Day 27: Kos Beach Day Again

Sunday 1st August 2021

Planning Ahead

Tonight was – thankfully – my last night at Captain’s Hotel. Admittedly, the location is pretty good, but as I’ve mentioned in previous posts, mostly everything else about the hotel isn’t and I’m looking forward to moving tomorrow.

Finding a suitable alternative proved to be more of a challenge than I’d anticipated. I wanted to stay as close to my €50 per night budget as possible, preferably with breakfast included. As we were now heading into peak season and Kos Town is a popular resort, prices were higher than I had expected and most places I looked at were either unaffordable, undesirable or in some cases both! I also didn’t want to sacrifice a decent location and was keen to stay in the same general area that I’d already become familiar with.

After much exploration of my options on Booking.com, some of which seemed viable until I saw the dire TripAdvisor reviews, I stumbled across Hotel Sonia. Located just one street back from the main harbour, it was very central but still close enough to my current location that I could walk to the beach easily and have access to a wide range of tavernas and shops. The downsides were that it has no swimming pool (not a big issue) and it was a fair bit outside my budget at around €75 per night.

I’m not usually one to haggle, but with a growing sense of desperation, I emailed the hotel directly and asked if they could offer me a better rate than the one advertised online. The initial response was lukewarm, the price for 5 nights was only a few euros cheaper than I’d already seen. When I replied offering to pay cash, however, I hit the jackpot and they offered me the room for €60 per night – still over my budget, but it was less than I’d seen other hotels that weren’t (on paper, anyway) as nice. I emailed back, confirming I would take the room and that I was looking forward to meeting them the next day.

Beach Day

After sorting out my hotel move for tomorrow, I spent most of the day down at the beach. For a change of scene, I started off at Papa’s Beach Bar just north of the Sunburnt Arms, but the prices were higher and the service not as good so I decided I wouldn’t be returning and left at midday to find lunch elsewhere.

This turned out to be a sandwich bar down one of the roads that run parallel to the beach called “Activ The Baguette Shop”. I had a nice cheese & onion toastie, a beer and some ice cream, before returning to my hotel to spend a few hours at the pool – figuring I should make the most of it on my last day.

The pool was nice until mid-afternoon when it started to fill up with rowdy youngsters from the hotel next door (the pool is shared). I probably sound like an old fart, but when I’m by myself at the pool I like to relax in relative peace and quiet, so once it started getting noisy I packed up and returned to my room.

Divine Dinner

Since leaving Rhodes, my evening meals haven’t been anything special and I really enjoy eating good food when I’m on holiday. Before leaving my room for the evening, I spent a bit of time trying to find a nice Italian restaurant and saw a place called Pizzeria MamaRosa which was one of the top-rated restaurants in Kos Town. It was also just around the corner from my hotel, so it was the obvious choice and that’s where I headed.

The restaurant is pretty small, with only 10-12 tables, and looks more like a snack bar/takeaway, so I was a bit wary when I sat down that it might not live up to its reputation. I ordered a pizza with some bruschetta to start and a bottle of beer. When the food came, it was absolutely fantastic and totally deserving of its top spot on TripAdvisor. I also saw several pasta dishes that sounded delicious, so made a mental note to come back at least a couple more times to try them.

With a full stomach and looking forward to my next hotel, I strolled back to my room and went to bed.