Escape Beach (Alsancak)

If you can still see an entrance fee and sunbed prices in the search results, you are reading the tariff of a business that no longer exists. "Escape Beach" was the sign of a private operator that leased this sandy cove for years, and that lease ended in 2024. Today the place that a search for escape beach kyrenia brings up is officially called Yavuz Cikarma Beach (Yavuz Landing Beach). The name dates back to the morning of 20 July 1974, because the first landing of the 1974 Turkish military operation was made on this very beach at Karaoglanoglu. What is more, the beach's status changed once again very recently: on 3 June 2026 the "Evkaf Board of Directors" leased it to the Security Forces Command for thirty years. Let us say it straight away: the beach itself is still there. It is open to the public, and the area is to be laid out as an open-air museum. So what you need to look at is not the old price list but today's status.

The Beach Is in Karaoglanoglu

The beach lies west of Kyrenia, in the Yayla neighbourhood of Karaoglanoglu. It takes 10-15 minutes by car from the centre. Why give a time rather than a distance? Because sources put the same road at anywhere between 5 and 9 kilometres, so the travel time is the safer figure. The same coastal road runs west to Alsancak and Lapta and east to Kyrenia harbour. The beach sits on the sea side of this road, and because it lies inside a bay the water is calm and the bottom is clear.

Immediately east of the beach stands the Peace and Freedom Museum. The building is an old Greek Cypriot house that belonged to Yorgacis, Makarios's dentist. On the night of 20 July 1974 it served as a headquarters, and a rocket that hit its entrance killed three soldiers. Two years later, on 20 July 1976, the house opened as a museum. Next to it are the Karaoglanoglu Martyrs' Cemetery and the Peace and Freedom Monument, better known as the Landing Monument. All three share the same seafront plot, so visitors can see them all in a single stop. There is still a practical difference between them: the museum has a door and an institution it answers to, the Department of Antiquities and Museums. The beach has neither a gate nor a ticket booth.

From Yavuz Sokullu to Escape Beach

The beach takes its name from First Lieutenant Yavuz Sokullu, a tank officer killed in the 1974 operation. The land itself is foundation property belonging to Evkaf (the Cyprus Foundations Administration), and that status has shaped the whole story of the beach. For many years Evkaf leased it to a private investor, who ran it under the Escape Beach name as a paid leisure beach with a club and a restaurant. That lease ended in 2024; today there is neither a club set-up nor a business selling tickets at the gate.

The name, however, did not go away. On guide sites such as "Tripadvisor" the "Escape Beach Club" listing is still live, because those pages date from before 2024 and nobody has updated them. That is why the menu or sunbed price you see in Escape Beach Kyrenia results does not describe today's beach. So two names are in circulation at once, and both point to the same sand: official documents and ceremony reports say Yavuz Cikarma Beach, while the old business name lives on in search engines and guides that were never updated.

The 3 June 2026 Decision: A Thirty-Year Lease

The end of the lease in 2024 and the 2026 decision are definitely not the same event. In the first, the old tenant left; two years passed; then, with its decision of 3 June 2026, the Evkaf Board of Directors leased the beach to the Security Forces Command for thirty years. The decision was taken in consultation between the Cyprus Turkish Peace Forces Command, the Security Forces Command (GKK) and Evkaf, on the proposal of the Administration's Director General. The reasoning was also made public: to protect the historical and spiritual fabric of the site and to create an open-air museum layout that keeps the memory of 20 July 1974 alive. The lease did not change ownership; the property remains foundation property, and the Administration specifically stressed in its statement that this character is preserved.

Prime Minister Ünal Üstel personally put an end to the rumours going around that "it will be handed to a private company again". The gist is this: part of the land is with the military, part with Evkaf, but the real boss is the public. In other words, when you go and spread your towel on the sand today, there is no operator standing over you asking for an entrance fee or sunbed rental. The process is run entirely by the public sector, and the beach belongs entirely to you.

Can You Get onto the Beach Today?

Yes. The beach has not been closed to the public, free use continues, and the model envisaged does not change that: an open-air museum layout resembling the memorial sites at Canakkale (Gallipoli) is clearly not a gated facility. According to Üstel, an underpass will be built to the beach, a modern landscaping project will be carried out, and the improved beach will be opened to the public within a short time. How short is not stated in the announcement, and as of September 2026 no completion date has been announced either. In any case, the real basis for access is not the project but the law: Article 38 of the TRNC constitution treats the 100-metre strip from the shoreline as open to the public, and this beach falls within that framework.

The everyday meaning of this is simple. No ticket at the gate, nobody renting sunbeds, so bring your own towel and water. Anyone who sets off looking for Escape Beach Kyrenia and expecting the old club service will find sand, sea and monuments. The same gap has an upside, too: with no operator there is no season calendar, so the beach can stay open in exactly the same way in winter. For swimmers the bay is well suited; the waves do not break inside it.

Getting to the Beach from Kyrenia

Minibuses run from Kyrenia centre towards Alsancak: every half hour during the day, hourly in the evening, thinning out after working hours. There are stops in Karaoglanoglu and in front of the museum, and from there it is a few minutes' walk to the beach. Are the minibus times reliable? During the day, yes; for the return after eight in the evening it is worth factoring in a taxi as well. With the official meter tariff at 112.81 TL flag-fall in daytime and 43.16 TL per kilometre, the 5-9 kilometre trip from Kyrenia can come to somewhere between 330 and 500 TL, and the tariff is updated during the year.

For anyone coming from Ercan Airport the sums are bigger, since transfer companies list the distance as 53-56 kilometres and the journey can take close to an hour. If you are driving yourself, follow the coastal road and you will find the beach on the sea side of it; there is no published parking capacity.

The 20 July Dawn Vigil

Every year the 20 July Peace and Freedom Day programme opens on this beach with the Dawn Vigil. In 2026 the 52nd anniversary of the operation was commemorated; the official programme began on the afternoon of 19 July and continued throughout 20 July. The vigil was held on the beach, a 21-gun salute was fired, and "SOLOTÜRK" and the Turkish Stars joined the programme with a display flight. The tradition has continued for more than a decade and the ceremony site has never changed; the programme headings of previous years point to the same beach.

For anyone thinking of coming on the day of the ceremony, one detail is decisive. The vigil, as the name says, is held at dawn, and the crowd gathers at that hour, so you need to be there before sunrise. On that day the beach and the road around it are given over to the ceremony. For a crowd-free day at the sea there is the rest of the year, and the neighbouring Alsancak Municipal Beach and Karaoglanoglu Public Beach charge nothing either. The beach that a search for "Escape Beach Kyrenia" leads to is still where it was in 1974, and entry is, of course, free.

For the rest of this stretch of coast see our Alsancak and Lapta guide, for other places to swim the North Cyprus beaches guide, and for which beaches charge and which do not the free beaches in North Cyprus guide.