The Greek resort city that went from occasion hotspot to family-friendly

In 2001 two 19-year-olds turned up at Gatwick at first of the summer season holidays and purchased the most affordable ticket they might discover. Their vacation spot? Faliraki, on the Greek island of Rhodes. They stayed for the summer season, handing out flyers down so-called “Bar Street” by evening, and sleeping on the seashore by day. 

One of these boys was my husband. And greater than twenty years later, he’s again in Faliraki — however this time on a household vacation. The vibe can be fewer late nights and extra very early mornings; much less beer and extra espresso. But sadly nonetheless as a lot noise.

This Greek bunga-bunga resort was as soon as recognized for its insalubrious nightlife and British youngsters being sick within the gutter after consuming cocktails with straws in them. It was closely patronised by the 18-30 brigade. The “scene” was ringfenced from Rhodes Town, a 20-minute drive north, one of many loveliest Greek island capitals, settled by Italians, Ottomans after which Jerusalem’s Knights of St John within the thirteenth and 14th centuries. Were I 20 years youthful, I might have been on naughty Noughties Faliraki like a rat up a drainpipe. And as a thirtysomething mum or dad, I’m not ashamed to say that letting unfastened with a screenwash cocktail nonetheless has a sure attraction.

But this beautiful stretch of shoreline alongside Rhodes’s japanese flank has cleaned up up to now twenty years. Rightly so, because it has quite a bit going for it: a sandy seashore with shallow water good for kids, and lovely sunrises for individuals who hold young children’s hours.

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It’s modified a lot that after we drive round in our rented Ford Fiesta to search out nostalgic Nineties Faliraki golf equipment with names like Mambo and Q Bar, my husband is disorientated and doesn’t recognise the place we’re. Bar Street and Club Street at the moment are higher often known as being off Ermou Street, though I do giggle at a membership referred to as Climax. Thanks to a spike of presidency funding to attraction to a extra, ahem, mature kind of traveller, throughout Faliraki are inexpensive family-friendly accommodations, seashore playgrounds, gelato boutiques and the last word signifier that someplace has drastically improved its fortunes: an artisan meals market referred to as Agora Eats.

We’re watching twilight Faliraki unfold whereas taking part in a spherical of loopy golf on Kallithea Avenue, a Fanta for the five-year-old and pints of draught Mythos in hand for his mother and father. Local households are pushing infants in pushchairs, others are queuing for Oreo ice cream at Solo Gelato. There’s not a foam occasion in sight. It’s good, low cost, clear enjoyable (£7; instagram.com/minigolffaliraki). 

Two fashionable new all-inclusive resorts

We’re staying 5 minutes down the coast, off the highway that results in Rhodes Town, in two new(ish) all-inclusive accommodations. Once, in keeping with my husband, this stretch was utterly undeveloped. Now, fancy all-inclusives with waterparks are everywhere. But earlier than you learn the subsequent 500 phrases, right here’s a caveat: if you need charming, white-rinsed, bougainvillea-draped Greece, this isn’t it. This is easy-breezy bundle vacation Greece, beloved by households with young children. It’s all blockbuster accommodations with every thing from youngsters’ golf equipment to padel courts and pool complexes, all for distinctly un-eyebrow-raising costs like lower than £1,000 per individual for every week, all-inclusive.

The Helea Lifestyle Beach Resort on Kallithea seashore is one in every of them. It opened in 2023 as a trendy counterpoint to different excessive rises alongside the coast, its monstrous blocks of uncooked limestone full of rooms tumbling down the hillside in direction of the seashore, with eating places and a sequence of (unheated) blue swimming pools. Despite the scale, Helea has an enthralling Greek village really feel, all blond wooden, rattan lamps and greige linen smooth furnishings, regardless of housing greater than a thousand holidaymakers — though you may downsize additional by staying in one of many new water bungalows, that are non-public sea-view villas with their very own swimming pools, as we do.

There’s the mega buffet within the form of Lopia restaurant, which has outside tables that spill onto the sea-view terrace, and helpfully has a ping-pong desk proper outdoors so we will nip out simply when our son will get bored of taking part in card sport Mind The Gap. I don’t want to inform mother and father how helpful buffets are for fussy younger kids — and right here there’s an eye-popping collection of every thing from crowd-pleasing recent pasta and pizza to salads and Greek dishes. But the higher possibility is Rhodian Tsouka, an à la carte with blockbuster views of the Med, which we stumble into one evening after two margaritas every at seashore bar Ammuda, all pendant lamps, wood stools and clean lumps of oak as tables. And I ponder why I hold dropping at Uno No Mercy…

Yia mouris

Our pulses sluggish additional at Amada Colossos down the coast, a big all-inclusive on a 430m-long little bit of seashore additional in direction of Faliraki. The promote here’s a primary-coloured waterpark for kids (which has been well designed with a bar inside for the adults), all of the sports activities you may ask for (every thing from bocce to seashore volleyball) plus the lovable seashore cabanas alongside the sand to which I slink off to learn my e book. The few days that we’re right here we handle nothing extra energetic than a couple of video games of cack-handed tennis earlier than scoffing gyros and moussaka on the candy Greek taverna that overlooks the water, the place I additionally fail to show down an ouzo. A household vacation is extra like an 18-30 vacation than we thought.

All this E-numbered family-friendly stuff is nice, after all. Most different company, having paid for his or her all-inclusive deal, most likely gained’t depart the accommodations. But most company doesn’t embody this journey author, and so one morning, we drive down the coast to Kallithea Springs, a blinding thermal spa complicated that the Italians constructed within the Twenties. It’s the most effective kind of seashore membership: no pushy waiters ready to alleviate you of a whole bunch of kilos for a sunbed, simply good old style sea swimming. We depart our garments on the rocks and dive in from the wood diving board into the clear — however completely freezing, this being late October — Med (£4; kallitheasprings.com).

We don’t make it to Lindos, a 20-minute drive south down the coast, which I’m advised has one in every of Greece’s most spectacular acropolises after Athens. Nor will we make it to inland Rhodes a lot past lunch at rural Seven Springs, the place we eat souvlaki and bowls of hummus from crimson checked tablecloths whereas peacocks peck round us. Nor will we handle an evening out at Climax. Which might be for the most effective.

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Cathy Adams was a visitor of Helea Lifestyle Beach Resort, which has all-inclusive doubles from £201 (ellaresorts.com); Amada Colossos, which has all-inclusive doubles from £257 (amadacolossosresort.com); and Visit Rhodes (visitrhodes.com). Fly to Rhodes