0Kos – Ein Miniführer

Kreta ist möglicherweise das größte (und am meisten besucht) Griechische Insel, aber es gibt mehr 200 andere bewohnte griechische Inseln, von denen viele ebenfalls interessante Sehenswürdigkeiten zu bieten haben. Viele sind bequem mit der Fähre oder einem kurzen Flug zu erreichen und können entweder auf eigene Faust oder für einen kurzen Zeitraum im Rahmen eines „Urlaubs im Urlaub“ oder im Rahmen einer Inselrundfahrt besucht werden. Dies ist der erste einer Reihe von Miniführern zu einigen anderen Inseln

Kos is one of the lar­gest islands in the Dode­ca­ne­se islands, a sou­thern group near the Tur­ki­sh coast. Kos has it’s own inter­na­tio­nal air­port which means it can be rea­ched direct­ly by flight from the UK and across the EU. Kos has been inha­bi­ted for thou­sands of years so offers ple­nty for tho­se who like history.

The main town on Kos is Kos Town which is com­for­ta­b­ly the big­gest. Es gibt 4 other tou­rist ‚towns‘ around the coast: Kar­da­mai­na; Kefa­los; Mar­ma­ri; and Tiga­ki. Much of the nor­t­hern coast­li­ne has gent­le san­dy bea­ches but the wind comes from the north so the­se can be win­dy and a bit wavy. Much of the south coast is inaces­si­ble but the acces­si­ble parts offer some inte­res­t­ing and shel­te­red bea­ches. Inland the­re are also a handful of lar­ge villages/small towns: anti­ma­chia; pyli; zia; and zipa­ri. Most tou­rists stay around Kos town, Kefa­los, or Kar­da­mai­na and all of the­se have ple­nty of places to eat and drink.

Kos is home to a num­ber of wine­ries and craft ales are available so drin­kers have lots of good opti­ons. We found many places char­ged around E4 for a small beer and as much as E11 for a cock­tail but we also found places sel­ling a lar­ge beer for E2.50. Food pri­ces ran­ged from around E3.50 for a basic gyros wrap to around E30 for a decent restau­rant main cour­se which is fair­ly typi­cal for Greece in 2023. In Cre­te and in main­land Greece we’­ve usual­ly mana­ged to find more hid­den che­a­per venues ser­ving most­ly locals but with Kos being rela­tively small it seems that most places have been ‚dis­co­ver­ed‘. Over­all we had good and very good food at a decent pri­ce. We found the peo­p­le fri­end­ly and typi­cal­ly Greek and we found the roads rela­tively quiet and straight-for­ward to navi­ga­te. Below are very brief ‚reviews‘ of the sites we visited.

Thermal springs

The­se are easy to get to if you have powered trans­port or a bike. Goog­le navi­ga­ti­on knows the cor­rect rou­te which is hel­pful. They were sur­pri­sin­gly hot – like a very hot bath – hot­ter than other ther­mal baths I’ve visi­ted. We went 3 times and each time it was fair­ly busy but not sil­ly. The beach is decent for swim­ming too.

Lake Avdellolimni on Sympetro ridge

The lake (more of a pond) was emp­ty so the­re was no wild­life, alt­hough we expec­ted it to be dry by Octo­ber. The road up is only sui­ta­ble for off-road vehic­les not recom­men­ded in typi­cal car. The road back down is paved but has a mili­ta­ry no ent­ry sign pfa­cing downhill part way down so I would­n’t recom­mend dri­ving up it and dri­ving through the sign! The­re was no such sign on the road up so it isn’t clear whe­re you can and can’t go. The­re are moun­tain biking trails, jumps etc so cle­ar­ly some of it can be used / acces­sed. My advice would be enjoy the views, don’t take any pic­tures of any­thing that could be mili­ta­ry and you should be ok.

Asclepion

This was impres­si­ve, well worth see­ing. Don’t stand on the high walls as you get whist­led at by staff. Goog­le takes you to the staff / vehic­le ent­rance which is a few hundred met­res from the nor­mal ent­rance so when you get near to it trust the signs. The­re isn’t much sha­de so it could be pret­ty inten­se in sum­mer but it was fine in Octo­ber. E8 ent­ry, or get the E15 3‑in‑1 card which is good value as it also gets you into the Roman house and the Archaeo­lo­gi­cal museum.

Castle of kefalos

Small and not a lot to see but the views are good. Worth visi­ting if you’­re pas­sing or in Kefa­los alre­a­dy but don’t make a dedi­ca­ted trip.

Ancient theatre

Very litt­le of it to see but the views are good, as they are from the vie­w­ing point just a short distance fur­ther along the road so it’s worth a visit if you’­ve got transport.

Basilica of St. Stefanos

This is worth see­ing. It was easy to find and park and is free to explo­re. The­re was some nice flo­or mosaic rem­nants. The beach is san­dy and the swim to Kas­tri islet is easy too. This is one of (pos­si­bly the best) beach on Kos for snor­kel­ling as it is easy to get in and out and only a short swim to rocks and Kastri.

Antimachia castle

This was gre­at – whilst the­re isn’t a lot of detail left it has a real­ly impres­si­ve sca­le and gre­at views. Es gibt 2 Kirchen, one of which (the smal­ler) is open and has some faded fres­cos on the wall.

Odeon

This is quite small com­pared to some but it’s worth see­ing if you’­re in Kos town.

Roman house

The Roman house is a nice place to explo­re expe­ci­al­ly if you alre­a­dy have the 3‑in‑1 E15 ticket. Part of the site is left as ruins but the house its­elf was rebuilt and res­to­red and now hou­ses some art­work as well as the history.

Dikaios Mountain

The views are spec­ta­cu­lar but this is not a casu­al walk. I am not a regu­lar wal­ker but I mana­ged it alt­hough I did need to pau­se for a rest a cou­ple of times. Young child­ren and reti­ree aged peo­p­le should pro­ba­b­ly only attempt this if they are alre­a­dy regu­lar hikers. My tra­vel­ling com­pa­n­ion is much more of an out­doors type and he actual­ly mana­ged it in flip­flops alt­hough for most peo­p­le this would­n’t be a good idea. For most peo­p­le you need to park in the vil­la­ge of Zia and then walk about 2.4km along a dirt-road. The steep path to the top is then a fur­ther 1.8km to the very top and is well mark­ed with arrows and dots pain­ted on rocks. For tho­se with an off-road sui­ta­ble vehic­le the 2.4km dirt road can be dri­ven with care. I did dri­ve this road in our regu­lar car hire but it was chal­len­ging and I would not recom­mend it unless you have done a lot of moun­tain dirt road dri­ving in Greece. The­re is a litt­le church at the top which I belie­ve is visi­ted by locals on Sundays.

Agora

This was big­ger than it first appeared and was inte­res­t­ing to explo­re. If you’­re in Kos town it’s very easy to access as it’s in the midd­le and is sur­roun­ded by places to see, eat and drink. Note that last ent­ry is 3pm in October.

Nerantzia Castle

This has quite impres­si­ve sca­le and is worth an explo­ra­ti­on. Like the Ago­ra last ent­ry was 3pm in Octo­ber. The­re are some decent views of Kos town from some of the hig­her parts alt­hough the­re is limi­t­ed shade.

Archaeological Museum

This was a love­ly litt­le muse­um. It was nice that it was­n’t too big. I thought it was well worth the E6 pri­ce (which for us was effec­tively E1 as we had the E15 com­bi­ned ticket). I thought it was nice to have info about the geo­gra­phy and mytho­lo­gy as well as the archaeo­lo­gy. And the air con­di­tio­ning made it a love­ly respi­te from the heat outside.

Agios theologos beach

This beach is on the far west coast and can be rea­ched on pro­per­ly paved road so is acces­si­ble to anyo­ne with a vehic­le. It appears to often be quite win­dy so it would be good for sur­fing and as it faces west it will also likely be good for sun­sets. We enjoy­ed the views but did­n’t swim due to the con­di­ti­on of the sea.

Camel beach

This was a love­ly quiet beach not too far from Kefa­los. The road down looks exci­ting but was actual­ly no pro­blem – the­re were ple­nty of other hire cars at the bot­tom, but you can park at the top and walk down if you pre­fer. The rocks out in the sea made for gre­at snor­kel­ling simi­lar to other bea­ches on the south coast.