Rhodes
You can be here in January for about €572, 4 days, direct.
Why now
Good time in January: 17°C days, sea 19°C.
May, June and September to October are the months: Lindos is walkable before noon, the old town's tavernas are open without the July crush, and the sea is warm from June. In August the meltemi makes the west coast rough and the east coast hot; many places close from November to April.
Best months here: September, October, November. January is not one of them — the label above measures the month against a fixed bar, not against the rest of the year here. Daytime highs, sea temperature and rainy days from three years of Open-Meteo reanalysis; a rainy day is one with at least 1 mm of rain, which is the WMO threshold and not the same as "it drizzled".
The place
Rhodes has a walled medieval city built by the Knights of St John, an Italian-era town outside it, and an east coast of package hotels that pay for the rest. It suits people who want history with their beach, do not mind sharing the old town's Street of the Knights with cruise passengers, and are willing to drive south to find the island that existed before tourism.
What you can do
- 01Walk the moat and walls of the Old Town in the early morning, then the Palace of the Grand Master.
- 02Climb to the Lindos acropolis at opening, then swim in St Paul's Bay below.
- 03Eat pitaroudia chickpea fritters and grilled octopus in a taverna away from Sokratous street.
- 04Drive south past Gennadi to Prasonisi, where the island ends in a sandbar between two seas.
- 05Visit the Archaeological Museum in the Knights' Hospital, then the Turkish quarter's Süleyman mosque and library.
Where to stay · neighbourhoods
A first visit should stay inside the Old Town or in Lindos village; the strip from Faliraki to Kolymbia is package hotels and best chosen only for a beach-only week.
Unusual things
- ◦The Kallithea Springs, an Italian-built 1929 spa complex restored as a swimming spot with mosaic floors.
- ◦Monolithos castle, a Knights' fortress on a rock above the west coast with the sea on three sides.
- ◦Filerimos hill above Ialyssos, with a Knights' monastery, a Byzantine church and peacocks on the Way of the Cross.
Day trips
Flight options
Routes come from OpenFlights (historical) and a 2026 route reference compiled from public timetables. Durations are the published schedule where we have it, otherwise a block-time model fitted on measured nonstop flights. Verify schedules with the airline before booking.
Entry requirements · IT passport
Source: passport-index-data, March 2026 (coarse indicator), covering 258 of our 268 destinations for each of 199 passports. Always confirm with the destination's official site.
Airports
Distances are centre to airport derived · nonstop counts are our route reference for 2026, not every flight that exists.
Local transport
- Airport to city
- Bus, 30 min, €2.60
- Car needed?
- Recommended for most of what is worth seeing
- Getting around
- The airport is 15 km from town with buses every 30 minutes taking about 40 minutes; KTEL buses run the east coast to Lindos hourly and the west coast less often. A car is needed for the south and the interior.
- Clock
- Same time as Athens (Europe/Athens) derived
- Daylight
- 9.9 hours of daylight in January · sunrise 07:18, sunset 17:14 derived
- Currency
- EUR
Good to know
Wildfires have affected the south and east of the island in recent summers; check local advice during heatwaves and follow any evacuation instructions.
Alternatives at a similar price
Whole trip per person for 4 days from Athens in January, then the flight time; estimates, like the total above.
Luxor
Marrakech
Sharm El Sheikh
Casablanca
Hurghada
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