0Kos — A mini guide

Cre­te may be the big­gest (and the most visi­ted) Gre­ek island but the­re are over 200 other inha­bi­ted Gre­ek islands many of whi­ch also have inte­res­ting things to see. Many can be easily rea­ched by fer­ry or short flight and can be visi­ted either on their own or for a short peri­od as part of a “holi­day on holi­day” or as part of a tour of mul­ti­ple islands. This is the first in a seri­es of mini-gui­des to some other the other islands

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. Existem 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. Existem 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.