Faliraki, Rhodes, Symi (independent travel)
I am publishing a story about our independent trip: )
Route.
This time, Rhodes, namely Faliraki, was again chosen as a vacation spot. Tickets bought on their own, cheap could not be found. These can be found when flying through Helsinki. Our flight was from Moscow (Domodedovo), a charter flight, which, as usual, was delayed by 2.5 hours. There are two ways to get from Rhodes Airport to Faliraki: by bus through Rhodes with a transfer, or by taxi. We chose the second method, the price for a taxi is fixed, it was 26 euros to Faliraki, we drove back for 28. We returned home through Sheremetyevo without delay. We traveled from Moscow to St. Petersburg on a new double-decker train, the fare in a compartment is a little more than 2000, I highly advise you to ride it : )
Hotel.
We booked the hotel on the website booking. com, guided by the reviews and overall rating of tourists, we were interested in a simple room with a kitchen. For financial reasons, we chose a hotel without a pool. And we sometimes missed it, the sea was cool and we were able to swim a couple of times. Next to the hotel was a bar with a swimming pool, buying a drink in which you could sunbathe and swim for free. On booking, the photos do not always correspond to the description of the rooms, not all the photos have minikitchens, so if in doubt, you can go to the hotel website and try to contact them by e-mail. But we got by without it. Immediately after booking, I received an email from the owner of the hotel, Nikos, with a greeting and warm words. The hotel is called Tasos Apartments, no advance payment is required, you paid for your stay in cash upon arrival.
I am very satisfied with the hotel in general, it is comfortable there. There was a welcome compliment in the form of a bottle of red wine (not bad), fruit, a couple of cups of coffee and cream and a couple of pieces of cake. The room has everything you need, air conditioning and wi-fi for free, hairdryer, TV, large balcony with table and chairs, clothesline for drying clothes. Every morning from 9 am to 1 pm, a nice lady does the cleaning, changes the towels, and even does the dishes for you after breakfast. She will clean only if there is no one in the room, she will clean up the bedside table and the room as a whole, neatly fold your pajamas and clothes in the room.
The kitchen has everything you need for cooking and storing food. A couple of tips from my own experience:
1. Take 1 or 2 containers with you to transfer the prepared food there and empty the pot and pan, the pan will fit into the refrigerator, but it will take up a lot of space and you can only heat food in a pan.
2. We also needed transparent food bags, I'm not sure if they are in the local supermarket.
3. Take a sharp knife for meat and vegetables in your suitcase, they are blunt and small in the hotel.
4. A couple of bars of soap will come in handy: one for vegetables in the kitchen and one for washing clothes.
Salt, sugar, spices - everything needs to be bought, be sure to have oil, even with it, food often burned on the existing frying pan. Upon arrival, we were given a bottle of detergent and a sponge. There is a corkscrew for wine. No paper napkins.
The bathroom has a shower with a curtain, but no matter how hard you try, water still gets on the floor, and if this is a problem for you, you can buy a rag for the floor. There is a mat on the floor, but it is only enough to stand on it with your feet after a shower. There is one large and one small towel for each guest. A small jar of shampoo and gel. Everything is clean and tidy. Advice from personal experience: in order not to pick up a possible fungus (a hotel of a low price category), we wiped the shower tray with specially brought technical alcohol (small bottle), because. soap does not kill the fungus.
The beds in the room were made together, there is a gap between them, which we neutralized with a warm blanket. The extension cord brought from home was very useful, because. the socket above the bed didn't work.
There are enough hangers in the closet, there is a lot of space for things.
Nikos is very hospitable and always ready to help you with any problem. He is about 60 years old and he is a very positive person. There is a bar near the reception where you can sit and chat with him in the evening.
Sea and beach.
The sea in May on Rhodes is cool, we were on the Mediterranean. The first week it was uncomfortable to swim, and in the second we swam only in calm weather. Therefore, if you want to swim in plenty, come not earlier than June, but better in September, when there are fewer tourists and the water warms up. Although the local children swam with pleasure. The beach in Faliraki is perhaps the best in Rhodes, sandy, the water is clear, there are no stones. There were few people on the beach due to the beginning of the season and in general there are fewer tourists than in summer. In the first couple of days it was relatively cool during the day and in the evening, then it warmed up, during the day it was hot, in the evening it was fine. I recommend taking a non-woolen blouse or a thick jacket with you for the evening, if you go in May, the sea is cool in the evening. There are only four beaches: Faliraki A, B, Katafigou Beach and Qatar Beach. At the end of the Qatar beach there are nice big pebbles where you can take pictures, but swimming there is problematic - the bottom is slippery due to clay. There is a nude beach, but we didn't go to it.
From our hotel to the sea 10 minutes on foot.
Interesting places.
We are in Rhodes for the second time, we have already seen almost all the main sights (Monolithos, Prasonissi, Kamiros, Epta Piges, Lindos). On this trip, we visited not so many places, namely: Rhodes, Anthony Queen and Ladiko bays, Symi Island. Let's start with Faliraki.
In Faliraki itself, it is interesting to see the view from the observation deck, which you can go to after the Katara beach along the local paths. From there, a beautiful view of the entire town opens up and you can sit there in the evening with a bottle of wine together. And so Faliraki is a small town, where there are many cafes, shops and nightclubs. Of the interesting places, only the boat station with a small Catholic church and the beach. From there, boats leave for Rhodes and Lindos, as well as excursions to the above bays. Church of St. Nektarius on the highway, it is very beautiful. There are a lot of cats, at the boat station there is a place where they are specially fed: )
The journey to Rhodes from Faliraki costs 2 euros 20 cents, the bus brings you to the final stop to the ticket office, where you can see the departure schedule back. Also, a large number of buses run from Rhodes to almost all the main settlements of the island, excursions also depart from there.
Rhodes is an interesting place, from personal experience I advise you not to combine long trips to its shops with a walk around the city in one day, it is very tiring. I will write about stores below in a separate section. This time we climbed deeper from the main tourist places and found a lot of interesting courtyards and streets. A guitar was playing on one of them in a local cafe. It's hard to get lost there, everything is nearby. The city is beautiful and interesting. One of its features is parrots in one of the central squares, which can even climb into your arms, even if you are sitting in a local cafe and do not expect anything like that. In general, Rhodes is worth visiting and repeatedly.
Anthony Queen and Ladiko bays are a 40-minute walk from Faliraki if you go along the highway. The path is not close, but it's worth it. At first, Ladiko Bay will open to your eyes - a nice wide bay with a sand and pebble beach. Anthony Quinn is a little higher than her, 10 minutes walk. This is a very beautiful place, a small cozy bay with a pebble beach and dark turquoise water. As for the sunbeds in this bay, after 17 they are free. I strongly advise you to take a walk along the path that leads to the parking lot from the bay: there is a great view from there.
As for the island of Symi, I can say on my own that this is so far the coolest and most interesting place where I have ever been. But first things first. We bought an excursion to Symi in the middle of Katafigou beach from a local very friendly Greek Michael for 25 euros per person. In principle, you can buy many different excursions from him (to Marmaris for 47 euros, to Nisyros-island with a semi-active volcano for 56 euros, to the above bays, etc. ), or you can order an individual private water tour to those places where you want to visit (he offered us such an excursion to Lindos for 29 euros, only 4 euros more expensive than usual and several hours longer). The tour consisted of two parts: a visit to the central city of Symi and the monastery of Panormitis.
The next day, at 8 am, we were picked up by a bus from the hotel, on which we drove to Rhodes and transferred to the ferry there. We sailed on it for about 2 hours, we occupied the lower closed deck, but in principle it was not bad on the upper ones either. The only moment was a slight pitching, but it was not felt at the bottom.
5 minutes before sailing to the central city of Symi, I advise you to take a place for photo and video shooting at the bow of the ferry - the view is amazing.
In Symi, we had only 3 hours, during which we barely managed to get around its embankment and walk around the streets inside the city a little. I categorically do not advise you to join excursions - they were taken almost all the time to souvenir shops. It is better to go around the city yourself, you will see much more. I liked one place in the city most of all, right behind the La Vaporetto cafe: a ladder to the sea, where my husband and I sat down and sat, dangling our feet on the water. And then we decided to move to the cafe itself. There, when you first appear, the cafe staff throws bread into the water for the fish so that you can watch how they share it. And the fish there are quite large and there are a lot of them, so it's worth a look.
Three hours later we went to the monastery and in 50 minutes we were there. The monastery is pretty, you can go to put a candle inside, you determine the fee for the candles yourself. In addition to them, you will be given an icon and lamp oil.
But our fun didn't end there. On the lower deck on the way back, the toastmaster of the ferry sang songs with all the spectators from the hall, in the languages of different countries. It was very fun and incendiaryJ
We arrived in Rhodes at 19 pm and then we could transfer to a bus that would take us to the hotel. But we did not do this and decided to just walk around the old city, we drove home by public bus.
Shops and souvenirs.
There are only small grocery stores near our hotel, we took water in large canisters there (we poured it into a bottle at home, much cheaper) and potatoes, so as not to carry it from afar, the choice of vegetables is small and the quality is not very special in the evening. A relatively large supermarket is a 25-minute walk on the highway towards Rhodes, after the church of St. Nektarius. I advise you to buy there, a good choice and quality of products, a lot of household items and cosmetics of the mass market level. Kura is sold there only as a whole, from meat-pork in pieces for steaks or expensive pieces in a package. A lot of fish, we did not find another place where they sell it. Before buying, be sure to ask the seller if you have chosen the fish - the names are in Greek, you can take squid by mistake. There is octopus and shrimp, but you need a good frying pan to cook them in your room.
In this store I bought Athenas treasures body lotion, simple, it has a lot of smells to choose from, it is available with aloe without fragrances, it is 5 euros more expensive in stores. Buying sunscreen there is very expensive - the cost is from 12 euros, stock up on it in advance.
By the way, cards are accepted in all stores, regardless of size, we paid in cash only in a taxi.
On the other side of the road, opposite the church, a little deeper there is a butcher's shop, there is a large selection, meat, chicken, minced meat are good, they were bought at once for the whole vacation, the freezer allowed. All product prices are listed at the end of the story.
If necessary, you can find all the spices in Faliraki, they are sold in large quantities and the choice is interesting. But do not rush to bring spice mixtures from there - they are quite expensive for tourists, but you can make them yourself at home. Similarly, you can buy a large canister of olive oil and add various impurities to it at home - such a thing is also sold there, only in small bottles.
Faliraki has one main street with souvenir and clothing shops, clubs that are active at night. There are a couple of tattoo parlors and leg peeling parlors with small fish.
Regarding prices: souvenirs in Rhodes are cheaper by 1.5-2 euros and there is more choice. Silver jewelry is also better to buy in Rhodes, right on the way from the final bus stop to the old town (not in the old town itself). Rings there are definitely 2 times cheaper, there are very beautiful and suitable in case you are not sure about the size (open).
In Faliraki, we liked an unusual magnet in the form of a bottle with sand and shells and a figurine on the neck, 3.5 euros. Ordinary magnets from 1.5 euros. In Rhodes, you can definitely buy magnets with a piece of olive soap for 5 euros for 2 pieces. Cheap interesting magnets can be bought in Symi, they are there for 1.5 euros apiece. Postcards are basically everywhere from 25 cents. Everything else is fairly standard, but nice. Also, as gifts, we bought cloth napkins in Faliraki, from 3.5 euros, a ceramic figurine of a ship for 5 euros, a mug with Greece for 3.5 euros.
Alcohol on the main street of Faliraki is more expensive, take it in stores, when choosing Metaxa, choose a glass bottle, 5 stars are preferable to 3. , from 4 euros. You can buy local vodka (ouzo) as a gift in a supermarket, from 5 euros in a gift box.
Prices for clothes are the same as ours. Large selection of hats, prices from 8 eurosJ
As a gift, you can buy a painting in Rhodes, they are wonderful here (15 euros is the optimal size, there are bigger and smaller ones), you can take it with you in hand luggage. A beautiful scarf or stole can be purchased from 8 euros, in Rhodes you can buy 3 thick scarves for 25 euros. A very large selection of leather bags, there are cute backpacks, you can buy from artificial leather for 25 euros. Prices for bags and backpacks are not fixed, you can try to bargain.
In Faliraki, at the end of the main street, there is a Kolos bar, right after this bar there is a nice shop where you can find unusual non-tourist gifts. There I bought myself a very nice bracelet for 4 euros, which matches the color of the local turquoise rings and looks decent for jewelry. Lovers of turquoise shades and similar to them - go thereJ
In Greece, we discovered mini rackets with a rubber ball, you can play them on the beach and in St. Petersburg in nature, from 3.5 euros.
As for cosmetics, there are a lot of them in Rhodes and the prices are different. I advise you to buy the one used by local cosmetologists, the price for a day cream is on average from 30 euros.
Stefanos, a seller of sea sponges, sits on the central square in Faliraki; they are more expensive than store-bought ones by 1.5 euros on average. These sponges are best bought in Symi, where they cost 5 euros each and you can choose the right size.
Cafes and restaurants.
I strongly advise you to visit two cafes in Faliraki: Kavos, it is located in front of the boat station, at the beginning of Katara beach, and Dimitra, it is located in the middle of Katafigou beach.
In Kavos we tried several dishes. I really liked the grilled octopus (9 euros), I didn’t like kleftika (8.5 euros), but it’s not for everyone (baked lamb in cabbage with tomatoes). There were delicious pork chops with mushroom sauce (12 euros) and mussels with lemon juice (10 euros for half a kilo).
Dimitar has more choices. For the first time we ordered a seafood platter there (15 euros), one large plate for two for the whole evening, which included smelt, mussels, breaded squid and anchovies and grilled king prawns. I ordered tzatziki sauce (2.5 euros), in which we safely dipped it all. The second time we ordered shrimps in saganaki cheese (8.5 euros) and grilled octopus (9.5 euros). But in Kavos I liked it more. And for the third time we took the grilled meat platter (18 euros), which is a huge plate with pork, beef, chicken, lamb, sausage and cutlet. Very tasty and great service : )
AllphotosfromRhodescanbeviewedinmyopenalbum,thereareabout500ofthem,theyarelarge,soIcan’tuploadthemhere,pricesforsouvenirsandcafesareattheendofthealbum,https://vk.com/album384120_215739519
Brief video report of the trip https://youtu. be/ltoyWyQpS2o
Product prices, euro:
• Whole chicken 2.94
• Eggs 6 pcs 1.07
• Fish from 6.02
• Pork steaks 5.75
• Pork 5
• Squid 6.28
• Legs 5.5
• Minced meat 5
• Ham by weight 6.8 per kg
• Yoghurt 2.06
• Tomatoes 1.39
• Cucumbers 0.35
• Bananas 1.91
• Nectarines 6.01
• Red apples 1.39
• Tangerines 0.77
• Walnuts 8.13
• Pears 2.17
• Kiwi 1.99
• Dill 0.54
• Cilantro 3.41
• Carrot 0.91
• Mushrooms 1.93
• Pasta 1.2
• Potato 0.8
• Heints beans in tomato paste 2
• Bread 1.2
• Pate 1.76
• Milk 1.15
• Mayonnaise 2.68
• Water in bottles of 2 liters 2
• Bulk ice cream 1.5 per scoop
• House white wine 5 l. 7.28
