Greece · Dodecanese
Yacht Charter Rhodes
A medieval walled city the Knights of St John built, and three hundred days of sun a year.
Rhodes has the largest inhabited medieval town in Europe, walled by the Knights of St John between 1309 and 1522 and lived in ever since — you moor beside it and walk in through a gate built to stop artillery. The island sits at the eastern edge of the Aegean with Turkey eleven kilometres away, and it gets more sunshine than anywhere else in Greece.
The walled city
Four kilometres of walls, a moat you can walk the whole way round, and the Street of the Knights running uphill unchanged since the fifteenth century to the Palace of the Grand Master. It is UNESCO-listed and about six thousand people still live inside it.
Mandraki, the old harbour beside the walls, is where the Colossus is traditionally said to have stood — not straddling the entrance, which is a Renaissance invention, but somewhere on the mole. Two bronze deer mark it now.
Down the coast
Lindos, fifty kilometres south, is a white village under an acropolis on a rock two hundred metres above the sea, with a Doric temple on top and a Byzantine-walled Knights' castle around it. The bay beneath is sheltered and the anchorage is the best on the island.
The west coast is windier and greener; the east has the sand. Symi is two hours north and Turkey is eleven kilometres east across the strait.
Practical notes
- The medieval town is UNESCO-listed, walled, and still home to about six thousand people
- Lindos is fifty kilometres south, with a sheltered bay and the best anchorage on the island
- Rhodes gets more sunshine than anywhere else in Greece — the season runs wide at both ends
- Symi is two hours north; Turkey is eleven kilometres east across the strait
Reached from: Athens and the eastern Mediterranean
Where to dine
A table by the water
Marco Polo Mansion
Old TownIn a fifteenth-century house inside the walls, with a courtyard garden and a menu that changes nightly.
Mavrikos
LindosOn the square in the village under the acropolis, and the most serious kitchen on the island since 1933.
Petaladika
Old TownIn a small square in the medieval quarter, doing Dodecanese cooking away from the main lanes.
What to do
Anchorages & excursions
The medieval town
Four kilometres of Knights' walls, a moat you can walk round, and the Street of the Knights unchanged since the fifteenth century.
The Palace of the Grand Master
At the top of the Street of the Knights, rebuilt in the 1930s over the fourteenth-century original.
Lindos acropolis
A Doric temple on a rock two hundred metres above the sea, inside a Knights' castle on Byzantine walls.
Mandraki
The old harbour beside the walls, where the Colossus is traditionally said to have stood.
The fleet
Yachts available for Rhodes
Vessels that operate here, from flagship motor yachts to smaller crewed boats. Every rate is quoted on enquiry.
Good to know
Questions we are asked about Rhodes
- What is the old town?
- The largest inhabited medieval town in Europe: four kilometres of walls built by the Knights of St John between 1309 and 1522, UNESCO-listed, with about six thousand people still living inside.
- Is Lindos worth the sail?
- Fifty kilometres south, and yes: a white village under an acropolis two hundred metres up, with a Doric temple on top, and the most sheltered anchorage on the island beneath it.
- What does a yacht charter in Rhodes cost?
- It depends on the yacht, the season and the crew, so we quote on enquiry rather than publish a figure that would be wrong for most weeks.
Destinations
Nearby destinations
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Enquire about a charter in Rhodes
Tell us your dates and how many of you there are, and we will come back with the right yacht and a full quotation.