Summer holidays on the island of Kos (South Aegean)

Travel report with a lot of photos of the Greek Mediterranean island Kos, taken during a holiday stay at the Hotel Platanista in Psalidi

The Greek island of Kos is situated in the eastern Aegean Sea and is off the coast of Asia Minor. It is the third largest Dodecanese island after Rhodes and Karpathos. On the 290,313 km² large island live about 34,000 inhabitants. The main town is Kos Town with over 19,000 inhabitants. The main tourist season is between April and October.

Normally we organize our trips ourselves and put them together from different modules according to our wishes. However, in 2015 the Greek financial crisis had the country firmly in its grip. There were many strikes, bankruptcies, limited withdrawals from ATMs, and great uncertainty about remaining in the Eurozone or returning to the Greek drachma. For these reasons, we decided to book a package tour with TUI, consisting of a return flight, transfers and hotel accommodation including half board. As hotel we chose the excellent rated 4-star Hotel Platanista in Psalidi, about 3 km from Kos Town.

Arrival and departure

The outward flight from the German Nuremberg Airport "Albrecht Dürer" (IATA Code: NUE) to the Kos Airport "Hippokrates" (IATA Code: KGS) was operated by the airline AirBerlin and took about 3 hours. Unfortunately, AirBerlin is in the meantime insolvent and has stopped operations in 2017.
The transfer to the Hotel Platanista was by coach and took a little over an hour for the 26 km distance, as there were stops at other hotels on the way. This way we got a first impression of the island. The transfer back to the hotel was delayed for several hours, as the air traffic was interrupted by a strike of the Greek air traffic controllers. The return flight was operated by the German airline TUIfly. A Boeing 737-800 with the special painting "CEWE AIR" with advertising for the CEWE photo book was used.

Sightseeing

The island of Kos has a length of just over 42 km and a maximum width of almost 10 km. The relatively few attractions can be easily visited by rental car or as an organized bus tour. There are several city bus lines in Kos Town (route map as pdf file ) as well as intercity buses from KTEL , which connect the larger villages and the airport with the island capital.

On the island of Kos we visited among others these sights:
- St. John's Fortress Neratzia in Kos Town
- Archaeological excavations in Kos Town
- Mandraki harbour in Kos Town
- Tree of Hippocrates in Kos Town
- Deterdar Mosque in Kos Town
- Market hall in Kos Town
- Mountain village Zia
- Empros thermal baths, a thermal spring in the open sea (in the southeast of the island)
- Abandoned village Palio Pyli with castle ruins
- Kefalos Beach
- Agios Ioannis Thymianos on the peninsula of Kefalos