Mother & Daughter Trip to Rhodes!
We did a traditional “fly n flop” 1 week package holiday, flying from Belfast International direct to Rhodes and a short transfer to the resort of Ixia on the North West coast of the island, about 10 mins South of Rhodes Town itself.
Our accommodation for the week was the lovely Hotel Nathalie – very Greek with traditional blue and white décor and a sun drenched pool. Small and quaint is the best way to describe it – not loads of rooms, a decent sized pool that gets the sun all day with a pool bar and the friendly Maria serving drinks and snacks all day. A small bar with plenty of offerings from the cocktail accomplished bar man Kevin, and a pool table to pass the time.
The hotel is a couple of minutes’ walk to the beach and down into Ialyssos/Ixia towns with plenty of choice of little boutiques, excellent restaurants with offerings for all budgets and lots of bars – noisy or chilled depending on what you fancy.
The beach is pebbly/shingly and whilst I knew this, it really wasn’t my cup of tea, so we negotiated a rate for a few days car hire and hit the road to explore, Thelma and Louise style!! I was on a mission to find beautiful sandy beaches and on the East coast of the island there was no shortage of them, the car really proved to worth every penny ( approx. €150 for 3 days ). One of our first trips was to Kalithea Springs and it was only about a 25 minute drive. Whilst very beautiful, we found it touristy and lots of “party boats” dropped anchor so we didn’t stay long – also the fact that it rained torrentially for 20 minutes didn’t encourage us!
The next adventure in the car was Rhodes Town and WOW it was absolutely stunning, a true medieval walled town, with so much history it was hard to take it all in! It was a delight to just get lost in the cobbled streets and we couldn’t not visit the Palace. A restaurant worth visting is Auvergne Café Rose – hidden in the corner of the old town.
Our first truly lovely sandy beach was Lardos – I wasn’t fussed on the sea here as there was a bit of a shelf that dropped away – but for windsurfing/sailing etc… it was super popular. Glystra Beach was our next stop – absolutely stunning and very safe for families, we hired a jetski here for 20 mins – for about €25 and they had a ringed off area to use it so it felt safe for the swimmers too as you weren’t near them. En route home we called in at the famous Lindos, again an old town with cobbled winding streets – and a totally beautiful bay to look down on – I would 100% return to stay here..
Our final car hire day saw us really go for it – right down the East coast to Agathi Beach – recommended by bar man Kevin! Really sandy, shallow sea, beach bars/clubs so a great vibe of music in the background, definitely one of my favourites – but the drive down to it is not for the feint hearted and the car needs a good string suspension!
No trip to Rhodes is complete without a visit to Anthony Quinn Bay where the Guns of Navarone were famously filmed, and I can understand why – again stunningly beautiful, bring your own drinks and snacks as there wasn’t a lot around.
All in all – Rhodes was seriously impressive, and I would go back in a heart beat.