Kos

Introduction

Kos

© jedvickery

Kos is a Greek island, part of the Dodecanese island chain in the southeast of the Aegean Sea. It's located just 4 kilometres from Bodrum in Turkey and has about 32,000 inhabitants. It's a popular beach resort area, but with a lot of nature and culture on offer as well.

Cities

• Kos town is the largest city

Sights and Activities

• Kos town - Kos Town is probably best known for its vibrant and wild nightlife. Do you love music and dancing, you've come to the right place. Kos Town has a wild nightlife, which is beyond the ordinary. It is pure carnival atmosphere in the evening in and out of the adjacent bars where they try to drown each other's music.
• Nerantzia Castle
• Tigaki Beach - Tigaki is known for its glorious and shallow sandy beach and a large selection of water sports. It's a nice place with a small selection of restaurants, tavernas and bars.
• Hippocrates plane tree - By the castle is Europe's oldest tree. It is said that Hippocrates taught his students in the tree´s shade.
• Kardamena village - Kardamena is known for its stunning beaches and the many cozy taverns serving good fresh fish. In recent years, Kardamena had a strong British influence because of the many English tourists that guests the area but from the beginning the place was just a small fishing village where Greeks themselves chose to spend a holiday.
• Asklepieion archaeological site - Inhale the spicy scent of thyme, and enjoy the view of Kos Town and the Turkish coast, before you go exploring on Asklepieion. It is a land of temples. Medical science father Hippocrates thought that the place had curative effect by virtue of its beauty, and it's hard not to agree with him here about 2,400 years later.
• Kefalos Beach - On the island's western side lies Kefalos. According to the islanders themselves, this is one of the island's prettiest beaches. It is said that water at Kefalos is slightly cooler than the rest of the beaches.
• Antimachia village
• Kos Waterpark Lido is Kos' only water park. Make sure you have plenty of time for play and activities such as the lazy river, crazy river, giant slade, wave pool, space ball, kamikaze, hydro tunnel, the black hole, jacuzzi, etc.
• Archaeological Museum
• Roman Odeon ancient ruins
• Mastichari Beach
• Kost Thermes - a sea pool with hot springs
• White Stone Cave
• Case Romana, a beautiful Roman mansion
• Nisyros Island is just a short hop away from Kos. On Nissyros you can fin an incredibly beautiful scenery. The island is volcanic and you can even feel a tingling in the nose of sulfur as you descend into the active crater at Nissyros.

Weather

Kos has a Mediterranea climate with warm, dry and sunny summers and mild but wetter winters. Summer lasts from June to September with maximum temperatures averaging 28-32 °C and nights of around 24 °C. Winters from December to February see most of the rain falling throughout the year and temperatures between 10 °C at night and 15 °C during the day.

Getting There

By Plane

Kos Island International Airport (KGS) has a wide range of flights from European countries. TuiFly mainly serves the German market, with seasonal (April-October) flights to/from Frankfurt, Munich, Cologne, Düsseldorf, Hamburg, Hannover, Stuttgart and several others. Thomas Cook provides many flights to the UK, including London and Manchester.
Other airlines serve a range of destinations including Brussels, Paris, Oslo, Copenhagen, Amsterdam, Prague, Stockholm, Warsaw, Verona, Milan, Rome, Bologna, Belgrade, Geneva, Helsinki, Tel Aviv, Zürich, Basel, Vienna and Ljubljana.

By Boat

Domestic
Kos is well connected to Piraeus (10 to 15 hours) and with all the islands in the Dodecanese, such as Rhodes (3½ hours) and Patmos (four hours), as well as additional connections to the Cyclades. In summer there is a weekly ferry service from Kos Town to Samos and Thessaloniki. Local car ferries run to Pothia on Kalymnos from Mastihari (one hour, four daily). In addition there are faster, passenger-only small ferries from Mastihari to Pothia running up to five times daily.

International
There are daily excursions by boat in summer from Kos Town to Bodrum in Turkey. Boats leave at 8.30am and return at 4.30pm.

Getting Around

By Car

Car rental agencies are abundant and relatively affordable. Taxis on the other hand are not.
Scooters are a better and even cheaper way of getting around the island.

By Bus

From the airport, there is a public bus going to Kos town via Mastichari.

Sleep

View our map of accommodation in Kos

Keep Connected

Internet

Internet access is widely available throughout the country. Almost all hotels provide internet access, either free or paid. Local coffee shops usually offer free Wi-Fi access, as many other public places do. Feel free to ask for the password, if the network is locked. Internet cafes however tend to be expensive, about €1.5-2 per hour.

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

The cheapest way to call someone abroad is to use a pre-paid calling card and call from a land line anywhere (also from your hotel room). Pre-paid calling cards are sold in many shops and kiosks. The calling card is not much more than a phone number and a pin code, which you dial prior to dialing the usual phone number. If you want to call internationally, ask for an international calling card. For one euro you can call for about 45 minutes, so buy a card in the cheapest value (which is about €3). Calling someone for half an hour is cheaper than sending one email from an internet café. Cards expire usually 90 days after first use. You can also use this pre-paid calling card at public phone boxes, which are widely available.

Mobile phones are prevalent in Greek's communication, and if you need to talk with your co-travelers it is advised that you buy a local prepaid plan instead of using roaming, as it is far cheaper. There are at least three mobile carriers, Cosmote, Wind and Vodafone all of which require by law presenting some form of identification in order to activate your prepaid plan. Choose whichever has better reception in your area, keeping in mind that GSM 900, GSM 1800 and UMTS 2100 bands are supported. Data usage is cheap, costing about €3 per 100 MB. Ask the mobile carrier for more information.

Post

Hellenic Post is the Greek postal service. On their website you find more information about options to send letters, postcards and parcels and there is a search function regarding post offices and post boxes. It also has information on services like paying bills, transferring money, financial products etc. Greek post codes are five digits long and are usually written as follows; 123 45. The first three digits are used to identify the city, municipality or prefecture, for example the digits between 100 and 180 relate to the city of Athens. The last two digits identify a street or part of a street. Most post offices are open Monday to Friday from 07:30-14:00, although the largers ones usually have longer opening hours. For sending packages, you can also use international courier services like DHL, UPS or TNT.

External Links

• Kos Official Website