Kos - favourite places to visit /sights / walks etc

[OMGitsnotgood]

Friends have booked for Kos next year and have suggested we might join them. We need to make a relatively quick decision to secure a room in the same hotel as them (near Kos town). We've holidayed with them before and get on well, even though we like different things.

They will spend much more time than we like to by the pool and on the beach - which is fine as we are happy to do a bit of that and do our own thing some of the days. I just need to decide if there is enough for us to see on Kos as other friends have said not.

I am doing Google research but thought I'd ask on here as I assume there will be people who know Kos well.

We like sight seeing, visiting different towns and villages, unusual places as well as the traditional tourist sites. Hidden gems. Love walking.

Happy to hire a car.

Where do you think we would enjoy visiting on Kos?

Thanks

Sorry late reply I was actually in Kos while you wrote this I only came back not long ago loved it. Zia is beautiful a village in the mountains to visit for a day preferably sunset, book yourself in a restraunt called 'Ormodeon' you get to watch the sunset from a really pretty view in Zia. Tingaki is nice for beaches, Mylos Beach Bar is too. Kos Town is good at night that's when we went there's some good Tavernas, you need to try Soulvaki (a greek dish) I loved it so much. If your into boat trips to can go to Bodrum Turkey or go to a 3 greek island cruise. Very hot though at day time it's better to walk about at night. You can also rent bikes for as long as you want which was really fun to explore. You need to also take some mosquito spray etc because we did get bit quite alot not badly but we didn't know there was mosquitos there. Anyway have fun it's really good

Thank you @TheSunnyBeaker, Hope you had a great time.Thank you for all the info and tips. We have actually now booked but still appreciate your response. I like the idea of visiting Bodrum, it's only a 30 minute ferry ride so will do that if we run out of things to do on Kos. Zia comes up on every article I've read/seen on YouTube, I often wonder if they are just hyped up places so glad to hear you recommend it. Island tour also sounds goods.

I would of course welcome more from others too.

We went last year, things we loved

1. Exploring the history of Kos Town
2. Sunset at Zia
3. Bubble beach- snorkeling in the bubbles was great
4. Visiting Kefalos, including a tour of the traditional windmill (with a mini tasting session)
5. Plaka Forest- totally quirky place where cats & peacocks live together, doesn't take long to explore, so not worth a day trip on its own, but nice to stop at for a few minutes if you are already near by.

Thank you @Feeltoooldtostudybutdoingitanyway

If you go to Kefalos take a speedboat trip to Bubble Beach, also worth going to Nisyros which has a walk in volcano. I couldn't make it to the bottom because I have sensitive eyes but my DH and sons did and they said it was amazing.