Troulos, Mastichari: A Beach That Once Shipped Watermelons to Kalymnos

Greece | Mastichari | Kos, Dodecanese

Mastichari itself is barely a century old. The village was founded in 1926, when eighteen families resettled here after a devastating earthquake levelled Antimachia, the older inland village most of them had called home. They named the new settlement after the mastic trees that grew thickly in the area at the time, and for decades afterward, the beach at Troulos and the wider shoreline here served a genuinely practical purpose beyond swimming: the majority of Antimachia’s watermelon harvest was gathered on this same stretch of sand and shipped across to Kalymnos, the island visible from the beach to this day. I find that detail oddly grounding — a beach now known mostly for sunbeds and a quiet swim once functioning as a working agricultural dock.

The harbour itself has its own layered, practical history. The Germans built a wooden pier here for military purposes in 1944, during the occupation, and that same pier remained in active use right up until the current concrete harbour was finally constructed in the 1980s. A short distance away, at a site called Glykorriza, the German archaeologist Ludwig Ross documented the remains of an ancient port and an early Christian basilica as far back as 1844 — confirming that this stretch of coast had served as a working harbour long before Mastichari itself existed as a village, under whatever earlier settlement stood here in antiquity.

I want to be straightforward about the scale of Troulos itself, separate from all that history, because I think it’s more useful to know this going in than to expect something it isn’t: this is a small, narrow beach, around 700 metres of sand just east of the village, with a handful of sunbeds rather than rows of them. The view out across the water is genuinely the best part day to day — Kalymnos, Pserimos, and the small uninhabited island of Platy all sit visible from the sand, close enough that their outlines feel like part of the beach’s own scenery.

Getting There: 20 to 22 Kilometres West of Kos Town, Near the Airport

I followed the island’s main spinal road west toward Mastichari and the airport, taking the marked exit and following coastal signs the rest of the way to Troulos. The drive from Kos Town took twenty to twenty-five minutes. KTEL buses run from the main station in Kos Town to Mastichari, and from the village centre, Troulos is a short walk or a quick taxi ride away.

From Kos International Airport, the beach sits just seven to eight kilometres off — genuinely close enough to make this a sensible first or last stop on a trip to the island, and the village’s small port also functions as the departure point for ferries to Kalymnos, with crossings running thirty to forty-five minutes and departures most of the day through summer. Free parking sits in organised lots behind the beach.

The Beach: Narrow and Sandy, a Restaurant a Short Walk Back

The sand is fine and light-coloured, narrow enough along most of its length that I’d plan for a fairly tight footprint rather than spreading out. Sunbeds and umbrellas are available to rent directly on site, though the fuller dining options sit a short walk back toward the village rather than immediately on the sand. The seabed slopes gradually, sandy at the centre and giving way to seagrass and small rocks toward the edges, with the water staying warm enough that I wouldn’t hesitate to swim here regardless of the season.

For visitors already exploring this corner of the island, Vangelis Beach Tigaki Kos Greece and Agios Fokas Beach Kos Greece, sit on opposite sides of Kos Town from Mastichari — different coasts entirely, but worth knowing about if you’re trying to get a sense of how differently each stretch of this island’s shoreline behaves.

Troulos, just east of Mastichari, sits beside a village founded only in 1926 by families resettled after the Antimachia earthquake, on a stretch of coast that once shipped the island’s entire watermelon harvest to Kalymnos and that conceals, a short distance away at Glykorriza, the remains of an ancient port and early Christian basilica documented as far back as 1844. The beach itself is small and narrow, around 700 metres of sand, with a genuinely good view across to Kalymnos, Pserimos, and Platy. Twenty to twenty-two kilometres from Kos Town, close enough to the airport and the Kalymnos ferry to work as a practical stop either way.

Take the Mastichari exit off the main spinal road, or the KTEL bus from Kos Town. Walk back to the village for a proper meal rather than expecting dining right on the sand. Combine the visit with the Kalymnos ferry if you’re island-hopping, since it departs from the same small port.