Rhodes Greece | tourist holiday travel guide to Rhodes

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RHODES, Greece, is the Crusader Isle, steeped in ancient history and boasting 300 days of blue skies a year. It lies at the southern end of the Dodecanese island chain that follows the line of the Turkish coast and is one of the most popular holiday destinations in the Mediterranean, attracting relentless waves of visitors.
Its most popular resorts, such as Faliraki, are now almost totally devoted to package tourism and anyone in search of Greek goatherds and fishing villages has come to the wrong place. Here you will find an insatiable avarice that only an unending supply of cash-rich foreigners can sustain.
The most popular beaches lie to the north and east. The north coast is a maze of high-rise conference centres towering over narrow strips of shingle. On the east coast to Lindos, are replicated rows of holidayhotels. Only south of Lindos do crowds thin out and you find a more authentic glimpse of a Greek island.
Rhodes takes in more annual holiday visitors than virtually any other Greek island. The attraction is not just the long summer season and the sandy beaches but also the remarkably well preserved medieval city of Rhodes itself, castles galore courtesy of the Crusaders and a hilly, forested interior with some lovely landscapes.
The island's classical past can be explored at the ancient sites of Kamiros, Ialyssos and Lindos. Medieval fortresses to rival any in the world can be found at Rhodes, Lindos and Monolithos.
The island suffers from tourism of almost frenzied proportions, laced with rampant commercialism, tons of litter, dirt and dust. Those looking for a more authentic holiday will head south where the island becomes a backwater of dirt roads and ancient villages, though isolated luxury hotels are now cropping up.