0Kos – Een minigids

Kreta is misschien wel de grootste (en de meest bezochte) Grieks eiland, maar er zijn er meer dan 200 andere bewoonde Griekse eilanden, waarvan er vele ook interessante dingen te zien hebben. Velen zijn gemakkelijk te bereiken per veerboot of een korte vlucht en kunnen op eigen gelegenheid of voor een korte periode worden bezocht als onderdeel van een “vakantie op vakantie” of als onderdeel van een rondreis langs meerdere eilanden. Dit is de eerste in een reeks minigidsen naar enkele andere eilanden

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. Er zijn 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. Er zijn 2 kerken, 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.