We had to wake up before the sun to get started on our day’s journey - we were heading north from Antalya to Kas, Turkey to catch a ferry to Greece!
Drive from Antalya to Kas
We had to leave at 5:45 a.m. and were planning to just transfer the kids sleeping to the car, but as I was getting ready, Clara came out into the room and said “Good Morning Mommy, the mosque woke me up.” [We had been explaining to her the previous couple of days what the mosque is and why they sing on the loud speaker several times throughout the day.] We loaded up and headed off! Once the sun came up the road was quite scenic, but so, so, so windy! We followed the coastline for a good portion of the trip, but a majority of it was spent going through mountain passes, which meant lots of switchbacks. I normally don’t get carsick, but I was definitely not feeling well. Our son started to watch iPad and started to whine like he wasn’t feeling well either, so we took the iPad away. We stopped at a little café for a quick breakfast of eggs and bread and continued on. I felt a little better after the stop and some food, but we started to drive again and the carsick feeling came right back. As we were taking a switchback, we heard our son cry and I turned back to see him covered in puke! Poor guy! We had to pull over on this coastal highway to clean him up and change him. Luckily, once we got back in, he went to sleep. At points I thought I might be joining in the carsick club with him, but somehow pulled through. Even the driver (Alex) wasn’t feeling the greatest! However, Clara watched shows on her iPad for the duration of that crazy drive (3 hours long) with not even a comment of not feeling well - stomach of steel!
Meis Express Ferry
We arrived in Kas - we had to arrive 1.5 hours prior to the ferry departure to hand in our passports to the ferry office, as we had previously made an online booking for the Meis Express. It was 30 Euro per adult Return ticket and 3 Euro for Child Return Ticket. Upon arrival at the office we handed in our passports, went to park the car and took our belongings down to the ferry to wait for boarding.
We were the only ones on the ferry with overnight bags, most other people seemed to be just staying for the day and returning on the afternoon ferry at 4 p.m. The island is only 2 km away from Kas, Turkey - a 20 minute ferry ride. When you arrive you go through the little Greek customs office and then are free to explore. We decided to stay just over 24 hours as we were afraid that with kids we wouldn’t have enough time to explore before the 4 p.m. ferry departure. Plus, it’s fun to say that we spent a night in Greece! :-)
A Slice of Greece
Being so close to Turkey I wasn’t sure that Kastellorizo would have that iconic Greek feel to it. However, it did! We stayed in an authentic little Airbnb up at the top of a hill of the town of Meis and it provided a spectacular view of the harbour. There were white painted stairs and houses built along the hills. In hindsight, we shouldn’t have brought the strollers as we couldn’t use them with all the stairs.
We had a couple of meals out at some of the quaint little restaurants - including some Greek dishes such as moussaka, meat balls and stuffed squid.
There were also the iconic Greek island cats! They were everywhere. However, they actually looked well cared for and not very skinny!
We even found our pet cat's doppelganger:
There is a castle ruin on one of the hillsides so we went for a short hike there after dinner. It provided some great views and Clara loved that she was going to a castle.
The walk in the evening was one of our favorite parts of the stay, as all the day tourists had left for the day.
Costs in Meis
The only downside of the island was that we were back in Euros for currency, so everything increased in price. Instead of a meal for all us being around $10 CDN in Turkey, we were back to $40-$50 CDN in Greece. However, beer was cheap - only $1.50 per bottle.
Not Possible to do Cave Boat Tour for Us
Our second day on the island we hoped to do the Blue Cave boat tour, but when Alex went to go inquire in the morning, it was high tide. So they said to get in the cave we would have to swim in while the boat remains outside. With two young kids that didn’t seem like it would work well, so we had to pass. Instead we walked over the hill to the less busy side of town of Meis and went to a little beach there. We swam around for a bit before heading back for lunch and a nap for our son before having to catch the afternoon ferry back to Turkey.
We took the ferry back to Turkey and when we arrived they took our passports to take to the Police Station to verify them, so we had to wait around for a bit while they did this. So perfect opportunity to get some food & ice cream.
We ended up getting our passports back about 30 minutes later. We had some dinner at a restaurant in Kas and then took the short drive (30 minutes) to our new Airbnb in Kalkan.
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