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. var 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. var 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.