Discussion
Rhodes is by far my favourite short haul island destination, and IMHO you have inadvertently chanced upon the nicest place to stay! Put it this way, every day I spent in Turkey last year I wished I was in Rhodes....
In Lindos check out Gelo Blu (daily!) for cracking gelato, coffee and desserts.
In the adjacent village of Pefkos the Elia and Enigma restaurants are both really good.
Rhodes Old Town is a nice day or two to spend, lots of history of the Knights Templar, nice food, (too many professional beggars though).
The remnants of Italian occupation in the mountains are fascinating; Campochiaro (former Italian settlement) and Zisterne (ornate fountain full of fish and dragonflies).
Also Villa de Vecchi, the ruins of "Mussolini's House (though M never stayed there, rather the governor) which also has a couple of Alpine lodge type hotels adjacent and a nice little cafe "Elafaki" which was doing nice wood fired pizza last time we went.
Its a great place to hire a car as its a nice drive-able-in-a-day size and cheap attendant serviced petrol stations every 10 mins. The north coast is almost uninhabited but there are still some nice things to see like the old Monolithos castle high on a rocky overlook of the sea, the old Roman city of Kameiros, It is also peppered with lots of nice little tavernas. We stumbled upon the Panorama by necessity, then find we had one of the most memorable meals of our holiday (stuffed vine leaves of course) with an epic view of the Aegean.
Its a lot busier than it used to be when we first went in the 90s, but its still a place you can lost and away from it all, which I like anyway.
In Lindos check out Gelo Blu (daily!) for cracking gelato, coffee and desserts.
In the adjacent village of Pefkos the Elia and Enigma restaurants are both really good.
Rhodes Old Town is a nice day or two to spend, lots of history of the Knights Templar, nice food, (too many professional beggars though).
The remnants of Italian occupation in the mountains are fascinating; Campochiaro (former Italian settlement) and Zisterne (ornate fountain full of fish and dragonflies).
Also Villa de Vecchi, the ruins of "Mussolini's House (though M never stayed there, rather the governor) which also has a couple of Alpine lodge type hotels adjacent and a nice little cafe "Elafaki" which was doing nice wood fired pizza last time we went.
Its a great place to hire a car as its a nice drive-able-in-a-day size and cheap attendant serviced petrol stations every 10 mins. The north coast is almost uninhabited but there are still some nice things to see like the old Monolithos castle high on a rocky overlook of the sea, the old Roman city of Kameiros, It is also peppered with lots of nice little tavernas. We stumbled upon the Panorama by necessity, then find we had one of the most memorable meals of our holiday (stuffed vine leaves of course) with an epic view of the Aegean.
Its a lot busier than it used to be when we first went in the 90s, but its still a place you can lost and away from it all, which I like anyway.
Edited by Loose_Cannon on Monday 16th January 13:51
It's been a few years since we've been but we took the kids there a few times. Things may have changed.
Rhodes old town, south, it's quite strange seeing the cruise ships touring above the buildings. Out of summer holidays, iIt gets busy when the cruise ships dock, then the hooter goes and the town empties. The old town and walled city is beautiful.
They used to run a road train up to the Rhodes acropolis, a large site of ruins
With the kids, you might plan a trip to the water park just outside Rhodes, you can get the bus there.
Lindos is beautiful and just south is a tiny bay and tiny beach but it's a beautiful spot
Severn Springs as mentioned, take a small torch, walk through the viaduct/tunnel. The springs are not as you expect, (tiny) but it's shady, cool and the cafe there does good food and great fresh orange juice
Also do valley of the butterflies. Hundreds of thousands nestle on the trees fly around... Again it's a woody climb uphill, so the usual heat preparations
https://valleyofbutterflies.com/
.
There's a giant cross at Mount Filerimos that you can climb up and look out the top. One to supervise the kids with. You'll see it as you drive that road past.
There's a couple of archery places. We took the kids to one on the road to Lindos from Rhodes where you spent a while in a hall shooting at targets and baloons to get used to the bow, then were let loose on the hillside to shoot at rubber animals and targets. Be aware it can get very hot in august so suncream/water is essential.
The very south of the island is where a lot of people windsurf, but there's a weird bit where the seas from the two sides of the island meet and you can have a foot in two different temperatures
Rhodes old town, south, it's quite strange seeing the cruise ships touring above the buildings. Out of summer holidays, iIt gets busy when the cruise ships dock, then the hooter goes and the town empties. The old town and walled city is beautiful.
They used to run a road train up to the Rhodes acropolis, a large site of ruins
With the kids, you might plan a trip to the water park just outside Rhodes, you can get the bus there.
Lindos is beautiful and just south is a tiny bay and tiny beach but it's a beautiful spot
Severn Springs as mentioned, take a small torch, walk through the viaduct/tunnel. The springs are not as you expect, (tiny) but it's shady, cool and the cafe there does good food and great fresh orange juice
Also do valley of the butterflies. Hundreds of thousands nestle on the trees fly around... Again it's a woody climb uphill, so the usual heat preparations
https://valleyofbutterflies.com/
.
There's a giant cross at Mount Filerimos that you can climb up and look out the top. One to supervise the kids with. You'll see it as you drive that road past.
There's a couple of archery places. We took the kids to one on the road to Lindos from Rhodes where you spent a while in a hall shooting at targets and baloons to get used to the bow, then were let loose on the hillside to shoot at rubber animals and targets. Be aware it can get very hot in august so suncream/water is essential.
The very south of the island is where a lot of people windsurf, but there's a weird bit where the seas from the two sides of the island meet and you can have a foot in two different temperatures
Edited by Byker28i on Tuesday 17th January 10:46
Byker28i said:
The very south of the island is where a lot of people windsurf, but there's a weird bit where the seas from the two sides of the island meet and you can have a foot in two different temperatures
That was the biggest change we found on returning 20 years after our first visit. That little sand spit was only home to a few transient hippy types in Kombis, and the roads to and from it were practically just dirt. Now its a kitesurfing hotspot with a cafe/shop and all. Bit of a shame really on a selfishly romantic level, but the locals were happy with the increase in tourism.
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