Where to Stay in Rhodes: Best Areas for Every Kind of Trip

Rhodes is big as Greek islands go. It’s 78km top to bottom, and the southern tip is a two-hour drive from the airport up north.

The island caters to many different types of holidaymaker. It’s most well known for large-scale resorts and family villas, but is also home to smaller boutique stays, cosy rentals and wind and kitesurfing enthusiasts.

We spent five days and four nights in Lindos, drove the length of the east coast down to the southern tip, and spent a full in Rhodes Town on our way out. This guide is built from our experience, plus a lot of pre-trip research into the areas we did not stay in.

In a Rush? Our Favourite Rhodes Hotels

Where to Stay in Rhodes at a Glance

Here are all the main areas across Rhodes broken down into one easy table so you can find the type of holiday best suited to you.

Area	Best For	Beach	Car Needed?
Rhodes Town	History, no-car trips	Pebbly, urban	No
Lindos	Couples, first-timers who want character	Two sandy bays, both small	No
Pefkos	Value, groups, flat walking	Long and sandy	Helpful
Faliraki	Nightlife, young groups	Long, sandy, busy	No
Kallithea	Swimming and snorkelling coves	Rocky bays	Helpful
Kolymbia & Kalathos	Families, resort facilities	Sandy, calm, shallow	Yes
Ixia & Ialysos	Windsurfing, airport convenience	Pebbly and windy	No
Gennadi & Kiotari	Quiet, all-inclusive, escaping crowds	Long, empty, shingly	Yes
Prasonisi	Kitesurfing and windsurfing only	Sandbar between two seas	Yes

Rhodes Accommodation Map

Use the map below to compare prices and availability across the areas in this guide.

Which Side of Rhodes Has the Best Beaches?

The island has two very different coastlines. The east coast is sheltered from the Meltemi wind, the strong northerly that blows across the Aegean all summer. Its beaches are mostly sandy, the water is calm and it warms up nicely. Lindos, Pefkos, Faliraki, Kolymbia, Kalathos and the southeast all sit here.

The west coast faces the wind head on. Ixia and Ialysos are pebbly, the sea is choppy most afternoons, and the seabed drops away sharply. That is exactly why they are world-class windsurfing beaches — and exactly why they are a poor choice if what you pictured a holiday floating about in flat turquoise water.

If you are booking for swimming and beach days, book the east coast. If you are booking to get on the water with a sail or a kite, the west and the southern tip are where you want to be. Getting this backwards is the most common Rhodes booking mistake!

Rhodes Town: Brilliant to Visit, We Would Not Stay

Most guides recommend Rhodes Town as the best base, especially for first-timers. We visited and personally would not recommend staying there.

The history is superb. The Palace of the Grand Master is impressive, the Street of the Knights has survived more or less intact, and the Archaeological Museum in the old Knights’ hospital was great. The medieval walled city is cool and worth a half day of anyone’s holiday.

But we researched hard before we went and still could not find an authentic taverna or a bar that felt like it was for anyone who lives there. There is a main tourist strip, the shops down it sell the same trinkets over and over, you can shop in ZARA, and eating and drinking here was pretty poor compared to in Lindos.

For a walled medieval city with that much history, we came away oddly flat about the experience. We were glad we had not booked a night there, and we would say the same to you. Go for the history, plan around the palace and the museums, and sleep somewhere with better dinners and atmosphere!

If you do book to stay in Rhodes Town, we’d recommend Elakati Luxury Boutique Hotel which was the nicest place we walked by.

Browse places to stay in Rhodes Old Town

Lindos: The Best All-Rounder for Couples

Lindos is a protected village, which is why it still looks the way it does. Whitewashed lanes and terracotta roofs under a 116-metre cliff with an ancient acropolis on top, the sandy Lindos beach and the famous St Paul’s Bay.

It is the prettiest place on Rhodes and we loved it. We spent our whole trip there and would go back for a sunny pool-side holiday again.

Lindos is best for couples above all. It’s a village of romantic rooftop dinners, wine bars, sunset at the Acropolis, and small adults-only boutique hotels tucked at the quiet back of the village. Families also stay here because Lindos Beach has a gentle sandy entry and shallow water.

The drawbacks are that it is hot and it is busy from about 11AM when the day trip boats dock, and it is the most expensive part of the island. It is also built on a hill — steps, cobbles and slopes almost everywhere, which rules it out for anyone with mobility difficulties.

Lindos has small boutique hotels and restored houses inside the village, and larger sea-view resorts on Vlicha Bay two kilometres north. Full details in our where to stay in Lindos guide. We stayed in the beautiful Caesar’s Gardens Hotel and Spa, a boutique resort at the back of town.

Browse places to stay in Lindos

Pefkos: Lindos Without the Price Tag

Four kilometres south of Lindos, Pefkos is where we would send anyone who loves the sound of Lindos but not the sound of the bill.

It is a low-rise resort village with a long sandy beach, a strip of bars and tavernas, and accommodation that costs meaningfully less. It is also flat, which after a few days of Lindos steps is a real selling point.

The trade-off is that it has none of Lindos’ looks. This is modern resort area rather than protected heritage village, so you get the practical benefits and none of the whitewashed lanes. You will be taxiing into Lindos for the Acropolis and the rooftop dinners.

It’s best for couples on a budget, groups, and families who want flat walking and a longer beach.

Browse places to stay in Pefkos

Faliraki: Best for Nightlife, and Only for Nightlife

Faliraki is the island’s party town and its long sandy beach is great. If you are in a group in your twenties and the plan involves late nights and spirits, this is where you want to be on Rhodes.

For anything else, stay away from here. It is the most tourist-heavy stretch of the island and the character is very much bars, chains and lager rather than Greek village.

Best for: young groups, hen and stag trips, anyone whose priority is nightlife.
Avoid if: you want quiet, or you are travelling with small children.

Browse places to stay in Faliraki

Kallithea: Best for Swimming and Snorkelling

Just south of Rhodes Town, Kallithea is a series of rocky coves rather than a long beach, and the swimming is some of the clearest on the island. The restored 1920s Italian thermal spa buildings at Kallithea Springs are the draw, and they are unusual enough to be worth the trip even if you are staying elsewhere.

Kolymbia and Kalathos: Best for Families

This stretch of the east coast is where the big family resorts sit due to sandy beaches with calm, shallow water and sheltered from the wind. Kolymbia has a relaxed village feel alongside the hotels. Kalathos, a little further south, has a long quiet beach and sits within reach of Lindos.

We originally considered staying at the stunning-looking Casa Cook Rhodes, but we know ourselves too well and knew we’d want to be out exploring after one day by the pool. If a full-on pool holiday is what you have in mind though, consider here.

The drawback is there is not much to walk out to in the evening. These are places you stay rather than places you explore, so you will want a car if you do want to head out of your resort and you’d rack up quite a lot of taxi fares if you head into Lindos to eat out.

Browse places to stay in Kolymbia and Kalathos

Ixia and Ialysos: Windsurfing, Not Swimming

Minutes from the airport on the west coast, Ixia and Ialysos have long seafront promenades, big resort hotels and the best sunsets on the island.

They also have pebbly beaches, consistently windy afternoons and water that gets deep quickly. That combination is superb if you windsurf and disappointing if you wanted a calm swim. Both are established windsurfing destinations for this reason.

Avoid here if your holiday is mostly about swimming, or you have young children. This area is also on the flight path, so some Ixia hotels get aircraft noise.

Gennadi, Kiotari and the Quiet South

Head south past Lardos and the island empties out. Long, largely undeveloped beaches, a handful of large all-inclusive resorts, and very little else.

Friends of ours absolutely adore Gennadi and have stayed there multiple times. We drove this stretch on our way to the southern tip and the change is noticeable — fields of goats, rolling golden hills, the old silk factory visible from the road. It is the most rural part of Rhodes.

It’s best for couples and families who want it very quiet, and anyone happy in a resort with a car for occasional escapes. The drawback is you are a long way from everything. Rhodes Town is over an hour, Lindos around 30 minutes. Without a car you will be stuck.

Browse places to stay in Gennadi

Prasonisi: Only If You Are on the Water Every Day

The southern tip is a sandbar where the Aegean meets the Mediterranean, and one of the most reliable wind sports spots in Europe. We spent a day there learning to kite surf.

It is not a town. It is three watersports centres, a couple of restaurants, two supermarkets and a handful of guesthouses. Nobody lives there and everything shuts outside roughly April to October. The only well-rated hotel in town is the Prasonisi Lighthouse Boutique Hotel.

Stay here only if you plan to be on the water daily. For anything else it is a day trip. Full details in our Prasonisi guide.

Rhodes Town vs Lindos: Which Should You Choose?

This is the decision many first-time visitors to Rhodes will be considering, and the exact question we asked when we were researching our trip to Rhodes.

	Rhodes Town	Lindos
Looks	Medieval walled city	Whitewashed cliffside village
History	Far more of it	One outstanding Acropolis
Eating and Drinking	Weak, in our experience	Excellent, rooftop terraces, good wine bars
Beaches	Urban and pebbly	Two small sandy bays
Without a Car	Easily the better base	Limits you to Lindos
Price	More options at every level	More expensive
Crowds	Cruise passengers by day	Day boats from 11AM

Our Recommendation: Stay in Lindos and visit Rhodes Town for a half-day either on your way in or out of the airport. This is what we did and we have zero regrets!

Do You Need a Car in Rhodes?

It depends entirely on where you stay and what you want to do. This is worth thinking about before you book rather than after.

You do not need a car in: Rhodes Town, Lindos, Faliraki, Ixia and Ialysos. All are walkable and connected by the KTEL bus network.

You do need one in: Kolymbia, Kalathos, Gennadi, Kiotari and anywhere in the south. Without one you will eat every meal in your hotel or spend a fortune on taxis.

You can absolutely do Rhodes without a car, you just have to pick your base for it. The KTEL bus network covers the main east coast routes cheaply and reliably.

How Many Days Do You Need in Rhodes?

Three nights covers one base and its immediate surroundings. Four to five lets you fully relax and enjoy where you are, and take a day trip. A week lets you see both ends of the island without rushing. More than that and you’ll have a mega tan.

What we would not do is base yourself in Lindos and try to see all of Rhodes. You are an hour from Rhodes Town and around ninety minutes from the southern tip. Pick a base because you want that base, not as a compromise.

What It Costs

Rhodes is not a cheap island, and Lindos sits at the top end of it. Prices drop noticeably in the south and in certain resort towns. We have shared the total costs of our trip to Rhodes, including what the package itself cost.

Where Should You Stay in Rhodes?

For most people, most of the time: Lindos. It is the one place on the island where the setting, the food and the swimming all work at once, and it is the only part of Rhodes we would go back to for its own sake. It’s our top pick.

If the price makes you wince, Pefkos. If you have children, Kolymbia or Kalathos. If you are carless and want everything on your doorstep or it’s a very short trip, Rhodes Old Town. If you want to be left alone, the south.

More Rhodes Guides

• Lindos, Rhodes — the full guide to the village
• Where to Stay in Lindos — area by area
• Best Things To Do in Lindos
• Lindos Acropolis — tickets and timings
• St Paul’s Bay — both beaches and prices
• Kitesurfing at Prasonisi
• Is Rhodes Expensive? — what we spent