The villages of Rhodes are the island’s quiet heart, a world apart from the packed beaches and neon strips of the coastal resorts. Scattered across the mountains, the forested interior and the far-flung southern tip, these settlements preserve a way of life that the tourist towns lost decades ago. You will find whitewashed lanes barely … Read more
The Mosque of Suleiman stands at the top of Sokratous Street, its rose-pink walls and slender minaret rising above the medieval lanes of Rhodes Old Town. It is the most prominent Ottoman monument on the island, raised to commemorate Suleiman the Magnificent’s conquest of Rhodes from the Knights of St John in the sixteenth century … Read more
A full week on Rhodes gives you time to see the island properly rather than rushing between highlights, and a day-by-day plan keeps that week balanced between culture, driving, beaches and rest. This 7-day Rhodes itinerary walks through each day in turn: the medieval Old Town, Lindos and the east coast, the quiet far south, … Read more
The Museum of Decorative Arts of Rhodes is a small, charming collection that gathers the folk art and everyday craft heritage of Rhodes and the wider Dodecanese under one historic roof. Standing on Argyrokastrou Square inside the medieval Old Town, it presents the objects that filled island homes for generations: the famous glazed ceramics and … Read more
The Byzantine Museum of Rhodes occupies one of the most storied buildings in the walled Old Town: the medieval church of Panagia tou Kastrou, Our Lady of the Castle. This is the oldest and largest Byzantine church surviving inside the fortifications, and its stone shell has carried the town’s changing faiths for centuries, standing in … Read more
Nisyros is a small, almost perfectly round volcanic island in the Dodecanese, and it makes one of the most geologically striking day trips you can take from Rhodes. Unlike the marble-and-bougainvillaea charm of nearby Symi, Nisyros pulls you toward its centre, where an active volcano has hollowed out the vast Lakki caldera. On the caldera … Read more
The Jewish Quarter of Rhodes, known in Ladino as La Juderia and in Greek as the Evraiki, occupies the quiet eastern corner of the medieval Old Town, a short walk from the grander streets that most visitors follow. For centuries this neighbourhood was home to a large and flourishing Sephardic community that gave the walled … Read more
Mesanagros is a remote, tiny mountain village in the far south of Rhodes, tucked into the hills above the road that runs down towards Prasonisi and the very tip of the island. It is one of the oldest villages on Rhodes, and it feels it: a handful of stone houses, a shaded square with a … Read more
Maritsa is a large traditional inland village that sits on the flat northern plain of Rhodes, close to the airport and the neighbouring village of Pastida, between Rhodes Town and the Valley of the Butterflies. It is a genuine working agricultural settlement rather than a resort, and that is exactly its appeal. The heart of … Read more
Greek Orthodox Easter, known as Pascha, is the biggest and most deeply felt festival of the entire Greek year, and on Rhodes it transforms the island into something quieter, older and far more moving than the summer holiday version most visitors know. Across Holy Week the medieval Old Town, the traditional inland villages and every … Read more