Rhodes, Greece - 20 years later!

When my travel buddy said she would be coming home for a few weeks this summer, I didn’t need an excuse to plan a holiday away for the two of us. Introducing my travel buddy, Natassa, my 25 year old daughter, who’s a Marketing Exec. living in Glasgow, since completing her studies there in 2022. Our last travels together were pre-Covid in the summer of 2019 where we met up with my cousin and his family from Florida in Athens for a 10-day road trip across Greece, ending up a few nights in Corfu (I’ll write about that trip on another blog later). So planning our few days away, we decided to take a well overdue return trip to Rhodes, exactly 20 years from our last visit, of which Natassa has a vague recollection. Everything was booked so quickly and we had our holiday together to look forward to. Time to fly to Rhodes where we landed on a lovely hot afternoon the end of June for our mum + daughter 5 nights stay at the newly renovated Mercure Rhodes Alexia Hotel & Spa, in Rhodes town centre, but just a few steps away from the main streets and everything we needed to see and visit. Our first late afternoon walk and evening out was to get our bearings and see the various dining options for our evening meals. As Greeks ourselves (or Cypriots I should say), our first meal was a traditional taverna serving of Souvlaki (kebab) at the Bahar Souvlakeri, along with a Greek salad and dips of course, and washed down with some chilled local wine. We retreated to our lovely little hotel room with sea view balcony to a good night’s sleep. As we are both not breakfast girls, the following morning, after our fresh Greek yoghurt and fruit we navigated our way to the local bus terminal, and as the Greeks we are, grabbed a chilled coffee – or as the locals say “frappe” and caught the morning bus to a lovely beach location called Tsambika. With our holiday books and sun oil in hand, just like any tourist, we spent the day relaxing on the very comfy sunbeds available and enjoying the crystal clear waters, which I must say were not too cold either. Traditional Village salad lunch at the Ramal beach side restaurant was the perfect interlude from our sunbathing. As we had bought the return tickets for our bus from the morning, we were able to take whichever one we wanted home, so we opted for the later afternoon time making the most of our day. For our evening we had seen on the previous night that the beautiful garden restaurant called Drosoulites offered live music, traditional dances and a selection of delectable Greek meze dishes and the best Greek wines – which I must say certainly did not disappoint. For day two we had pre-booked ourselves a boat trip to the beautiful island of Simi, through Sebeco Lines, departing by 9:00am but getting us there faster than any of the other vessels leaving around that time. The journey was comfortable, the team onboard were friendly and we were there in no time arriving on what one could describe as an enchanting picture postcard scene of a delightful harbour with a backdrop of brightly coloured houses and shop fronts climbing all the way up the hills. Again as the Greeks we are our morning “frappe” was a must, so we sat to take in the lovely surroundings for a while in the harbour to decide what we would do with our good 6 hours on Simi Island. We voted to grab the local bus and head over the hill to a little secluded fishing harbour / beach spot called Pedi. The trip took less than 15 mins on a small bus, which dropped us off at our perfect beach spot for the rest of the day. The tranquillity of this place was divine and by lunch time we gave in to the smell of the fresh fish from the adjacent restaurant – Katsaras, again accompanied by the traditional Greek salad, dips and why not, some more chilled local white wine. Then time to hop back on to the local bus, just in time to board the Sebeco line boat back to Rhodes town. The evening was spent walking along the cobbled streets within the walls of Rhodes fortress and taking in the history of this beautiful medieval part of the old town, learning about the Knights of Rhodes and continuing towards the old harbour towards Rhodes Windmills, St Nicholas Fortress and the mythical Colossus of Rhodes. Waking earlier the following morning, we planned to head down to the bus terminal to catch the bus to Lindos, which needs no introductions. The journey much longer that the Tsambika trip, but enjoyable in the comfort of a large air-conditioned bus and loads to see on the way. We passed by Kallithea, Faliraki, Tsambika, Archangelos and got off at the main Lindos bus stop. Made our way down towards the pretty whitewashed houses and shops hanging off the hillside, offering visitors a little piece of Santorini or Mykonos. For a small price, we visited the archaeological sites on the top of the hill and the view of Lindos Bay below was breathtaking. Navigating our way down the winding footpaths we ended up on the sandy beach below for a refreshing swim and the last sunbathing of the holidays. If only the bus could have picked us up from the beach we both said – but thankfully we managed to find a short cut to take us back up to the main square and grab the shuttle to the bus stop on the main road. What a lovely outing that turned out to be for our last day in Rhodes. Our evening out, wondering around an area of the town we had only seen but not visited, was chilled and we decided to have a fresh seafood pasta at Burattino, which was an excellent choice I may saw, and all washed down with some more of that local vino. All in all, our mum + daughter trip was a smash. We managed to relax, catch up, explore, wine, dine, discover and re-make the memories that Natassa couldn’t recall from our first visit all those 20 years ago. We headed home the following morning, but our suitcases and hearts full of love for Rhodes and we certainly will be back soon.