Hotel near Port in Rhodes

[Ange]

We've booked a flight to Rhodes in September!

Our flight arrives Wednesday around 9.15pm. It will probably be too late to get any ferries so we will probably have to spend a night in Rhodes.

When we travelled with Kosmar 2 years ago we left the luggage in a hotel near the old town, we was told we could book a room as we had an early morning flight. I can't remember the name of the hotel, I think it began with S.

Does anyone know somewhere to stay for 1 night? Cheap preferably and near the port.

Thanks can't wait now!

[Kojak]

You may mean the Spartalis Hotel, Ange. That and the Hermes opposite are just across the road from Mandraki Harbour, very handy for the Hydrofoil. Both hotels will also order a taxi for you if you have to go to Kolonna harbour for a ferry.

Hermes: Tel 00 30 22410 27677/23723/26022/33080
Spartalis: Tel 00 30 22410 24371
website:

[Ange]

Thats it!

Thanks Kojak for the links.

Is there a list of which boats go from Kolonna? I thought that was for the day trip boats only and all the ferrys etc went from Mandraki. We're hoping to visit maybe Patmos, Astypalea, Kastelorizo or Tilos before Symi.

[Miss Exige]

We stayed at the best western plaza,again close to mandraki....without any doubt we will stay again,we also found a taverna behind the taxi rank,which was a breath of fresh air...just off the mainstream with much better food than expected.

[Andy W]

I think you have the harbours mixed up a bit, Ange. The day trip boats go from Mandraki, along with the Symi II and the Aegli to Symi, and the Sea Star to Tilos. Next along is Kolonna, literally under the walls of the Old Town, and the Dodecanese Express and Dodecanese Pride leave from here. They will be useful to you because there is at least one and often two sailings to Symi each day, 2 trips a week to Kastellorizo, 8 trips a week to Patmos, and 2 a week to Tilos.
Next again is the Commercial harbour, haunt of the car ferries, (and cruise liners) including Proteus with 2 trips a week to Kastellorizo and also 2 to Tilos via Symi, and various big boats belonging to Blue Star or GA Ferries which run daily between Rhodes and Piraeus via various combinations of islands, on some days including Tilos, Symi or Patmos.
You're quite right that if you don't arrive at Rhodes Airport until after 9pm you'll need to stay the night in Rhodes before you can move on, unless you are off in the Halki/Karpathos/Kassos direction and you chose a date when there is a night sailing on that route (Lane Lines).

Always bear in mind (if you didn't know already) that Greek ferry timetables can and do change at very short notice, so keep an eye on the ferry links here on this site. For the ferries that don't go anywhere near Symi, I use

I hope you have a great time. I've used all 3 of the hotels mentioned so far, and they're all fine.

[Ange]

Thanks Andy, I've e.mailed you.

[symireps]

Ange, the hotel you were taken to by Kosmar would have been the Constantin.

[Kojak]

Sorry Ange, I didn't see the Kosmar reference, yes, it would have been the Konstantin you stayed in with Kosmar. Do check ferries though as they are in a state of flux at presnt - even more so than usual!. The Aegli is the hydrofoil and that goes from Mandraki Harbour, as do the day trip boats. Symi II also goes from Mandraki and it usually only caters for day trips ie. no luggage allowed. The Symi and the Proteus go from the commercial harbour but the Proteus was out of service for a while and the Symi can now only carry either passengers or vehicles, but not both together. The Aegli was doing extra runs but couldn't take all the passengers so Symi II was helping out also. I'm not sure now whether this still is the case so please check carefully. Sorry if this seems very complicated - it is Greece! Perhaps the safest thing to do would be to check with the Symi Visitor office a few days before. They will know what is running and where from! Good luck!

[Andy W]

It's a bit simpler now, Kojak. The Proteus has returned from annual overhaul looking a bit better painted and things seem to have settled down.
Symi runs day trips only, from the Commercial Harbour, and won't take people with luggage. The "vehicles and drivers only" trips aren't needed as Proteus is back and has a full certificate to carry both vehicles and passengers at the same time.
Symi II is running as a scheduled ferry from Mandraki, and you can buy single tickets and take luggage, even though most of its customers are daytrippers. Apart from the daily out-and-back Rhodes-Symi trip, out via Panormitis, back direct, it also goes to Symi on Wednesday evenings, stays overnight, and returns on Thursday mornings. This is because the Aegli can't handle the number of people who want to travel.
Proteus does its normal (government contract) 2 round trips a week on each of Rhodes - Symi -Tilos- Nissiros - Kos and Rhodes - Kastellorizo, and also makes an extra trip Rhodes - Symi on Monday and Tuesday nights returning early the following morning. This is for the car and truck traffic though anyone can use it, and also provides the Wednesday morning service to Rhodes for people with Wednesday flights as again the Aegli can't cope on its own.
For penny pinchers, it is worth knowing that single fares on Proteus are about half those on the hydrofoil and Symi II falls between the two.

[Kojak]

Thanks Andy - the ferries have been as changeable as the weather! Basically Symi and Symi II have swapped roles. At least the Dodekanisos seem to have stayed regular throughout. I wonder how long the Symi will last?

[Andy W]

It is never wise to guess what ANES will do next, but the Symi is now doing exactly what Kallisti used to do - shift masses of daytrippers at time with a ship that can't really be used for much else but isn't totally worn out yet. I think the nominal capacity is 1000 but where they'd all sit isn't clear!
There doesn't seem to be any need for them to do anything much until Proteus hits the 35 year barrier, some time next year I think. At that point they need to decide whether the government contracts Proteus runs make enough money to be worth buying a replacement, or moving the Aghios Nektarios down into the Dodecanese to do the job if she meets the contract specifications.
If they don't replace Proteus directly, I think that they would need to replace the Symi at that point so that there is still a ship with both passenger and vehicle certification which can serve Symi island's business needs

[Kojak]

I think the earlier chaos this year certainly indicates that ANES really need to sort themselves out now and not wait until events force action. I seem to recall that the Symi was leased and that hasn't got long to run either. Government contracts for the Kastellorizo/Kos run can be iffy and last minute, as we saw earlier but ANES need to have a reliable ship similar to the Symi which will look after the island on a regular basis. I can't see ANES taking the Aghios Nektarios away from the Aegina run if that is profitable.

[MacDuff]

What a challenge, but what fun for some brave soul to write: "The Authorotative (good word that) Guide to Greek Ferries and the Galaxy" Then we could all write correcting and complaining

[Kojak]

If someone could write that Macduff, we'd be able to solve the meaning of life!

[Ange]

Thanks Symi Reps.

Its confusing all this!

Been looking on the GTP website, hope they put more ferrys on closer to September, limited at the moment, only one to Asypalea on a Monday!
First one to Tilos is Friday, we want to leave Rhodes on Thursday.

[Andy W]

At the moment on a Thursday you could get the Sea Star at either 9am or 6.30pm, direct to Tilos from Mandraki. Usual cautions - the timetable may well change by September, and the Sea Star isn't the most mechanically reliable boat in the Aegean. The Sea Star people are poor at letting GTP know what their timetable is promptly when it changes, but you can access their contact details from GTP and get in touch yourself to make sure.

[Ozzie Geoff]

Hi Ange. I'd think twice about going to Castellorizo. You'd have to allow about 24 hours for the return journey and beleive me, there is not much to see or do on the island. I don't think there is even a beach.
If you are on a set time frame it really does take time to mooch between the islands and the boat connections are always a bit iffy.
Why did I go to "Cazzy"?. A vast majority of Perth's greek population hail from the island. I promised a friend of mine i would endeavour to visit. I am afraid she was not very impressed when she got my opinion!!

[Andy W]

It's actually possible to do Kastellorizo as a day trip from Rhodes now using the Dodecanese Express on Mondays. You get 5 hours there. I'd second Ozzie Geoff's comment that there isn't much to see or do. The town is nice, the building style is similar to Symi, there are just enough bars and tavernas, but is very much either a High Season place, or a get-away-from-it-all one. By September it is visibly winding down, when Symi and Rhodes are still busy.
The downside of the daytrip option is the price: over 50 Euros two years ago.

[Ange]

We've decided that we're definitely going to Tilos, we really like the sound of it.
We've decided against Kastelorizo, mainly because of the ferry connections. What you have said OG means we aren't missing much anyway! It does look nice, but if theres not much to do and you get stuck there for a few days its not good! We was stuck on Amorgos for 3 days more than we planned last September due to no ferrys running because of the very strong winds. Luckily it didn't interfere with our travel plans too much.
We hope to visit another island before calling in at Symi, would love to visit Astypalea but again the ferries aren't very regular (one a week!). So will decide later on. Anyone know which island has the most ferries to Astypalea?
Looking forward to visiting Symi again after two years away!

[Andy W]

Hi again Ange
The Nissos Kalymnos runs 3 times a week from Kalymnos to Astypalea. (yes, it's still afloat, just never gets south of Kos these days) The once a week ferry from Rhodes that calls at Astypalea also stops at Kalymnos so that's by far your best bet in the mainstream Dodecanese chain. The downside is that the NK leaves at 7 am, so you'd need an overnight on Kalymnos.