Rhodes Beyond the Walls: Backstreets and Village Markets

Rhodes hides in plain sight. The Old Town has one crowded shopping street and a hundred empty ones; the island has a famous east coast and a mountainous interior that most visitors never drive into. None of this is difficult to reach, which is the odd part.

The quick facts

• The medieval Old Town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and residential in large parts
• The interior and the west coast are far quieter than the eastern resort strip
• A car or a scooter opens up the villages; intercity buses cover the main coastal towns
• Village tavernas and workshops often close in the middle of the afternoon

Three lanes off the bazaar

Socratous Street, climbing from the harbour end of the Old Town, carries almost all of the foot traffic inside the walls. Turn off it in any direction and within a minute you are in silent lanes of arched buttresses, painted doors, cats and washing lines. The old Ottoman and Jewish quarters in the eastern half of the walled town are residential and largely undisturbed, and the walk out along the moat, now a dry green ring around the fortifications, is one of the best short walks on the island.

The New Market and the everyday town

Rhodes Town beyond the walls is a working Greek city. The New Market building beside Mandraki Harbour and the streets behind it are where the town does its shopping: honey, olives, cheese, spices, sweets, and a fish counter that tells you what is running. Prices drop noticeably the further you get from the fortifications.

Wine villages in the mountains

Embonas, high on the slopes of Mount Attavyros, is the island s best-known wine village, and the drive up through the interior is worth it on its own. The surrounding villages produce most of the wine you will drink on Rhodes, and several wineries in the area receive visitors. Nearby Archangelos is known for its ceramics and its old lanes below a Knights-era castle.

Water in a dry island

Epta Piges, the Seven Springs, is a shaded pocket of plane trees, running water and peacocks in the hills behind the east coast, and it is a genuine relief in high summer. The Valley of the Butterflies, further west, fills with Jersey tiger moths in the hot months. Both are quiet early and busier by mid-morning.

The empty ends

Prasonisi, at the southern tip, is a sandspit where two bodies of water meet, and depending on the season it is either a beach or a windsurfing arena. On the west coast, the castles at Kritinia and Monolithos give you huge views with almost nobody in them. Both are long drives, and both are the reason to hire a car for a day.

Tip: Walk into the Old Town an hour after sunrise. The cruise groups have not arrived, the light is on the stone, and the lanes belong to the people who actually live in them.