0Kos – Un mini guide

La Crète est peut-être la plus grande (et le plus visité) Île grecque mais il y en a plus 200 d'autres îles grecques habitées, dont beaucoup ont également des choses intéressantes à voir. Beaucoup sont facilement accessibles par ferry ou par vol court et peuvent être visités seuls ou pour une courte période dans le cadre de « vacances en vacances » ou dans le cadre d'un tour de plusieurs îles.. Ceci est le premier d'une série de mini-guides sur d'autres îles.

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. Il y a 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. Il y a 2 des églises, 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.