by Andy W » 25 Apr 2012, 20:00
I'd second that.
As to what to do, it does depend what time the plane is landing, and which airline you're travelling with. Allan's advice is spot on for planes landing in the afternoon, but if you are landing in the middle of the night and aiming for an 8.30-9.00 am ferry there are fewer options. However Rhodes never totally closes and there are always places you can go. The Swedish Bakery chain operates several 24-hour cafe-bars in Rhodes (and has now opened one in Kos too). This year they have been rebranded as Swedco, for some reason. The taxi driver will take you to one if you ask, they use them too, and the staff will call another taxi to take you to the harbour if you ask when you're ready to leave. Good coffee, same beer as everywhere else, nice pastries, reasonable prices. They are self-service so if you just sit down nothing will happen!
The which airline bit is relevant because the time it takes to get your luggage back is dependant on who you're flying with. Airlines with associated tour operators like Thomas Cook, Thomson, Jet2 etc schedule planes to arrive at Rhodes from different airports within minutes of each other so they can minimise the number of transfer coaches and reps they need, but this can overwhelm the baggage handling at Rhodes especially if there are flight delays as well. Priority is normally given to unloading scheduled flights rather than charters or semi-charters as passengers may have connections to make to other services. Arrive on an Aegean or Olympic flight and you'll probably be walking out the airport doors in 20 minutes, but with some other airlines if yours is the last bag to go on the belt it could be an hour .