Iskele & Long Beach Guide: The Island's Rising Coast
Ten years ago this was a quiet village shore. Today, blocks of more than thirty storeys stand on the horizon and the cranes are still at work. Iskele Long Beach has become the fastest-changing corner of the TRNC (North Cyprus), and I can assure you this transformation isn't over yet. Even the district's name is fairly new: it separated from Famagusta in 1998 and gained district status two years later. Its centre, Iskele, was formerly known as Trikomo, said to have grown from the merging of three villages. But what everyone talks about now isn't the centre — it's the coastline. Those seeking long stays and those wanting to spend the winter in a warm climate have turned their route here in recent years, and the area is taking shape around them.
A District's History on Fast-Forward
Nothing captures Iskele's last decade better than the two different population figures given by mayor Hasan Sadıkoğlu. In the 2011 census, the district's population was 22,492. But on a television programme Sadıkoğlu gave a different number: the official register within municipal boundaries shows about 7,900, while the population actually living there approaches 40,000. Which is right? Both: one measures the district, the other the municipality. And the gap between them is the story itself. The wave of construction that swept towards Long Beach after the pandemic is the real cause of that gap. The profile of arrivals changed too; long-stay residents from Russia, Britain, Germany and the Middle East have settled on this shore over the past decade. There is now also a year-round community on the coast: students and foreign retirees who spend the winter here. That's also why the municipality is so open about the difference between the registered and the real population — it delivers services based on the number on the ground, not the number on paper.
A Shore of Skyscrapers
The scale of the buildings rising along the shore sets this area apart from the rest. The three blocks of Grand Sapphire Resort & Residences climb to 31 storeys — the tallest structures in the TRNC (North Cyprus). The hotel section opened in June 2024. Right beside it, another construction site of the same scale is under way: Spoint Vivamore, more than a thousand apartments, delivery in 2028. Most first-time visitors to this beach don't expect it: right behind the sand there is concrete, and floors whose windows haven't been fitted yet.
The Municipality's Waterfront Project
Long Beach's present state is no accident — it's a planned municipal undertaking. Through a tender launched in early 2012, Iskele Municipality landscaped a roughly 3-kilometre stretch of public beach: a walking and cycling path was laid along the strip, and accessibility for the disabled was solved in the same phase. The amphitheatre and festival grounds were left to later phases and came onto the agenda with the decision to hold the Iskele Festival on the seafront. The shore has entered the sports calendar as well. The Iskele Long Beach Run is held on this strip every year, and the Turkish Cypriot Cycling Federation's Long Beach Gran Fondo passes along the same coast. The municipality is also pressing on with infrastructure works such as stormwater drainage; behind the growth there are strains like sewerage too — the mayor admits as much in his own words.
Hotel or Residence?
If you're looking for a hotel room at Iskele Long Beach, the list is short: the beachfront Grand Sapphire, the 65-room Courtyard Long Beach, and the Arkın İskele. The rest — nearly all those blocks you see along the shore — are residences and apartments. Considering a single project holds a thousand units, the ratio explains itself: the bed count here is set not by hotels but by apartment owners. Don't look for these apartments on booking sites; the listings are with local estate agents. Rentals therefore proceed in scattered fashion; two apartments in the same block can turn out to be two different standards. Judge not by the photos but by which floor and which facade: in a thirty-one-storey block, the rear facade and the sea facade don't share a view, yet the listing says Long Beach for both.
Iskele Centre and Boğaz
A few minutes inland from the shore lies the real centre of Iskele. When migrants from the Iskele area near Larnaca settled here after 1974, the town was for a while called Yeni İskele (New Iskele). The history here runs far deeper than on the beachfront: the 12th-century church of Panagia Theotokos opened to visitors as an Icon Museum on 23 May 1991 after a long restoration, with handmade icons on display inside. The church's frescoes from the 12th and 15th centuries also came to light during the restoration and are among the museum's most talked-about pieces. Another settlement attached to the centre is Boğaz. Though the name recalls Istanbul's Bosphorus, there's no connection; it's a small coastal quarter of Iskele, known for its fishing harbour and the meze-and-fish restaurants around it. There's still small-boat traffic in the harbour, and there's never a shortage of people coming down towards evening to watch the sunset over grilled fish. Stepping over here after the skyscrapers on the shore feels like travelling back decades.
Kantara and the Karpaz Road
Iskele is also a crossing point. The Bafra hotels to the north lie 25 kilometres away; we've covered them in our hotel guide. In the exact opposite direction stands Kantara Castle: at 620 metres, a 30-40 minute drive. Its summit gathers the east coast and the bay into a single frame. How does going up to Kantara affect your day? Not much — half a day is enough, and you still spend the night on the coast. The main road to the Karpaz Peninsula passes through Iskele anyway; even those setting out from Kyrenia usually prefer this route, because it's the most practical crossing on the island. To think of Iskele merely as a beach falls short; this is the gateway to the island's east. Staying here a few days and continuing to the Karpaz for a day trip makes for a perfectly sensible route.
Practical Information
The distance to Ercan Airport varies from source to source, with 45-50 kilometres a safe band; the transfer can take an hour. Famagusta, meanwhile, is only 15 kilometres away. Public transport is limited throughout the TRNC (North Cyprus) and next to nonexistent in this area, so our advice is that renting a car becomes a practical necessity. If you come outside the season, I'd call the shore calm — but the construction noise doesn't stop; you live with both at once. Remember that on one side stands a completed waterfront project, on the other, blocks where concrete is still being poured. That's the peculiarity of Iskele Long Beach: it is neither an old fishing village nor a finished resort town.
