What a week it’s been! *Alan Carr voice* 6 long months of waiting and suddenly it’s all over. Last week (from the 21st-28th June), I was in the Greek Island of Rhodes and wanted to share with you the amazing, predominately food-filled time I had there!

Day 1

The flying experience going was easy and calm; we didn’t have too much time to kill in Manchester airport, we flew on time and there was not a lot of turbulence! The flight was just under 4 hours along, and we got through passport control and baggage claim relatively quickly.

 

We were first drop off on the Thomsons (whom we booked our holiday through) coach transfer, so I was praying the place wasn’t a shit hole! But much to my delight, it was beautiful just like the online pictures.

The garden courtyard was breathtakingly ethereal draped in greenery and flowers. I was over the moon as I’m much more an outdoorsy girl than a sun bed tanner, not that I even tan when I try!

Our room was basic but very clean, however we didn’t expect a palace boudoir for the price we payed. We stayed at Castello Di Rodi situated in the resort Kallithea, but the bus stop 50yds from the hotel was a €2 bus ride into the centre of Rhodes Town. My one complaint with Greek buses is that they don’t half pack you on like sardines, especially in 32 degree heat. I think I started sweating tzatziki.

Day 2

 

Despite arriving at going on 3am early Wednesday morning, we pushed ourselves to wake up for 9am to meet the Thomsons rep. She told us some info about the area and afterwards we plodded onto breakfast, which was included in our hotel stay. I am painstakingly fussy when it comes to breakfast food so I ended up eating 2 ham and cheese sandwiches just gone 9:30am. But I expected as much from the limited continental choices!

 

After that we decided to investigate the surrounding area visiting the nearby beach to get our bearings a bit. After that I realised those 2 sandwiches didn’t really hit the spot, so we went for lunch at a beautiful traditional Greek place just up the road from our hotel. It was called Koskinou House, we ordered a Greek set menu consisting of Greek salad, a Greek plate and ice cream sundae. The Greek plate consisted of moussaka (an unexpected new found love of mine), tzatziki, pitta, the most tender lamb ever, rice and onions in a rich tomatoey sauce with complimentary garlic bread on the side.

The meal including drinks came to around €16-18 euro. I would say that that the food in Rhodes isn’t particularly cheap compared to other holiday resorts, and it’s particularly more expensive in Rhodes old town, but the food was all delicious and very well portioned.

We then returned to our room for a snooze before getting dressed for our first night in Rhodes town. The old town is beautiful and picturesque, cobbled streets bustling with a colourful collection of tourists and locals.

I really wish I’d have written down the name of the restaurants we went to, we stumbled upon the one we visited on our first proper night when wandering the old towns winding streets. The service was very friendly and the meal was incredible. We shared mussels saganaki; mussels soaked in a bechamel sauce with spring onion, tomato and feta. Alongside this we had the chef’s special gyros (much unlike the equally tasty kebab style gyros we had the rest of the holiday) which consisted of large chunks of succulent meats baked in a tomatoey rich sauce with a cheesey top, served with fried potatoes and pitta. This meal also came with complimentary garlic bread. I had a glass of local white wine, while Jack had a pint of Greek ‘Magnus Magister’ then we shared a large bottle of water with our meal, and the bill came to around €27 altogether.

After another stroll around town down by the pier, and a strawberry icey cocktail in a waterside bar, we took a taxi back to the hotel.

We decided to have a few in the hotel bar before calling it a night, and you know that phrase it’s a small world, well I was taken well back by its validity when one of the girls on my course at university in Leeds walked through the hotel door! Her and her boyfriend were staying at our hotel for a week as well, and we had a great time drinking far too much, chatting and ended the night polishing off vodka till 5 in the morning. This did result in a cheeky lil noise complaint but we managed to stay on our best behaviour for the remainder of the holiday! It truly is a small world.

Stay tuned for part 2 of my Rhodes Diaries!

Thanks so much for reading,

Em x