Probably the worst thing that can happen is for a holiday company to go bust just days before you're due to travel. That happened to us, which meant a last minute search for flights and accommodation to coincide with our planned dates. Although we'd only every visited Kos en route to somewhere else (courtesy of Laskarina, another much respected company that went into administration), the island of Kos proved to be the destination that would fit with flights and our dates. Amazingly, we discovered that there were still a few villas available for the week, and we eventually opted for Xenos Villa 2. On arrival, it was positive impressions all around. The villa is set in a pleasant and well-tended garden with huge palm trees leading up to the house. The pool area is a delight, with plenty of sun loungers, a decent sized pool and a plunge pool as well. It's also not overlooked (nod, nod, wink, wink). The villa itself has quite a modern, cubist design on the outside. Internally, everything is a little more traditional: modern but homely, in other words. We particularly liked the top floor, with its well supplied kitchen, comfortable living area and generous sized balcony. There were only the two of us, but all the bedrooms are well sized and, most importantly, have air-con. That may seem an irrelevance to some, but when temperatures are in the mid 30s in the day and upper 20s at night, at least you're guaranteed of getting a decent night's sleep. One of the issues we considered was self-catering vs. eating out. The Xenos villas provide both, as the kitchen is perfectly sufficient (a welcome pack plus a generous selection of fruit is provided) and the nearby village/resort of Tigaki has a huge range of surprisingly good restaurants and bars that seem to avoid the hedonist excesses associated with charter flights. Tigaki also has a good supermarket. If there's a criticism we'd make, it's the room inn the villa that's designated (unusually) as a gym; the combination of no air-con and cheap equipment just make it rather unappealing. Finally, we'd like to thank Maria and Nicholas for their hospitality and making a rather rushed holiday thoroughly enjoyable.
