Rhodes or Rodos, Greece is the Crusader Isle, steeped in ancient history and boasting 300 days of blue skies each year. It lies at the southern end of the Dodecanese chain of islands that follows the line of the Turkish coast. It is one of the most popular holiday destinations in the Mediterranean and has been for many years, attracting relentless and overwhelming waves of visitors from March to November.
Rhodes most popular resorts, such as Faliraki, are now almost totally devoted to package tourism and nurture an insatiable avarice in the islanders that only an unending supply of cash-spending gullible foreigners can sustain. Anyone is search of Greek goatherds and fishing villages has come to the wrong place.

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 Crusader Knights of St John and a hilly, forested interior with some lovely landscapes.
The most popular beaches on Rhodes lie along the northern and eastern coastlines. To the north are high-rise conference complexes of glass and steel towering over narrow strips of shingle and buffeted by the northern winds. Down the east coast, from Rhodes to Lindos, are replicated rows of cement fun palaces. Only south of Lindos do the crowds thin out, though hotel complexes and modern apartments are still much in evidence. The hilly interior and the much wilder west coast offer the visitor find a more authentic glimpse of a Greek island, though the coast offers little in the way of beaches and tourist facilities.
The island of Rhodes, often called the Crusader Isle, offers the tourist near year-round sunshine with an average of 300 days of clear blue sunny skies per year. The beaches on the northern and eastern coastlines are where most people on holiday to Rhodes go to stay because this is where the main resorts are. If it is a quiet and relaxed holiday on the beach with a little culture and history mixed in then it may be worth giving Rhodes a miss and heading to one of the less developed or well-known islands. Otherwise head for the hills in the interior of Rhodes or drive to the more unspoilt western coast for a break away from the crowds.
Diagoras International Airport is 16km south west of Rhodes City not far from Kremasti on the island's north coast. The airport has expanded in recent years and now handles about 3.2m passengers annually. In addition to regular domestic and international flights there are charters to many countries in Europe. Rhodes Airport has a single terminal with 13 check-in desks and eight gates, and opens 24 hours a day. Regular ferries and hydrofoils cross to Piraeus and Crete and many other of the Dodecanese group and there are any number of daily trips to coastal resorts, notably Lindos which seems to be included on every boat trip from Mandraki harbour. Hydrofoils are more expensive but more reliable than ferries that can somehow contrive to arrive hours late and leave minutes early.