The Mediterranean's Most Exclusive Resort Town

 

Varosha, Cyprus is like any other Mediterranean resort town. Well, except for the fact that it's totally abandoned!.  TomasNY/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 2.5

When you think of the Mediterranean, you think of impossibly blue waters flanked by dramatic limestone cliffs and impossibly luxurious resorts – Club Med ones, if you want to be completely literal. It's the absolute picture of paradise, except for one factor: It's filled with crowds of tourists, whether they've infested a beach on land or a cruise ship just offshore.

One resort town that absolutely destroys this image is Varosha, Cyprus: It's completely empty, 365 days a year, and has been for nearly four decades. Varosha is a bonafide ghost town, in fact, which makes it perhaps the most exclusive destination in all the Mediterranean – a fitting title, especially when you consider Varosha's history.

Varosha's Exclusive Past

Varosha has always been an exclusive place, one way or another. Prior to being abandoned in the 1970s – and I'll get to the reasons for that in just a minute – Varosha was one of the most visited places not only in the Mediterranean region, but in the whole world. It was this tourism boom, in fact, that spurred the construction of many of the hotels and resorts that now dominate the Varosha skyline, many of which remain unfinished.

In many ways, Varosha helped to establish the image of modern Mediterranean tourist. It hosted Hollywood starlets such as Elizabeth Taylor and Raquel Welch during the early 1970s, its most renowned period, and it seemed for a time that it was only going to grow more popular.

Why is Varosha Abandoned?

Unfortunately political forces, as they often do, stepped in and changed all that. Specifically, when the Turks invaded Cyprus on July 20, 1974, Varosha quickly became a casualty of the conflict. Local residents were not forced to flee, but did so out of fear when Greek and Turkish forces both appeared on the streets of their city, a situation that seemed to imply a pending massacre.

Once the Turkish forces had taken control, they quickly fenced off the abandoned city, officially prohibiting anyone from returning to live there. International bodies have made several attempts to grant former Varosha residents a right of return, but all have failed as of 2014.

How to Reach Varosha

Officially speaking, it is illegal for anyone to set foot onto the streets of Varosha itself, to the extent that Turks set up a fence around the entire area in 1974, and have authorized the military to shoot and kill anyone who attempts to enter. This is ultimately to prevent Greek Cypriots from ever returning to live there, but it is reasonable to assume that the severity of these regulations applies to tourists as well.

Nevertheless, the first step you need to take if you want to visit Varosha – and when I say "visit Varosha," I mean, look onto Varosha from behind the safety of the military fence – is to fly to Northern Cyrpus' airport in North Nicosia: Ercan International Airport, code ECN. From there, take an Itimat-operated bus to the city of Famagusta, from which the Varosha resort area is a short walk or taxi ride.

Again, and I can't stress this enough, do not under any circumstances attempt to breach the military fence around Varosha. If you do, you are quite literally taking your life into your own hands.