This summer the only thing I knew that I 100% wanted to do… was go all out. It had been 2 years since I went on a proper holiday – one without the threat of Covid locking us somewhere far away from home – and I wanted to utilise it. I had also gone through my entire career taking only 1 week for holiday during the summer each year, and I decided (in 2020 mind you), that it was time to change that. So – 2 weeks, somewhere nice and sunny. That was the criteria, the next step was to find the location(s).

We went through multiple options – Sardinia, Tenerife, the South of France… Eventually, we decided with some friends to head to Fethiye in Turkey for a week; when trying to figure out what we can do with the other week we had, I searched for “nearby airports” on Sky Scanner, and that’s what lead me to Rhodes.
 

Lindos, Rhodes, Greece

Once I had my eyes set on Rhodes, I asked someone I know that is from Greece for their recommendations. They recommended we stay in Lindos. Lindos is a small town in the south east of the island, well known for its stunning natural terrain. It was quite a quiet town, with a busy city centre, that seemed to me to be a perfect stay for couples or families.

We stayed at Ceasers Gardens Hotel & Spa, which was situated just a 10 minute walk from the city centre, up on the hilltops of Lindos. It was an adults-only boutique hotel, with a buffet breakfast, 2 pools, spa services, and also delicious lunch and dinner options that you can have at the hotel. We would spend hours in the morning through to the afternoon lying on the sunbeds, and would head into the city centre once we were ready to have some lunch. Overall, if you are visiting Lindos, this is definitely a hotel I would recommend – it’s super chill, but also very luxurious, with friendly staff and spacious rooms. The only thing I’d point out is that due to its location (more or less up in the mountains), the service is pretty terrible, so you can’t really use the internet (properly) until you’re in the city centre.
 

 

🦐 Where to eat in Lindos

We ate some delicious meals in Lindos. Most of the restaurants had the same sort of vibe – you eat on the rooftop, and typically they served pasta dishes and seafood. Once we had tried a few, it felt like we had tried them all. That said, here were some of my favourite restaurants:

• Ceasers Gardens Hotel – The hotel we stayed at actually became my favourite place to grab lunch. They had an absolutely delicious tuna sandwich option that I devoured on consecutive days, as well as a chicken burger and chips dish that was also very tasty. It was also very convenient to stop off here just before we headed into town.
• Odyssia – I was all over my seafood linguine on this holiday and this was definitely where I tasted the best variation. We were also recommended a wine that went perfectly with our food. The seafood linguine at Odyssia had the perfect blend of oil and seasonings, balanced out with the freshness of the seafood.
• Stefany’s – Another delicious place to grab a tasty seafood linguine. After Odyssia, Stefany’s was my favourite restuarant to visit.

 

 

What to do in Lindos

• Hop on the HiPPO semi-submarine – The HiPPO semi-submarine takes you on a tour around Lindos. Whereas most of the boat is your standard open-topped boat, the bottom half is a submarine (so it does what is says on the tin). Halfway through the tour, they stop to feed the fishes and that’s one thing that you can witness in the submarine. We actually accidentally boarded at the wrong port, but the staff were friendly enough to still let us on and it ended up just extending our ride. Overall, it was one of the most fun things we did during our trip. The ticket is cheap (£15 or so) and it also includes a free drink during your ride.
• Spend an afternoon at St. Paul’s Bay – There were 2 beaches that we visited at Lindos. The first was Lindos beach – the largest beach. It was definitely the most tourist heavy beach. During our trip on the submarine we discovered St. Paul’s Bay, and decided to stop by the following day. This was a smaller beach, which much nicer beds. It definitely had a more luxury feel to it, and allowed us to discover another part of Lindos. The best thing is, the waters were very calm on these beaches, a unique factor to the beaches being a part of bays; so for even the weakest swimmers, there are beaches where you can feel confident far out in the water.
• Hit the city centre and enjoy some late night drinks – It’s certainly not a “party” city, but people do stick around pretty late to have some chilled drinks.

 

 

Fethiye, Mugla, Turkey

Levi and I took the ferry from Rhodes over to Fethiye in Turkey where we met with 2 friends. We decided on Turkey as we wanted to do something different to the typical holiday in Greece/Spain/Portugal/Italy that the likes of us Brits tend to go for (not that Turkey is super adventurous, at that). Within Turkey, there are a few popular options if what you’re after is a beachy holiday, and they are mostly located in the “Muğla” region, which is well known for its many resort towns. One of those places is Marmaris (which I visited when I was 18 – my first non-family/”girls'” holiday). Fethiye is just another one of these many resort towns. Within Fethiye, we stayed in Oludeniz, which seemed to us to have a good balance of “things to do” and nice places to stay.

We found a 3 bedroom, 3 storey villa with a pool, jacuzzi, steam room and hot tub on Airbnb – and we found it for an absolute steal (the Turkish Lira has plummeted in value since I last visited near 10 years ago, which has made it much cheaper for tourists). The villa was provided by a company called “Villa Biz”, and they have villas in multiple locations within Turkey, so definitely one to check out if you are visiting.
 

🥙 Where to eat

The first thing I have to say is that the kebabs in Fethiye were not akin to your greasy kebabs in London that you grab on the way home from a night out. They were much lighter and felt a lot cleaner, which is generally better, except for after a night of drinking when you’re after the greasy stuff!

Most of our favourite restaurants were in Hisaronu (the main bar street), as well as one along the beach.

• Golden Wok – This Chinese restaurant caught my eye on the first afternoon in Oludeniz; it was like love at first sight – we truly connected. I ended up spending half of my trip here craving Chinese food, until one day we finally headed down to Golden Work. Clearly, it’s a popular choice as it was packed out (they literally made us a “make shift” table), whilst the Chinese restaurant directly next door was actually empty. The food was absolutely incredible (I am salivating a little now just thinking about it), and the staff was super friendly – the best service we had on our entire trip!
• Mamma Mia – We went here twice during our trip. The first time, Levi and I went when we first arrived and had some truly incredible pasta dishes. Levi continued harping on about it for our whole trip, so we took our friends here later in the week. Now here’s the catch – when Levi and I went it was late in the evening and the head chef cooked our dish. When we went back, it was earlier in the evening (5/6pm), and we had a back-up chef cook our dish. There was a clear difference between the 2. If you go, try to go at “peak” lunch/dinner hours to catch the head chef’s cooking.
• Buzz Beach Bar – Buzz Beach Bar was a highly recommended restaurant that sat right on the beach front. First of all, they had very yummy cocktails. Second of all, their dishes were delicious and nicely portioned. We all got some form of kebab, and it was A* reviews all around.

 

 

🍻 What we did

• Visited to the canyon – On one of the days, we had a day trip out where we visited Tlos (an ancient city in the Mugla province), and also Saklikent (a national park in the region). There was a huge canyon in Saklikent which was a sight to take in; we spent some time walking through it and taking some photos (of course). We also did rafting out here, which was a first for me as I am definitely not a water sports kind of girl. The rafting was meh – but still nice to experience something I hadn’t before.
• Spent some time in Hisaronu – Hisaronu is the main “strip” where basically everything is in Oludeniz. We would come here to grab a bite, get some drinks, buy some groceries, or even go for a spa day. It gets pretty loud at night, and is packed with tourists, but everything tends to shut down by 12-1am. It is a must visit (and basically spend every day at), if you go to Oludeniz.
• Went to the top of Babadag – Babadag is a huge mountain in Fethiye which you can take a cable car up and eat at the top. When I first thought of a cable car, I thought of the type that you take to get up the mountains when skiing, but this was on a different level. It took us 15 minutes in a cable car to get 1,700 metres up in the sky where we stopped for an “upscale” dinner. It is such an experience – even for those scared of heights.
• Enjoyed a spa day – Can you really go to Turkey without doing a spa day/Turkish bath? We did the bath, some facials, and also massages. It was so refreshing, I left the spa feeling brand new. My friend chose the Sanctuary Spa, which is one of the best rated in Oludeniz.

 

 

Clearly, it’s October now, so it has taken me a while to get this post up. Honestly, I half forgot to even write it at all. I just realised recently that I hadn’t. Overall, it was a great summer – we really didn’t hold back when it came to where we stayed and what we spent, so long as enjoyment and good food were ticked off.

We’re heading into colder months now, and the Christmas tree is soon to come out. That said, I am already looking forward to another summer trip in ’23.