Boat trips
Day trips
The island
Kos's water park sits on the north coast near Mastichari, mid-island and close to the airport, which makes it an easy morning from almost every resort. It is the island's reliable answer to the day when nobody can face another beach. Prices, opening dates and slide rules change every season — so this page covers the planning, and points you at the official source for the numbers.
Bookable now
What you're seeing: real departures and tickets for the coming weeks, pulled from GetYourGuide. Open the water park listing to read this season's actual price, what the ticket includes and whether a transfer is bundled.
Quick summary
Deliberately number-free where numbers go stale. Everything below is the part that stays true from season to season.
| Where it is | On the north coast near Mastichari, mid-island and a short drive from Kos International Airport. Roughly half an hour from Kos Town by road. |
|---|---|
| Ticket price | Not published here. Adult and child day tickets are sold at the gate and through resellers, and the price changes between seasons — check the current figure on the ticket listing or the park's own site. |
| Opening hours and season | Seasonal, and not published here. The park runs through the summer months and closes out of season; daily opening and closing times shift with the calendar. Confirm before you set out. |
| Advance booking needed? | Worth it for transfer-inclusive tickets in July and August, when minibus seats fill. Entry-only tickets can normally be bought on the day. |
| Time to allow | Treat it as a full day if you are travelling from a distant resort; most families with young children are ready to leave after five or six hours. |
| What one ticket covers | Entry plus unlimited use of the slides and pools. Loungers are typically included subject to availability — lockers, towels, food and drink normally are not. |
| Height and age rules | They exist, per slide, and we do not list them. The steeper rides have minimum heights and the small children's area has a maximum — check the current rules at the entrance or on the official site if a limit would spoil your day. |
| Outside food and drink | Water parks commonly restrict what you can bring in. Check the park's own policy rather than arriving with a full cooler and having to leave it at the gate. |
| Wet or windy weather | Slides run in rain but a grey, windy day at a water park is genuinely cold. If the forecast is poor, move the visit — the ticket is far better value in sunshine. |
We do not publish this park's prices, opening hours, slide heights or age limits, because they change every season and a wrong number costs you a day. Check the current details on the park's own website, or open the ticket listing on GetYourGuide, which shows this season's live adult and child pricing. How we source numbers.
Arrive when it opens, not when it's convenient
The queues at a water park are a function of how many people arrived before you. Turn up at opening and you get an hour of near-empty slides, a shaded lounger and a locker. Arrive at midday and you will spend the afternoon in lines, in full sun, with tired children.
Ticket comparison
The park sells one product — a day's entry. The real decision is how you get there and back, and whether a water park is the right use of the day in the first place.
Option 1
Gate or online / price set by the park
Pick this if you have a car, or you are staying in Mastichari or Marmari and can get there in minutes.
Option 2
Bundled / entry and minibus in one
Pick this if you have no car and are staying in Kos Town, Tigaki, Kardamena or anywhere more than 15 minutes away. The obvious default.
Option 3
Free / or already paid for
Pick this if your children are under about four, or you have a big-slide-averse family. See the beach comparison for the gentlest entries.
Check the height rules before you promise anything
The steeper slides at any water park have minimum-height requirements, and a child who is measured at the steps and turned away has a miserable day. Find the current rules on the official source before you go, and be honest with your children about which rides they will and will not get on.
The north-coast wind matters here
Mastichari sits on the coast that catches the meltemi, the northerly that blows down the Aegean through the summer and builds in the afternoon. It is why the village is a windsurfing spot — and why a wet child at a water park can be shivering at 15:00 on a 30-degree day. Bring towels and a dry T-shirt each.
Sun, not slides, ruins water park days
Shade at any water park is limited and claimed early, and water reflects sun onto skin that sunscreen has already washed off. Rash vests for children solve most of it. Reapply after every session in the water, and take the 13:00–15:00 hour out of the sun entirely.
Timing
Water parks load up between mid-morning and mid-afternoon, because that is when people on holiday get organised. The first hour after opening is the quietest part of the day by a wide margin: shortest queues, best choice of lounger and shade, lockers still available. The last hour before closing is the second-quietest.
Charter flights land in waves, and freshly arrived families hit the headline attractions within their first two or three days. In practice midweek is calmer than the weekend. Ask your hotel which day the big charters come in, then avoid the two days after.
Do not stack a water park onto the same day as an excursion — you will have two rushed halves. Mastichari's beach and its tavernas are a few minutes from the park, so the natural second half of the day is a swim in the sea and an early dinner in the village before you head back.
How to save
Water parks price children below adult entry, usually by height or age band, and very small children are often free. The bands are set by the park and change — read them on the official source or the ticket listing rather than assuming, especially if you have a child near a cut-off.
Towel hire and lockers are the two charges that catch families out, and both are avoidable: bring towels from the hotel and a small padlock, and use a dry bag for phones. On-site food and drink is priced like on-site food and drink everywhere.
The village is minutes away and has normal tavernas at normal prices. A proper lunch there after you leave costs less than a poolside one inside, and nobody has to queue for it in a wet swimsuit.
For two adults, a return taxi from Kos Town can be close to the price of two transfer-inclusive tickets. For a family of four or five, the bundled transfer almost always wins — and unlike a taxi, it is booked and paid for before you travel.
Kos's north-coast beaches shelve gently for a long way and cost nothing: Tigaki, Marmari and Mastichari are all shallow and sandy. Add the free-roaming peacocks in Plaka forest near the airport and the flamingos at the Alikes salt lake, and you have a full family day for the price of the parking.
On "island passes"
Kos has no island-wide attraction pass, and nothing bundles the water park with museums or archaeological sites. The only real combination is entry plus transfer.
| Item | Usually |
|---|---|
| Day entry, adult and child | Set by the park — check current |
| Return transfer from your resort | Bundled into some tickets |
| Sun lounger | Typically included, subject to availability |
| Locker | Extra |
| Towel hire | Extra — bring your own |
| Food and drink on site | Extra |
| Parking | Check on arrival |
Inclusions vary by season and by ticket type and are not guaranteed by us. Confirm what your specific ticket covers on the official source or the listing before you pay.
Pack list that actually matters
Two towels each, a dry bag, a padlock, rash vests for the children, flip-flops for hot paving, water bottles, and enough cash for lunch if card acceptance is patchy. Leave valuables at the hotel.
How to get there
Mastichari is on the north coast at the narrow middle of the island, close to the airport. That central position is the reason a water park works here at all.
West along the north-coast road past Tigaki and Marmari, then the signed turn down to Mastichari. Straightforward driving, flat and fast by Kos standards.
The closest resorts. If you are staying here, an entry-only ticket plus a taxi or your own car is the cheapest way to do it, and you can go twice.
Across the island via Antimachia and the airport road. Not far in distance, but the roads are slower — allow more than the map suggests.
The longest run. From this end of the island a bundled transfer is worth the money simply because nobody wants to drive it twice in a day. See the resorts guide for how far you actually are from things.
Buses serve Mastichari from Kos Town, but the timetable is built around the Kalymnos ferry rather than around a water park day, and the last return can be earlier than you want. Taxis are metered and plentiful outbound; getting one back from Mastichari at closing time is less certain. Agree a return if you go that way.
There is parking at the park, and like every free parking area on Kos it fills on the hottest days. Arriving at opening solves this along with everything else.
Context
Mastichari is a young village by Greek standards. It has only been permanently inhabited since the 1933 earthquake, when people displaced from a nearby settlement moved down to the coast, and it remained a small fishing community for decades. It is a genuinely small place — a few hundred residents — with a working port, a long sandy beach and a row of fish tavernas along the front.
Its usefulness is geographic. Mastichari sits at the island's narrow waist on the north coast, a few kilometres from Kos International Airport at Antimachia, which means it is roughly equidistant from Kos Town in the east and the Kefalos peninsula in the west. Put an attraction here and it is within half an hour of most of the island's beds. The same logic put the fast ferries to Kalymnos in its harbour.
The wind is part of the local character rather than a flaw. Mastichari faces north into the meltemi, which is why windsurfers like the bay and why the sea here has more chop than the sheltered south coast. It also means a water park day here has a temperature profile: warm and still in the morning, breezier after lunch. Families who plan around that have a better day than families who do not.
Worth knowing about water on a dry island: Kos has limited fresh water, and a water park is a conspicuous consumer of it. Nothing about that is a reason not to go — but it is a reason to take the island's water-saving signs in your hotel seriously rather than as decoration.
For the rest of the family planning, Kos with kids covers ages, heat management and which boat trips are too long for small children, while the beaches page sorts the coast by depth and shade. Short boat options that suit the same age group are on the glass-bottom boat page. For everything else on the island, start at the kos.boats home page.
FAQ
On the north coast near Mastichari, at the narrow middle of the island and a short drive from Kos International Airport. It is roughly 30 minutes from Kos Town, 10 to 20 minutes from Marmari and Tigaki, 25 to 35 minutes from Kardamena and 35 to 45 minutes from the Kefalos end of the island.
We deliberately do not publish the price, because water park pricing changes every season and a stale number costs you money or a wasted trip. Adult and child day tickets are sold at the gate and through resellers — the quickest way to see this season's actual figure is to open the ticket listing, which shows live pricing, or to check the park's own website.
Seasonal, and again not something we will state as fact. The park operates through the summer months and closes out of season, and its daily opening and closing times shift with the calendar and the year. Confirm on the official source before you travel, particularly if you are visiting in the shoulder months.
Yes — the steeper slides at any water park have minimum-height requirements and the small children's area usually has a maximum. The exact limits are set by the park and can change, so we do not list them. Check the current rules on the official source before you promise a particular ride to a particular child.
For families with children roughly five and up, yes — it is the island's most reliable way to fill a day that beaches cannot. Under about four, the slides are mostly off limits and a shallow sandy beach delivers the same happiness for nothing. Go on a sunny day, arrive at opening, and it earns its ticket.
Water parks commonly restrict outside food and drink, so check the park's own policy rather than arriving with a packed cooler. What you can always do is bring your own towels, a padlock for a locker, water bottles, and eat properly in Mastichari village before or after — it is minutes away and cheaper than anything poolside.
Buy a ticket that includes a return transfer — it is the simplest option and for a family usually cheaper than a return taxi. KTEL buses do serve Mastichari from Kos Town, but the timetable is built around the Kalymnos ferry rather than a water park day and the last return can be earlier than you want. If you take a taxi, arrange the return.
At opening. The first hour is by far the quietest of the day — shortest queues, best pick of shaded loungers, lockers still free. Crowds build from mid-morning to mid-afternoon, then thin again in the last hour. Midweek is calmer than the weekend, and June and September are much calmer than July and August.
Live prices, ticket types and transfer options are on GetYourGuide, the authorised reseller we link to throughout this guide — and the fastest place to see the current figure.
