Afandou to Kolymbia Bay

GREECE

RHODES

WALK

Afandou to Kolymbia Bay

Sunday 14 April 2019

After another leisurely breakfast, we check out of the hotel and headed into the centre of Rhodes Town. We only had two things to do today. Get some cash from an ATM and get a bus to Kolymbia.

Getting cash was easy enough with plenty of ATMs in the town so we just needed to get tickets for the bus. We returned to the bus station and spoke to the man in the ticket kiosk and discovered that there are in fact two bus stations in the town and that we were at the wrong one. Fortunately, the correct one was just fifty metres away on the same road.

The town was quickly filling up with people all wearing running gear and they were congregating around the second bus station. Today was the ‘Roads to Rhodes’ Marathon and it looked like the start was somewhere close to the bus station.

We decided we should leave as soon as possible before we get stuck so we asked the man in the kiosk what time the next bus to Kolymbia departed. He told us that we would have to wait three hours.

We looked at the bus timetables on the kiosk wall and could see that there was a bus heading for a place called Afandou in just thirty minutes. I found Afandou on Google Maps and could see that it was only about five miles from Kolymbia so I asked the man in the kiosk if it would be possible to walk there.

He was totally shocked!

“Why would you want to do that?” he said. “It’s almost six kilometres!”

We explained that we liked to walk and he confirmed that it would be possible so we bought the tickets, €4 each, and waited for the bus to depart.

The bus drove out of Rhodes and headed south along the E95 road. As it did so it dawned on me that this bus was not only going to Afandou but that it was going to continue all the way down to Lindos and that it would probably stop at Kolymiba. Trying to work out why the man in the ticket kiosk told us that we would have to wait three hours it occurred to me that he must have assumed that we would want to go straight to the resort at Kolymbia Bay.

Kolymbia Bay is a beach resort and is about a mile east of the small village of Kolymbia which is right on the E95. It would be an easy walk but I guess tourists just don’t get off at the village. We were the only people to get off of the bus at Afandou and it looked like tourists didn’t come here either.

We walked through the town and out the other side, crossing the E95 before heading down towards Afandou Beach. The beach is several miles long and was virtually empty when we got there. All we had to do was follow the beach to the end.

What a great way to arrive anywhere!

Afandou Beach – a few obstacles to negotiate.

The Route

Distance : 5 Miles

We caught the bus from Rhodes Town to Afandou and walked to the beach. From there just walked along the beach to Kolymbia Bay and our next hotel. It was approximately 5 miles and could easily be extended to suit.

Click HERE for a GPX file of the route.

David Welch – View Profile

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