Things to do in Kos

A town dug out of an earthquake

An earthquake levelled Kos town in 1933. The Italian administration then in charge cleared the rubble and kept going, and the Hellenistic and Roman city came up underneath. Half the centre is open excavation.

The agora runs from the harbour inland. It is unfenced, and you cross it on foot. South of it stand an odeon, a stadium and the Casa Romana, a Roman house rebuilt around its mosaics.

Hippocrates and the sanctuary

Hippocrates was born on Kos around 460 BC. The plane tree at the harbour carries his name and is centuries too young for the story, which nobody seems to mind.

The Asklepieion is the real thing. It is a healing sanctuary begun after his death, laid out on three terraces four kilometres from town. From the top one the Turkish coast is in plain sight.

Past the coastal plain

Kos gets called flat. The plain around the town is exactly that. Behind it the Dikeos ridge climbs to 846 metres, which is where the four-wheel-drive runs go.

• Zia. A village on the Dikeos slope fifteen kilometres up, and the agreed place to watch the sun go down.
• Kefalos and the south. Long exposed beaches, early Christian basilica floors on the sand at Agios Stefanos, and the Kastri islet offshore.
• Embros Therma. A walled pool where a hot spring meets the sea. Go at dusk, when it has cooled enough to sit in.
• Bike lanes. Marked, level and running out of town to the nearer beaches, which is why cycling here is not a stunt.

Days on the water

Three neighbours are close enough for a single day, and one of them is a different country.

• Nisyros. An active volcano whose crater floor you walk across. Sulphur, loose ground, no handrails.
• Kalymnos and Pserimos. A sponge-diving harbour, and a beach with almost nothing built on it.
• Bodrum. Under an hour by ferry. Bring a passport and book the crossing.

Practical

• Season. May to October, with the sea holding its warmth into the middle of autumn.
• Wind. High summer is breezy, which suits the beach and not the boats; the Nisyros run gets called off for swell.
• Airport. At Antimacheia in the middle of the island, some 24 kilometres and half an hour from town.
• The castle. The Knights' fortress at the harbour mouth was shut for years by the 2017 earthquake and reopened after repairs.
• Shade. The coastal cycle track has none of it, and flat ground gives no relief at midday.
• Tables. The square by the plane tree charges for the tree. Two streets back is half the price.