Rhodes With Kids
A medieval city with two and a half miles of walls, a dry moat you can walk the whole way round, a beach 10 minutes from the castle gate, and an island of shallow bays and a white village on a cliff. Rhodes is the Greek island I pick for a family who wants a castle with their beach.
Nicole Damiano, ASTA Verified Travel Advisor with FG Luxury Travel
Is Rhodes good for kids?
Yes. A medieval old town with a dry moat to run around, a palace to march through, beaches 10 minutes from the walls, shallow sandy bays, a water park, a valley of butterflies in summer and a white village with a cove to swim in.
How many days do you need in Rhodes?
Five nights for the old town, two beach days, Lindos and the butterflies. Seven if you want Symi and the quiet south of the island.
How do you get from Athens to Rhodes?
By plane in about 55 minutes, with several flights a day. The ferry from Piraeus takes 12 to 18 hours and only makes sense as an overnight adventure.
Where should a family stay in Rhodes?
Inside the old town or on Elli beach for the castle and the town on foot, or at a resort in Kallithea or Faliraki 15 to 20 minutes south for pools, slides and kids' clubs with the old town as a day out.
When is the best time to visit Rhodes?
May, June, late September and October for warm sea and a walkable old town. July and August are hot and crowded. The Valley of the Butterflies only has its butterflies from June to September.
The Island The Knights Built
The Knights of St John ran Rhodes for two centuries from 1309, and the old town they left behind is one of the biggest medieval cities still lived in anywhere, with walls, gates, a dry moat, the Street of the Knights and the Palace of the Grand Master at the top. Outside the walls the modern town has a beach on each side, and the island runs 50 miles south through resort coast, pine hills and small villages to the white houses and the acropolis of Lindos. Kids get a castle on day one and the sea on every day after.
Five nights covers the old town and the walls, two beach days, the Valley of the Butterflies and a day in Lindos. A week lets you add Symi by boat and the quiet south.
Getting Around
On foot inside the old town, which is closed to cars. Rhodes Town to the beaches, the aquarium and Kallithea works by taxi or local bus. For Lindos, the butterflies and the island, rent a car for the days you need it, the roads are good and the distances short.
Neighborhoods worth basing in
Inside the old town
Small hotels and restored stone houses inside the walls, with the Street of the Knights, the palace and the squares at the door and the beach a 10 minute walk through the gate. Car free, atmospheric and noisy with cruise crowds at midday. The base for a first visit with kids old enough to love the castle.
Elli beach and the new town
The modern town north of the walls, with the long pebble and sand beach, the aquarium at the tip, Mandraki harbor and the casino. Bigger hotels with pools, a flat walk to the old town, and sea on both sides of a narrow point.
Kallithea and Faliraki
The resort coast 15 to 20 minutes south of town, with the big family hotels, the water park at Faliraki and the sandy beaches. Pools, kids’ clubs and space, with the old town a taxi ride away for the castle day.
Rodos Park Suites and Spa
A hotel with a garden pool just outside the old town walls, with big suites, a spa and the gates of the medieval city five minutes on foot. The splurge for a family who wants the castle and a pool in the same day.
Amada Colossos Resort
The big family resort on the beach at Kallithea, 15 minutes from town, with water slides, pools, a kids’ club and the Kallithea Springs a short walk along the coast. The one I book for families who want the beach week done for them.
Hotel Mediterranean
A straightforward hotel on Elli beach in the new town, with sea view rooms and the old town a 10 minute walk. Good value for a family who wants the beach in the morning and the castle in the afternoon.
The Three I Build Every Rhodes Trip Around
The old town and the Street of the Knights
Walk in through the Marine Gate from the harbor and climb to the Street of the Knights, the cobbled lane of the inns where each nation of knights lived, with their coats of arms over the doors. At the top is the Palace of the Grand Master, rebuilt by the Italians in the 1930s with mosaics on the floors and halls the kids can march through. Below it the lanes are full of shops, cats and small squares with fountains. Go early or late to miss the cruise groups.
The walls and the moat
The dry moat that circles the old town is a park now, grassy and shaded, and families walk or run the whole loop under the walls in an hour, past catapult balls still lying where they fell in the siege of 1522. On certain days the walls themselves are open to walk along the top from the palace. It is the free, flat thing in Rhodes for a kid who likes castles, and the one they talk about after.
The beaches and Kallithea Springs
Elli beach runs along the north point 10 minutes from the walls, with a diving platform offshore the teenagers swim to and the aquarium at the end, a small 1930s building with tanks of Aegean fish. Twenty minutes south, Kallithea Springs is an Italian era bathhouse of domes and mosaics built around a rocky cove, with ladders into clear water and a cafe. Further down, Tsambika is the long shallow sandy beach for small kids, and Anthony Quinn Bay is the swimming hole with the clear water.
Family Time, Built In: Rhodes With Kids
Rhodes with kids is a castle to march through, a moat to run around, a beach 10 minutes away, a valley full of butterflies and a white village on a cliff with a bay below it.
The Palace of the Grand Master
The Valley of the Butterflies in summer
The diving platform off Elli beach
Swimming at Kallithea Springs
PARK & DOWNTIME PICK
The moat is the park, a shaded green loop around the old town with the walls above and room to run. The Valley of the Butterflies, 30 minutes south west, is a wooded gorge with streams and wooden bridges where thousands of Jersey tiger moths rest on the trees from June to September, and kids walk through quietly to watch them lift off. Faliraki has the island’s water park for a hot afternoon, and the Seven Springs has a dark tunnel the older kids wade through to a lake.
Five Things To Eat In Rhodes
Grilled fish at Mandraki
Olives, cheese and bread
Loukoumades and melekouni
Ice cream in the old town
Freddo cappuccino by the harborNicole’s Perspective
The island with a castle on it
When a family tells me they want a Greek island but the kids will be bored on a beach, I say Rhodes. The old town is a real medieval city you can walk around the top of, the moat is a playground, and the beach is 10 minutes from the gate. Then the island itself has warm shallow bays and a village on a cliff.
I plan five nights as the base of a Greek trip, with Athens first for the Acropolis and a 55 minute flight down. Old town and walls on day one, beach days in between, Lindos as the long day and the butterflies in summer. The direct flights from Europe make it an easy second week after London or Rome.
The Day Trip: Lindos
Fifty minutes south, Lindos is a village of white cube houses stacked under a cliff with an ancient acropolis on top and a round blue bay below. Walk up through the lanes to the acropolis, where the columns of the Temple of Athena stand above the sea, and look down on St Paul’s Bay, the little round cove where the kids will want to swim after. Lindos beach below the village is shallow and sandy and good for small kids. Go early, before 10, because the village fills by noon in summer and the climb is in full sun. Pelekanos beach is a quieter stop on the way back.
Things I Would Tell A Friend Before They Booked
How Many Days
Five nights covers the old town, two beach days, the butterflies and Lindos. Seven adds Symi and the quiet south.
The old town and the moat on day one, Elli beach and the aquarium on day two, Lindos on day three, Kallithea and Tsambika on day four, the butterflies on day five.
Add the ferry to Symi for a day in the pastel harbor town, and a drive to the castle at Monolithos and the kite beach at Prasonisi at the southern tip.
Three nights in Athens for the Acropolis and the museums, the short flight to Rhodes for six nights of castle and beach, then home from Athens. Ten days, no ferries, one island done properly.
Rhodes With Kids, Answered
Is Rhodes good for kids?
Yes. A medieval old town with a dry moat to run around, a palace to march through, beaches 10 minutes from the walls, shallow sandy bays, a water park, a valley of butterflies in summer and a white village with a cove to swim in.
How many days do you need in Rhodes?
Five nights for the old town, two beach days, Lindos and the butterflies. Seven if you want Symi and the quiet south of the island.
How do you get from Athens to Rhodes?
By plane in about 55 minutes, with several flights a day. The ferry from Piraeus takes 12 to 18 hours and only makes sense as an overnight adventure.
Where should a family stay in Rhodes?
Inside the old town or on Elli beach for the castle and the town on foot, or at a resort in Kallithea or Faliraki 15 to 20 minutes south for pools, slides and kids’ clubs with the old town as a day out.
When is the best time to visit Rhodes?
May, June, late September and October for warm sea and a walkable old town. July and August are hot and crowded. The Valley of the Butterflies only has its butterflies from June to September.
Ready To Put Rhodes On The Calendar
Send me your dates and your kids’ ages and I will pair Rhodes with Athens, pick the beach hotel or the old town house, and plan the Lindos day around the heat.
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