Romantic in Rhodes

An evening in old Rhodes works simply because you walk through the gate. After sunset the day-trip crowds thin out, the lanes between the ramparts come up under lights, and the town turns almost empty: footsteps on the cobbles, cooking smells from the courtyards, cats taking the warm steps. Dinner is best looked for away from the main shopping street, in the inner quarters where tables are set right against a fifteenth-century wall — probably the cheapest romance in Greece for the effort involved.

Beyond that the choice is small, which is part of the appeal. The evening island tour takes you out of town to a viewpoint for sunset and dinner in a hill village. The east coast cruise is the opposite, a daytime format with swimming in bays no road approaches; on the way back the sun sets behind you, over the mountains. The trip to Symi takes a whole day, and it is the one people tend to remember: a neoclassical town above the harbour that looks staged, though nothing was arranged for you.

The practical part shapes the mood too. A private transfer from the airport, or back to it, keeps the start and the end of the trip out of the taxi queue — noticeable on Rhodes in summer. And a first scuba dive suits anyone who wants a shared story rather than just a view: an instructor, a shallow bay, and half an hour underwater that gets talked about all evening.