Rhodes Beaches and Food: Faliraki East Coast, Ialyssos Filerimos Monastery, Harbour Seafood Tavernas, Symi Colourful Day Trip, Lindos St. Paul's Bay, and the Turkish Quarter Bazaar
The Rhodes beach and food circuit covers the Faliraki resort strip, the Filerimos hill monastery panorama, the Mandraki harbour fresh seafood, the Symi neoclassical day trip, the Lindos St. Paul's Bay atmospheric swim, and the Socrates Street Turkish quarter bazaar.
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Faliraki and the East Coast Resort Strip
Faliraki, the main beach resort 15 kilometers south of Rhodes Town, is the most concentrated package holiday resort in the Dodecanese, with the long sandy beach, the waterpark, and the nightlife strip that serves the British and Scandinavian package holiday market in the most commercially developed resort environment in the eastern Aegean. The east coast resort strip from Faliraki south to Kolymbia provides the standard Greek island resort experience at the most organized level available in the Dodecanese.
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Ialyssos and the Filerimos Hill
Ialyssos, one of the three ancient city-states of Rhodes at the foot of the Filerimos hill, has the Byzantine monastery of Our Lady of Filerimos rebuilt by the Italian occupiers in the 1930s on the ancient Temple of Athena foundations, and the ancient acropolis walls on the hilltop providing the commanding panorama of the northwestern Rhodes coast and the Turkish mainland 20 kilometers across the sea. The Filerimos hilltop Stations of the Cross processional avenue is the finest spiritual landscape walk in Rhodes.
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Rhodes Seafood: The Harbour Tavernas
The Rhodes Town harbour tavernas in the Mandraki fishing boat quay, serving the freshly caught calamari, the grilled swordfish, the octopus salad, and the Rhodian Muscat wine from the nearby Embonas vineyards, provide the most authentic seafood dining in the Dodecanese. The Rhodes Town fish market adjacent to the new town harbour supplies the freshest fish from the Aegean fishing fleet that operates from the largest port in the southeastern Aegean.
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Symi: The Colourful Day Trip Island
Symi, the small island 45 kilometers north of Rhodes accessible by high-speed boat in 90 minutes, is the most architecturally beautiful island in the Dodecanese with the neoclassical houses in the terracotta and ochre colors climbing the hillside above the harbour. The Symi day trip from Rhodes, with the Panormitis Monastery boat arrival and the harbour lunch at the Symi restaurants, is the most popular and most rewarding single day excursion from the Rhodes tourist circuit.
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Lindos Beach and St. Paul's Bay
The Lindos main beach below the village and the St. Paul's Bay on the south side of the Lindos Acropolis headland, where St. Paul reputedly landed on his voyage to Rome and where the small church of Agios Pavlos marks the traditional site, provide the swimming beaches directly beneath the most visually dramatic archaeological site in the Dodecanese. The St. Paul's Bay, accessible by the steps from the Acropolis path, is the most atmospherically situated beach in the eastern Aegean.
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Rhodes Turkish Quarter: Socrates Street
The Turkish Quarter of Rhodes Old Town, centered on the Socrates Street bazaar with the traditional carpet, jewellery, and leather goods shops and the Suleymaniye Mosque of 1522 at the top of the street, is the most complete Ottoman commercial district in a Greek city and the most authentically mixed medieval urban environment in the Dodecanese. The Turkish library, the Ottoman baths, and the mosque complex represent the Ottoman institutional heritage of the 1522 to 1912 period.