The last full day of our week on Kos in November 2020 would by necessity be mostly spent around the swimming pool at the Blue Lagoon Resort where we were staying. That necessity was due to Greece implementing a national lockdown that would see all non-essential stores close and would restrict all tourists already in the country or on its islands to stay within the confines of their hotels, only being allowed out for exercise with written permission from the staff. There was not much chance of us requesting that. This also wasn’t that much of a hardship anyway as there wasn’t a lot going on on the island – it being after the end of what would be the normal tourist season already – and if you’re relaxing away from home for a short period in a year of virus-driven restrictions then an all-inclusive resort under blue skies is not the worst way in the world to do it.
We had our books, we had socially-distanced seating areas, we had easy access to the bar, and we had a slight reduction in the wind that had been coming in from the north all week long. Very pleasant, indeed.
As I’ve mentioned in previous entries in this Kos travelogue series, the swimming pool at the Blue Lagoon Resort is not heated. During a very hot summer this is probably absolutely fine but in a comparatively cooler and potentially windier November it took a very brave person to enter it. Or a stupid one. Feeling one of these things I did treat myself to twenty-or-so minutes of making frightened chimpanzee sounds as I waded and swam around trying to find shallower and marginally warmer spots of testicle-retracting-temperature water, and I wasn’t alone; over the course of the time spent at poolside we probably saw another dozen foolhardy guests making use of the facilities with faces as equally contorted with anguish as mine.
We spent the morning and into the early afternoon by the pool, and after lunch we headed back to our room where the sheltered balcony and view westwards would provide us with a lovely, warm sun trap to get some final rays.
The entry to the block where our garden-view room was located included an architectural connector between two buildings that I always liked looking at whenever we’d pass under it during the days at the resort. The changing angle of the sun lit up the colours of the blocks differently throughout the day and the combination of shades and angles against the deep blue of the sky was captivating and geometrically-pleasing.
Another thing we really liked about our time on Kos was spotting weird and wonderful bits of wildlife we wouldn’t normally see back home. We’d watched frogs hopping across the paths at night, seen lizards scurrying around the plants and rocks, encountered a mantis, and on this last day spotted a lovely Scarce Swallowtail Butterfly.
The next day saw us leaving the resort with a pickup due around midday. There was an option to pay and keep use of the room for longer but we saw no need for that and, after breakfast, simply packed up, checked out, stored our cases in the room for that purpose next to reception, then plonked ourselves down in seats to read a little more while we waited for the bus to arrive and take us off to the airport. This area by reception was large, airy, and had some attractive plantlike sculptures to admire.
I’m pleased to say that Kos airport wasn’t quite as horrendous as it had been when we’d arrived on the island at the start of the week (see: First 24 Hours At The Blue Lagoon Resort, Kos) but it still wasn’t ideal. The biggest problem was that the departure lounge is barely large enough to cater for all the people needing to use it under normal circumstances but when one in every three seats was then blocked off to enforce social distancing it then meant a significant number of people were left standing or resorting to sitting on the floor as we waited for the okay to get to the plane. South-facing windows and a lack of air conditioning didn’t help, either. Kos: good. Kos airport: dire.
Our week on Kos had been one that featured sunsets on every single day, and thanks to fewer hours in the day this late in the year we had time for one more on our late-afternoon flight back to the UK.
So, some final thoughts about our week at the Blue Lagoon Resort on Kos.
This wasn’t and wouldn’t be our first choice of holiday simply because we are cruisers first and foremost, and because our preference is for more far-flung destinations than a Greek island. But ignore all that because Kos is a lovely island, Greece is a fantastic country to visit, the Greek people are possibly the friendliest people to tourists in Europe, and if you are looking for an all-inclusive resort somewhere like this then it’s hard to find any faults with the Blue Lagoon Resort. Its staff were excellent, its facilities – with allowances for what was open and in use at this time of the year in this year of all years – were more than adequate, the accommodation was clean and spacious, precautions against Covid were enforced, and food and drinks were fine.
I’ve said before that the food wasn’t up to the quality that we’ve become used to but that’s just us; there was nothing wrong with it at all and we certainly wouldn’t be so petty or narrow-minded as to complain that the food prepared in a foreign environment to cater for as many varied tastes as you can imagine didn’t match that of a speciality restaurant on board a luxury ship.
Evening entertainment at the resort wasn’t to our tastes either but as with the food, that’s a subjective thing and it’s not a complaint. The people who watched and laughed and clapped and sang along with it all obviously enjoyed it and if you drink enough then you will too. The entertainers were hard-working and skilled and probably only needed better acoustics to make it more enjoyable to us; that domed tent at night during a pandemic with a wind whipping in didn’t make for the best environment so allowances must be made there.
The private beach of the resort was okay but couldn’t be appreciated during our stay because of that ever-present wind. Potentially, it’s a nice alternative to the pool during the summer, but impossible to really say from our time there. What I do think, though, is that the reasonably nearby Lambi beach to the east, and just north of Kos town, looked a more attractive option with finer, more golden sand if hitting the beach on Kos is high on your list of things to do.
Kos town is close enough to walk into each day and well worth doing if you’re staying at the resort. If you like historical sites and ancient Greek and Roman ruins then you’ll be falling over them when you get there. Read the posts in this Kos 2020 series where we explored the town for more detailed information. The town also features an array of food and drink places, of course, and if you like craft ales then read my recommendation for the best place to go and try locally-brewed drinks. Finally, Kos town is the place to head to if you want to consider the possibility of taking a boat trip, whether to do some fishing (if that’s your thing) or hit one of the nearby islands or even head across to Turkey for the day. That latter option would have been something we would have jumped at if we’d been able to but 2020 and all that stopped that from happening. Were we to return to Kos again and were Turkey open to tourists then we’d be over there like a shot.
This holiday on Kos was all arranged through TUI and all very last-minute for us (just three days before flying out). Absolutely no complaints there. We’ve previously cruised with them on Marella Discovery so knew that they were very good at customer service and sorting out all the details of the package. For us, and with it being very last-minute, the convenience of having one company arrange and manage all aspects of the trip including the flight and transfers was a big bonus, a huge stress-reducer, and we’ve no hesitation in recommending them.
So, that’s it for this series on the Blue Lagoon Resort, Kos. We’d go again, which is a ringing endorsement.