Looking for advice

[alan lesure]

In May of next year my wife and I will spend 3 nights on Rhodes. Our
goal is to ferry from here to 3 other islands and stay on each for 3
nights or so before returning to the US.

Ideal islands would be:

1. Served by reliable ferries.
2. Not be popular destinations for packaged parties of tourists
3. Be scenic
4. Have at least one nice hotel
5. Be large enough to provide a car for hire.

I would greatly appreciate any suggestions.

Al Lesure
alesure@learning-resources.com

[Mike Lane]

On Mon, 24 Sep 2007 21:04:53 +0100, alan lesure wrote
(in article <46F81865.C982BB32@learning-resources.com>):

> Ideal islands would be:
>
> 1. Served by reliable ferries.
> 2. Not be popular destinations for packaged parties of tourists
> 3. Be scenic
> 4. Have at least one nice hotel
> 5. Be large enough to provide a car for hire.

It's difficult if not impossible fully to meet all your criteria. Islands
which are easy to get to, scenic etc., are usually the most popular ones, and
therefore will be used by the package holiday outfits. Ferries to the islands
are usually fairly reliable in that they stick to the published schedules and
don't break down (often). Some islands though, are more difficult to get to
due to infrequent ferries (sometimes 2 or 3 a week) and awkward times like
the middle of the night.

I wouldn't be too worried about package holiday destinations. Unless the
island is very small it's usually quite easy to avoid the worst excesses -
package holiday makers don't seem to stray very far from their hotel pools as
a rule. After all Rhodes itself is one of the most popular package holiday
islands, with the infamous Faliraki and its notorious '18 to 30' club. It's
quite easy to have an enjoyable time on Rhodes without being aware of any of
that though.

The obvious choice of islands from Rhodes are the Dodecanese which stretch
more or less in a line close to the Turkish coast going north from Rhodes.
The first three from Rhodes are Symi, Tilos, and Nissyros. They're all quite
small (but you can hire a car on any of them if you really want to). None of
them have much package holidays but Symi and Nissyros have quite a bit of day
trips from Rhodes and Kos. Tilos is very quiet and peaceful. The main
excitement is the arrival of a ferry in the main village harbour 3 times a
week. Apart from this not a lot happens on Tilos, but it's a nice island for
walking in the hills or swimming from the pebble beach near the harbour.
Nissyros is basically a (nearly) extinct volcano in the sea. From the main
harbour you can walk (about 3 hours), drive, or take a bus into the volcano
crater which has fissures with hot gases escaping. The next island Kos, is
much bigger and a very popular holiday destination. I quite like it though.
The main town is pleasantly shady with lots of trees around, there's an
interesting castle dating from the crusades, and the island is big enough to
get away from other tourists if that's what you want. Going north again you
come to Kalymnos which more spectacular scenery than Kos and far less
tourism. The main town though, is less attractive and much noisier than Kos.

Probably the island which fits your criteria most closely in the Dodecanese
is the most northerly - Patmos. It's too far from an airport for package
holidays, but there's enough tourism to support a few hotels and a number of
nice eating places. It's a medium size island, the scenery is not
spectacular, but pleasant enough and there are a number of nice beaches. From
the main harbour there's a pleasant walk up to a very large and quite
interesting monastery.