Symi had been on my list for ages and in deepest January this year we booked flights to Rhodes and ferries over to Symi for something to look forward to.
We arrived to Rhodes airport around 8pm and jumped in a 30 Euro taxi to Rhodes town where our hotel was. Rhodes town has been throughout history under the control of the Romans, Byzantine Empire, Knights, Ottomans, Italians and British and the Medieval old town is just magic. Definitely worth a 1 night stay for a meander around the streets, choosing a bar or restaurant for the evening and checking out the roman ruins.
We stayed at Hotel Ellique - a beautiful guest house in a 14th century house - wonderful breakfast, lovely staff and extremely comfortable room (complimentary room service, huge bed, great shower). We ate at Nireas, a really good fish restaurant and the streets around it are fun and full of bars.
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In the morning we jumped on the Sebeco ferry over to Symi (book this early just in case). It's quite the beautiful arrival so position yourself outside when you come into port.
We hired a car from the port and drove on some fairly scary hair pin roads across the mountainous interior to Marathounda Beach where our little house rental was (very simple, slightly dubious bathroom, but comfortable and a good size) that was quite literally ON the beach. And then really we did absolutely nothing...bar swim in the sea, eat every meal at the taverna next door (I'm still dreaming about the taverna) and lie and snooze in the sun. The beach is pebbly and you need reef shoes or similar to walk into the sea and if you're a party animal this is not the place for you. At 6pm when the Taverna shuts it's just you and goats (well it was when were there as the only house rental that week).
We popped to the supermarket a couple of times and to grab some pastries and we ventured into town one evening where we were told Tholos was the best place to eat. It's very pretty town, great yacht spotting, cute restaurants and some quite swanky boutiques plus a good fish shop and butchers.
Heaven!
