Kos - Greece

Mike P sent this trip report on the NUFF team in November 2003

If you have any comments about this report or wish to add further information please email them to:
neffupdate @ ada-augusta . demon . co . uk

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There is a C/O beach on Kos. It is at Tengaki (also spelt Tingaki, road signs can vary) where my wife and I spent a holiday this June. Although not naturists, my wife and I discovered it whilst on holiday and and enjoyed using it.

Tengaki is on the NE of the island and is reached by a road off the main highway from Kos Town. The road runs down to the beach, where it turns to the right at a roundabout and then follows the beach for some distance.. This area is developed and the beach is covered with sun-beds.

To find the C/O section:
either, at the roundabout walk straight onto the beach to the waterline and turn left. Walk along until the sun-bed area peters out and after a hundred yards or so you will find an open outfall running into the sea (don’t worry, it is not an open sewer). Wade through the water and you are on the C/O part;
or, at the roundabout turn left into the narrow road running behind the row of tavernas. Go straight along this. It opens out on the right, after a couple of hundred yards, giving a view of the beach as it runs past an unused bungalow complex. Next is a bijou supermarket where you can buy water and the makings of a picnic lunch and a taverna on the left (very useful for a post beach drink or lunch and run by a family who have returned from Australia, so language is not a problem). Here civilisation ends and the tarmac soon runs out. Continue down to the end of the road and turn right, which takes you into a car park by the outfall. The road is navigable by foot, bike or car, but I do not know how safe a bike or car left in the car park will be.

We found this beach by accident. We were taking a walk around the area and found ourselves at the outfall. We were looking at the beautiful view, when 20 yards past the outfall a German man with an enormous beer belly rose from the water in all his glory and waded ashore. His wife then appeared from behind a sun brolly, equally unclad. A more careful look along the beach revealed others at a more discrete distance, but we soon turned back to explore other areas.

Neither of us is naturist, but to my surprise as we walked along, my wife of 30 years declared that in the heat, it must be nice to go nude on the beach. So, since I have no problems with nudity, my own or of others, though have never sought it before, we decided to visit the next morning and ended up spending almost every free day there.

The outfall is from a salt water lake, which is a conservation area with SSSI (Sight of Special Scientific Interest) status, so all development has been banned for some while. Hopefully this will maintain the C/O nature of the beach for the foreseeable future.

The beach itself is soft sand with a fair sprinkling of small stones, which are no problem if you use a sand mat. It is about 30 yards deep, backed by dunes, behind which is the salt lake. The dunes are partly vegetated including some thistle like plants. There are no signs on the beach, so it is probably of the “tolerated” type. It is very long, I never actually reached the other end when walking up and down, and could probably take 10,000 people without being too crowded. When we visited bathers were in the hundreds, not thousands.

The views are Turkish mainland to the East, a small island directly opposite to the North, Kalymnos island to the West and the mountainous spine of Kos to the South. All very inspiring.

The sea is clear with a gritty band at the waterline, but a sandy bottom thereafter, which shelves fairly gently, about 20 yards to waist height. I found bathing safe close to shore, but suspect there will be strong currents further out. Needless to say, there are no lifeguards. The water can get quite choppy in late afternoon when there is a westerly wind. This is no problem for a strong swimmer, but the next day there is an abundance of seaweed in the water, near the shore.

If pitching close to the water's edge one should be aware that the channel between Kos and Kalymnos is used by the occasional large cruise liner and, about 5 minutes after one of these passes, a wash wave will hit the beach at about 20 knots sweeping all before it. The edge of the dunes, or in the dunes themselves, is out of reach of such waves.

Near the water you will be constantly passed by walking textiles, though generally they did not seem to stare, and also the local riding school (the worst pollution source on the beach!). Near the dunes was preferred by us, since we like to watch the world go by. In the dunes gives some privacy if you want it and shelter from the wind, though with midday temperatures over 100 degrees we welcomed any wind. The dunes go back some way, but I would urge you not to pitch very far in, firstly out of respect for the SSSI conservation area and secondly to avoid a different kind of "cruiser" (noticeable at times, though not too many).

The beach has no facilities whatsoever. The nearest are at the above mentioned taverna, which is a five minute, clothed, walk from the outfall. There is no shade on the beach and you will need to take everything with you (particularly water). We used a couple of beach brollies which you can buy locally for about 6 to 8 pounds each. To stop brollies blowing off in the wind it is advisable to acquire a stone and some driftwood to drive the bases into the stiff underlying sand. We found, in June, that it became too hot for us by midday, so tried to arrive by 8.30, lunched at the taverna, then did touristy things in the afternoon, returning occasionally in the late afternoon.

Usage runs through family groups, couples 30s to 80s and singles, both M and F, with former predominating. There was some occasional encroachment by textiles at the outfall end for about 100 yards, but after that, all are bare. Germans predominate, but we heard a few other languages occasionally. About 90 per cent of the naturists were depilated. Walking the shoreline is popular, both clothed and otherwise. We pitched up about a quarter mile along the beach where any textiles who are offended should have turned round and left before reaching us. We saw a few people carrying costumes, presumably textiles who had decided to go with the flow. There are quite a few dog walkers and the occasional loose dog.

People start thinning out around 5 o’clock and by 6 the beach is fairly deserted, those left being mostly male singles.

As you can see, we thought this a great beach and it would be great even if swimsuit compulsory. Access is easy, flat all the way, with the only obstacle an ankle deep paddle past the outfall. In Tengaki, it will take you 10 to 25 minutes to reach on foot, depending where you are staying, plus the time to walk to your chosen pitching spot. If staying elsewhere, nowhere in Kos seems more than an hour’s car drive from anywhere else. There is a good bus service between Kos Town and Tengaki. There are buses to other destinations, but I cannot remember which and the services are certainly more sparse.

We enjoyed Tengaki, the nightlife is simply tavernas and a few music bars. Clubbers might be happier staying in Kos Town and catching a bus when they want to visit the beach.

Mike P

If you have any comments about this report or wish to add further information please email them to:
neffupdate @ ada-augusta . demon . co . uk

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