Kos Greece is an island part of the Dodecanese and is located at coordinates 36°51' N 27°14' E. It is the third largest island of the group and the second most popular and touristy island after Rhodes. It is very well organised and has everything in terms of touristy infrastructure and a wide range of accommodations. 

 

But the island still has much to offer the more discerThe coast of Kos is swept by magnificent sandy beaches and the island has some of the most interesting archaeological sites in the whole Mediterranean. But avoiding the tat can be demanding. It's large part ruin and a large part ruination, thanks to the growth of cheap package tourism, most notably on the east coast.ning visitor, particularly away from the east and north coasts. Excursions to neighbouring islands such as Pserimos are popular and plentiful and there are any number of daily sea crossings to nearby Turkey.

The coast of Kos is swept by magnificent sandy beaches and the island has some of the most interesting archaeological sites in the whole Mediterranean. But avoiding the tat can be demanding. It's large part ruin and a large part ruination, thanks to the growth of cheap package tourism, most notably on the east coast.

Restaurant Filarakia A very pleasant place in Kos city on the Greek Island Kos. With sunbeds on the beach, where a large (lunch)menu and ofcourse drinks are served with a little music on the background and most of all a lot of joy (sometimes everybody is ending up dancing on the sunbeds!). In the evenings everybody is more than welcome in the restaurant itself, where there is a more luxurious atmosphere. There is a very large menu with both Greek and other international dishes. Besides the house wines (Dry and Sweet, Red and White) there is also a very large winelist (White, Red, Rose) and all the bottles are opened at the table. When you've had your delicious meal there are a lot of real greek deserts, but also the well-known desserts such as Panna Cotta, Tiramisu, Crême Brullé and many Ice Coups. So, if you're looking for a nice place to hang out every day come over to Filarakia!

Kos Town: The town of Kos was founded in 366 BC, on the same site as the actual town, in the north-eastern part of the island. It is a blend of ancient, medieval and modern architectural style, and is flooded with greenery. The wide streets lined with trees create a relaxing and fine atmosphere in the town.

The imposing Castle of the Knights of Saint John is standing on the eastern side of the harbour and is connected to the rest of the town by a bridge crossing the Palm Tree Avenue. The Municipality of Kos is preserving the historic centre by trying to turn it into an exclusively pedestrian district. Various cafes, taverns, restaurants and shops can be found in Kos Town as well as a plethora of clubs and nightclubs, which transform the town into a hot spot during the night.

This hotel is a wonderful hotel for anyone looking for a place to stay just outside the town of Kardamena. When we arrived, the ladies in the reception were very helpful and quick to get us to our rooms. They also offered us a free meal seeing as we arrived at 11.00 p.m. and hadn't had anything to eat since 1 p.m.(!). The beach was just across from the hotel ( 15 second walk) and although we stayed during the peak season, we were always able to get a sun bed (free of charge, which was very nice). There's a watersports booking area on the beach, so you can easily go paragliding, bananaboating, jetskiing etc. whenever you want. There was also a sandvolleyball court on the neighbouring beach (which belonged to the MikriPoli hotel which Carda Beach is collaborated with) and the animation team were always trying to get people to join in! The only bad thing about this hotel was the food. I'm used to traveling to 5 star resorts and the quality of food has been much better elsewhere. But if you are not exceptionally picky about your food, this shouldnt be a problem (just stay away from the dinner buffet!) we were very happy that we hadn't booked the "all-inclusive" as that would have made us guilty eating in town! The rooms were very nice and of a high standard. The beds were comfortable and large. All the rooms have their own terraces which are about 2x3 square meters. On the website they mentioned that they have a tennis court so me and my friend were excited to try it out. The only problem was that you had to go over to the other hotel to get the raquets (which took around a half an hour!) they were of very poor quality. Anyway, when we got up to the hotel's court, we were only able to play for half an hour because it is so windy there that the ball bounced back to you half the time!!! They sould really think about getting a wind shield for the courts because Kos is a windy island, and it dosnt change throughout the year. I had some spa treatments as well, and I was pleased with them all! I recommend a relaxing back massage or a full body scrub at the beginning of your holiday! The walk to town took around 15 mins, which suited us perfectly. I highly recommend a trip to paradise beach in a rented SUV!

The last day we cycled and walked again in Kos-town. Everywhere people were roasting lambs, because of the easter celebrations. We ate dinner at Alex 2 appartments and then headed to the airport. We had a great time on Kos island.

Today we did not do anything special, cycled a bit over the island, went swimming and walked around Kos-town. We bought some catfood and feeded some of the cats near the castle and took pictures of them. Unfortunately some cats were sick and skinny.... They really should do something about this cat (and also dog) problem.

Luckily there are also some inhabitants of Kos who care about the cats, there were some feeding spots were people put food for the cats and fresh water.

We arrived on the Greek island Kos in the late evening after a 3 hour flight from Schiphol, Amsterdam. We went on a touringcar which brought us to our appartments. Because it was dark outside already we did not see very much yet! So we decided to go asleep and wait for the morning so we could see where we were :D

We woke up early and went to eat breakfast at the restaurant. It was again a beautiful day, 28C and sunny. We decided to visit the Castle of the Knights and the Asklepieion today. We took our bikes and cycled to Kos-town. From Kos-town we followed the signs to the Asklepieion but for some reason we went the wrong way, we ended up on one of the busiest roads of Kos and we were sure we should not be there :). So we went back to the town and tried again :) This time we did not miss a single sign and soon we reached the small town of Platani. There live many turkish people in this town and we smelled the roast meet all over this places. There were lot's of nice taverna's here.

Then we cycled up-hill to the asklieipion. It was very warm in the mainland but finally we were on top of the hill and parked our bikes while some cats where watching over them ;) There are so many cats on the island of Kos! Then we saw the Asklepieion. The entrance fee was only 4 euro's again and that is well worth it. Because we were there in spring time it was very quiet and there were beautiful flowers all over the place. From the highest terrace you have a wonderful view over Kos. Then we went back to Kos town, this time downhill... a lot faster!!

Next stop was the Castle of the Knights, which was very nice as well. Also very quiet and a lot of springflowers. You can read more about the castle in my review.

We decided to go to the beach the afternoon, but just as we got ourselves seated on the beach a cloud appeared and the sun was gone! (The only time in our vacation so not that bad!). So we decided to cycle some more around the place, and of course after 1 hour the cloud disappeared again :)

In the evening we went to a typical Greek taverna with seaview called Nestoras. We had calamares and swordfish and of course a baklava!

I did not sleep very well that first night, because I was so curious how the place would look like in the daylight. But finally I got some sleep and when I woke up the sun was there. I immediately opened the door to the balcony and sat down in the sunlight which was already pretty warm although it was only 8 o'clock in the morning.

Around 9 o'clock we went to the restaurant for breakfast. The owner of Alex 2 appartments served breakfast. We had white buns, jam, cheese, ham, tea, orange juice and a boiled egg. A nice breakfast. The travel agency has told us the evening before that we could come to Taverna Blue Ocean for an introduction hour, they would tell us a bit about what you can do on the island and there was also the opportunity to book excursions. We decided to go there first for some ideas.

We walked to the taverna, which was only 10 minutes walk and already enjoyed the view of the deep blue see and the hills of Turkey on the other site of the water. In the taverna we all got some ouzo and fresh orange juice. We booked 2 excursions, one to Bodrum, Turkey and a three-island-tour (Kalymnos, Pserimos and Platy).

We walked to the city center of Kos town, which was about 1,6 kilometres to get our bikes (which where included in our trip) and to take a look in the city. On mondays all the attractions and museums are closed in Kos town, so we could not visit the castle this day. In stead we decided to go to the 'free' archaeological sites near and in Kos-town. They where beautiful: the ancient agora in the middle of the centre of Kos-town, the western archaeological site and we also visited the famous Plane Tree of Hippocrates. Then we went to a supermarket and found out that it is almost more expensive to buy food from the supermarket than to go to a restaurant!

The castle of the Knights of the Order of Saint John is situated at the entrance of Kos harbour on what used to be an island in antiquity, communicating with the inland through a bridge that one can still see even today namely the bridge of “Phoinikon" (Palm Trees) Avenue. We visited the caste in April 2005, and there were beautiful spring flowers all over the place. The entrance fee for the castle was 4 euro's that time. The castle is mostly a ruin, you can't go inside. But the views you have from the castle walls are beautiful. In the ruins there are still some statues and pilars. You don't need more than an hour to visit the place, but it's well worth it.

In April 2005 we visited the Greek island Kos. Of course in april there are not so many tourists there. We also visited the MacDonald's in Kos town, wow this is the smallest McDonald's restaurant I've seen so far! They had only the standard menu, no special greek burgers. Inside there were only 6 tables and outside some more. The food was very good though and the service also. The terrace even has a nice atmosphere as it is situated on the main square of Kos town. Of course you can always better go and try the Greek food, which is amazing, but if you feel like burgers, the MacDonald's in Kos town is okay!

The owners of Alex 2 apartments are very friendly. They do everything to make you enjoy your visit. The breakfast was very good and served whenever you wanted to eat. The apartments are situated about 1.6 kilometres from the centre of Kos-town, but you get bikes so that is not really a problem. Once a week there is a barbecue for all the guests. There is a swimmingpool and a snackbar. The rooms are clean. There are restaurants nearby and also a supermarket. We had a great stay at Alex 2!

2 years ago we went to Kos and were very happy with our appartment. The name was Apartments Yiannis. I can't find the address anywhere but you can find it on the internet. (I will seek later..) The people who worked there were so friendly.. and the price of the food was also very good.. Everything was in the neighboorhood, restaurants, little shops, supermarket!! The rooms are simple, kitchen is good.. It's so cheap there that every night you go out for dinner and not make it yourself.. The swimmingpool is not big, but it was very quiet and the sun was also good.. No big trees blocking it.. Only thing that I can remember that was not good was the shower.. You didn't had a shower curtain.

Hotel Ramira Beach belongs to the Mitsis Hotels. It's an all inclusive hotel that has been restyled in 2007/2008, the last rooms will be done in 2009. There are two swimmingpools with salty water. This hotel has many repeaters, they all love it to come back to this Hotel. There are two a la carte restaurant, Italian and one Chinese, Both are verry good and also included. The hotel has towelservice and on the beach there is a beachbar. For drinks and the lunch you can stay on the beach. When you stay in one of the three mitsis hotels on the island, than you can use the facilities of all three hotels. So when you on your way, and wanna have lunch or want to relax on the beach and drink something, You can go to one of these hotels. To the center of Kos it's about 3,5 kilometers and the busstop is in front of the Hotel.

This building is allready closed for the last 2 years!!