abandoned in the northern part of Cyprus for over 50 years. This open-top bus tour takes you to the heart of this forgotten town, where you'll have around two-hours of free time. Desolate hotels line the beach where you can grab a drink and relax on the sands – it's a real touristic time capsule.

What's included

✔Transport
✔Driver/ Guide

What to remember

Drinks are available to purchase from the vendors near the beach but only card payments are accepted

Just so you know, because of local restrictions at Strovillia checkpoint, only passport holders from EU member states, the UK, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland can travel to and from the northern part of Cyprus

IMPORTANT UPDATE FOR 2026: If you wish to add the Varosha map with extra points of interest to your phone, there's a €5.00 cash fee payable when you board the bus

Children must be supervised by an adult (over 18 years) at all time

Bring a hat

Bring suitable footwear

Bring money for extras or gratuities

Bring your passport or official EU identification

Food and drinks not included

English-speaking guide for all nationalities

Please note that all times are approximate and subject to change

Bring bathing gear and sunblock

Bring a towel

This experience doesn't follow our general cancellation policy. If you need to cancel, you must do so at least 24 hours in advance to receive a full refund

Provider

Booking Fee

Cancellation Fee

Reviews

great

4.4/5

Based on 81 reviews from verified customers

All ratings (82)

Excellent (48)

59%

Great (24)

29%

Average (8)

10%

Poor (2)

Bad (0)

Helle

July 2026

From Denmark

Traveled as With family - 45 years old

Great

Vi havde brug for minimum 2 time mere i byen first kunne nå at se det hele til fods, ellers var det en skøn tur

Nöjd

From Sweden

Traveled as With family - 60 years old

Excellent

Kay

From United Kingdom

Traveled as With family - 58 years old

Brilliant tour driver and guide were excellent

Louise wood

May 2026

Traveled as As a couple

The driver and tour guide were very friendly and Knowledgeable. This was my 2nd visit and will definitely be doing a different tour with them.

Richard

October 2025

Traveled as As a couple - 40 years old

Very interesting trip and I would recommend, Paul and John were a great team. Took almost two hours to get to Varosha, personally I think a short stop en route would have been good. No spaces on the top deck on return journey so had to sit down stairs, which was a shame.

Anonymous

We were really pleased with the tour. Very interesting. Our guides Hayley and Clive were super nice and knowledgeable about the subject. The history of Varosha is sad but also very interesting and this tour is a must for anyone visiting Cyprus.

Annette

Traveled as With family - 53 years old

Jeg synes vi blev bondefanget af tui-guiden på hotellet, som sagde vi var tilbage ved 14-tiden, altså ca. 4 timer, det viste sig at være en tur på 6 1/2 time, som vi IKKE ville have booket, da vi havde børn med!!!

Finn

Traveled as As a couple - 43 years old

Average

Skue ned for højtalerne, lyden var vanvittig høj.

September 2025

Traveled as With friends - 26 years old

Ylva

Traveled as With friends - 40 years old

LoM

sten

Traveled as Alone - 58 years old

Fab day out! Driver was excellent and guide was really good too. Picked up at 8am and back around 3pm so lingering than expected but really enjoyed the bus ride and the experience seeing Varosha. Don’t like full/on guided trips so this was perfect!

IB

Traveled as With friends - 35 years old

Poor

Ingen guidning fick gå på egen tid i 2 1/2 timme alldeles för lång tid. Trodde nog att hon skulle guida oss lite åtminstone men ingenting. Dåligt. Det är den sämst utflykt någonsin samt dyraste, bussresa för 770 kr??? Flera klagade, vi kunde delat på en taxi för det priset. Hoppas att ni tar ett annat bolag nästa gång.

Martin

Traveled as As a couple - 41 years old

Bazz

Traveled as As a couple - 47 years old

Would have liked slightly more information about what led up to this situation

Kirk’s trip to vatidh

Traveled as Alone - 40 years old

Mark

From Germany

Traveled as With family - 27 years old

Sehr freundliches Team. Anreise nach Varosha dauerte fast 1.5h mit unzähligen Bus Stops um weitere Mitreisende mitzunehmen. Das alles unter der prallen Sonne. Am Ende der Reise waren wir durch.

Paul1cfc

August 2025

Every thing on the trip to Varosha was excellent but very sad the staff were great all round a great little day

Liz

Traveled as With family - 26 years old

An amazing tour, thoroughly recommend, we loved it

Kristine

From Norway

Traveled as With family - 32 years old

Simon Wright

Traveled as As a couple - 38 years old

PHILIP.

Traveled as With family - 54 years old

41* heat....Front tyre blew out in paralimni , start of tour to the northside. the electrics were all out (off) in varosha - so no cold drinks, ices, etc.

Marie

Traveled as With family - 28 years old

The tour guide Hayley was excellent and very Knowledgeable. The bus broke down on the way there, was resolved in 30 to 40 minutes. Sitting on the open top bus needs a warning, it was so hot and all the waiting caused us to feel unwell, so don't sit up there! When we got to Varosha after 3 hours trip, the beach shop wouldn't allow us to purchase a drink as their system was down. We had to go back to the entrance and stayed there at Goodfellows where we could get a drink and cool down. Awful day!

Ste B

Traveled as With family - 29 years old

N/A

Kim Andersen

July 2025

Traveled as As a couple - 39 years old

Måske hvis man kunne have betale en mere pris for at for en cykel og så en guidetur med i prisen, men vi har været glad for turen ellers

Tracey

Traveled as With family - 41 years old

James

Traveled as Alone - 18 years old

Loved the tour, would have liked a little longer free time in varosha

Alfred

June 2025

Traveled as As a couple - 53 years old

Erich

Traveled as As a couple - 49 years old

Noel Cunningham

Traveled as As a couple - 54 years old

Kev

May 2025

This is a must do trip Haley our tour guide was very informative and Clive the driver always a big help it sad to see all the ruined buildings and to here the history of what happened there such a waist of so many beautiful buildings. Shame the powers the powers that be can't make this right and make it beautiful once more.

Bach

September 2024

Traveled as As a couple - 36 years old

MarcinW

August 2024

From Poland

Brak zadaszenia /ochrony przed sloncem na górnym pokladzie autobusu -chociaz materialowe przykrycie na stelazu byloby super.

Time keeping was excellent. The staff were very friendly, helpful and informative. Was an amazing experience.

Kelly

Traveled as With family - 31 years old

Paul and Clive the tour guide and bus driver were excellent.tour very interesting

Sue Gray

We only wanted a short trip and this was perfect for us. The guides were very informative. An extra half hour in Varosha would have been better.

Jess W

Traveled as With family - 20 years old

This was a very informative and enjoyable experience. You can hire golf buggy’s, bikes and scooters to help get around, which is great for those with limited mobility. Your guides were very knowledgeable

Liselotte

Guiden Hayley og chaufføren Gary var super servicemindede. God 1/2 dags tur.

Amaury.w

From France

Traveled as As a couple - 16 years old

Le temps de trajet est beaucoup plus long que la visite elle-même, ce qui est vraiment dommage. Nous avons passé 2 heures à l'aller et 2 heures au retour pour une visite de seulement 2 heures. Il est impossible de tout faire à pied et de se baigner tout en visitant la ville. Nous avons choisi de louer des vélos malgré leur mauvais état (pas de freins, pneus dégonflés, paniers cassés). Ils nous ont néanmoins bien servi pour visiter un maximum de la ville et supporter plus facilement la chaleur.

Very well organised tour, would highly recommend. Great value for money.

Gerry Bradley

July 2024

All good. Informative and good value for money.

Loved every minute (except going over speedboats,however slow!). Guide and driver excellent, having water available to purchase was invaluable, fans on the bus inside a blessing.

Andy

Traveled as Alone - 29 years old

Clive, the driver and Paul, the tour guide were very welcoming and gave a lot of fantastic information about Varosha along with some handy maps for the two hours of our own time. The two were also very funny and you could tell they enjoyed working together. They were also very knowledgable. Just a couple of points of info that could be given beforehand; if you are on the 02 network, you leave their free roaming 'Europe Zone' when you visit as you are in 'Turkey'. Also only card payments in Lira

Alison S

Traveled as As a couple - 33 years old

Susanne

June 2024

Traveled as As a couple - 34 years old

Viel zu lange Busfahrt bis nach Varosha. Der Guide hat nur Englisch gesprochen während der Fahrt, dabei aber auch nicht so viel. Vor Ort war man auf sich alleine gestellt. Nach varisha würden wir nochmal allerdings dann mit einem privaten Transfer

Helene

Traveled as With family - 19 years old

We were told it was a 4 hour trip (2 hours in Varusha + 1 hour trip every way) - that was kind of true. Because it was one hour AFTER Pick up at all hotels. We spent in total 4 hours of transport and two hours in Varusha. We would have never gone, if we knew we were to spend 2x2 hours riding around in the heat in no aircondition. Varusha was great - so was the busdriver who was 10 out of 10!

Lauren

Traveled as As a couple - 15 years old

A tad on the expensive side, but a very good and interesting experience and day out. The guide and driver, Hayley and Clive were fantastic and knowledgeable! We rented scooters when we got there as it was so hot, which were about €12pp, but there was options for buggys with guides too.

Anne & Stewart

Traveled as As a couple - 29 years old

Overall we had an amazing experience. Paul the guide was fantastic very knowledgeable and entertaining. Just the right amount of time spent in varosha with plenty to see and learn of the history, also very sad seeing all the empty buildings. Plenty of cafes to cool down in as it gets extremely hot walking around the town. We would highly recommend this trip, thank you Paul and Clive.

Cabman

Traveled as As a couple - 45 years old

Great trip, excellent tour guide, fascinating visit to see the ghost town

Red bus tour

It was good overall, they outlined the important facts. Open top bus, was fun and saw much more from the top deck.

Helen

October 2023

Traveled as With family - 24 years old

I really enjoyed the trip, the guides were informative and funny, and it was an experience in itself to see Varosha. It did get a bit too hot on the top deck as it was so warm, but bonus points to the driver my mum gets travel sick and she was fine the whole day. on that note i would add we booked the trip as the Tui rep advised that the journey would only take 15 minutes each way and was a 2 - 4 hour trip. The trip was around 6 hours and was 2 hours each way. We would have booked a taxi if we k

Will & Katie

September 2023

Traveled as As a couple - 10 years old

Thoroughly enjoyable experience, well worth a day out you holiday. The tour takes you into the deserted city and really goes into detail regarding the history of the 1974 invasion and really puts things into perspective. The journey to Famagusta can take a while so i would recommend lots of suncream, towels for the seats and plenty of fluids - although they do have water available to buy on the bus.

Allan Pedersen

Traveled as As a couple - 30 years old

Kunne faktisk godt bruge lidt mere tid til at se sig omkring, måske også få tid til at få en dukkert ved den fantastiske strand. 2 timer er ikke meget.

Thomson ??

From the moment the bus picked us up the staff were SO friendly and helpful very informative and interested in what we had to say as well ??the whole experience was really great and I would highly recommend to see the history of Varosha

Paula

Traveled as With friends - 53 years old

Annie

Traveled as As a couple - 46 years old

The guide was very friendly and informative, ,bus very comfortable, pick up on time , would definitely recommend it to friends and family

Steve byatt

Traveled as As a couple - 42 years old

Lovely people

Linda

Traveled as With friends - 42 years old

The Varosha trip was excellent .Paul was our host and was a wealth of information and lots of fun also .We did the trip on foot once inside Varosha but would advise using the little golf carts or bikes as it was so hot

Familietur

Traveled as With family - 47 years old

Udflugter må gerne være med dansktalende guide.

Will an tina

For elderly people there was quite a lot of walking involved and with the heat was tiring but overall a nice experience just bring comfortable footwear

Sara

August 2023

Traveled as With friends - 7 years old

Wow! Jakob är en fantastisk tui blue guide! Jag tycker att alla borde boka sina upplevelser med honom. Jakob frågade hur det hade varit och om allt gick bra. Däremot var guiden från red buss inte så roliga, de borde lära sig från Jakob! Red buss guiderna på farmagusta bussen var dock roliga, stor hälsning till Clive och Paul! Hälsningar

Lizzie

Traveled as With friends - 9 years old

We got picked up by Clive and Paul due to our bus having miss communication about where to pick us up they was so lovely from start to finish they took us to our correct red bus and they made us laugh a lot we will be doing another trip but this time hopefully with them as they made our trip experience 100x better we fully reccomend them to everyone who does this experience thanks again Clive & Paul hope this gets passed to you!! From the very thankful Reps x

jnic

Absolutely a great tour

Jan

July 2023

Traveled as With family

Lang busstur - mye venting.

Neil & Emma

There was nothing we didn’t enjoy

Emma

Bra var utflyktsmålet. Helt unikt och fantastiskt. Mindre bra var bussen: ingen AC vilket var fruktansvärt och luktade så mycket avgaser att det kändes ohälsosamt inne i bussen . Mycket gammal och skruttig buss. Investera i en ny!

Sandra

Traveled as As a couple - 18 years old

Nicky

We loved going into Varosha. However as it was only a half day tour we had just two hours there. We would have paid a little more for more time there.

Menopausal Mother

Traveled as With family - 38 years old

The visit itself to Varosha was great.Being in the heat from 8:30-3pm with very little respite was difficult.I don’t think being on the top of an open topped bus helped.I know it was sold as this,but we didn’t expect to be on it for so long.Also the bus is a bit of a bone shaker!And not great for tall members of my family.

Dianna

June 2023

Traveled as With family - 21 years old

Nothing, as it was not the trip that we asked for. It was 6 hours wasted from our holiday. I would like to make a complaint about TUI rep , so please can TUI contact me further about this . The actual tour guide and Driver , were very sorry and considerate and looked after us well, it's not their fault at all.

Mrs F

Very interesting tour. Would like to hear more from the guide whilst on the bus as to the history of why the situation arose.

Juliet

The whole experience was amazing staff very friendly and knowledgeable. Would have liked some kind of guided tour we listened in on someone else's and it made it more interesting.Also I think we should have been told sooner about the one hour work to the famous hotel so we could have done that first.

Neil F

Traveled as With family - 22 years old

Was a really good trip and definately worth going on. The kids and us were interested in the history and sights. Only down alide was they did keep teying to upwelling some of gifts a little but weren't pushy with it though, and would have like slightly more time in Varosha to explore the ghost town further as didn't quite seem long enough esp. with kids in tow. Otherwise definately worth going on and would recommend to others.

Kate

The staff were friendly and explained everything that was needed for the day. The bus was comfortable and water was available for us to buy. Overall the experience was very enlightening however I would suggest the times of the trip be updated what was suggested as 2 - 4 hours turned out to be more likely 7 to 8 hours.

Mrs Ben

October 2022

Great tour so interesting to see a resort frozen in time. Would have liked a bit more time there to explore. Friendly and informative tour guides.The bikes were a great idea, but were very shoddy and not maintained to even a basic safety standard, seat heights could not be adjusted which ruled me out as I have a recent knee injury. Suggestion would be to charge more to hire and get new stock that is lovingly maintained. Trikes/buggy’s would also be a good idea for the less physically able.

Jen/richard

September 2022

Weather was fantastic, sitting on top of the bus with wind blowing a bonus. The driver and guide very knowledgeable. Scenery fantastic. Very sad to see such what was a thriving village and area turn into a ghost town, beach area is beautiful. Experience was long enough to wander round and enjoy the beach, there is a cafe on beach, and at entrance to the town. Well worth the money. We highly recommend booking this trip.

Robin

August 2022

Tour guide was very good. I wish we had long time so I you could spend more time on the beach before walking around.

Claire

An enjoyable experience to be able to go within Varosha walls. So much to see.

Iwona

July 2022

Wszystko OK - zgodnie z opisem.

KarenT

June 2022

A box tick trip. The area has only opened after 47 years in the last 6 months. Our guide was friendly but we had to Google why the area is uninhabited and actually got more info on a different trip the day after. Warning, it took 40 minutes to walk to the beach through the town. Issue, we were told to give our passports to the guide for the border. He had a contact who would get them checked and returned to us on the way back but this contact has gone home and was asleep with our passports?