Why this 7-day Rhodes itinerary splits the stay, Old Town first
Do both. A week on Rhodes works best as a split stay: four nights in the walled Old Town, then three in Lindos. A single base gives you one place at its best and the other only at its most crowded; the split hands you the Old Town after the crowds leave and Lindos at dawn and after dark.
The route is one line: fly into Diagoras airport near Rhodes Town, sleep inside the Old Town walls for nights one to four, slot a Symi day boat and one driving day into that first half, then move about 47 km south to Lindos for nights five to seven and fly home from there. That is this Rhodes itinerary, 7 days that decide where you sleep rather than a menu of things to do.
Base all week in the Old Town, as most guides tell you to, and Lindos becomes a 45-to-50-minute drive each way, about 1 hour 40 minutes by KTEL bus. You can see it, but only mid-day, and you always leave before the coaches do, so you never get the whitewashed village once the day-trippers have gone. Base all week in Lindos and the medieval city flips to the far commute. Base on a resort strip between them and you commute to both, seeing neither at its hour.
The split fixes the timing. The Old Town’s main spine, Sokratous, fills with cruise passengers and day-tour groups by late morning and drains out by early evening; sleep inside the walls and the lamp-lit medieval city is yours after the last coach leaves. Lindos is worth the acropolis at opening and the village after dark, both of which a day-tripper never sees. Four nights in one, three in the other, buys every one of those hours.
Diagram by Greece Trips. Free to reuse with credit - CC BY 4.0.
Old Town first because you arrive next to it. Diagoras sits about 14 km southwest of Rhodes Town, and if you take the overnight ferry instead it docks at the commercial port beside the walls, so there is no long transfer on a tired arrival day. Lindos comes second as the slow wind-down before the flight home. And it is two bases, not four: split a week across the Old Town, a mid-island resort, Lindos and a west-coast village and you have three luggage moves in seven nights. Two fewer, and you still see the two places that matter. The wider case for each base is on the Rhodes hub, and the hotel-by-hotel decision is in where to stay in Rhodes.
Getting to Rhodes: fly, do not sail
Fly. From Athens it is about an hour by air to Rhodes International Airport, named Diagoras and coded RHO, about 14 km southwest of Rhodes Town. The only alternative is an overnight Blue Star ferry from Piraeus of roughly 13 to 17 hours, with no high-speed option on the direct route, so most people fly.
That overnight crossing is the honest reason most people fly: Blue Star runs it on conventional ferries only, an evening departure that lands you the next morning, with no catamaran to shorten it. Unless the sea passage is the point, the hour in the air wins.
The ferry has one bonus that suits this itinerary, though. It docks at Rhodes Town’s commercial port, a few minutes’ walk from the Old Town walls, which drops you straight into base one, a rare Greek arrival that leaves you in the middle of things rather than on a switchback road below them. A flight lands you about 14 km southwest of town, a 20-to-30-minute run in by taxi or airport bus.
You may not need Athens at all. Through Rhodes’ long season, charter and budget airlines fly into Diagoras direct from cities across Europe, which is how most of the resort crowd arrives, and it skips the connection entirely. However you come, the mechanics are in flights to Greece and how Greek island ferries actually work.
Days 1-4, base one: inside the walled Old Town
Staying inside the walls means small guesthouses and boutique conversions, cobbles that fight a wheeled suitcase, and a living medieval city that is yours once the day-trippers leave. Park outside; the Old Town is walled and car-free, and the gates are for people, not cars. Four nights here is what lets you see the headline sights early, ride out to a day boat and a driving day, and still have the lanes to yourself each evening.
Day 1: arrive and let the Old Town empty
Do nothing ambitious. Fly into Diagoras and take the 20-to-30-minute run into town, or step off the ferry a few minutes from the walls, then drop your bags and let the city empty. An easy first dinner inside the Old Town after 6pm, once the last cruise coaches have gone, is the whole plan. The walls are best when the crowds are not there to share them.
Day 2: the Palace, the Street of the Knights, the walls
See the medieval core early, before Sokratous fills. The Palace of the Grand Master anchors the top of the Old Town; the cobbled Street of the Knights runs down from it, and roughly 4 km of walls with a dry moat wrap the whole thing. From there the Ottoman quarter of mosques, minarets and a hammam, and the old Jewish quarter to the east, fill an unhurried afternoon. The Palace is ticketed; rather than trust a figure that drifts, buy on the day or check the current price and hours with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, which repriced it in 2025. The full walk is on Rhodes Old Town, and the wider list is in things to do in Rhodes.
Day 3: the Symi day boat
Give the best day off the island to Symi: a morning catamaran out, a late-afternoon boat back. Keep the detail light for now, because which island and which port is the next section, but pin the principle here. Take this day early in your Old Town leg, so a windy morning does not cost you the trip entirely.
Day 4: the driving day, or a beach day
This is the one day a rental car earns its keep. Point it at the west coast and green interior: ancient Kamiros on its hillside, the Valley of the Butterflies (worth it only in high summer, when the Jersey tiger moths gather), the Embonas wineries under Mt Attavyros, or Prasonisi at the windswept southern tip, about 90 km down. If you would rather swim than drive, swap in the sheltered east-coast beaches instead, Tsambika, Anthony Quinn Bay or Kalithea Springs, and save the car. That is the split worth making: one day needs a car, the rest of this base does not. The east-coast beaches are ranked in the best beaches in Rhodes.
The Dodecanese day boats: Symi, Halki, Kos, not Santorini
Here is the framing no single-base guide states: Rhodes is the hub of the Dodecanese, so a week here is one island plus day boats, and those boats go to its neighbours, not to the famous Cyclades. The best day trips from Rhodes are all short hops inside the same island group:
- Symi is the standout. A high-speed catamaran reaches it in about 50 minutes, a horseshoe harbour of pastel neoclassical mansions with the great Panormitis monastery at the south end. Morning boat out, late-afternoon boat back.
- Halki is the quiet one, reached from Kamiros Skala on the west coast: one sleepy harbour and clear water, for a day with nothing to prove.
- Kos is the bigger island to the north, with Hippocratic ruins and a harbour castle if you want a change of scale.
Name the anti-pattern, because travellers plan it every year: you cannot line up Santorini, Mykonos and Rhodes in one easy week. They sit on different ferry networks, and you connect them by flying via Athens, not by a short crossing. If the Cyclades are what you actually want, that is a different route, and the Athens, Naxos and Santorini week is built for it. Boat times and frequencies shift with the season, so check the operator before you pin a date. A full day ashore is in Symi and Kos, and the whole chain is mapped in the Dodecanese islands guide.
Moving south to Lindos: the drive, and the luggage question
The mid-week move is a short one. Lindos is roughly 47 km south of Rhodes Town, about a 45-to-50-minute drive on the east-coast road, or about 1 hour 40 minutes each way by KTEL bus. On paper it is nothing.
The honest cost of the split shows up on arrival. Lindos is a car-free, stepped village, so a wheeled suitcase is real work up the lanes, and there is no pulling up to the door. Three fixes: pack light enough to carry, arrange a hotel transfer or a porter at the edge of the village, or leave the car in the car park above and walk in. None of this is a reason to skip the move. It is the one thing the single-base guides never have to admit, and it is worth an afternoon of mild hassle to wake up in Lindos for three mornings. Traffic can stretch the drive in peak summer, so leave a margin. Driving, buses and the rest are in getting around Greece.
Days 5-7, base two: Lindos at dawn and after dark
Lindos is the postcard: a car-free tangle of whitewashed houses under a floodlit acropolis, boutique stays and sunset terraces, with prices to match. It suits couples better than anyone hauling luggage, and the reason to sleep here rather than day-trip in is the two hours a day-tripper never gets, the acropolis at opening and the village after dark.
Day 5: settle, then the acropolis at opening
Drop your bags, then climb the acropolis before 10am. The path is shadeless and worn slick by generations of donkeys, so early is cooler and quieter, ahead of the tour groups; wear real shoes. At the top stands the Doric Temple of Athena Lindia, and below it the blue horseshoe of St Paul’s Bay. Like the Palace, the acropolis is ticketed, so buy on the day or check the current price and hours with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture rather than a figure that drifts. Come evening, the village is yours once the day boats and coaches have gone. The climb in detail is on the Lindos acropolis.
Day 6: the sheltered bays and a slow day
This is a swim day, not another drive. Lindos sits on the sheltered east coast, the sandy, swimmable side of Rhodes, so give the day to St Paul’s Bay below the acropolis, the pines and shallow water at Pefki, or the sweep of Agathi a little to the north. A long lunch, an afternoon in the water, a sunset terrace to close, that is the whole point of basing here rather than commuting through. Why Lindos suits a couple is spelled out in Rhodes for couples.
Day 7: fly out, and the drive back north
Be honest about the last morning. Diagoras is up near Rhodes Town, northwest of Lindos, so flying out of a Lindos base means about a 50-minute drive back up the coast on departure day. Build the transfer into the morning and you are fine; for a very early flight, the cleaner move is to flip the last night to Rhodes Town near the airport, which the failure-modes section covers. Whichever base you weigh, the two are side by side in where to stay in Rhodes.
What to book ahead, what to leave loose
The split stay means booking two beds instead of one, plus the Symi boat and a car for the driving day. Book those four, because they sell out or make or break the route, and leave everything that rewards being there for when you arrive.
Book ahead:
- The Old Town guesthouse. There are only so many rooms inside the walls, and they sell out first in season. This is the bed that makes base one work.
- The Lindos stay. Limited and the priciest of the trip, so it goes early; miss it and you are commuting in, which defeats the split.
- The Symi morning catamaran in peak season, a popular boat on a fixed timetable and the day the whole first half is built around.
- A rental car for the driving day. Cars get scarce in high summer, and this is the one day you genuinely need one.
Leave loose:
- The east-coast beaches, and which bay you swim.
- Tavernas everywhere; follow the ones full of locals, not a reservation.
- Which interior loop you drive on the car day.
- Whether you add a second day boat, Halki or Kos, if the weather is kind.
On cost, three levers move the total far more than any headline figure: the season you travel, whether you rent a car, and the Lindos boutique premium. Plan around those rather than a single number, and compare the two bases in where to stay in Rhodes before you commit the biggest line in the trip.
This page is the plan: lock the two beds and the Symi boat yourself, in the order above, and the rest falls into place. Plan this trip.
When this route does not work
This split week breaks in four predictable ways, and it is fairer to say so before you book.
Wind kills the Symi boat. A strong meltemi, or any hard afternoon wind, can cancel or roughen the high-speed catamaran, and the crossing is exposed. The fix is baked into the plan: take Symi early in your Old Town leg, keep the date flexible rather than pinned, and you will have spare days to reschedule if the sea is up. Treat a fixed Symi day as the one soft spot in the week.
The luggage move. The single mid-week move to car-free, stepped Lindos punishes a big suitcase. Pack light enough to carry, or arrange a transfer to the edge of the village. It is a real cost of the split, not a dealbreaker.
The Lindos fly-out. A very early departure means about a 50-minute pre-dawn drive back to Diagoras, up near Rhodes Town. Take a later flight if you can, or flip the last night to Rhodes Town near the airport and trade one Lindos morning for a calm departure.
The resort-strip trap. The easy default is to book a week all-inclusive on a beach strip and never move, and that quietly wastes the whole split, because you see neither the Old Town after dark nor Lindos at dawn. If a sunbed-and-buffet week with the kids is genuinely what you want, own it and book it as that; the family-and-resort side of Rhodes is a different, easier trip. But do not book the split and then never leave the pool.
One season caveat sits over all of it: outside summer, day-boat frequency to Symi thins and some Lindos stays close for winter, though Rhodes Town itself stays open year-round. When to come is next.
When to come, and how the long season helps
Come in May-June or September-October. Those shoulder months give you warm days, a sea still warm enough to swim, thinner crowds than the peak and lower rates, and on Rhodes the window stretches further than almost anywhere in the Cyclades.
That long season is the island’s quiet advantage. It runs roughly April into November, and the sea holds summer warmth to swim into October, so the shoulder here is generous rather than a narrow gamble. It is also exactly when the split pays off most: quiet Old Town evenings and a quiet Lindos are the whole reason to sleep in each, and the shoulder delivers both at once.
July and August are the trade-off, the hottest and busiest stretch, packed with charter arrivals, and the time the meltemi is most likely to chop the exposed west coast. If that is your only window, base on the sheltered east, as this route already does, and book the beds early. Winter is different again: the resorts and many Lindos stays close, but Rhodes Town stays lived-in, so an off-season city break in the Old Town holds up in a way the caldera islands cannot match. The country-wide logic is in the best time to visit Greece, with the detail in month-by-month weather.
Quick answers
How many days do you need in Rhodes?
About five to seven days for a real trip. A week done as a split, four nights in the Old Town and three in Lindos, fits the medieval city, a Symi day boat, one driving day and the east-coast beaches without rushing; three days only skims the Old Town and Lindos. Fewer works only if Rhodes is one leg of a wider Dodecanese hop. The full overview is on the Rhodes hub.
Is it better to stay in Rhodes Town or Lindos?
Do both. Base in the Old Town first for the medieval city after the crowds leave, then Lindos for the acropolis at dawn and the village after dark. A single base gives you one at its best and the other only mid-day at its most crowded. Old Town comes first because you arrive right next to it.
How do you get to Rhodes from Athens?
Fly, it is about an hour by air from Athens to Diagoras airport (RHO). The only alternative is an overnight Blue Star ferry from Piraeus of roughly 13 to 17 hours, with no high-speed option on the direct route, so most people fly. How the boats work is in Greek island ferries.
Can you do a day trip to Symi from Rhodes?
Yes, and it is the standout day of the week. A high-speed catamaran reaches Symi in about 50 minutes, a harbour of pastel neoclassical houses with the Panormitis monastery at the south end; take a morning boat out and a late-afternoon boat back. Keep it flexible, because strong wind can cancel the crossing. More at Symi.
Do you need a car for a week in Rhodes?
Only for one day. The Old Town is walled and car-free, KTEL buses run the east coast to Lindos, and the Symi boat needs no car, but the west coast, the wineries and the inland villages have little bus service, so rent for the driving day and skip it otherwise. See getting around Greece.
What is the best time to visit Rhodes for a week?
May-June and September-October: warm days, a sea still swimmable, and far fewer crowds than the July-August charter peak. Rhodes has one of Greece’s longest seasons, roughly April into November, so the shoulder is generous and suits the split stay. More in best time to visit Greece.