Iskele & Long Beach guidevsKarpaz peninsula guide
Comparing lifestyle, investment, and vibe to help you decide where to stay or buy.
Iskele & Long Beach guide
Long Beach is the reason most travellers end up in Iskele: roughly 25 kilometres of golden sand along North Cyprus's east coast, backed by a landscaped promenade rather than an old harbour town. The rhythm here is different from the rest of the island — slow mornings, long flat walks, shallow family swimming, cafes on the sand — with Famagusta's walled city about twenty minutes south and the empty Karpaz roads beginning just north. This guide covers the beach, the town behind it, and how to use both.
Top Highlights
- ✦Roughly 25 km of sand with a promenade and cycling path.
- ✦Gently shelving, family-friendly swimming from May to October.
- ✦About 50 km — 45 to 50 minutes — from Ercan airport.
- ✦Ask MERVE to match a Long Beach stay to your dates and budget.
Karpaz peninsula guide
The Karpaz (Karpas) peninsula is the long finger of land reaching north-east from Cyprus, and it is the emptiest, wildest part of the island. There are no resorts here — just a single road running out to the cape past dune-backed beaches, a national park where wild donkeys roam free, small villages, and the Apostolos Andreas Monastery at the very tip. Golden Beach, the most photographed beach in North Cyprus, sits along its southern shore. Treat Karpaz as a full-day road trip rather than a stop.
Top Highlights
- ✦Golden Beach (Altın Kum) — kilometres of undeveloped, pale-gold sand.
- ✦Apostolos Andreas Monastery at the cape, a long-standing pilgrimage site.
- ✦Karpaz National Park, home to the peninsula's free-roaming wild donkeys.
- ✦Nesting beaches for green and loggerhead turtles.
Detailed Comparison
The Iskele & Long Beach guide Experience
What Long Beach actually is
Long Beach is not a resort town centre — it is a long, straight stretch of sand below Iskele town (the old village of Trikomo), with new apartment blocks on the land side and a landscaped promenade with walking and cycling paths along the sea. The section nearest the resort developments is the serviced part, with sunbeds, umbrellas, showers, and beach cafes; keep walking and the coastline turns emptier and wilder. The beach itself is municipal and free to enter — you pay only if you take a sunbed.
Swimming and the family beach day
The sea shelves gently here, with a soft sandy bottom and no sudden depth changes close to shore, which is why Long Beach is the default family recommendation on this coast. The comfortable swimming season runs May to October: the water passes 25°C in June, peaks near 29°C in mid-August, and locals stretch swims into the calm 'velvet season' weeks of October.
The Karpaz peninsula guide Experience
Where Karpaz is and how to plan the drive
The peninsula begins beyond İskele and runs north-east for roughly 80 kilometres to Cape Apostolos Andreas. From Kyrenia the drive to the tip takes around three hours each way, so most visitors either commit to a long single day or stay overnight in one of the small guesthouses near Dipkarpaz. Fill up with fuel before you go, take food and water, and don't count on mobile signal or facilities along the way.
Golden Beach (Altın Kum)
Golden Beach is the reason most people make the drive. It runs uninterrupted for several kilometres along the peninsula's southern shore — fine, pale-gold sand backed by dunes, with shallow clear water and almost nothing built on it. It is one of the least developed long beaches left in the eastern Mediterranean. There are a handful of simple kiosks and basic huts, but no resort infrastructure: bring shade, water, and everything else you need.