Reasons to visit Kos

This summer my boyfriend and I went to the Greek island of Kos, we really enjoyed our stay and thought that our experiences might help some of you! We are both students so we always try to travel as cheap as possible but still comfortable!

-Most friendly people I’ve ever met

We, Belgian people, are mostly used to a cold and not that spontaneous welcome when we visit a store or restaurant. So when we visit another country we are not expecting them to be super kind, but in Greece we were pleasantly surprised be the friendliness of the Greek. When we were searching a specific place, locals spontaneously offered to help us.

-Kittens and cats everywhere!

Everywhere you go, you’ll find the cutest cats you’ve ever seen, like really. Greece has a big problem with stray cats, so when you walk through town you’ll see a lot of little piggy banks to collect money to support the animals. A lot of the inhabitants encourage tourists to feed the animals as well and so did we. I have a huge weak spot for animals and it would break my heart knowing I didn’t try to help those little kittens, I mean, we wouldn’t! If you love cats this really is the perfect place to travel to, or maybe not, because if I was travelling by car, I would’ve taken them all with me!

Couple of kittens in town

Little kitten we found by the beach

Mom and kitten we passed everyday when we were walking to the center of the village

Mom and kitten we passed everyday when we were walking to the center of the village

Little kitten we found by the beach

Couple of kittens in town

The tiniest little kittens (3) I’ve ever seen! Their mom was living across our hotel so we made it our mission to feed the mother everyday

-Lovely beaches

The beaches in Kos are lovely. But you should know that the beaches by the harbor are really tourist friendly and with that I mean when you walk on the beach you might get overwhelmed by the amount of sunbeds you’ll see. Most of these beaches are really focused on making a profit from the younger tourists like us. They serve great food and drinks all day when you lay down on your free sunbed. You should not have any problem with finding a place you like, since the entire length of the beach is fully covered with similar bars and they really try to convince you to stay at theirs. More private spots are accessible by taking a bike or motorbike across the island.

 Kos town

Kos town is mostly your typical Greek town except the fact that you can notice that in time, it really took over the habits of the tourists (which I’m not a fan of). You can find a cocktail route and a dutch pub (they will talk to you in Dutch). If you like this kind of stuff you will definitely like Kos town! But not everything is taken over by the tourists! You can find lovely places if you take the time to walk a little bit further. I also recommend you eat some fish while going to town because since a harbor “screams” fresh fish! We ate out every single night and I think I ate 6/10 days fresh fish. Delicious!

Also…don’t try to be a tourist too much and taste some of the local dishes and drinks, you will not be disappointed!

The only negative thing I can say about Kos is that most of the beautiful buildings (the castle, the church and the mosque) were closed due to an earthquake in 2017.

Hotel and transport

I can’t complain about our stay at the “Kosta Palace hotel“! We had very friendly staff and the rooms were quite nice. Not the most modern hotel, but we had everything we needed. We booked our holiday in the hotel together in a package with our flight because that was the most efficient and cheapest way. Since we had a package booking we didn’t need to worry about transport from and to the hotel because everything was included!

Kosta Palace is perfectly located if you don’t like to take the bus every single day to visit  the busy area of Kos (we saw a lot of tourists taking the bus every night to stay grab a bite in town). Breakfast was fine, nothing extraordinary, but good. I would’ve liked it to change up a bit after a couple of days since we stayed for 10 days and you can imagine we’ve seen it all after a while.

Activities on the island

When you stay on an island for 10 days you might like to switch it up from time to time! No problem when you stay on this island because local companies make sure you’ll fill your days with boat trips, water activities, bike rides, etc… We recommend to rent a bike for a day (or a motorbike if you’re feeling adventurous) and drive along the island, you might find some beautiful private spots! Perfect if you want a romantic day *wink*!

Tip! We do NOT recommend you to take the ferry to Bodrum when it’s over 38 degrees since you might not make it back, like I almost did! It’s extremely hot in Bodrum so if your really planning to visit the city you should do this on a cooler day. We went when it was 39 degrees and didn’t see a thing because (the westerners we are) we found it way to hot!

This is of course all based on our experiences so I hope no one will take offense by this! Overall we really enjoyed our trip to Kos and surely wouldn’t mind going back one day!

Have you ever been to Kos or Bodrum? Let me know in the comments down below! ↓

As always

Lots of love

Follow my blog with Bloglovin