Everything worth the drive, and all of it inside an hour
Rhodes has a medieval walled town, Hellenistic ruins and a mountainous interior. From Theologos, everything on this page is between 10 minutes and an hour away – close enough to go on impulse, far enough that you are not living in the middle of it.
Discover TheologosThe canyon starts in the hills behind Theologos: storax trees, waterfalls, wooden footbridges and thousands of butterflies settling on the trunks each summer. It stays cooler down there than on the coast, which makes it the right place to be in the middle of the day.
A UNESCO World Heritage site, and the Old Town to everyone who goes there – one of the largest medieval towns in Europe where people still live inside the walls. The Street of the Knights runs up to the Palace of the Grand Master, and the lanes either side of it are worth an afternoon on their own.
A residential city rather than a temple site, and on the same stretch of coast as the villas – the foundations of ordinary houses, the market grid and the water system, laid out on a hillside above the open Aegean. Third century BC, and rarely busy.
Whitewashed houses stacked up the hillside, with no cars in the lanes. The climb is steep and worth it: the coast one way, the heart-shaped inlet of St Paul's Bay the other. Go early or late – by the middle of the day the lanes are packed.
Built in the early 20th century, when Rhodes was under Italian rule: a domed rotunda in Art Deco style, geometric pebble mosaics underfoot, palm gardens around it. Below the buildings are small, clear coves that are good for swimming.
On the road up to the Valley of the Butterflies: children can feed ostriches, llamas, deer and camels. It will fill a morning easily if you are travelling with young children.
Half a day for most of them, a full one for Lindos, and your own pool waiting when you get back.
