Rhodes: what to see, where to stay and how to get around

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For two hundred and thirteen years, from 1309 to 1522, Rhodes was not Greek and not Turkish but the sovereign state of a military-religious order — the Knights Hospitaller, who had been thrown out of the Holy Land and bought this island to carry on the war at sea. What they left is the largest inhabited medieval town in Europe: four kilometres of wall, eleven gates, a dry moat that never held water, and a street of inns. About two and a half hours. Go at eight in the morning: the cruise ships dock at nine and the old town is small.

A short history of Rhodes

In 280 BC the Colossus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World, was erected in the harbour of Rhodes, and it fell in an earthquake in 226 BC. From 1309 the island was ruled by the Knights Hospitaller, who built the fortified old town, until Sultan Suleiman captured it in 1522. In 1912 the island passed to Italy, and after the Second World War it was united with Greece. The old town contains the Kahal Shalom Synagogue, dating from 1577, the oldest in Greece, and in July 1944 the Germans deported about 1,700 of the Jews of Rhodes to Auschwitz, and only a few returned. In 1988 the old town was declared a World Heritage Site.

The ten best sights in Rhodes

1
Rhodes Old Town
The largest inhabited medieval town in Europe — about 6,000 people still live inside the walls
2
Palace of the Grand Master
8 euro. Open 08:00–20:00 April to October, 08:30–15:30 in winter. Verified 10/2026
3
Street of the Knights
Six hundred metres of one unbroken medieval street — go at eight, before the cruise groups
4
Archaeological Museum
In the Knights’ hospital of 1440. A combined ticket covers four old-town sites. Verified 10/2026
5
Our Lady of the Castle
A Gothic cathedral that became a mosque and is now a Byzantine museum
6
Suleymaniye Mosque
Pink, with the tallest minaret in the old town; built after the siege of 1522
7
Kahal Shalom Synagogue
From 1577 and the oldest still standing in Greece; a museum and a memorial
8
Square of the Jewish Martyrs
The seahorse fountain and a memorial to the 1,604 Jews deported in July 1944
9
Hippocrates Square
The old town’s meeting point, with the Castellania of 1507 above the fountain
10
Agiou Fanouriou lane
The quiet north–south lane through the old town, where people actually live

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What is an audio walk?

Tours in Rhodes →

A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Rhodes:

Free walking tours in Rhodes

The town the Knights built

d’Amboise Gate · The walls are four kilometres long and were divided into eight sections, each one assigned to a different "tongue" of the Order — France, Spain, Italy, Provence, England, Germany, Auvergne and Castile — and each was responsible for repairing and defending its own stretch. You can still read which tongue held which wall from the coats of arms carved above the gates. This gate was built in 1512, ten years before the end.
Palace of the Grand Master · What you walk into is not medieval. In 1856 lightning struck the church of St John next door, where three hundred and fifty years of gunpowder had been forgotten in a vault, and the explosion flattened the palace and killed hundreds of people in the surrounding streets. The Italians rebuilt it from 1937 as a summer residence for their king — which is why the floors are ancient mosaics brought from Kos and the ceilings are 1930s. Eight euro, verified 10/2026.
Street of the Knights · Six hundred metres of unbroken fifteenth-century street, and each building on it was the inn of one tongue — the knights lived, ate and slept with their countrymen and nobody else. The street slopes up towards the palace in a straight line, which is the one Hippodamian line left in a town otherwise built as a tangle. The Italians stripped later additions off it between 1912 and the 1930s, which is why it reads as a single period.
Archaeological Museum · This was the Knights’ hospital, begun in 1440, and the great ward on the upper floor held thirty-two beds in alcoves, each with its own window — a layout that was advanced enough to be copied in Europe for two centuries. The statue people come for is the Aphrodite of Rhodes, found in the sea, her face eaten away by salt water. Lawrence Durrell, posted here in 1945, wrote a whole book around her.
Our Lady of the Castle · The Knights built it as their Gothic cathedral; the Ottomans turned it into the Enderun mosque and plastered over the frescoes; the Italians stripped the plaster back off. It is now a Byzantine museum, and in places all three layers are visible in the same wall. That triple overwriting is the actual history of this town, and this one building says it without a caption.
Marine Gate · Built in 1478 and the most heavily defended of the eleven gates, because it faced the commercial harbour where an attack would actually come from. In 1522 Suleiman arrived with a reported hundred thousand men against about seven thousand defenders; the siege lasted six months, and it ended not in a storming but in a negotiated surrender — the knights were allowed to sail away with their weapons and their archives, and went on to Malta.

The other old town

Most visitors see one third of the walled town — the knights’ third. The lower two thirds were the Turkish and Jewish quarters, and that is where people still actually live: six thousand residents inside the walls, washing on the lines, children on bicycles, and no souvenir shop for whole streets at a time. This walk goes down there. About two hours, and it is the half of the old town that is quiet at midday.

Hippocrates Square · The building with the outside staircase over the fountain is the Castellania, finished in 1507, and it was the merchants’ court — the place where commercial disputes between the traders of a dozen nations were settled under the Order’s law. The Knights were a military order that also ran a tax-efficient trading port, and this building is the proof. It is a library now.
Suleymaniye Mosque · Pink, with the tallest minaret inside the walls, and it was built on the site where Suleiman is said to have given thanks after the city fell in 1522; the building you see was rebuilt in 1808. Rhodes had a continuous Muslim community from 1522 until the population exchanges of the twentieth century, and a small one remains — which is why some of these mosques are maintained and not museums.
Municipal Baths · A working Turkish bath from 1558, damaged by bombing in the Second World War and rebuilt, and still a public hammam rather than a tourist attraction. For four centuries this was where the lower town washed, because the houses had no plumbing — which is also why it sits exactly between the Turkish and Jewish quarters rather than in either of them.
Agiou Fanouriou lane · The long lane that cuts the old town from north to south, and the reason it is worth walking is that nothing here was restored for display: Ottoman wooden overhangs supported on beams that cross the street, doorways cut into Byzantine walls, and a twelfth-century church halfway down with a Turkish fountain against its side. The arches overhead are earthquake bracing — they hold two facing houses up against each other.
Kahal Shalom Synagogue · Built in 1577 and the oldest synagogue still standing in Greece. The community here spoke Ladino, came after the expulsion from Spain, and numbered about four thousand people. On the 23rd of July 1944 the Germans deported one thousand six hundred and four of them to Auschwitz; about a hundred and fifty survived. The floor is black and white pebble mosaic, laid in the local island technique.
Square of the Jewish Martyrs · The square with the bronze seahorse fountain was the heart of the Jewish quarter and is named for the deportation. Read the memorial plaque and then look at the streets running off it: the quarter was never rebuilt because almost nobody came back, and the empty lots behind the square are where houses stood until the bombing of 1944. The fountain itself is Italian, from the 1920s.

What the Italians built

Rhodes was Italian from 1912 to 1943, and that is the layer most visitors walk straight past. Outside the walls the Italians laid out a whole new administrative city at Mandraki in a deliberate mix of art deco and orientalist styles, dug out the ancient acropolis on the hill, and turned the island into a showpiece. This walk is the modern town, and it is also where the Colossus story gets settled. Two hours, mostly flat, with one climb at the end.

Mandraki Harbour · The two columns at the harbour mouth carry a stag and a doe, put there by the Italians — deer were introduced to Rhodes in antiquity to deal with the snakes, and they are the island’s emblem. They are also where the Colossus is traditionally said to have stood with a leg on each side, which is impossible: a bronze figure cannot straddle a harbour mouth and no ancient source says it did. It stood somewhere on land, for fifty-four years, until the earthquake of 226 BC.
The windmills of Mandraki · Three stone mills stand on the mole and thirteen or fourteen once did. They were sited out on the breakwater for a practical reason: the grain came in by ship, and milling it on the quay saved carrying it into the town. The fort at the end of the same mole was paid for in the fifteenth century by a donation from Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy, who never came here.
Nea Agora · Built by the Italians in 1926 as a seven-sided ring of shops with a domed fish hall in the middle of the courtyard — the architect borrowed the arcades and the pointed arches from Ottoman building on purpose, as part of a policy of making the new Italian town look as though it belonged. The fish hall still works in the mornings. Everything inside the ring facing the street is now cafés.
Murad Reis Mosque · The cemetery around it is full of carved stone turbans, and the shape of the turban tells you the rank and the office of the man buried under it — a whole civil service written in stone. The small villa in the garden is where Lawrence Durrell lived in 1945 and 1946 as press officer of the British administration, and the book he wrote there is still the best thing written about this island.
Ancient stadium · Second century BC, about two hundred metres long, and restored by the Italians in the 1930s — which is why the seating looks newer than it is. Next to it is a small marble theatre that was not a theatre for plays: it was the lecture hall of the school of rhetoric that made Rhodes famous. Cicero studied here, and so did Julius Caesar.
Mount Smith acropolis · The hill is named after Sir Sydney Smith, a British admiral who used it as a lookout against the French fleet in 1802 — a Greek acropolis carrying an English name for a Napoleonic reason. Four columns of the temple of Apollo stand on the terrace, re-erected by the Italians. It is free, it is never locked, and it faces due west, which makes it the one place in town where the sunset is the whole point.

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Getting to Rhodes and getting around

Diagoras Airport · 14 kilometres from town, next to Paradisi village; the airport bus runs along the west coast
KTEL bus station · Two companies share one yard: KTEL east to Lindos, RODA west to the airport
Mandraki Harbour · The excursion boats to Symi and Lindos leave from here, and the day boats fill by nine
Kamiros Skala · The small west-coast quay; the ferry to Halki island goes from here, not from town

Cheap eats in Rhodes

Rhodes has its own food and it is not the food of mainland Greece. The dish to look for is pitaroudia — chickpea fritters with onion, mint and tomato, fried and eaten standing, which exist because the island is dry and chickpeas keep. Then there is melekouni, a sesame and honey bar handed out at weddings and nothing else, and the island’s own sweet red wine from Embonas. The counters are in and around the Nea Agora and along the lanes behind Hippocrates Square. Three to twelve euro.

Nea Agora fish hall · Mornings are the point; by afternoon it is cafés
Pitaroudia counters · About 4 to 6 euro a plate
Souvlaki lanes · 3 to 5 euro, and cash is easier
Melekouni · A couple of euro a piece, in any bakery
Archangelos village counters · Half the old-town prices
Embonas wine · A few euro a glass; most close by six
Haraki seafront · Weighed in front of you — ask the price first
Koskinou · 10 to 18 euro, and a taxi back

Museums in Rhodes

The museums of Rhodes are mostly buildings that were something else first — a hospital, a cathedral, a palace blown up by lightning — and the building is usually the better half of the visit. A combined ticket covers four of the old-town sites, which is cheaper than paying separately if you intend to see more than two. Verified 10/2026.

Palace of the Grand Master · 8 euro. 08:00–20:00 April–October, 08:30–15:30 in winter
Archaeological Museum · In the combined old-town ticket
Our Lady of the Castle · In the combined old-town ticket
Modern Greek Art Museum · Three buildings on one ticket
Kahal Shalom Synagogue · Small donation; closed Saturday
Lindos Acropolis · 20 euro, timed slot booked in advance. Verified 10/2026
Ancient Kamiros · 6 euro, roughly April to October. Verified 10/2026

Nature and day trips near Rhodes

Rhodes is seventy-eight kilometres long and the two halves have nothing to do with each other: the east coast is sheltered and has every organised beach, the west coast takes the wind straight and is where the windsurfers go. Inland is a mountain spine with pine forest and villages, and it is ten degrees cooler in August than the shore.

Seven Springs · Free; the tunnel is low and completely dark
Valley of the Butterflies · July and August only; do not clap
Mount Attavyros · Four hours return, no shade and no water
Prasonisi · A car, and a full tank
Rodini Park · Free, and walkable from the old town
Kallithea Springs · A paid site; the swimming is off rocks
Tsambika Beach · Shallow a long way out; good for children
Anthony Quinn Bay · Rock entry — water shoes

Holy places in Rhodes

Four religions left buildings on Rhodes and all four are still standing: Orthodox monasteries in the hills, the Knights’ Catholic churches inside the walls, Ottoman mosques with their cemeteries, and the synagogue of a Ladino community that is almost entirely gone. On an island this size they are a twenty-minute drive apart.

Tsambika Monastery · About 300 steps; the chapel is tiny
Thari Monastery · In the forest; a car, and modest dress
Filerimos Monastery · Modest dress; the crucifix stair is open
Asklipio church · Small donation; the village is quiet
Murad Reis Mosque · The garden is open; the mosque usually is not
Panagia of Lindos · Modest dress; it closes in the afternoon

Things to do in Rhodes with kids

Faliraki waterpark · One of the largest in Greece, and the bus from town goes there all day
Rhodes Aquarium · Small, in an Italian research institute of 1937, and it takes under an hour
Tsambika Beach · Shallow a long way out, orange sand, and sunbeds all along it
Seven Springs tunnel · Free, ankle deep and completely dark — older children love it
Clock Tower · The highest point inside the walls, and the ticket includes a drink
Mandraki deer columns · Free, and the Colossus story is best told standing right here
Lindos donkeys · They carry visitors up to the acropolis; the climb on foot takes 15 minutes
Rodini Park · Free, shaded, with peacocks and a stream — 20 minutes from the walls

Nightlife in Rhodes

Rhodes has two separate nights and they do not mix. Faliraki, fourteen kilometres out, is the loud one and has been since the 1990s. Inside the old town the night is courtyards, roof terraces and small bars in medieval rooms, and it is quiet by two because people live upstairs.

Old town courtyards · Quiet by two; residents live upstairs
Faliraki strip · Nothing opens before eleven; taxis at the end
Casino Rhodes · Passport at the door; smart dress
Mandraki seafront · Between seven and nine; free
Lindos roof terraces · Check the last bus before you sit down
Nea Agora at night · The reliable late food in the new town

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Frequently asked questions about Rhodes

What is there to see in Rhodes?

The top sights in Rhodes are Rhodes Old Town, Palace of the Grand Master and Street of the Knights. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.

How many days do you need in Rhodes?

Three to four days are enough to see the best of Rhodes without rushing, including at least one walking tour.

Is there a free walking tour in Rhodes?

Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Rhodes, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: The town the Knights built.

How do you get to Rhodes and get around?

The main ways are Diagoras Airport, KTEL bus station and Mandraki Harbour. Full details are in the transport section on this page.

Where to stay in Rhodes, and for how much?

sleepntrip shows only rooms in Rhodes that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.

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