I'm traveling to Cyprus at the end of August for a conference. My location here in the US is such that we have several options for airports: PIT would be the easiest, but PHL and IAD (and other DC airports) would be almost equally convenient.

The flights to Cyprus (LCA and PFO) were pretty expensive, and many suggested outrageous layovers (~48 hours?!). I was wondering a couple of things:

Based on any past experiences, is there any chance that flights will go DOWN between now and then? Or just up? Or is there no way to guess?

Are there any creative (less expensive) options for getting there other than flying? I'll need to be in Limassol, but could potentially spend a couple days before the conference flying into another city/country and boating in. I plan to add a couple days on one end of the trip to do more touristy things.

Any obvious suggestions or feedback would be appreciated.