Boat trips
Day trips
The island
The best two natural sights on Kos cost nothing. At Embros Therma, on the coast east of Kos Town, a hot sulphur spring runs out of the hillside into a stone-walled pool at the water's edge — no gate, no ticket, no opening hours. Twenty minutes up the coast, the Alikes salt lake holds flamingos through winter and spring.
Bookable now
What you're seeing: real departures for the coming weeks, pulled from GetYourGuide. Sort by what matters to you — duration, rating or price — then open the listing for the operator's own terms.
Quick summary
There is nothing to buy here, which changes how you plan. Your only decisions are how you get there, what time you arrive, and what you will let the sulphur ruin.
| Entrance fee | None. Embros Therma is open coastline with no gate, no booth and nobody to pay. Any site charging you for access to the spring is not the spring. |
|---|---|
| Opening hours | None either — but the track and steps are unlit, so treat sunset as the practical closing time unless you bring a torch. |
| Advance booking needed? | No. Only if you want an organised off-road tour to bring you, in which case book 2–3 days ahead in high summer. |
| Time to allow | 1.5–2 hours including the drive from Kos Town, the walk down and a soak. Half a day if you add the coast road and a taverna. |
| How long in the water | 15–20 minutes is plenty for most people. Get out, cool off in the open sea two metres away, go back in if you want to. |
| Water and smell | Hot at the vent, cooler towards the sea wall where swell mixes in. It smells strongly of sulphur and the smell stays in your hair. |
| Facilities | Assume none. No lifeguard, no lockers, no reliable toilet or drinking water. Bring water, a towel and shoes you can walk on stones in. |
| Parking | A small unsurfaced area at the top of the steps that fills fast in summer. Arrive before 10:00 or after 17:00. |
| Alikes salt lake | Also free, on the north coast behind Tigaki beach. Boardwalk access; flamingos in winter and spring. |
Transport bands come from publicly listed hire-car, scooter and tour prices for the current season and move with demand. Taxi fares are metered and set locally, so they are not quoted here — agree the fare and the wait before you set off. How we source numbers.
Leave the silver in the room
The water carries dissolved sulphur compounds, and sulphur blackens silver on contact — rings, chains and earrings can come out tarnished and may not clean up. It also stains pale swimwear and can dull the finish on cheap watch cases. Wear an old dark costume and take nothing off your fingers you would mind losing the shine on.
Compare the options
There is no ticket to compare here and we are not going to invent one. The decision that costs you money is transport; the one that costs you the experience is what time you arrive.
Option 1
€30–60 / per day, plus fuel
Pick this if there are two or more of you and you care about arriving outside the 11:00–16:00 crush. This is the option that makes the springs good rather than merely free.
Option 2
Metered / agree the wait first
Pick this if you are here for one evening, don't want to drive, and are happy to pay for the convenience of a fixed pickup.
Option 3
€60–100 / adult, full day
Pick this if you have no transport and want the whole inland-and-coast circuit rather than the springs specifically. See quad and jeep tours.
Timing
Sitting in hot water when the air is 34°C is endurance, not relaxation. The springs are at their best from October to May, when the contrast between pool and air is the whole point. In July and August, go at sunrise or in the last hour of light, or not at all.
The pool's temperature depends on how much sea washes over the boulder wall. A calm day means hot water; a big southerly floods it, cools it and stirs up the stones. The meltemi, the northerly that peaks in July and August, is largely blocked from this coast by the mass of Mount Dikeos — so a meltemi day is often good here even when the boat trips are cancelled. It is the southerly to avoid.
Shoot from the steps looking down and seaward in the first half-hour of daylight, when steam lifts off the pool and the sea behind is still dark. In the evening the sun sets behind the hill rather than over the water, so the light goes flat early — another reason sunrise wins.
On the ground
Getting down to the water is the part nobody warns you about: short, steep and loose in places.
Park at the top, and who should skip it
Drivers who squeeze down the last section block the track or scrape a hire car on the verge — leave it in the upper area and walk two minutes. Be realistic about the descent too: uneven steps with no continuous handrail, then boulders. Not manageable with a wheelchair or buggy, awkward on crutches or a bad knee, and hot water is not advised in pregnancy or with heart conditions without medical advice. If that is you, the flat boardwalk at the Alikes salt lake is the better half of this page.
The other free one
Behind the beach at Tigaki on the north coast lies Alikes, a shallow lagoon separated from the sea by a low sandbar. Seawater seeps through that bar and evaporates under the summer sun, concentrating the salt left behind — which is why the water is saltier than the Aegean, why the margins go white and crusted in August, and why the place is named after salt pans once worked here commercially.
That salinity is the attraction. It supports brine shrimp and invertebrates, which feed waders and greater flamingos. The flamingos are a winter and spring bird here — expect them roughly from late autumn to April, in loose groups out in the shallows, and expect nothing in August when much of the lake has dried to a salt flat. Herons, egrets, stilts and migrating waders use it through the shoulder seasons.
A wooden boardwalk and viewing points run out from the Tigaki side, and that is where you should stay. This is a protected wetland: keep to the walkway, keep dogs on a lead, and do not walk onto the flats to get closer — a flushed flock loses a feeding session and you get a worse photograph than you would have had with a long lens from the boardwalk. Go early, when it is calm and the light is behind you, and bring binoculars.
Make it a free day
Alikes pairs with Tigaki beach, and the flat cycle lanes along the north coast reach it from Kos Town without a car. Add the peacock woods at Plaka and you have a full day of Kos nature for the price of a bike hire.
How to save
The natural pool has no admission. Hotels and wellness centres on Kos sell thermal treatments, which is a legitimate separate product — but nobody can charge you to sit in the spring. If a listing implies otherwise, you are buying transport or a treatment.
With no entry cost, the whole budget is getting there. A small hire car divided by four is a couple of euros a head and a scooter is less again. Four people in a taxi both ways still beats four seats on an organised tour.
There is nothing to look for, because there is no fee — rare on an island where most attractions run three price bands. Do check reduced rates on the bus and on bike hire, which is where families actually save here.
Kos has no island-wide sightseeing card, and neither of these sites would be on one if it existed. Bundles you will see are operator combos — an off-road tour with lunch, or a coast drive with several stops.
Public beaches, the open ruins in Kos Town, the peacock woods at Plaka and the walk up towards Palio Pyli all cost nothing either. Even the paid highlights are cheaper than people expect — the Asklepion is a state site with a modest fee.
One tank, both sights
Embros Therma sits east of Kos Town, Alikes west of it, about 40 minutes apart by road. Springs at sunrise, breakfast in town, lake mid-morning while the birds are still active: one hire car, one day, no tickets.
| How you do it | Budget |
|---|---|
| Entry to either site | Free |
| Bicycle to Alikes from Kos Town | €5–10 |
| Bus to Tigaki, return | Low single figures |
| Scooter for the day, split by two | €12–20 |
| Small hire car, split by four | €10–18 |
| Taxi to the springs, return | Metered — agree it first |
| Guided off-road tour | €60–100 |
Hire and tour bands compiled from publicly listed prices for the current season. Bus and taxi fares are set locally and shown as bands deliberately. Confirm before you commit.
How to get there
Both are close to Kos Town, in opposite directions. The springs are the harder journey, and the only one where the last kilometre matters.
East out of Kos Town past Psalidi and Agios Fokas, then follow signs for Therma. Roughly 20 minutes, and the last section narrows and roughens — go slowly.
Fine in daylight if you are confident, but the loose final stretch catches people out. Not a road to learn on, or to ride back in the dark.
Town buses run east along the coast to Agios Fokas and Therma in season, on a seasonal timetable. Check the board for the last return — it is earlier than sunset.
The best journey on this page. Flat separated cycle lanes run west from Kos Town to Tigaki; allow 45–60 minutes and take water.
A short, frequent bus ride from Kos Town, or 15 minutes by car. Park in Tigaki and walk to the boardwalk rather than driving the lake tracks.
Allow 40 minutes between them via Kos Town. Springs at sunrise, lake while the birds still feed.
Context
Kos sits at the eastern end of the South Aegean volcanic arc, the curve of volcanic activity running through Methana, Milos and Santorini that surfaces most obviously at Nisyros, the active volcano visible to the south. Kos is not a live volcano, but it is on the same restless ground. Rainwater sinks through fractured rock, is heated at depth, picks up dissolved minerals and sulphur compounds, and returns to the surface along faults. Embros Therma is one of those exits, and it happens to emerge a few metres from the sea.
The smell that hits you on the steps is hydrogen sulphide coming out of solution — the same chemistry as the vents inside the Stefanos crater on Nisyros, at a far gentler scale. It is also what tarnishes silver: the sulphide reacts with the metal and leaves it black. Harmless to you, irritating for your jewellery.
People have taken this seriously for a long time. Therapeutic bathing was standard in ancient medical practice, and the island whose sanctuary above Kos Town prescribed washing, diet and rest was never going to ignore a hot spring on its own coast — the Asklepion and Therma belong to the same tradition. Treat modern claims about mineral waters curing specific conditions with caution, but hot water, salt air and twenty minutes of doing nothing make their own case.
Alikes is the same island working quietly. A sandbar closes off a shallow basin, evaporation concentrates what seeps in, and the resulting brackish flats become one of the few wetlands in this part of the Aegean where migrating birds can reliably feed. Salt was harvested here historically; the value now is ecological, and it is why flamingos wintering in the Dodecanese stop on Kos at all.
Both places survive because they were never developed, and that is fragile. There are no bins at the springs, no warden at the lake and no budget behind either. Take your bottles home, keep to the boardwalk, never use soap or shampoo in a pool that drains into the sea, and leave the stones where they are. More of the island's no-cost highlights are on the things to do on Kos hub.
FAQ
Yes. Embros Therma is open coastline with no gate, no ticket booth and nobody to pay, and the Alikes salt lake is free too. The only money involved is transport. Hotels and wellness centres sell thermal treatments, which is a separate product — nobody can charge you for the natural pool itself.
On the coast east of Kos Town, about 12 km away and roughly 20 minutes by road. You follow the coast road out past Psalidi and Agios Fokas and then the signs for Therma. The last stretch narrows and the surface roughens, so drive it slowly, and park in the small unsurfaced area at the top rather than trying to get closer.
Hot enough that most people move away from the point where the spring enters, and cooler towards the seaward boulder wall where swell mixes in. The temperature therefore varies with the sea state: a calm day gives a hot pool, a big southerly floods and cools it. Test it with a foot and pick your spot along the pool.
Fifteen to twenty minutes is plenty for most people, then cool off in the open sea a couple of metres away before going back in. Hot water plus sun plus dehydration is what makes people feel faint here, so bring drinking water and do not soak for an hour. Anyone pregnant or with a heart condition should take medical advice first.
Silver, yes. The dissolved sulphur compounds react with the metal and can leave rings, chains and earrings blackened, sometimes permanently. Pale swimwear stains and can hold the smell for several washes, and cheap watch cases lose their finish. Leave the jewellery at your accommodation and wear an old dark costume you do not care about.
Only a small unsurfaced area at the top of the steps, and it fills by mid-morning in summer. Do not block the track, because vans need to turn there. If it is full, come back before 10:00 or after 17:00 rather than squeezing in — the last section of road is no place to reverse a hire car.
Winter and spring, roughly from late autumn through to April, when there is enough water in the lagoon for greater flamingos to feed. In August much of the lake has dried to a salt flat and you will see nothing. Herons, egrets, stilts and waders use it through the shoulder seasons. Go early, stay on the boardwalk and bring binoculars.
Because it is a shallow lagoon cut off from the sea by a low sandbar. Seawater seeps through the bar into the basin and evaporates under the summer sun, leaving the salt behind and concentrating it season after season. That is how the salt pans that gave the place its name were once worked, and that salinity supports the invertebrates the flamingos eat.
If you would rather be driven, compare Kos off-road and hidden-corner tours that take in the thermal coast, with live availability and the operator's own terms, on GetYourGuide — the authorised reseller we link to throughout this guide.
