October 1: Embonas
We began our first day Rhodes at sea, sitting on deck of our Blue Star ferry drinking coffee and watching the coast of Turkey go by.
Our local Trekking Hellas reps, Maria and two guys whose names I don’t remember, met us at the ferry port. We piled into a Trekking Hellas van for our transfer to the town of Embonas.
Rhodes City is full of Italian architecture from the 1930s, back when Italy briefly occupied the island. Maria acknowledged that the Italian occupation really did wonders for the appearance of the city. The ride down the west coast road is stunningly beautiful, with blue seascapes the whole way. Rhodes is bigger than I realized; it took about 90 minutes to drive to Embonas (accent on the first syllable).
Along the way, Maria and the guys told us about Rhodes. Here’s what we learned:
- The west side of Rhodes is the “wet” side, and the east is very dry.
- The east side suffered massive wildfires in 2023, to the point that thousands of tourists had to be evacuated.
- Rhodes City has its own university.
- Embonas is famous for its food and wine.
- There’s an important army base on the west side.
- The number one industry in Rhodes, by far, is tourism.
- There are numerous small islands just off the west coast of Rhodes, some of which are (just barely) inhabited. Several lack fresh water and have it shipped in from Rhodes.
After about an hour, we turned inland onto the winding, climbing road that leads to reach Embonas, which gave us our first inkling of how hilly Rhodes is. We checked in to the Hotel Attaviros, where we were to spend the next three nights for Trekking Hellas’ Hiking Rhodes (Self-Guided).
Maria and the guys gave us a quick briefing on our four hikes. Instead of hiking from hotel to hotel, in Rhodes we would stay in two different base towns and do day hikes from them. Of the three hikes we’d do from Embonas, Profitis Ilias would be easy, Attaviros would be the hardest and sunniest, Akramitis would be in the middle. Then we would move on to Lindos, where we would walk around the coast. Maria advised us to bring lots of water.
Having left us with a loan of trekking poles “just in case” and a parting gift of melekouni, Maria et al. headed back to the big city. We ventured forth in search of some of the wonderful food for which Embonas is known.
Embonas clearly expects a steady stream of tourists to come through, many of them in buses. There are several restaurants with picture menus—which doesn’t in itself mean the food isn’t good, but it’s not the best sign. We settled on a taverna that started empty but then filled with long tables of tourists.
Lunch was perfectly good but nothing out of the ordinary—Chris has observed that every taverna in Greece has essentially the same menu, and all boast of “Greek Specialities!”. We left the restaurant wondering what exactly made Embonas food so famous.
What is there to do in Embonas if you’re not eating? Well, you can go for a stroll in the main street, dodging vehicles. You can shop for souvenirs at two or three shops. You can taste wine at one of several wineries. That’ll fill a tidy half hour.
If you’re staying at a hotel in Embonas, you can lounge by the pool.
Otherwise, Embonas is pretty chill.
