The ferries from Athens take twelve to seventeen hours, depending on whether you spring for the Blue Star overnight or the slower Dodekanisos Seaways connection through the smaller islands. Most visitors arrive by air instead, touching down at Diagoras Airport in under an hour from the mainland. Either way, the first thing you notice is the wall. Rhodes Old Town is surrounded by a double ring of fortifications four kilometers in circumference, built and rebuilt between 1309 and 1522 by the Knights Hospitaller, then thickened by the Ottomans, then patched by the Italians. You cannot see the modern city until you pass through one of the eleven gates. This is the largest inhabited medieval town in Europe, and cars are banned inside.
Pass through the Gate d'Amboise on the northwest side, the most theatrical entrance, and you walk straight into the Knight's Quarter. The Street of the Knights runs ahead of you for about 600 meters, paved with worn river stones and flanked by stone inns where the knights once lodged according to their native tongue. The Inn of France is at number 21, the Inn of Italy at number 24, each marked by carved coats of arms above the doors. The street is free to walk at any hour. Go early, before 8:00 AM, and you will have it to yourself. By 10:00 AM the cruise groups arrive, and the cobblestones fill with guided umbrellas.
At the top of the street stands the Palace of the Grand Master. It looks more like a fortress than a residence, which was the point. Built in the 14th century on the foundations of a Hellenistic temple and a Byzantine citadel, it served as the administrative and military heart of the Order of St. John. The Ottomans converted it into a prison and barracks after 1522. An ammunition explosion in 1856 nearly destroyed it. What you see today is largely a reconstruction carried out by the Italians during their occupation from 1912 to 1943, designed to evoke the Palace of the Popes in Avignon. The result is architecturally faithful but historically layered.
The palace opens at 8:00 AM in summer (April through August) and closes at 8:00 PM, with last entry at 7:30 PM. From September the hours scale back gradually, and from November through March it operates on winter hours. The entry fee is 20 euros for the full site. The ground floor holds the permanent exhibition "Rhodes, 2,400 Years," showcasing finds from excavations across the ancient city, including mosaic floors from the 2nd century BC. Upstairs, the formal reception rooms contain Hellenistic and Roman mosaics brought from Kos and other islands by the Italians. The central courtyard is paved with marble from nearby quarries. Tuesday is the closed day.
South of the palace, the old town shifts character. You enter the Hora, also called the Turkish Quarter, where the alleys narrow and the houses press closer together. The Suleymaniye Mosque rises near the commercial center, built by Suleiman the Magnificent shortly after the 1522 siege. Its minaret was damaged in a 19th-century lightning strike and rebuilt by the Italians. Nearby, the former Church of the Holy Apostles, with an Italian Renaissance portal added in the 16th century, also functions as a mosque. These conversions are not museum pieces. They are working buildings in a working neighborhood, surrounded by restaurants that cater to tourists but also by hardware stores, bakeries, and barber shops that serve the approximately 6,000 people who still live inside the walls.
The Archaeological Museum of Rhodes occupies the former Hospital of the Knights on Museum Square. The building itself is the draw, a 15th-century structure with an internal courtyard and a grand staircase. Inside, the collection includes a marble statue of the nymph Rhodes from the 1st century BC, funerary stelae from ancient Kamiros, and a small but significant collection of medieval armor. The museum is open daily except Tuesdays in winter, with extended hours in summer. Entry is included in some combined tickets, though the pricing structure changes seasonally, so confirm at the ticket desk.
The Jewish Quarter sits in the southeast corner, smaller and quieter than the other districts. The Kahal Shalom Synagogue on Dosiadou Street dates to 1577, making it the oldest in Greece. It still operates for the tiny remaining community, though the Jewish population of Rhodes, once around 2,000, was deported to Auschwitz in 1944. The Jewish Museum of Rhodes occupies an adjacent room and is open Sunday through Friday, closed Saturday. Entry is free, though donations are accepted. The square outside, Plateia Evreon Martyron, commemorates the victims.
Outside the walls, the New Town of Rhodes spreads in grid formation, built by the Italians during their occupation. The contrast is deliberate. The Italians planned Rhodes as a showcase of Italian colonial architecture, with art deco cinemas, rationalist public buildings, and broad avenues lined with palm trees. The Market of the New Town, near Mandraki Harbor, is a 1925 structure with a concrete dome and arched galleries that still houses fishmongers, spice sellers, and vendors of local honey. It opens daily around 7:00 AM and closes by early afternoon.
Mandraki Harbor, just east of the Old Town, is where the Colossus of Rhodes supposedly stood. The bronze statue, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, toppled in an earthquake in 226 BC and was never rebuilt. The exact location remains uncertain. What you see now are the three medieval windmills at the harbor entrance and the two columns topped with deer statues, added in the Italian era. The fort of St. Nicholas guards the harbor mouth. The area is free to walk, and the windmills make for a useful landmark if you lose your bearings in the Old Town's maze.
The ancient city of Rhodes itself, founded in 408 BC, lies buried beneath the modern and medieval layers. Sections of the ancient necropolis are visible near the walls, and the ancient stadium and theater sit on the slope of Monte Smith, about two kilometers west of the Old Town. The view from the hill covers the channel toward Turkey, only 18 kilometers away. The ancient acropolis of Lindos, 50 kilometers south by bus or car, predates the medieval town by centuries. The Doric Temple of Athena Lindia sits at the summit, rebuilt in the 4th century BC. Entry costs 12 euros. The climb is steep, about 292 steps, though donkeys are available for a negotiated fee. The white village of Lindos clusters below the rock, and the beach at St. Paul's Bay is accessible by a path from the main square.
The bus to Lindos leaves from the terminal near the New Town market every half hour in season. The journey takes about an hour and costs around 5.50 euros. The same bus continues to Pefkos and other south coast villages. If you have time, the ancient site of Kamiros on the west coast, a 6th-century BC Doric city with a visible street plan and house foundations, receives a fraction of the Lindos traffic. Entry is 6 euros. There is no bus direct to the site; you will need a car or a taxi from the village of Soroni.
Rhodes is crowded from June through August. The cruise ships disgorge thousands of day-trippers who clog the Street of the Knights and the palace courtyard. April, May, September, and October offer cooler weather and thinner crowds. In winter many restaurants inside the Old Town close, though the palace and museum maintain reduced hours. The Italian-era buildings in the New Town, neglected during the Greek economic crisis, are slowly being restored. The contrast between the polished medieval tourist quarter and the peeling art deco facades a few blocks away tells its own story about what the island chooses to preserve and what it lets fade.
The food inside the Old Town is tourist-priced and generally mediocre. Walk ten minutes into the New Town and you will find better value. Ta Kioupia on Plateia Kyprou, a working-class restaurant near the bus station, serves grilled sardines, fava, and chickpea stew for under 15 euros a head. It opens at noon and closes by midnight. For coffee, the Italian-era Cesare Cafe on Plateia Rimini retains its 1930s marble interior and serves a proper elliniko from a briki for 2 euros.
If you stay for more than two days, rent a scooter or a small car. The interior of the island rises to just over 1,200 meters at Mount Attavyros, and the mountain villages, while depopulated, still produce the honey and souma (a local spirit distilled from grapes and figs) that appear in the Old Town's souvenir shops at triple the price. The Valley of the Butterflies, a seasonal attraction 25 kilometers south, is overrun with day-trippers in July and August and nearly empty the rest of the year. Skip it unless you are there in June, when the Jersey tiger moths are active but the crowds have not yet arrived.
Rhodes does not reward the casual visitor who walks the Street of the Knights, snaps a photo of the palace, and retreats to a beach resort. The island requires you to read the layers. The Hellenistic foundations beneath the palace. The Ottoman mosque built from a Christian church. The Italian facade hiding a medieval wall. The synagogue surviving in a neighborhood emptied by genocide. Stay long enough to see the cruise groups leave at 4:00 PM, when the Old Town reverts to its residents and the stone streets cool, and you will understand why this place was worth fighting over for 2,400 years.
By Elena Vasquez
Cultural anthropologist and culinary storyteller. Elena spent a decade documenting traditional cooking methods across Latin America and the Mediterranean. She holds a PhD in Ethnography from Barcelona University and believes the best way to understand a place is through its kitchens and ancient streets.