Our Stressful Ride to Nicosia on a Kapnos Shuttle Bus
It was on June 28, 2019 when Marc and I left Athens to travel to Cyrpus. Our destination was Nicosia, the capital city of the Republic of Cyprus.
After a short flight aboard Aegean Airlines, we arrived in Nicosia's International Airport. We decided to take the shuttle bus, Kapnos, to take us to our Royiatiki Hotel in the city center. This bus company was likewise the recommended means to take for passengers who didn't want to take a cab and who wanted to save some money.
Thus upon arrival, we looked for the booth and bought two tickets at 8 euros per person. We waited an hour for the bus to arrive at the airport. Be forewarned that the employees here were quite gruff talking to.
Little did we know that Kapnos buses no longer traveled all the way to the city's Solomou Bus Terminal, but in a waiting center a distance from downtown. One still had to take a cab to get to the center of town. Had we known we still had to take a cab, we could have done so as soon as we arrived a couple of hours earlier. Luckily there was an elderly cab driver who offered to take us to our hotel for 10 euros. Fortunately, we got one cab driver who didn't take advantage of us. We were quite nervous at this point.and we didn't know anymore how to reach our hotel. The KAPNOS drop off center was in the middle of nowhere or so it seemed to us back then.
It was also fortunate that we met the Filipina front desk employee of the Royiatiko Hotel who allayed our fears. She did confirm that KAPNOS now drops its passengers at the waiting area outside the center of town and that one had to take a cab from there.
This whole experience left us quite shaken. It was so different from the reviews about KAPNOS we read on Tripadvisor. Totally and completely different. We were caught off guard.
The KAPNOS Booth at the arrivals hall inside Nicosia Airport
Per the reviews we read about KAPNOS Shuttle buses that run from the Nicosia Airport to Nicosia's city center, passengers are dropped off at this terminal called Solomou. I suppose the KAPNOS buses long stopped coming here since we were not taken up to this point in the city's CBD. Instead we were dropped off on the outskirts of the city from where we still had to figure out a way to get to our hotel.
The Royiatiko Hotel in downtown Nicosia. It is always nice to see a fellow countryman when traveling abroad and the Filipina named Anna on duty at the front desk at the time of our arrival was heaven sent. She was a big help in calming us down after our ordeal with KAPNOS.