Date updated: August 29, 2026
We spent a day with a rental car driving the west coast of Rhodes (Ρόδος), all the way down to Prasonisi (Πρασονήσι).
Starting from Rhodes Town, we headed down the west coast of the island, stopping at the different landmarks on the way. First was Filerimos (Φιλερήμου) monastery, followed by ancient Kamiros (Κάμιρος). There were peacocks at Filerimos. We didn’t go into either one because there was a fee and we figured it was probably stuff we’d already seen anyway. But we did get up into the hills and so we got some nice views.
Next down the coast was Kritinia (Κρητηνίας) Castle. I think this was the one I went to when I was last here. Like then, we didn’t go inside, we just looked at the outside. It’s kind of amazing stopping at these different sites because we didn’t see much traffic heading up there, but once we got there there were all these cars, tour buses, etc.
Some more coastal and mountain scenery as we continued south.
Our next step was Monolithos (Μονολίθου) Castle. That was actually on a monolith near the coast. Again, we didn’t climb up to it because it looked like a lot of work, but it looked really cool from a distance.
At the end of our drive down the coast is Prasonisi Beach where the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea meet. That was huge and there were lots of people there, mostly kite surfing on the Aegean side and windsurfing on the Mediterranean side. We just looked at the beach and had lunch. There are a few hotels and rooms to rent down there, plus a supermarket. We wonder if there’s much rivalry between kitesurfers and windsurfers.
We went back and forth about how to go back because we’d read about a scenic drive through the mountains but we were afraid we didn’t have enough time. So we compromised and drove up the east coast as far as Gennadi and then drove across to Apolakia to pick up the road up the west coast. And we saw our first (though not our last) goats along the road.
This is our cute little Fiat with a sunroof. We took a picture of where we parked so we could find it the next day! (There was no parking at our hotel in the Old Town so we had to find a spot outside the walls.)
