Rhodes

Why Rhodes works

Rhodes' Old Town, encircled by 4km of intact medieval walls, is the largest inhabited medieval town in Europe and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, built by the Knights Hospitaller after they made the island their base in 1309. The Street of the Knights, a cobbled avenue lined with the former lodgings (inns) of knights grouped by nationality, leads to the Palace of the Grand Master, a restored Gothic fortress with mosaic-floored halls. The Colossus of Rhodes, a bronze statue of the sun god Helios and one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, is believed to have stood near the harbour entrance until an earthquake toppled it in 226 BC — no trace survives, despite popular imagery of it straddling the harbour mouth. Beyond the walls, Rhodes Town's New Town offers Ottoman-era mosques, a lively market and beach clubs along Elli Beach. South of the capital, Lindos presents a second walled hilltop, its acropolis — with an ancient Temple of Athena — overlooking a village of whitewashed captains' houses and a horseshoe bay reached by donkey or on foot. The island's interior holds the Valley of the Butterflies, a shaded gorge that fills with Jersey tiger moths each summer, and inland villages producing Rhodian wine largely bypassed by beach-focused visitors.

Trip Snapshot

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