17. August 2014 5 min read
Day 1 of Greek island Kos advanture - Kos airport, Mastihari
It was late evening when we sat on plane in Joze Pucnik airport (Ljubljana) and flew across the Balkans to the Greek island of Kos. Flight lasted for more than 2 hours and the landing on Kos airport was not really smooth. There was a lot of side-wind as well as a lot of air traffic, and the otherwise calm and predictive landing turned into few accelerations and wobbles on touchdown. Right after we landed we saw another airplane aligned to landing strip just about to land, so at that time we knew why he was accelerating when we were quite few kilometers away from landing.
After the landing our luggage came fast and we were amongst the first out of airport, but there awaited the change of plans by Palma travel agency. We reserved a stay in Asteras Resort hotel, but this one night we were destined to stay at Princess of Kos resort, near the Mastichari village. It was quite a shock as we expected to settle in and enjoy the next day with our explorations of the island, but we adapted in a bit better adventure of testing a new hotel.
Princess of Kos hotel
Once we were at a hotel lobby it all seemed quite fancy. The hotel is organized as resort and not as classical hotels, but its 4 star rating is only based on lobby, pool and other services, because rooms seemed more like maximum for 3 star hotel. We were two, but ended in a room for some small family with bunk beds, kitchenette and bathroom with shower and full of mosquitoes. Before we went to Kos we received a warning that here are many mosquitoes. Based on this first night, I would say that they are everywhere. Apparently cleaning lady leaves the bathroom window open, and although there are mosquito nets on windows they manage to get through. I killed few of them each time I used the bathroom and after a day I could say there were only few left. We used our Electric Raid in bedroom and avoided being eaten alive by mosquitoes. The room also had a nice small balcony which we did not have time to use. In the evening we enjoyed a sandwich meal with juice (so much for all inclusive), and some music on the hotel porch. The ambient made up for that slender disappointment of room. Let me also add that WiFi is available only near the hotel reception and not in apartments as well. We were in apartment 3000+ something and were like 10 minutes walk from the sea. After breakfast buffet, which was quite good, we went to the beach and the walk was really long. I advise you try to get rooms with 1000 and below as they are closer to the beach. Rooms around 2000 are closer to main pool which is very nice.
Anyway the beach is fantastic. All sandy beach with beach bars, surf center and free sun beds. It was a windy day and blowing from sea to beach made it perfect for big waves and of course surfing - kiting. Easy water access and perfect wind makes this beach a definite surfing paradise. Swimming was not really that much fun. After the walk on beach, swim and relax on sun bed we needed to clear the room and get transfer to our original destination - Asteras Resort.
You can read more about our adventure in next day article available on this link.