Kos International Airport to Zia
About 18 km inland and uphill; there's no useful airport bus, so it's a taxi at €30–42 or a hire car.
A mountain village on the slopes of Dikeos, three hundred metres up, with craft shops along a stepped lane and a sunset view over the whole island that fills the tavernas every evening.
Every way to get there
Our verdict: for Zia, a private transfer is the easiest door-to-door option (from €34). Travelling light on a budget? The bus is cheapest (from €5) but slower, with a change in the city.
What it costs for your group
The bus is charged per person, while a taxi or private transfer is one price for the whole car — so the more of you there are, the better door-to-door value looks.
| Group | Bus (per person) | Private transfer | Best value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo · 1 traveller | €5 | €34 | Bus |
| Couple · 2 travellers | €10 | €34 | Bus |
| Family of 4 · 4 travellers | €20 | €34 | Bus |
Which option should you choose?
| If your priority is… | Our pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest price | Bus | From €5, though slower with a change in the city. |
| Speed & comfort | Private transfer | Door-to-door, fixed price, a driver waiting for you. |
| A group of 3–4 | Transfer or taxi | One flat fare splits cheaper than several bus tickets. |
| A late-night arrival | Transfer or taxi | Both run 24/7 when buses and the tram have stopped. |
By transport mode
Taxi
Most visitors come here for an evening rather than to stay, so if you're booked into one of the few village guesthouses, confirm the driver can reach it — the upper lane is stepped and pedestrian.
Where to catch it: East then up the mountain road; the last few kilometres climb steadily in switchbacks.
Best for small groups in a hurryCar rental
The practical way to do Zia. Almost everyone who comes up for the sunset drives, and having a car also opens the Asklepion, Pyli and the mountain villages that no bus reaches in a useful way.
Where to catch it: Twenty-five minutes including the climb; there are car parks at the edge of the village.
Best for travellers who want to explorePrivate transfer
A driver who knows the village saves a genuine climb with luggage — Zia is built up a slope and the parking is at the bottom of it.
Where to catch it: Booked ahead for the handful of hillside guesthouses, where the address is a lane rather than a street number.
Best for families, groups & late arrivalsBus / shuttle
Listed for completeness. An hour and a half to cover eighteen kilometres, and the last bus down the mountain leaves long before the sunset everyone comes for.
Where to catch it: Reaching Zia by public transport means going into Kos Town and taking a village service that runs only a few times a day.
Best for solo & budget travellersZia & Kos in photos
Buying tickets in Kos
Kos has no railway and the airport sits in the middle of the island at Antimachia, not beside the town. KTEL Kos runs the buses: about €4 into Kos Town (26 km away), roughly €2.50 to Mastichari for the Kalymnos ferry, and €2–5 to Kardamena. Pay the driver in cash. The critical detail is frequency — this is not a hub, departures are spread across the day and some routes run only every few hours, timed loosely against flights rather than to a clock. Check the board on your way out of arrivals before committing to a wait. Kos Town itself is flat and heavily cycled; bike hire is cheap and widely used instead of buses once you are based there.
Taxi scams & safety in Kos
The specific issue on Kos is that drivers are inconsistent about metered versus fixed fares, and the two can differ sharply on the same journey — Kardamena is roughly €10–15 on the meter but is sometimes quoted as a fixed €34–37, and Tigaki runs €30–40 metered against €42–47 quoted. Asking which basis applies before you set off is entirely normal and is the single most useful habit at this airport. Separately, a night surcharge between roughly midnight and 05:00 applies in full and can push a €38 daytime fare to €55–65; that is legitimate, not overcharging, but it is why so many arrivals here pre-book a fixed price. Use the official rank, and if you hire a car, check whether the agreement permits taking it on the Kalymnos ferry — most do not.
Getting from KGS to Zia
Zia is eighteen kilometres out, and three hundred metres above it, on the slopes of Dikeos, and there is effectively no way to get there by public transport. Reaching it by bus means going into Kos Town first and finding one of the few daily village services — ninety minutes to cover eighteen kilometres, with the last one back down the mountain leaving well before the sunset that everybody comes for.
Almost everyone drives, and that is the honest answer
A taxi runs €30 to €42 and takes about twenty-five minutes, east across the island and then up a series of switchbacks through pine forest. A hire car at €25 to €50 a day does the same and lets you stay for the sunset, which is the point of the place. The village car parks sit at the lower edge and the main lane climbs from there — steep, stepped in sections, and lined the whole way with shops selling honey, herbs, soap and leather.
The sunset is the entire economy
Zia faces west over the island's waist towards Kalymnos, and on a clear evening the sun goes down behind the far ridge in a way that has made this village's tavernas famous and its parking impossible between seven and nine in summer. Coaches bring organised groups up from every resort on Kos. If you are driving yourself, arriving an hour early is the difference between a table with a view and a table behind a wall — and between parking at the village edge and parking half a kilometre down the road.
Staying up here is a different proposition
A handful of guesthouses occupy the village itself, and they change the experience completely: the coaches leave by nine and Zia becomes a quiet mountain settlement with cats and church bells. If you have booked one, note that the upper lane is pedestrian and stepped, so a car cannot reach many of the doors. A pre-booked transfer at €34 to €48 with the property named will get you as close as vehicles go and the driver will know which set of steps is yours — which matters at the end of a travel day.
The mountain behind, and the walk most people miss
Above Zia the path continues up Dikeos, the island's highest point at 846 metres, past a chapel and out onto open rock with a view over the whole archipelago — Kalymnos, Pserimos, Nisyros and the Turkish coast on a clear day. It is a couple of hours up from the village and almost nobody staying in the beach resorts does it. Early morning is the time; by midday in summer the heat makes it unpleasant.
Combining it with the Asklepion
The road from Kos Town to Zia passes close to the Asklepion, the terraced healing sanctuary where Hippocrates is said to have taught, four kilometres above the town. Most people driving up for the sunset stop there first in the late afternoon when the light is long and the tour groups have gone. With a car the two fit comfortably into one outing; by taxi they are two separate fares and by bus they are two separate days.
What it costs to do this badly
Worth stating plainly. If you stay at a beach resort without a car and want to see Zia, your realistic options are an organised coach excursion — fine, but on their schedule — or a taxi each way at €30 to €42, which for a round trip approaches a day's car hire. Hiring for a single day and doing Zia, the Asklepion and the mountain villages together is usually both cheaper and better.
A note on the shops: the lane is lined with stalls selling herbs, honey and soap, and prices vary sharply between the ones at the bottom near the car park and those higher up. Walking to the top before buying is usually worth a few euros.
The summary: no useful bus, so it is a €30–42 taxi, a booked car at €34–48 if you are staying in the village itself, or — the option most people should take — a hire car for the day so you can wait for the sun to go down.
