Yassou! Before they find me, It’s April and I’m in Rhodes, a Greek Dedecanese island. The first thing I wish I knew before coming here was the fact there were no taxi service apps where you can take cheap transport from the airport. We were staying near Old Town Rhodes so our taxi fare was €29. This was the absolute rookie mistake I didn’t want to fall for. If I had arranged a taxi to pick us up with our hotel it would have been €10 at most. Please never take an airport taxi unless it can’t be helped.
The first thing I do when I’m in a new place is ask the locals about what they recommend doing around the area and the taxi driver was happy to list me a few options. He asked me “Why Greece?” I honestly thought of what the warmest place I could go to in April in Europe. Since traveling was something I knew I would be doing constantly, Greece was high up on my list especially after finding out the high temperature was 22 degrees Celsius.
Visiting Rhodes before the summer season (May-September) has its pros as well as its cons. Even though Greece begins to warm in the Spring, April is still considered part of the winter season.
Cons
After being here for almost a week, I noticed Rhodes was a very seasonal tourist destination. The major con is many places will be closed or close as early as 3:00pm. During our visit, the Butterfly Valley was closed and all boat tours were only available from May. However, we were really lucky because we went to Rhodes during a really warm time, so two boat stalls decided to open early and we were able to visit Symi island. Planning your trip in Rhodes can be very difficult during this time because the information on google is very inaccurate. For example, google said the Acropolis in Lindos closed at 5:30pm but it actually closed at 3:10pm when we got there, and since we were too late we had to come again another day.
Pros
Just being sick of the miserable weather in the UK was enough for me to be enticed by the warm weather of Greece. The food can be both yummy and cheap if you know where to look, not to mention the various Greek Wine.
There are plenty of cheap flights and hotels or airbnbs available, just remember to book yours early. Our flights were a little on the pricy side (£85) because we booked too late but we saved a lot for our accommodation which was £109 for seven nights per person and breakfast was included. During the summer period accommodation can spike up to the thousand so you can really save if you go during the offseason.
Overall food options there were lots of delicious seafood to try, briam, hummus, pita (I was addicted), souvlaki and lots of vegetarian options. There are some restaurants with vegan options but be wary and make sure the menu says vegan. As a restaurant convinced us their off-menu moussaka was vegan for my friend, but it definitely was real cheese. I think the problem was veganism wasn’t as widely known as it is in the UK.
While I love Greek food I have been swept away by Greek Mythology. My favourite was the story of Spring. And contrary to the most famous myth of the abduction of Persephone, I believed Persephone went to the underworld for love. If you were to think of the story in a metaphorical sense, it is a story of someone who wishes to fly the nest and make decisions for themselves. In my opinion, Persephone wanted to be free from her mother’s restrictions. I knew when I started traveling my parents would hate it but over time they slowly realised, this was just what made me happy. And life is too short to do something you don’t want to do. I hope this post inspires you visit Rhodes, Greece.
Safe Travels, love
-Maria
Hey Maria! So glad to see you writing so much about your trips! What was your favourite traditional greek food you tried?