Anniversary and Birthday In Rhodes
This year for my birthday and wedding anniversary we decided to go on a cheap break to the Greek island of Rhodes. We set off Saturday afternoon and went to Nottingham East-Midlands airport and dropped our car at the Prestige secure carpark company, more on these people later. We checked in and waited in the bar for our flight. We arrived at out hotel about 4 in the morning, so went straight to bed as we was knackered.
The hotel was really nice. We went half board so the breakfast and dinner was included and the food was pretty good, and pretty similar to most buffets we have seen at other hotels. The only slight downside to the hotel was that it was directly under the flight path for Rhodes Airport, but after the 1st day you get used to the planes going over, so it wasn't too bad. We wasn't planning on doing that many excursions and trips on this holiday, just mainly relaxing by the pool. On Tuesday we decided to get a cab into the main Rhodes town and have a look around.
The town is split into 2 sections, the old and new towns. The new town area has a lot designer shops and standard shops you would expect to see in the UK, like Marks and Spencers, and BHS. We looked around here first as we was told that a lot of the shops in the new town closed at 2 for an afternoon break. Once we had finished here we went to the old town.
The old town is separated by city walls. We started off by walking around the inside of the wall area which was a nice walk, and then headed into the markets inside. There were lots of colorful stalls selling everything from herbs and spices to cheap plastic flip flops.
The place was quite busy but no one hassled you to go into their shops like they do in Turkey, so you could have a more relaxed walk around without any pressure to buy a load of crap you don't want/need :-)
Once we had finished looking around the old town we went for lunch and then a walk down by the marina. Docked at the marina were some huge cruise ships.
Once we had finished in town we got a cab back to the hotel and sat by the pool. My birthday and our 3rd wedding anniversary was on 20th September, the Wednesday. We spent this by the pool relaxing with a few glasses of beer and archers and lemonade for Amanda. It was ideal. The only trip we booked was a boat trip around some of the bays of Rhodes. We did this on the Thursday.
We got picked up at 7.40am by coach and was driven to the marina in Rhodes town were we joined our boat for the day, the 'Kaptain Mike'. Unfortunately only Me and Amanda plus 4 other people were British and the rest were German, so the guide only spoke in German, but we wasn't really that bothered. You don't need an English guide to sit in the sun and jump into the sea.
After a couple of swim stops we dropped anchor near a beach and we was all transferred to shore in a speed boat. The captain must have packed about 20 people into this boat at a time, I'm surprised it didn't sink. As I tried to get on the boat it suddenly moved and I nearly fell in the water backwards, but luckily a burly German chap grabbed hold of me and helped me keep my balance. :-) Was still pretty embarrassing though!!
After lunch we went back to the boat and did another couple of swim stops. The rest of the holiday we stayed in/near the hotel and just relaxed, so nothing really that interesting to write about. We left for home Saturday evening about 11pm. Because we booked the hotel ourselves, separately from a tour company we had to transfer ourselves to the airport by taxi. Once we got there we checked in and waited for our flight which didn't leave until 1.50am!!!
We arrived back at 4am UK time and went to get the car from the secure parking company. When we got there we was pretty pissed off with what we found. The car had been valeted which we payed for, but one of the hub caps was missing and the rear view mirror had been detached from the windscreen. We was absolutely livid, and the dimwits working there at that time were not very helpful. One of them even tried reattaching the mirror with double sided sticky tape. We have to complain on Monday and get them to pay for the fixes plus get a refund. So in my opinion if you are traveling from Nottingham East-Midlands airport and have a car, don't use Prestige parking they are bloody useless. And considering the car was supposed to be parked on their site, the mile counter had gone up by 6 miles also. We need to get an explanation for that too!! So a bit of a pants ending for really good holiday.
The hotel was really nice. We went half board so the breakfast and dinner was included and the food was pretty good, and pretty similar to most buffets we have seen at other hotels. The only slight downside to the hotel was that it was directly under the flight path for Rhodes Airport, but after the 1st day you get used to the planes going over, so it wasn't too bad. We wasn't planning on doing that many excursions and trips on this holiday, just mainly relaxing by the pool. On Tuesday we decided to get a cab into the main Rhodes town and have a look around.
The town is split into 2 sections, the old and new towns. The new town area has a lot designer shops and standard shops you would expect to see in the UK, like Marks and Spencers, and BHS. We looked around here first as we was told that a lot of the shops in the new town closed at 2 for an afternoon break. Once we had finished here we went to the old town.
The old town is separated by city walls. We started off by walking around the inside of the wall area which was a nice walk, and then headed into the markets inside. There were lots of colorful stalls selling everything from herbs and spices to cheap plastic flip flops.
The place was quite busy but no one hassled you to go into their shops like they do in Turkey, so you could have a more relaxed walk around without any pressure to buy a load of crap you don't want/need :-)
Once we had finished looking around the old town we went for lunch and then a walk down by the marina. Docked at the marina were some huge cruise ships.
Once we had finished in town we got a cab back to the hotel and sat by the pool. My birthday and our 3rd wedding anniversary was on 20th September, the Wednesday. We spent this by the pool relaxing with a few glasses of beer and archers and lemonade for Amanda. It was ideal. The only trip we booked was a boat trip around some of the bays of Rhodes. We did this on the Thursday.
We got picked up at 7.40am by coach and was driven to the marina in Rhodes town were we joined our boat for the day, the 'Kaptain Mike'. Unfortunately only Me and Amanda plus 4 other people were British and the rest were German, so the guide only spoke in German, but we wasn't really that bothered. You don't need an English guide to sit in the sun and jump into the sea.
After a couple of swim stops we dropped anchor near a beach and we was all transferred to shore in a speed boat. The captain must have packed about 20 people into this boat at a time, I'm surprised it didn't sink. As I tried to get on the boat it suddenly moved and I nearly fell in the water backwards, but luckily a burly German chap grabbed hold of me and helped me keep my balance. :-) Was still pretty embarrassing though!!
After lunch we went back to the boat and did another couple of swim stops. The rest of the holiday we stayed in/near the hotel and just relaxed, so nothing really that interesting to write about. We left for home Saturday evening about 11pm. Because we booked the hotel ourselves, separately from a tour company we had to transfer ourselves to the airport by taxi. Once we got there we checked in and waited for our flight which didn't leave until 1.50am!!!
We arrived back at 4am UK time and went to get the car from the secure parking company. When we got there we was pretty pissed off with what we found. The car had been valeted which we payed for, but one of the hub caps was missing and the rear view mirror had been detached from the windscreen. We was absolutely livid, and the dimwits working there at that time were not very helpful. One of them even tried reattaching the mirror with double sided sticky tape. We have to complain on Monday and get them to pay for the fixes plus get a refund. So in my opinion if you are traveling from Nottingham East-Midlands airport and have a car, don't use Prestige parking they are bloody useless. And considering the car was supposed to be parked on their site, the mile counter had gone up by 6 miles also. We need to get an explanation for that too!! So a bit of a pants ending for really good holiday.
Labels: Holidays
posted by Steve at
10:57 am
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home