Lindos beaches Travel Guide

About Lindos beaches

Picture-perfect Lindos has it all - culture, romance, glamour and unspoilt nature. Combining a compact hillside village of whitewashed houses and a walled medieval, hilltop acropolis containing an ancient Greek temple, this exclusive upmarket destination overlooks a deep circular bay of aquamarine sea rimmed by a lovely sand beach. The village is a maze of streets paved with black-and-white mosaics, and whitewashed villas with elegant stone doorways and small internal courtyards. It's a delightful place to wander, being pedestrian-only and filled with cafés and souvenir shops.

Beach:

There are two beaches. North of town, in Lindos Bay, the lovely sandy Pallas Beach sits in a deep, sweeping cove, and is equipped with sunbeds and umbrellas for hire, plus watersports facilities. It is very crowded in high season. South of town, St Paul's is a sand and pebble beach with sunbeds and umbrellas for hire, sitting in a bay enclosed by steep rocks and named after the tiny whitewashed chapel of St Paul. The saint is said to have been shipwrecked here in the first century AD. There is a small nudist beach a few kilometres north of Lindos at Kalathos. In addition, taxi-boats run along the coast to other nearby beaches.

Beyond the beach:

Lindos's crowning glory, literally, is the acropolis, perched up a 116m (380ft) hill above the village. Ancient Greek monuments, including a fourth-century-BC Temple of Athina Lindia, are enclosed within the walls of an imposing 14th-century fortress, built by the Knights of St John to protect the island against the Turks.

Family fun:

Lindos's Pallas Beach is perfect for kids, offering soft sand and shallow water at a safe distance from any traffic. Most children will also be inspired by exploring the hilltop acropolis with its medieval walls and ancient Greek ruins. However, by and large Lindos is more geared towards couples on a romantic escape rather than children.

Exploring further:

Set in pinewoods, just 18km (11 miles) inland from Lindos, Tharri Monastery, with its church decorated with 14th-century frescoes, makes a pleasant short excursion. For a day trip, visit the island's elegant capital, Rhodes Town, a UNESCO World Heritage site contained within impressive medieval fortifications. The cobbled streets of the atmospheric old town lead through a labyrinth of souvenir shops and tavernas, across leafy squares overlooked by mosques with proud minarets, and up to the monumental 14th-century Palace of the Grand Masters. There are also organised one-day boat trips departing from Rhodes Town. These take visitors to either the unspoilt Greek island of Symi, northwest of Rhodes, or to Marmaris in Turkey to explore the bustling bazaar and the Marmaris Castle Museum above the harbour.