0Cos: una mini guía

Creta puede ser la más grande (y el mas visitado) isla griega pero hay más 200 Otras islas griegas habitadas, muchas de las cuales también tienen cosas interesantes para ver.. A muchos se puede llegar fácilmente en ferry o en vuelo corto y se pueden visitar por su cuenta o por un período corto como parte de unas “vacaciones de vacaciones” o como parte de un recorrido por varias islas.. Esta es la primera de una serie de miniguías de otras islas.

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. Hay 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. Hay 2 chur­ches, 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.