Kos Town & Agios Fokas

Kos Town has more visible antiquity than anywhere else in the Dodecanese outside Rhodes, and it is all walkable. An earthquake in 1933 flattened the centre, and the Italians who were running the island then excavated what it uncovered rather than building over it — so the agora, the odeon and whole Roman streets now sit in sunken fields in the middle of the modern town. The Knights' castle guards the harbour mouth, and the plane tree in the square is pointed out as Hippocrates'.

The Asklepieion on the slope behind town is the real sight: a terraced healing sanctuary, the place where Hippocratic medicine was taught, with a view over the strait to Bodrum. Go in the morning; there is no shade on the top terrace.

The town is flat and ringed with cycle paths, so a bicycle beats a car for anything close. Agios Fokas, just east, is where the beach hotels are, on dark sand with hot springs running into the sea at the far end. Nightlife is concentrated on one street near the harbour and is loud until very late — check which side of the hotel your room is on.