Kos is a ‘lesser known’ Greek island in the sense that it is soooo far east in the Aegean sea, it’s literally within sight of Turkey! To be honest, I’d barely even heard of it until I started planning a trip to Bodrum, and kept seeing it pop up as a day visit option amongst all the boat tour offerings. After a good bit of Googling and logistical puzzling, we decided to end our holiday off in Kos by booking a flight directly back to London from there, after visiting Istanbul and Bodrum. I’m so so glad we opted to do it that way! Kos is a small island but has plenty of lovely beaches and a really cute harbour and old town area to explore. We stayed for two nights and it was the perfect relaxing end to our trip.
To get to Kos from Bodrum cost less that £20 per person and took around 40 minutes on the ferry. It’s very clear on arrival that you are entering a new country, and you have to show your passport and queue up to go through Greek customs. This feels strange considering Bodrum is clearly visible across the water. Kos is very obviously Greek though, and there are almost no signs of a Turkish influence in the food, language and general culture. We really felt like we were getting a bit of a ‘two for the price of one’ deal in terms of countries visited thanks to this. In fact, I would almost say we got three for the price of one, because the influence of Dutch tourists on the island is striking! The bike lanes were packed with cyclists, many of the menus were translated into Dutch and offered some typical Dutch cuisine, and one of the beach clubs had even gone so far as to set up a cutout of Max Verstappen to watch over everyone while they enjoyed their drinks. I know some people may argue that this kind of thing ruins the ‘authenticity’ of a place, but personally, I enjoy a good bit of cultural mishmash!
We opted to go slow during our time on Kos – there isn’t a huge amount to see, but that’s a bit of a relief sometimes when you just want to chill. So that’s what we did: parked ourselves on some sunloungers at a beach club for two day; read books; listened to podcasts; ate acai bowls and guzzled cocktails for two days. What a vibe! Of course we did some exploring as well and took a walk round the town, visited the Tree of Hippocrates and ancient ruins and took a sunset cruise to the neighbouring island of Pserimos.
All in all, if you’re in Bodrum I’d absolutely recommend taking a day or two to pop over to Kos. As I always like to say while sorting an itinerary: if not, why not?
Foodie tip: If you’re looking for a place to eat, Giameze was amazing! We had as many items on the Greek meze menu that we could consume, with plenty of ouzo to wash it down, and wandered home feeling very merry and full.
