Your Relaxing Guide to Rhodes, Greece
- travelwithtay1
- Aug 27, 2024
- 7 min read
Updated: Aug 29, 2024
In 2023 I visited Rhodes, Greece. We wanted to go here for so long and managed to find an amazing hotel for such a great price.
Our Stay was for 7 nights and booked with JET2HOLIDAYS from Stansted Airport (clearly our favourite travel company at the moment - if you've read my other blogs you'll see why).
We stayed at the Blue Sea Island Resort in Kolymbia, 4 star Rated Hotel & 4.5 star Tripadvisor Reviews.
Our ratings:
Hotel? 9/10
Would we go back to Rhodes? Yes, everything was so stunning. I would love to explore a little more too.
Would we stay at that hotel again? Yes.
Things we did? 9/10
Travel: We flew into Rhodes had a coach transfer to the hotel which took around 1/1.5 hours (This was included in the holiday price).
Everything else we travelled to was around 30 mins max and you could get a public bus straight from the outside of the hotel.
The springs was around 15/20 mins and cost 3 euros each.
The Water park was around 30 mins but has a free shuttle to get there and back, this is also from the front of the hotel at the bus stop.
All the bus times are on the board and its actually so easy to navigate. You can get to quite a few places by bus and its super cheap!
We did miss the bus for the water park one morning as it didn't stop, but just make sure you're at the stop and you or someone else flags it down. We were stood in the shade due to the heat thinking it would stop and it left us all. We just went the next day which wasn't a problem but just a little annoying if you planned it for the day so just watch out for that!
Hotel:
The hotel was honestly so lovely. It had very boho vibes to it (which if you know me, i'm ALL over that!). There was seating everywhere which was great as you had so many options to chill. There are seats indoors at reception, on the balcony outside. Downstairs by the bar in the evening. All the sunbeds are left out so you can use those too or you can sit down by the beach (which we did most evenings).
The ONLY thing about this hotel that wasn't great was the evening entertainment. This didn't matter at all for us as we usually just play cards or do something in the evenings anyway. But if you like to watch the entertainment in the evenings its not amazing. It's the staff from the day time. They were amazing during the day, they put on so many different activities and were so nice. they did volleyball, water polo, water gym, water volleyball and so many more! But for the evening, as much as they tried their best, it just wasn't great. For kids it was pretty funny, they did silly sketches and dancing so something to watch, but its not outside entertainment like some hotels.
Now we've got that out the way lets continue.....
We stayed in the water park annex, my theory is a room is a room. As long as it's clean and we can get our heads down i don't care if it's the cheapest they have. I'd rather save the money and either put it towards another holiday or go for a nice meal out or a trip.
Considering we saved money by picking this room, it was honestly no problem what so ever. The water park rooms are across the road to the main hotel with the kids water park. They are lovely and spacious. Were cleaned every day and were super quiet in the evening.
You're close to the kids slides so this side is great for families as you'd be closer to your rooms if you needed anything. But we just walked over to the main side everyday. Its literally a 3 minute walk you just cross the road and you're in the main building (the image below is the view of the main building from our balcony). It also has a lift and ramps so great for buggies or wheelchairs. The slides don't open until 10 (i think it was) so you don't have to worry about getting woken up by the noise or anything.
The pool area is lovely, a good sized pool and a bar close to it too. Plenty of sunshades around, it does get very hot but there is a nice breeze that comes from the sea.
The beach is in the hotel at the bottom of the steps (or ramp if you go around the other way). There's a drinks bar and a snack bar down there which are both lovely. We ate at the beach every day. It's not a very wide beach but its pretty long so plenty of space for all the hotel guests.
At the end of the beach there is a water sports kiosk which is actually pretty well priced. Lewy did the sofa with a group of friends we met, he loved it. I think it was 15 euros each and they let me sit on the speed boat to take photos and videos.
I would say the hotel is pretty accessible, i don't want to say completely as this may not be true. But from what i remember seeing there were ramps to get to everywhere and lifts inside the hotel itself.
Food/ Drink at the hotel:
I LOVE!! Greek food, so everyday for me was heaven. There were so many salad options, meats, breads, just everything you could want in the sun. Every night was themed, the only one we didn't enjoy was fish night, but you'll notice a trend, we never like fish night.... As i said above we had lunch at the beach everyday, everything was fresh and tasted so good. You could get crepes or waffles and ice cream here too.
Breakfast was your standard all inclusive, hot meal, continental or fruits and cereal. A lot of variety which was great. I ended up having bacon and croissants every morning. There's something about the bacon abroad that i can't get enough of!
Drinks were really good, lots of cocktails to choose from, on menus too which i always find helpful. You could get Iced coffees too which we love. At dinner you can have drinks too, i stick to wine and lew has beer, standard holiday meals.
Near By:
About 5/10 mins down the road is loads of bars, restaurants and shops.
We went out for dinner one evening to a lovely restaurant called Taverna Ouzaki. It's a traditional Greek restaurant and the food was amazing! We shared the platter which was insane! Inside is so lovely and so are the staff. Although it's quite small, a lot of people were getting turned away as they didn't have any free tables. I would recommend to book, we didn't but we were definitely lucky.
After dinner we headed to one of the sports bars called Oasis cocktail bar, which was on our way back and had a Frozen strawberry Daiquiri each. We loved the vibe here, we actually returned on the Sunday to watch the F1 and football. It's a great atmosphere and they have so many screens you could watch anything.
Everything is so close to each other around here. You could definitely have a great evening out.
There are also lots of restaurants the other way, but we didn't make it to those. A couple of people we met did and said Taverna Grigoris was lovely!
Things to do:
We went to the 7 Springs, which was AMAZING! We got the bus straight there and just spent the day swimming and exploring.
There's a huge lake you can swim in which is stunning, and a Tunnel you can walk through that leads you to the lake itself. Honestly the tunnel isn't for the faint hearted, i'm not sure why but i just didn't think it would be that dark! Everyone was holding on to each other, the ceiling is low and the walls are skinny. Its actually not a very nice experience, but i'm glad i did it. If you're claustrophobic or scared of the dark (like i am), this might not be the best idea for you.... You don't have to use the tunnel though you can just walk to the lake so don't worry!
There's a restaurant there too which does food and drinks, all reasonable priced.
The views are insane, i've put some images below for you but i enjoyed this day so much. It's also free to go to so definitely worth it!
We also went to Faliraki water park. This isn't my thing, i'm not a fan of slides or water so i'm designated camera man. But i did go on a few of the slower ones, although we still nearly came out of the ring!
Some of the slides at this water park are insane. They're not the biggest and don't look the scariest, but they're pretty nutty! Lew actually got air going down one of them.
There are plenty of slides there, a lazy river and a wave pool. Its a good day out.
You can get food and drink reasonably priced and there are lockers to put all of your belongings. I would recommend water shoes as the ground is extremely hot, you can keep these on down the slides too.
Things we didn't do but would do if we go again would be:
Head to Lindos to explore, it's around a 30 minute drive. Some friends we met hired a car and spent the day in Lindos, it looked amazing.
There is a small church on top of the hill that you can see from the beach, i'd love to take a walk up there it looks beautiful.
Boat trip, you can book a trip over to Marmaris or just other trips where you can snorkel and see other things around the island.
Summary:
We loved it here, the whole holiday was just so lovely. It's the nicest holiday we had been on and it just made me want to explore more of Greece. I would love to go back to Rhodes as there are other areas i want to try, but i would like to explore some other Greek Islands first.
It's so traveller friendly here, if you're new to holidays or travelling i would recommend. I felt so safe and everything was so easy.
For once I've managed a whole blog without being moany, i hope!
If you have any questions or want to add anything feel free to post a comment! I'd love to hear about all of your experiences!!
Thank you for reading!
Love Tay x
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