The Adonis Baths – what a life-saver! Have I mentioned how SWELTERING Cyprus gets in August? It’s the main topic of conversation here – even my car is talking about it. It reached 40 degrees today, according to the car’s temperature gauge. The heat can seem relentless and make you feel sluggish, particularly when most of your house is without air-con.

When you’ve stripped off every layer of clothing and still feel like you are about to combust, it’s time to cool down in some water. But my shower no longer gives out cold water because the water gets warm in the hot pipes. And Goobie’s paddling pool is as warm as a bath. So we try the local swimming pool, which is exquisitely refreshing for 5 minutes until it begins to feel too warm. The sea is our favourite go-to place to cool down, but on the hottest days even that isn’t refreshing enough. Where can we find proper cool water??

The answer, we discovered, is at the Adonis Baths.

The Adonis Baths is a few kilometres outside of Paphos. It is well sign-posted and you get there by driving through smart suburbs before making a left turn off-road. The minute you make this turn you are faced with a ‘Cyprus Drop’, my term for when the road goes so sharply downhill that you can no longer see it through the front window of the car. It feels like you are about to drive over a cliff. I’ve come across lots of these in Cyprus.

There’s some debate online about whether you can drive a normal car along the track that leads to the Baths or whether you have to have a 4×4. The answer is it depends on how much you love your car. We’ve been to the Baths twice, the first time in the Land Rover, the second time in the Toyota Avensis. The Toyota got us there fine but I preferred the clearance our 4×4 gave us when driving over the various bumps. I scraped the underneath of our Toyota a couple of times, but I was probably going too fast. I’d imagine in wet weather you’d definitely need a 4×4 because the track looked like it could easily turn into a mud-fest.

The Adonis Baths has mixed reviews on Trip Advisor. Some love it, some are disappointed. I think part of this is due to the astronomical price they charge to enter. It cost us €25 for two adults and one child – that’s €9 per adult, €7 for Goobie. By UK standards this may not seem much, but bear in mind that it only costs €2,50 for an adult ticket into Tombs of the Kings and €4,50 for a ticket into the Paphos Archaeological Park – and that’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site! Also the ticket prices are the same in the winter when you can’t actually swim in the Baths, which is a total rip-off.

I think the ticket price raises expectations, not helped by the board at the entrance that outlines what you get for your money: the water mill museum, the statues, the amphitheatre and, of course, the baths. The amphitheatre is tiny and at the back of the car park, so you can see it without paying.

The statues are quirky, but the most impressive one, of Aphrodite, can also be seen before you have to pay. Inside were some cherubs weeing into a pond, a big statue of Athena, statues of Adonis and Aphrodite and a big statue of Priapos with a massive willy. Goobie found that statue really amusing.

A water mill used to operate on the site and inside the building you can see the original wheel beneath the floor. The building also houses various artefacts, though there wasn’t a great deal of information about them. Basically, the water mill museum, the amphitheatre and the statues didn’t justify the ticket price.

However, aside from the rip-off ticket price, the actual baths are really charming. No, the waterfall isn’t like the Victoria Falls, but it is a very pretty, tranquil place. The branches of a large tree hang over the pool, which people can climb and dive in. Ropes are attached to the cliff-face so that people can climb up onto a shelf for photos. Some tatty sunbeds are dotted around under the trees where you can chill out. I much prefer the Adonis Baths to the Baths of Aphrodite near Latchi.

But the most important thing about the Adonis Baths is that the pool is COLD. Properly cold. Obviously not so cold that you can’t go in (although it was too cold for Goobie), but cold enough to give a satisfying tingle to your skin. And you still feel cool even after you’ve been in it for a while. It was a wonderful relief. For the first time in weeks I felt properly refreshed.

Once you’ve finished swimming in the main pool, there is a second smaller pool at the top of the waterfall. A flight of uneven steps and a bridge will take you to it. Up there is also the start of the Adonis Trail, but I didn’t fancy walking that in the heat.

So, despite paying too much, I really liked the Adonis Baths. The pools are relaxing, pretty and properly refreshing. And at the moment, I can turn a blind eye to being ripped off if it means some relief from the heat.