Rhodes: The Medieval City and the Island of the Knights

The cruise port (Kolona Harbour) is immediately adjacent to the old city walls. The Gate of Freedom is a 5-minute walk from the dock. You are inside the medieval city within minutes of stepping ashore.

**The Old City (Medieval Town):** The Street of the Knights (Odos Ippoton) is one of the best-preserved medieval streets in Europe — a cobblestone lane flanked by the inns of the different nationalities of the Hospitaller order. It leads uphill to the **Palace of the Grand Masters**, a massive 14th-century fortress restored in the early 20th century. The museum inside is excellent, and the views from the towers over the harbor are worth the climb.

**The Turkish Quarter (Socrates Street):** The lower part of the old city became the Turkish commercial district during the Ottoman period — mosques, a bazaar, and traditional houses with overhanging upper floors. The atmosphere is distinct from the Crusader upper town.

**Beaches:** Elli Beach, immediately northeast of the old city, is a sandy urban beach within walking distance of the port and popular with locals. For calmer, cleaner water, **Tsambika** (45 min south) or **Anthony Quinn Bay** (Vagies, 25 min south) require a rental car or taxi.

Rhodes has been inhabited since the Neolithic era and colonized by Dorian Greeks around 1100 BC. The city of Rhodes itself was founded in 408 BC in a planned layout that the planner Hippodamus of Miletus is credited with designing. By the 3rd century BC the island was one of the wealthiest trading republics in the Mediterranean, and the Colossus of Rhodes — a bronze statue of Helios approximately 33 meters tall — was built to celebrate a military victory. It stood for only 54 years before being toppled by an earthquake in 226 BC.

The Knights Hospitaller (Order of St. John) established their base on Rhodes after losing the Holy Land in 1291 and held it until 1522, when Suleiman the Magnificent's forces besieged the city for six months and eventually forced the Knights to surrender. The Ottoman period lasted until 1912, when Italy seized the island. Italy held Rhodes until 1943 (German occupation briefly followed), and it became part of Greece in 1947.

The medieval city's excellent preservation is partly due to the fact that the Ottomans used the existing Crusader infrastructure rather than demolishing it, and partly due to Italian restoration work during their administration.

**Walking in the old city:** The medieval town is compact and entirely pedestrian. Flat sections around the Street of the Knights and the Turkish Quarter are easy walking; the climb to the Palace is moderate. Allow 3–4 hours to do it properly.

**Taxi:** Available outside the port gate. The taxi rank is at Platia Riminis just beyond the walls. Metered fares apply within the city; agree on rates for longer island trips.

**Rental car or scooter:** The best way to explore the rest of the island — the west coast road to **Lindos** (50 km south, home to a spectacular Acropolis on a clifftop above a whitewashed village) is one of the most scenic drives in the Aegean. Allow a full day for Lindos.

Greek tipping norms are relaxed.

- **Restaurants:** Leave 5–10% in cash if the service was attentive. Rounding up the bill is also acceptable. - **Taxis:** Round up to the nearest euro. - **Tour guides:** €5–10 per person for a guided tour of the Palace or a half-day island excursion. - **Currency:** Euros. Cash is preferred for smaller establishments and tavernas outside the tourist center.

Rhodes has two distinct eating zones: the tourist restaurants crowded around the medieval Old Town gate, and the genuinely local options that require walking five minutes in any direction from the cruise dock.

**Mandraki Harbour fish market area** — Walk along the palm-lined harbour to where the fishing boats unload (early morning). Several tavernas here buy direct from the boats and offer excellent fresh fish at prices aimed at residents, not tourists. Whole grilled sea bream €16–20, calamari fritti €10, house wine by the carafe €6.

**Mezedopolio O Psaras, Old Town** — Inside the Old Town walls but off the main drag: a small mezedhopolio on Pythagora Street serving a rotating selection of small plates. Order five or six between two people: grilled octopus with capers, kopanisti (spicy fermented cheese), taramosalata, stuffed courgette flowers. €8–12 per plate, €20–30 total for a satisfying lunch.

**Steki tis Litsis, Nea Agora** — The New Agora market area, outside the Old Town walls, is where Rhodians buy their produce and eat. This grill restaurant does excellent lamb chops and grilled chicken with garlic and lemon. No tourist menu, no photos on the wall, excellent food. Mains €12–16.

**Loukoumades near the Palace** — The area around the Palace of the Grand Masters has several street vendors selling loukoumades (fried honey-dough balls) dusted with cinnamon and sesame. €2.50 for a portion. Extremely good, unavoidable if you are walking past.

**Local beaches** — If you are here on a longer call: Kolymbia (22km east) and Ixia (5km west) both have waterfront tavernas serving lunch to local families at prices and quality that rarely appear in the tourist area.

Rhodes has been continuously inhabited since the Neolithic period, colonized by Dorian Greeks in the 10th century BC, and has passed through Macedonian, Roman, Byzantine, Arab, Crusader, Ottoman, and Italian rule before joining modern Greece in 1947. The result is a UNESCO World Heritage medieval walled city — built by the Knights of St. John between 1309 and 1522 — that is simultaneously a living community of 6,000 residents and one of the best-preserved medieval urban environments in the world. The Street of the Knights (Odos Ippoton), where the Inns of the various Crusader nationalities stood, is a 600-meter cobblestone street that looks almost exactly as it did in the 15th century.

The Knights Hospitaller — the Order of St. John, now present in modern form as the St. John Ambulance service in Britain and many other countries — held Rhodes as their primary fortress from 1309 until Suleiman the Magnificent's fleet of 400 ships and 200,000 soldiers took it in 1522. The Siege of Rhodes (1522) was one of the great set-piece medieval battles; the fortifications that withstood it for several months are visible on the scale that makes them credible. The Palace of the Grand Master (restored 1939 by Italian colonial authorities) houses a museum of the Byzantine and Medieval Aegean.

Rhodian culture maintains a distinct Aegean character that the tourist overlay doesn't fully obscure. The Nohori wine village in the interior, the kamaki (an elaborate dialect of the fishing community in the old harbor), and the Easter celebrations (one of the most elaborate in Greece, with candle processions through the medieval walls) are expressions of a living culture below the beach resort surface. The local Athiri wine — a light, aromatic white grape unique to Rhodes — is worth seeking out.

Language: Greek; English universal in the tourist zone. Tipping: 10–15% in restaurants. The old city closes its vehicle gates to tourist traffic in peak summer — on foot is the only way through, which is also the right way.

Rhodes Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, has the most atmospheric shopping environment in the Aegean: medieval cobblestoned lanes, the Street of the Knights, and the covered market at the Grand Masters' Palace where vendors have been selling to arriving travelers for centuries. The volume of tourism here means some street-level discernment is required to find the local products among the imported merchandise.

Gold and silver jewelry are the most developed retail category in Rhodes. Greek goldsmiths have a long tradition, and several family-owned workshops on Sokratous Street and its side lanes produce pieces using ancient Hellenic motifs — meander patterns, amphora forms, and depictions from Greek mythology. The prices are negotiable in independent shops and represent fair value for handmade work. More mass-produced gold is also present; the difference is visible in the weight and finish of the pieces.

Greek pantry products are reliable purchases that pack well and are legitimately good. Rhodes produces its own honey (Rhodian honey has Protected Designation of Origin status within the EU), its own olive oil from the Kolymbia and Kremasti plains, and wine from Emery Winery in Embonas — the only significant wine producer on the island. The Emery Villaré red and Cava Emery are worth finding at a local wine shop or the Embonas village market if a short excursion is available. Local spice mixes (for souvlaki, for lamb, for fish) are inexpensive, compact, and evocative of the flavors of the island.

Leather sandals made to measure are available from a handful of cobblers in the old town. The process is quick — sizing and lasting takes under an hour for most styles — and the result is a pair of sandals made for your foot rather than a generic last. This is one of those purchases that is genuinely specific to this part of the Mediterranean and that ages well.

Rhodes Town's medieval walled city is one of the best-preserved medieval fortifications in the world, and its scale, intact streets, and resident population (people actually live and work inside the walls) give it a vitality that purely preserved heritage sites often lack. Families who engage with the idea of a living medieval city — and who don't mind uneven cobblestones underfoot — find this port delivers in ways that more manicured classical sites sometimes don't.

The Knights' Quarter (Ippoton Street, the Street of Knights) is the formal centrepiece — a paved medieval lane with the intact inns of the eight language-nations of the Knights Hospitaller, each with a coat of arms above the door. It is quiet, impressive, and short: 200 metres. The Palace of the Grand Master at the end is the anchor attraction; the ground-floor rooms with their Byzantine mosaic floors and medieval interiors are genuine and well-interpreted. Allow 90 minutes for the palace. The walled city is small enough that children can be given reasonable freedom to explore: the narrow streets, archways, and Ottoman-era fountains throughout the Jewish Quarter (Ovriaki) and the Turkish Quarter (Evraika) reward wandering more than structured touring. The Archaeological Museum of Rhodes in the Hospital of the Knights covers the island's ancient history and has good Hellenistic-era marble sculptures that are accessible at child height.

For families who want beach time, Faliraki and Elli Beach (immediately north of the old town walls) are close, clean, and family-friendly. Elli is walkable from the town walls in 10 minutes and has calm water that works for small children. Lindos, the other Rhodes excursion, involves a 45-minute drive to a hilltop acropolis above a white-washed village — spectacular for teenagers and adults with stamina, potentially frustrating for younger children (the climb is steep and in full sun). Plan Lindos carefully in high summer; the village is extremely hot at midday.

Practical notes: Rhodes in July and August is hot, typically 30–36°C in the walled city. Afternoon sun inside the stone walls can be intense; early morning is the best time for the town. The walled city's cobblestones are entirely unmanageable for strollers — use a carrier. The port is close to the old town; a short taxi or a 20-minute walk. The currency is the euro; most establishments accept cards.

Rhodes has excellent beaches, and they are one of the island's main draws alongside the medieval Old Town. The Aegean water is warm, clear, and reliably swimmable from June through October.

The closest beach to Rhodes Town is Elli Beach, on the northern tip of the island about ten minutes' walk from the Old Town's main gate past the Casino. It is a good sandy beach with clear blue water, sunbed hire, and a busy summer atmosphere — a solid choice if you have limited time or want to combine swimming with Old Town exploration. The municipal beach at Elli has less organised crowds than the resort beaches further down the coast.

Faliraki, about 15 kilometres south of Rhodes Town (frequent buses from the city's terminal near the new market, roughly 20 minutes), is the island's main resort beach — wide, long, with excellent facilities and consistent Aegean conditions. It gets busy in July and August but is well-serviced. Anthony Quinn Bay, a few kilometres beyond Faliraki (about 20 kilometres from Rhodes Town, named after the actor who filmed The Guns of Navarone nearby and reportedly fell in love with this particular cove), is a smaller bay with strikingly clear blue-green water and rocky surroundings — worth the extra journey for the scenery.

Tsambika Beach, about 45 kilometres south (45–50 minutes by bus), has fine golden sand backed by a sandstone headland and is one of the island's best sandy beaches. Lindos, 55 kilometres from Rhodes Town (about 1 hour by bus), combines the famous hilltop acropolis and Byzantine village with a sheltered sandy beach below the cliff — a full half-day worth planning for.

Rhodes Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage medieval city with cobblestone streets, uneven stone surfaces, and significant terrain variation — the same features that make it beautiful make it challenging for mobility-impaired visitors.

The perimeter road running along the outside of the old city walls is paved and provides good accessible views of the fortifications and the harbour. The Palace of the Grand Masters at the top of the Old Town has some accessible entrances and ramp access to part of the interior. The Street of the Knights (Ippoton) is cobblestone but relatively flat.

The New Town area around Mandraki Harbour is modern and accessible, with flat pavements and a pleasant waterfront esplanade. The beach resorts along the northeastern coast (Ialyssos, Faliraki) have accessible beach boardwalks. Lindos village (about 50 km south) has steep cobblestone alleyways and is not accessible; the Acropolis above requires a significant climb. Accessible ship excursions skipping Lindos and focusing on flatter sites are available.