The island of Rhodes, sits just off the coast of Turkey but (thankfully for UK mobile data) Greek. We flew from East Midlands airport as part of an all-inclusive, packaged TUI holiday, booked through First Choice. My first all-inclusive holiday and, for £350 per person, my expectations were realistic.
Kalithea Horizon Royal – www.kalitheahorizon.gr
Situated on the East coast of the island, our ‘hotel’ was only a 30 minute coach transfer from the airport. The transfer was, to TUI’s credit, completely hassle-free. We arrived, checked in and were taken to our ‘room’. The parenthesis on hotel and room are simply for the fact that Kalithea Horizon Royal is more of a resort and the rooms resemble small apartments; check out their website and see for yourself!
There is plenty to be done at the resort and for an all-inclusive holiday of a week, you could even just stay on site. There are several different restaurants, all offering various levels of service. However, they were all (we went to all but one of the restaurants, so that one may be different) buffet style food. Not an issue really as you could eat as much, or as little, as you desire.
The evenings were spent enjoying the hotel’s various entertainment. From ABBA and Beatles tribute bands to traditional Greek musicians and dancers, there was ample to experience with a drink or two at night in the warm Mediterranean evenings. As we were there during the World Cup, I was able to convince my partner to watch a few of the matches. I was conscious to not watch too many of the games and not get to fully enjoy the time away together.
There is also a private beach for guests, which we went to twice and is a beautiful site for not only relaxing, but some water-based activities too!
Snorkelling in Kalithea
I’m not really sure whether we stayed in Kalithea technically, but it’s certainly the nearest population! There are several sites along the coast to enjoy the marine life, however we only went to the beach in the resort.
I had brought along my own mask and snorkel from scuba diving. On our first trip to the beach I got myself into the water and had a swim around, surprised by the variety and size of some of the schools of fish so close to the shore. We found a rocky inlet and observed some large crabs and other rock-dwelling animals; something I have not yet fully experienced (still under training for my BSAC Ocean Diver and yet to get out to really explore the waters).
The visibility is fantastic and, as I said, there were so many different fish around so close to the shore, it was a perfect site for snorkelling. It’s so easy to lose track of time in the water along the coast, but it’s definitely worth trying out!
Rhodes Old Town
Obviously the temptation of an all-inclusive holiday is just to stay on site and laze by the pools every day (a choice of 2 pools, how generous), however we wanted to also get out and see something a little different. We jumped on the Lindos – Rhodes bus which conveniently stopped outside the hotel, and headed into Rhodes Old Town.
Once off the bus in town we had a little wonder around the streets, with no real purpose in mind. We passed many small street vendors, and we picked up a little custom made bracelet for my partner. As we started to feel the hunger come in just after midday, we started to look towards where to grab something to eat. As we rounded the settlement walls, where the Old Town sits still within the medieval walls, a small establishment called ‘To Kapilio Tou Gianni’ (the English version of the name according to Google maps) caught our eye. We sat down and I had a traditional gyro with chips and a milkshake; 50% Greek, 50% not. It went down well sat looking up at the walls of the oldest inhabited medieval town in Europe!
After lunch we went for a walk around the Old Town itself. The town steeped in history provided many cobbled streets to navigate, all pretty much leading back to the main street through the centre. Restaurants tried enticing us in, with the offer of live World Cup football to accompany a drink or bite to eat, however having just eaten we declined and kept walking.
We saw the main sites (from the outside at least) and made our way back out to the bus stop so we were able to get back to the hotel in plenty of time before dinner. Reflecting on the day out in the Old Town, we thought it was a beautiful place that really has encapsulated its history.
Anything else?
Short answer, yes. Rhodes has so much more to offer and we hardly even scratched the surface on our week there. We went for a relaxing holiday, taking full advantage of the all-inclusive and on-site entertainment, without feeling obliged to get out and about all the time. It was a lovely way for us to spend our first holiday together, however the island has much more to see and do that what we spent our week doing!