0Kos – Una mini guida

Creta potrebbe essere la più grande (e il più visitato) Isola greca ma non ci sono più 200 altre isole greche abitate, molte delle quali hanno anche cose interessanti da vedere. Molte sono facilmente raggiungibili con il traghetto o con un breve volo e possono essere visitate sia da sole che per un breve periodo come parte di una “vacanza in vacanza” o come parte di un tour di più isole. Questa è la prima di una serie di miniguide alle altre isole

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. Ci sono 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. Ci sono 2 chiese, 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.