Rhodes (Island) Tourist Traps

The hotel we stayed required a 15 Euro deposit for each beach towel. I presume if we lost a towel that is what we would be charge. That is exorbitant. There are very nice beach towel with lots of designs including Rhodes themes on sale around all the hotels for 3.5-5. Euro. We bought several. They make great souvenirs and unused ones make nice gifts.

These resorts are not traditional greek villages. If you are after a Greek experience please do not even contemplate going to these places. The whole area is built up to provide classy hotels for those who get up in the morning and never leave a sunbed whether it be beach or pool side. The shops and supermarkets are expensive and false. There is also a lot of touters going around on scooters trying to coax you into the timeshare market. It was like being in Tenerife!

Unique Suggestions: If big classy hotels are your thing, then at least get off the sunbed , hire a car or take a bus and see the real Rhodes. These resorts do not do it justice.

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I can think of no reason why this place is promoted as a visitor attraction.

Most guidebooks describe it as an 'oasis' in the mountainous interior and invite you to clamber through a drainage tunnel to reach a reservoir, but it's little more than a taverna and a pond.

You may spot some tourists disappearing into a claustrophic underground shaft. Don't follow them unless you think it's fun to stumble along in the dark, ankle-deep in water. I have no idea why this is suggested as something fun and wonder if it's a way for the locals to laugh at the stupid tourists?

Unique Suggestions: Go to the access shaft halfway along the tunnel and give the tourists paddling under you the heebie jeebies by making ghost noises.

Fun Alternatives: See the sign to pull over? Keep going! It's a nice enough mountain road, especially above Eleoussa (see my Off the Beaten Path tip about a chapel you can find there).

When walking along the side of the harbour where the day trip boats go from this year 3 women introduced themselves to us and asked where we were from then one started to tie a piece of coloured string with beads on around my wrist then said words in her native language and blew on it saying leave it on for 3 hours for luck and another did the same to my GF then asked for money. As I started to walk away the other woman took my hand and started to read it she said you have children I said no she said now you pay me I said what for and walked away. On a brighter note this year we only got asked where we were from once by the holiday club salesmen.

Unique Suggestions: If the African women speak to you just be polite say hello and carry on walking, don't stop and talk as they are so quick they have you before you realise. Same applies to the holiday club sales last year we were stopped several times this year I just said not interested and carried on walking.

Fun Alternatives: If you like walking round the harbour then head for the road where the windmills are or around the commercial harbour as we never got pestered there.

What is called a municipal market in Rhodes is totally different from what I saw and adored in other Greek towns. The market of Rhodes is a real tourist trap, an ugly building close to Mandraki Harbour and bus station, full of small and expensive shops offering casual tourist stuff. You can also have a snack there in one of numerous stinky bars.

Unique Suggestions: You can drop in, have a look and... leave. It's as simple as that.

Fun Alternatives: I don't really know why people spend their time and money there. Rhodes downtown is only a few minutes away...

In Rhodes Town and other resorts, Club Greece people - students? - capture you and ask you to take a scratchcard with the possibility of winning a prize. Some cards do not have matching symbols and you can win a T shirt or a train ticket for a ride around a town some miles down the coast where the Club Greece resort is. If you have matching symbols - and there you go, I did! - I was a lucky winner!! I would win a video camera, free holiday or a boombox. All I had to do was give up an hour of my time to visit the Club Greece resort with a free taxi there and back. After being persuaded to go (the student claimed this would give her €50) we went. Needless to say, it is a hard sell for buying into their club for discount holidays. We were promised a look around the resort, which is why we went, but that didn't happen. We were just placed at a table or two and given the hard sell. Beware - this organisation is trying to sell you holidays and, in the end, if you sign up to their lifelong club membership is timeshare! What a surprise! If you choose to sign up, and that will be after a prolonged sell - hours apparently - you must pay there and then and because it is a holiday club there is no cooling off period if you decide to cancel. We left exactly 60 minutes after the sell began and have not regretted it other than the waste of our precious holiday time. If you want to be informed before you go, check out the website http://www.holidaytruths.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=6135

Young man on scooters drive by and ask you the same questions over and over again: "Do you speak english" .
All they wanna do is take you to a need bungalow to talk about "time sharing". Ofcourse they all do disguise is like you've won the lotery...

Pay a lot for a nice looking bungalow for your own use.
Well it's not only for your own use, but also for all those other people who have fallen for the "time sharing"trap.

Prasonisi, where the Aegean meets the Mediterranean. Well whoopty-do.

It's gusty, crowded with surfers and if you're not careful your little rental car is going to lodge itself into the sands of death. Which is exactly what happened us and which gave us a sour taste of Greek hospitality.

There are several tavernas here, but no-one was the least bit interested in helping us out. Everyone kept pointing to the next taverna along, no-one knew who owned the truck parked out back and no-one was interested in helping to push. For all they knew my insulin could've been overheating in the trunk but they were past caring.

The surf school was happy to lend its tractor they use to cart around the surfboards and it took them 2 seconds to pull us out...for a price.

Now, back home in Kansas people would be running up to help, no questions asked, no money needing to change hands. It's what I would've done for someone in a similar situation. When people are in trouble you give him a hand, not stick your hand out.

So *sptew* on Prasonisi!