Kos: what to see, where to stay and how to get around

Now in Kos--:--:--

--°

On the twenty-third of April 1933 an earthquake flattened the old town of Kos, and the Italians who ruled the island did something unusual with the rubble: instead of rebuilding on top, they dug. What came up was the ancient city — the agora, the harbour quarter, a Roman street — and the new town was laid out around the holes. Two hours, flat, and almost everything on this route is free and open ground.

A short history of Kos

Around 460 BC Hippocrates, regarded as the father of medicine, was born on the island of Kos, and after his death the Asclepieion, a sanctuary and healing centre, was built here. In 1315 the Knights Hospitaller took over the island and built the fortress by the harbour, and in 1523 it passed to the Ottomans. In 1912 Italy occupied it. In 1933 an earthquake destroyed part of the town, and as a result many Roman remains were uncovered in its centre. In 1944 the Jews of Kos were deported to Auschwitz together with the Jews of Rhodes. In 1947 the island, together with the rest of the Dodecanese, joined Greece.

The ten best sights in Kos

1
Hippocrates Plane Tree
Propped up on scaffolding, and the tradition says Hippocrates taught under its ancestor
2
Loggia Mosque
Built in 1786; the fountain beside it uses an ancient sarcophagus as its basin
3
Neratzia Castle
The Knights built it out of the ancient city; look for columns in the walls
4
Ancient Agora
Open ground in the middle of town, free, and the 1933 earthquake uncovered it
5
Eleftherias Square
The Italians rebuilt this square after 1933, and every building on it says so
6
Archaeological Museum
The statue of Hippocrates is here, and the mosaic in the courtyard shows him
7
Defterdar Mosque
The minaret on the square; closed since the 2017 earthquake, seen from outside
8
Synagogue of Kos
Built after the 1933 earthquake; the community was deported in July 1944
9
Casa Romana
A Roman house with its mosaics on the floor where they were laid
10
Roman Odeon
Marble rows you can sit on, free, and shops once ran under the seats

sleepntripFree with every roomThree audio walks in every city

A guide in your headphones, stop after stop.

To the walks

What is an audio walk?

Tours in Kos →

A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Kos:

Free walking tours in Kos

The town the earthquake dug up

Hippocrates Plane Tree · The tradition is that Hippocrates, born on this island around 460 BC, taught his students under a plane tree on this spot. This tree is about five hundred years old, so it is at best a descendant, and its branches now rest on metal scaffolding. The fountain beside it, built by the Ottomans, uses an ancient sarcophagus as its basin.
Neratzia Castle · The Knights of St John built this castle in the fifteenth century and quarried the ancient city to do it — walk along the walls and you find column drums, inscriptions and carved marble set in among the plain stones. The road in front of it, lined with palms, runs in what used to be the moat. The earthquake of 2017 damaged it badly.
Ancient Agora · The market square of the ancient city, uncovered only because the 1933 earthquake brought down the houses that stood on it. The city itself was founded in 366 BC, when the islanders abandoned their old capital at the western end and moved here, to the harbour that faced Asia.
Eleftherias Square · The Italians held the Dodecanese from 1912 to 1943, and after the earthquake they rebuilt the centre in their own style. The market hall of 1934 and the museum of 1936 face each other across this square, and between them stands the minaret of an Ottoman mosque — three empires on one square.
Synagogue of Kos · The community rebuilt its synagogue after the 1933 earthquake. Eleven years later, in July 1944, the Germans deported the Jews of Kos — about a hundred and twenty people — together with the community of Rhodes, to Auschwitz. Almost none came back. The building stands, and the town uses it today as a hall for cultural events.
Casa Romana · A rich Roman house of the third century AD, rebuilt by the Italians in 1940 around its own floors, so the mosaics are where they were laid — dolphins, fish, a leopard. It is one of very few places in Greece where you walk through a Roman home room by room, under a roof.

Medicine, before it had a name

Kos is where Western medicine says it began, and this route goes up the hill behind the town to the place that claims it. The Asklepion was a healing sanctuary where the sick slept in the temple and waited for a dream; Hippocrates did not build it, but the school that followed him worked here. Half a day, uphill, and the terraces have no shade at all — go at opening time.

Archaeological Museum · The statue of Hippocrates is here, and in the courtyard a mosaic shows him welcoming Asclepius, the god of healing, stepping off a boat onto Kos. The building is Italian, from 1936, and was put up on the square that the earthquake had just cleared.
Ancient Gymnasion · The covered running track of the ancient city, called the xystos, where athletes trained in the shade when the sun made the open track impossible. The Italians stood its columns back up, and the row you see is the line the roof once rested on.
Roman Odeon · A small Roman theatre of the second century AD, for music and readings rather than drama. Under the marble rows ran vaulted galleries, and some of them were shops. You can sit where the audience sat; nobody stops you.
Platani · The village where the Muslim community of Kos still lives, with its mosque and a few tavernas that cook the food of the other shore. Bodrum is visible from the island on a clear day, and Platani is where that closeness never went away.
Asklepion · The sick came here, bathed, and slept in the sanctuary hoping the god would heal them in a dream. Strabo writes that the painter Apelles made his famous Aphrodite rising from the sea for this temple, and that Augustus took it to Rome and cut the island’s taxes by a hundred talents in exchange.
The upper terrace · The site was found only in 1902, by a German archaeologist named Rudolf Herzog working with a local scholar from Kos. Climb to the top terrace for the reason it was built here: the whole channel, the town, and the coast of Turkey across the water.

The mountain and the west

Behind the flat north coast Kos rises to a ridge of almost nine hundred metres, and the villages on it are the island before tourism. This route goes up into them, across to a castle of the Knights in the middle of the island, and out to the western end where the first capital stood. A full day and a car; the sunset at Zia is the end of it, not the start.

Old Pyli · A Byzantine castle on a rock spur, and below it the ruins of the village that grew in its shadow and was later abandoned for the plain. The church at the foot of the path still has its painted walls. Wear shoes; the last part is a scramble.
Pyli · In October 1943 the Germans took Kos from the British, and afterwards they shot about a hundred Italian officers who had sided with the Allies. The bodies were found in pits near this village after the war, and the memorial stands by the lake of Linopotis below it.
Antimachia Castle · Not a fortress for soldiers but a walled refuge: when pirates landed, the villagers of the middle of the island ran inside these walls with their animals. There are two churches inside, and over the gate the arms of a Grand Master of the Knights of St John.
Agios Stefanos · Two early Christian basilicas of the fifth century stood on this beach, and some of their columns still stand on the sand. In front of them is the islet of Kastri with its chapel, a few hundred metres out — close enough to swim, far enough that most people do not.
Kefalos · Before 366 BC the capital of Kos was down here at the western end, a town called Astypalaia, and the tradition says Hippocrates was born in it. The islanders left it for the new harbour facing Asia, and the village on the ridge is what remained.
Zia · The village on the slope of Mount Dikaios, and the whole island comes up here for one thing: the sun going down over the sea with Kalymnos and Pserimos in front of it. Come an hour before, because the parking is a single road and it fills.

sleepntripRoad and rail routesEvery night on the road, our hotel

Whole routes, with a room up to $80 at every stop.

To the routes

Getting to Kos and getting around

Kos Airport · In the middle of the island, 25 km from town; the bus to town meets the flights
Kos Port · Ferries to Piraeus, Rhodes and the islands, and the boat to Bodrum
Bus Station · The island buses leave from Kleopatras Street; buy the ticket before boarding
Mastichari Harbour · The short crossing to Kalymnos and Pserimos leaves from here, not from town
Kardamena Harbour · The day boats to the Nisyros volcano leave from this quay

Cheap eats in Kos

Two things from Kos travelled further than the island ever did: the long-leaved lettuce the English still call cos, and a cheese aged in the dregs of red wine until its rind turns purple — krasotyri, and you will not find it far from here. The counter food is the gyros and souvlaki of every Greek island, a few euro each, eaten standing; the cheese is bought by the piece at the market.

Municipal Market · Cheese by the piece; a few euro
The old-town lanes · Gyros wrapped to go, a few euro, open past midnight
Platani · Grill and syrup sweets; locals drive out for it
Limnionas · The fish comes off the boats a few metres from the table
Zia · Village shops selling honey and spoon sweets by the jar
Pyli · A square café where the village eats, not the tourists
Kardamena · Souvlaki at three in the morning, which is when it is needed

Museums in Kos

Kos has an unusual advantage: an earthquake opened its ancient city in 1933, and the Italians who ruled the island excavated it instead of covering it. So the antiquities are not behind glass in one building — they are the open ground between the streets, most of it free.

Archaeological Museum · Hippocrates in marble, and the mosaic in the courtyard
Casa Romana · A Roman house with its floors still in place
Asklepion · Go at opening time; no shade on the terraces
Ancient Agora · Open, free, and walked through on the way to dinner
Roman Odeon · Sit on the marble; nobody minds
Antimachia Windmill · The last mill that turns, and the miller’s house beside it

Nature and day trips near Kos

Kos is long and thin: a flat north coast of sand, a mountain ridge behind it, and a volcanic western end where gas still bubbles up through the beach. The myth explains the neighbour — Poseidon tore a piece off Kos and threw it at a giant, and that rock is Nisyros, which is a volcano you can walk into.

Nisyros · A full day from Kardamena; closed shoes for the crater
Therma · Hot water meets the sea in a ring of rocks; early or late
Paradise Beach · Bubbles of volcanic gas rise through the sand in the shallows
Alykes Salt Lake · Flamingos from winter into spring; dry in summer
Mount Dikaios · Two hours up from Zia; water and an early start
Plaka Forest · Pines, picnic tables and peacocks
Agios Theologos · The open west coast; real waves and strong currents

Things to do in Kos with kids

Kos is the flattest island in the Dodecanese, which makes it a bicycle island: the town has cycle lanes and the coast path runs for kilometres either side of it. The north beaches are sand and shallow; the west is cliffs and swell. Keep children north.

Tigaki · Shallow for a long way out, and sand
Lambi · A flat ride from town on the cycle path
Plaka Forest · Peacocks that come to the picnic tables
Marmari · Dunes to run down, and horse riding nearby
Antimachia Castle · Walls to walk on and nobody charging for it
Pserimos · A boat trip to a sandy bay, short enough for children

Holy places in Kos

Every faith that held the island left a building in the same few streets: Greek temples, Christian basilicas, Ottoman mosques, an Italian-era synagogue. The earthquakes took them down in turn, and what stands is whatever was rebuilt last.

Synagogue of Kos · From outside; the building now hosts cultural events
Loggia Mosque · 1786, beside the plane tree; the sarcophagus fountain is in front
Defterdar Mosque · The minaret on the square; closed since 2017
Altar of Dionysus · A garden of fallen marble that most people walk past
Agios Stefanos · Columns on the sand, and the chapel on the islet
Old Pyli · A painted church at the foot of the castle path

Nightlife in Kos

Kos has two nights and they do not mix. In town it is the bar street in the old quarter, loud and young and finished by three. Kardamena, on the south coast, is the package-resort strip and goes until the sun comes up. Zia at sunset is the quiet alternative, and it is over by nine.

Bar Street · Beside the agora; ruins on one side, music on the other
The harbour front · Cocktails facing the castle and the lights of Bodrum
Kos Marina · The quieter end of town, yachts and late dinners
Kardamena · The strip; until sunrise, and it means it
Zia at sunset · The whole north coast below and a glass of wine; over by nine
Tigaki · Beach bars that stay open after the swimmers go

sleepntripFree cancellationEvery room we sell cancels for free

Plans change? Until the date on the card it costs nothing.

Find a room

Frequently asked questions about Kos

What is there to see in Kos?

The top sights in Kos are Hippocrates Plane Tree, Loggia Mosque and Neratzia Castle. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.

How many days do you need in Kos?

Three to four days are enough to see the best of Kos without rushing, including at least one walking tour.

Is there a free walking tour in Kos?

Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Kos, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The town the earthquake dug up.

How do you get to Kos and get around?

The main ways are Kos Airport, Kos Port and Bus Station. Full details are in the transport section on this page.

Where to stay in Kos, and for how much?

sleepntrip shows only rooms in Kos that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.

Looking for a hotel in Kos for your dates?

Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.

All hotels in Kos

Plan a trip across GreeceIslands, temples and blue sea→