Fig Tree Bay is a beach in

Protaras Protaras () is a predominantly tourist resort which comes under the administrative jurisdiction of Paralimni Municipality in Cyprus. In ancient times, where Protaras is now located, stood the old city-state of Leukolla.''The Princeton Encyclopedi ...

, Cyprus. It was named Europe's third best beach by

TripAdvisor Tripadvisor is an American company that operates online travel agency, travel agencies, comparison shopping websites, and mobile apps with user-generated content. Its namesake brand, Tripadvisor.com, operates in 40 countries and 20 languages, and ...

in 2011, though it had dropped to 13th place by 2013.

Overview

As with all beaches in Cyprus, access to the public is free, whilst the hiring of sunbeds and umbrellas is chargeable. A municipal car park provides parking within a short walk. The beach stretches for 500 metres, and the waters are clean enough for the beach to have been awarded blue flag designation. The beach takes its name from the

fig tree ''Ficus'' ( or ) is a genus of about 850 species of woody trees, shrubs, vines, epiphytes and hemiepiphytes in the family (biology), family Moraceae. Collectively known as fig trees or figs, they are native throughout the tropics with a few spe ...

s located close to the coast. There is an uninhabited

islet An islet ( ) is generally a small island. Definitions vary, and are not precise, but some suggest that an islet is a very small, often unnamed, island with little or no vegetation to support human habitation. It may be made of rock, sand and/ ...

easily reached by swimming through the shallow waters, the location of which provides a good shelter for the rest of the beach. The islet is covered with low-level local vegetation. In contrast to other local beaches, such as nearby Nissi, Fig Tree Bay has become a popular destination for families. Water sports such as

water-skiing Water skiing (also waterskiing or water-skiing) is a surface water sport in which an individual is pulled behind a boat or a cable ski installation over a body of water, skimming the surface on one or two skis. The sport requires sufficien ...

windsurfing Windsurfing is a wind-propelled water sport that is a combination of sailing and surfing. It is also referred to as "sailboarding" and "boardsailing", and emerged in the late 1960s from the Californian aerospace and surf culture. Windsurfing gain ...

, and

parasailing Parasailing, also known as parascending, is an activity where individuals are harnessed to a modified parachute canopy that is designed to ascend into the air when towed behind a motor vehicle on land, or a recreational boat over water. Commerc ...

are available. From April to October, lifeguards and lifesaving equipment are available on the beach from 9am to 6pm. In 2010, during structural improvements to the beach, an

ancient Greek Ancient Greek (, ; ) includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the classical antiquity, ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Greek ...

tomb was unearthed. In 2018, the Paralimni municipality pumped ocean sand onto the shoreline to prevent

erosion Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, tran ...

In popular culture

The song "Fig Tree Bay" from English musician

Peter Frampton Peter Kenneth Frampton (born 22 April 1950) is an English-American guitarist, singer, and songwriter who rose to prominence as a member of the rock bands the Herd and Humble Pie. Later in his career, Frampton found significant success as a s ...

's 1972 album '' Wind of Change'' is about the beach.

References

{{Reflist Beaches of Cyprus