by Andy W » 20 Aug 2009, 21:39
Looking at flights, as Adriana says you will be forced to go via Athens. Even getting from Manchester to Athens can be a problem in winter - Olympic Airlines and Easyjet both do scheduled flights in summer but a quick look suggests they only run up to the end of October. That leaves you with BA, Olympic and Aegean who offer up to 8 flights a day between them from Heathrow, or Easyjet with one a day from each of Gatwick and Luton. BA would do you a connecting flight from Manchester, Olympic and Aegean will do connections at Athens onto their own flights to Rhodes so you don't need to check in again with your baggage. If you are very lucky Aegean's deal with BMI/British Midland will have started giving a through booking all the way from Manchester to Rhodes wuth the luggage checked through. Otherwise KLM will still do connections to Athens via Amsterdam, Lufthansa will do connections via Frankfurt, Air France via Paris, and Brussels Airlines via Brussels. None of these are great for connecting flights to Rhodes. Try to see possible cheap deals.
Symi in winter is great fun, and very different from the summer scene, but you do need to be prepared for ferry cancellations due to storms, and occasionally flight cancellations from Rhodes for the same reason (the airport is right on the coast and affected by gales), so keep your arrangements as flexible as you can, and allow a day or so in Rhodes at the end as a safety margin. The Old Town without the summer tourist tat is quite fascinating and well worth the visit.
By the way if anyone tells you Aegean flies from Stansted not Heathrow, yes that's true now, but they move on 25 October.