[visited in June, 2018]

Since we are living in Tel Aviv, there is a real need to escape the heat and humidity of the Israeli summer. We have been fantasizing about finding a cute little island beach house. So in May of 2018 we started to ‘interview’ islands. Cyprus was the first, but it just didn’t speak to us.

While the Anassa Hotel was extraordinary, our timing was bad - it was easter break for the UK. It was mummy this and mummy that for 3 days. We had a car we drove around a bit, curious to see the countryside, the beach towns, and to understand why Russians oligarchs are doing their laundry at Cypriot Banks.

A dedicated ice cream stand - key to family fun!

We have Telavivian friends that repeatedly go to Rhodes on holiday, so we slotted it in for our next island interview in June. The morning we were leaving I woke up with food poisoning. I had to decide whether to go or to stay. I figured that the food poisoning would pass, and that I would rather be on a Greek beach in June, than in the summer heat of Tel Aviv. I decided not to eat or drink anything until we landed in Greece. It wouldn’t be such a hardship since Rhodes was a direct flight that only takes an hour and a half.

We arrived at the airport at 11, and learned that the flight was delayed. It was our first time flying Arkia airlines, an Israeli low-cost carrier. The downside is its an all economy class airline and you get your seat assignment at check-in. The upside is it’s a short, direct flight. The terminal was filled with teenagers everywhere - lying on the floor, coveting all the available seats and blocking the stairway to board the plane. Because I was not feeling well, I found everything annoying. I complained non-stop about the crowds, the lack of priority boarding and seating, and the endless delays. I vowed never again to fly Arkia.

Finally on board, A. and I sat across from each other in the aisle seats. Next to me were teenagers in love, obvious from the way they held onto each other the entire flight. The girl smiled and I asked if she was on a school trip. She said no in broken English, and pointed to a crab emoji on her phone. I wondered why she was trying to tell me her astrological sign. A woman in the row in front of us overheard her trying to communicate and intervened. She said that this flight was chartered by a non-profit organization. Every summer they send groups of teenagers with cancer (hence the crab emoji) to Greece for a long weekend. I felt like such an idiot! All the complaining at the airport about a losing a few extra hours of my vacation, when these kids were potentially losing the rest of their very young lives. I felt so guilty that I asked the woman for her card so that we could make a donation we we got back.

We finally arrived in Rhodes at 4:30pm, rented a car and drove to Casa Cook. Casa Cook advertises itself as a couples only hotel. Most of the hotels advertise ‘family friendly’ and so this gave Casa Cook a distinction, and one that we appreciated.

Casa Cook Pool - see the DJ on the right? His music was just as noticeable.

Casa Cook also lived up to their ‘laid back living’ tagline. The lounge, the restaurant, the common spaces and guest rooms, are modern, relaxed, and island chic. The arrangement of the room is definitely a function follows form situation, so while it was chic and relaxed, it was also a bit dangerous. The bed ‘frame’ and the ‘sofa’ are made of poured concrete with cushions on top. There are steps to get into the platform bed, with awkward concrete ‘cutouts’ on the frame, so if you were not watching every step, you could trip and fall, for example, into the concrete couch. Each suite had a private or shared pool with a built-in wooden deck for the lounge chairs. There was a very narrow walkway around the loungers, barely wide enough for an adult foot, so an accidental plunge would not have been a surprise.

The bed frame cutouts required extra navigation skills, especially at night!

The pillows came in handy will all that concrete!

The next morning I woke up feeling a bit better. I had a light breakfast of green tea with the Casa Cook signature ‘hangover smoothie’ - avocado, spinach, pineapple, coconut milk. It was the perfect beverage to enjoy in their tropical wall-papered dining room.

Casa Cook Breakfast Buffet - everything was so picture perfect!

Delicious - I think I will try this at home!

We started the day by scouting some of the beaches I found online. First we visited Kolymbia beach near the hotel, but it was not appealing. Then we drove north to see the beaches there. After checking out one beach, we got back in the rental car and it wouldn’t start. I kept trying and nothing. A. felt if he could sit in the drivers seat, he would figure it out. And he did. He got the car started, and then got out of the car to allow me back into the drivers seat. But he left the car in reverse, so it started rolling backward. His instinct was to run behind the car as if he could hold it in place. Luckily I was able to jump in, pull the emergency break and put it in park. To think that I almost lost A. to a Darwin Award death!

Rhodes has many coves around the island, most of which are surrounded by cliffs with crumbling fortresses, amphitheaters or white washed churches guarding the waters. We ended up at St. Johns Beach just past Lindos. It was a beautiful small cove with a nice beach, and a chic restaurant called Tambikio. We rented loungers on the sand with Palapa umbrellas and cove-side service. They had a sign that read “changing rooms,” I put it in quotes because it was really just a bathroom, with no elbow room to stretch on a bathing suit. We had a nice lunch in the restaurant and spent a few hours on the beach and in the water. The lunch and the loungers were cash only, which came to 85Euro. We only had 80Euro so they generously comped us the extra five.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a local pharmacy. Pharmacies in foreign countries are one of my favorite places to visit (I hoard foreign toothpaste) and this one did not disappoint. I needed some basics (Kleenex), some necessities I forgot to pack (sunscreen with Yogurt? yes please!), and something for my now ongoing stomach problem.

It can be a challenge to describe an illness in another language. It’s a combination of pantomime and luck - hoping that there will be a few key words that are universal in the medical field. The place was nearly empty, so I approached the counter and asked for charcoal tablets, since they cured food poisoning for me in Thailand. Luckily the pharmacist spoke some English.

“Stomach?” she said.

“Yes (vertical head shake) stomach. Charcoal?” I asked.

“No, (horizontal head shake), you?” She put her hand to her mouth, leaned forward, opened her mouth, stuck her tongue out, and she mimicked a rather violent sort of spewing motion.

“No,” I said.

“Oh,” she said, getting that the problem was coming from the other end. So she put her hand to her butt, and made an equally violent downward flicking motion.

“Di-ah-ri-a?” She asked, then repeated the same pantomime, and this time she repeated “Di-ah-ri-a” just a bit louder, as if I couldn’t hear her. I silently cursed that Diarrhea was my universal medical word at play here. I told her yes, to stop her from increasing her volume even more. I could now hear a line of impatient customers growing behind me, and I worried that there may be some potential English speakers.

She disappeared behind the counter for a moment and returned with a box. I thanked her and pushed my basket toward her - an indication that I was ready to pay and leave. Instead, she opened the box, pulled out the instructions, and pointed to the word Diarrhea, and pronounced it aloud, again, very slowly. We drove back to the hotel, laughing the whole way.

The hotel bar had a notable staff of mixologists. One of them was obsessed with the Negroni, and he was experimenting with aging a Negroni in a small oak barrel that he kept on the bar. His obsession paid off, the drink was delicious and we also appreciated its over-sized 3” x 3” ice cube. His martinis were also spot on.

The next day we enjoyed Agathpia beach. It was ‘a golden sand beach’ that was fairly quiet. It had a bigger cove than St. Johns, so the water was cooler, but just as clear as yesterday. Instead of Palapas this beach had striped umbrellas and chairs. The sand was littered with really inventive rafts, Innertubes and floats.There were flamingos, an alligator, a unicorn, a tire, pizza slices, a pretzel, an ice cream cone, and a donut with sprinkles.

Each day started with a breakfast of green tea and hangover smoothie - by the way, not because I am hungover, this combo has gotten me through the last few days. Today we decided to forgo the beach experience and see a little bit of the city Rhodes. During my research, I discovered that on Wednesdays there is a farmers market in a cemetery of all places - so that was a must. We drove 30 minutes to Newtown, which is Rhodes historical district. It’s an area of cobblestone streets with stores carrying international brands. There was a Sephora, and I went in hoping that they would have some things that I can’t find in Israel. They didn’t have any US brands, but the girl that helped us spoke English and was able to give us directions to the farmers market.

“It’s the one in the cemetery right?” I asked.

“Cemetery? What are you talking about?” She asked.

“Why are you going there? It’s disgusting! It’s not IN a cemetery, it is NEAR the cemetery. They throw all of the fish water into the streets.” She shook her head, but gave us the address of her moms former employer who was near the market so we could try to get more detailed directions from him.

Waze, delays, and all the winding around the city in traffic we wondered - fish water or bay water? We went with bay water and drove to Anthony Quinn Bay. It was named for the actor Anthony Quinn who fell in love with Rhodes while filming the The Guns of Navarone. At the time he made a deal to buy the bay from the greek government, but later they cancelled the deal. It’s a gorgeous cove that populates all of the image results you get when you google Rhodes. We drove up the dirt road to the parking area. It reminded me of the airport - Cars blocking other cars, parked every which way, fighting for a sliver of shade. We found a place further away, where we could get out easily if we wanted to leave. There was an overlook for a view of the bay where a woman was standing in a no-bottom bathing suit. Her friend was taking a photo for her Scrapbook, Facebook, Twitter, or Insta. I figured since she was exposing herself, I too could get the shot.

Once they left, we were able to get a view of the bay. It was totally gorgeous and over-crowded. While the last two beaches were organized with lounges and umbrellas, this place was crazy. Along with the lounges and umbrellas were people on top of people, beach chairs scattered everywhere, towels on the sand, on the rocks, in the brush - whatever square inch of space could be used, was. It was like the parking lot and the airport before that. We could see that across the bay, on the other side of the very same water, was another beach. We decided to go there.

At Lakido beach we got our loungers and umbrella, and access to more clear water filled with fish and many snorkelers. Their restaurant, Lakido Taverna, was a decent seaside tavern serving chicken souvlaki and rice.

As we left Rhodes, we agreed that like our Telavivian friends, we could see ourselves coming back. This island ‘interview’ was a success. We found a great (albeit a little dangerous) place to stay, and there were enough beaches to keep one exploring. Since it is not a ‘seasonal’ island, there is a good mix of urban culture, history and plenty of possibilities to relax. Looking back through the photos of Rhodes for this post, I would happily re-experience the airport delays, the over-crowded parking, and even re-live the embarrassment at the pharmacy, all to be able to return to its sparkling waters.