jmtd → log → Greece (Dodecanese islands)

private pool in Kos

In August 2010, Sarah and I had a lovely (but short) week-long holiday in Rhodes, Greece. We thoroughly enjoyed it but I didn't document it here. When John Goerzen was looking for European holiday destinations earlier this year, I had no hesitation in recommending Rhodes. I am surprised and delighted that John took up my suggestion and loved it too! See John's holiday blogging for more on this beautiful place.

This year we wanted to take a two-week holiday and have a similar experience again. We ended up choosing Kos, Greece. Kos was, perhaps not surprisingly, quite similar to Rhodes. We were based in "Hotel Oceanis" in Psalidi, on the north-east side, about ten minutes bus journey from Kos town.

The hotel was very relaxing with plenty of space. It's based on the sea-side and has two public pools: the large main one and a smaller (but seemingly deeper) one adjacent to a snack bar. We were very lucky to find that the hotel had put is in a room with a private swimming pool! In total, we had four separate places to swim in the hotel.

Kos town was similar to Rhodes town, but not quite as "historic" feeling. It was a bit larger/more spread-out. Some areas of the town are quite lively but we always managed to find pleasant and quiet places to eat and drink together.

We had twice as much time and took advantage of that by hiring a car and visiting the rest of the island. In particular we loved the beach in Mastichari (middle-North), which had quite turbulent rolling waves. "Sunny beach" on the south coast was absolutely packed with holiday makers, but was none-the-less worth the look.

All in all, my first two experiences of Greek islands were wonderful. One day, I'm sure we will return to (at least) Rhodes, but we may leave it for a while and see what the rest of the world has to offer in the mean time.