Rhodes, Slowly

Met at Rhodes airport and driven fifteen minutes to the coast. Nothing is planned beyond a first swim and an easy dinner near the hotel, because the flight day is long enough on its own.

Into the walls by nine, when the Street of the Knights is still quiet. The Palace of the Grand Master, the archaeological museum while it is cool, then the backstreets without a route. Lunch in a side alley rather than a square, and the afternoon on the walls and along the harbour.

Out of Mandraki in the morning while the sea is flat, south along the coast to Anthony Quinn Bay and the coves beyond it, with snorkelling stops, a long anchor for lunch on board and whatever the skipper considers his own spot.

Leaving early enough to be at the Acropolis by half past eight, the temple of Athena Lindia and the views before the heat. Down through the whitewashed village, then the sheltered turquoise bay underneath for a swim and a slow lunch on the sand.

A morning in the shade at the seven springs or the butterfly valley, both twenty minutes inland, then an afternoon that asks nothing of you at a beach club on Elli with a sunbed held in your name. Sunset drinks nearby and dinner back inside the walls.

A driving day with a purpose. Lunch in Embona, grilled lamb and local red by the carafe, then the pine road over Profitis Ilias past the two abandoned Art Deco hotels the Italians left behind, and on to a cliff castle on the west coast for the light.

A last swim, breakfast on the terrace and a late check out where the hotel can give it. The airport is fifteen minutes away and we build in the time properly.