Haraki, Rhodes

...people who had been to Haraki, and judging from the photos it looked like a lovely place.

We flew out to Rhodes from Nottingham East Midlands Airport with Aegean Airlines our flight was a late one. Departure time was around midnight and with the 2 hour time difference, luggage collecting and so on it was the early hours of the morning as we left Rhodes airport on our way to Haraki which is roughly a 20 mile (35min) journey.
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...buss would go right into Haraki, some would drop you at the end of a half mile road leading to Haraki. There is a shop about half way though which is convenient for an ice cream break.

Eating Out:

There are around 6 or 7 Restaurants which serve a mixture of traditional Greek dishes such as stuffed vine leaves and fresh Greek salads, to Italian and Simple fresh seafood dishes. A week is just long enough to try them all.
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I went to Haraki around four years ago now in July 02 and I can still remember the details of the place like it was yesterday. A week before my partner and I went to Rhodes we hadn't decided where we wanted to go and went down to our local travel agents to try and find something suitable.

I like a party as much as the next person but what I don't like is people running round flashing various body parts and being sick in the street and having heard of Falaraki (also in Rhodes) I was slightly put off when the travel agent mentioned Rhodes as a destination. After some gentle persuasion and reading a bit more about Haraki we booked a weeks stay in a self catering apartment for £249 each.

In the week before we travelled I did some searching on the internet and was quite pleased to find really good reviews and photos from other people who had been to Haraki, and judging from the photos it looked like a lovely place.

We flew out to Rhodes from Nottingham East Midlands Airport with Aegean Airlines our flight was a late one. Departure time was around midnight and with the 2 hour time difference, luggage collecting and so on it was the early hours of the morning as we left Rhodes airport on our way to Haraki which is roughly a 20 mile (35min) journey.

As Haraki is a very small resort we didn't get on a coach for our transfer, we were put into a taxi of our own. We didn't have to wait around on the coach for all the late people to turn up, it was fantastic. Until that is the Taxi driver actually started driving! I'm sure he had never passed a driving test or if he did it was in Noddy's car.

We did eventually arrive though in one piece, pulled up in the middle of what looked like nothing much really, the representative from Cosmos travel told us to follow her dragging our suit cases up a dusty old lane. As we did we realised this was a very traditional village, yes there were some other holiday makers but all in all it was mainly locals taking part in there everyday lives. Old men chatting in the street one with a donkey, we saw one old lady living in a one roomed house do her washing on the concrete slab at the front of her house. It was lovely it was almost like we'd stepped back in time a hundred years.

After about a 2 minute walk from the drop off point we arrived at our apartments, The Castleview apartments so named because it was over looked my a 12th century Castle/Fort/Prison on top of a hill. We were on the ground floor of the apartments but there were only 4 apartments in the whole block which was very nice, no noise apart from the odd passing local.

So we dumped our cases in our room and went to explore our new surroundings, by this time it is around 6am. We headed towards the sea front which took us all of five minutes leisurely stroll to get to. It was stunning the sun had just come up, we had the smell of the fresh sea air and the odd fishing boat which was heading around to the small working harbour just around the corner from the natural harbour we were stood in. As we looked along the buildings along the sea front we could see that there were all of about 7 restaurants in this place a couple of shops and the rest of the buildings turned out to be holiday home owned mainly owned by Greeks. Now this might not sound like everyone's cup of tea but to us it was heaven. I week of peace and quiet just chilling on the beach without a care in the world.

However I like the sound of this but when it comes to it I'm quite hyper active and laying on a beach all day everyday is not my idea of a great holiday, so luckily there were other things to do as well. Here are some of the places we visited:

Haraki Castle:

This was a bit of a trek if you're not into physical activity but well worth when to get to the top. When you start the climb up to the Castle it doesn't look very far so if you're lucky enough to do this make sure you take plenty of water. After about an hour and a half (we weren't exactly racing) we reach the top, the view was spectacular we could look back down at Haraki and it looked like all of the houses were toys. You could really see from this point how small and quant Haraki is. We could also see that no body in Haraki had a swimming pool. This didn't bother us one bit though as the pebble beach and crystal clear waters in Haraki were 10 times better than any germ ridden swimming pool. On the other side of the Castle we could see a huge expanse of golden sand which we found out was called Sunny Beach (mentioned further down). The castle itself is a ruin, they call it a castle but as you walk around the ruins you realise that it was actually more of a prison. Is was quite quirky with all of the chambers which I'm sure countless people perished in but were now full of movement from scurrying lizards chasing after some rather large looking insects. We were told that the best time to visit the castle was for sunrise, but with sunrise at around 4.45am I'm afraid to say we didn't see this!!

Sunny Beach:

Sunny Beach was on the other side of the Castle towards the south east. This is a golden sandy beach with loungers and water sports. We hired out lounger and umbrella for the whole day for 2 euros which I think is fantastic value for money. We stayed on the beach for the whole day and it was lovely plenty of stalls to get cold drinks and snacks and we even went on the ringos.

Day Trips form Haraki:

Our tour company ran day trips into Rhodes town or to Historic Lindos to the other end of the island. We chose to use the public transport system for our days out. We could catch the bus 2 or three times a day from Haraki or walk about half a mile up to the main road which had regular bus services (every half hour) running all day. We went into Rhodes Town on the bus and found it very easy just to jump on the bus and pay under 2 euros for a trip that would have cost us around 15 euros each with our tour company. The bus drivers seemed friendly and were happy to point us in the right direction to catch the bus back. One thing to look out for though is that not all return buss would go right into Haraki, some would drop you at the end of a half mile road leading to Haraki. There is a shop about half way though which is convenient for an ice cream break.

Eating Out:

There are around 6 or 7 Restaurants which serve a mixture of traditional Greek dishes such as stuffed vine leaves and fresh Greek salads, to Italian and Simple fresh seafood dishes. A week is just long enough to try them all.

Eating In:

To be honest we didn't eat in we took £400 spending money between us for the week and ate out for three meals a day every day we were there. There are however two or three well stocked local stores which sell all you would need for a self catering holiday.

Sit and Watch the Moon Appear:

I don't really know a great deal about how the moon orbits the earth but in Haraki the moon was the best I'd ever seen it. Between around 10pm and midnight the sky would be pitch black and then a little later every night it would happen. The moon would appear around the rocks a blazing bright red colour that reflected in the sea, it was brilliant. Locals would go out on boats to have a look obviously still fascinated by the phenomena. I have never seen anything like that since.

Facts about Rhodes/Haraki

Electricity: 240V AC 50Hz
Currency: Euro (EUR 1 = 100 Cents)
Language(s): Greek, English is widely spoken
Approx Flight Time from the UK : 3 hours 55 mins
Local Time: From Apr to Oct : GMT +3
Local Time: From Nov to Mar : GMT +2
Driving: Driving is on the right. National/International Drivers Licence.
Permit required: Minimum driving age is 18
Average price of a meal: €5
Pint of Beer: €2
Cocktails: €3.50

I would thoroughly recommend Haraki to the discerning traveller who likes to take in a bit of the local culture and see what kind of life the locals live. The locals are very friendly and some of the other British people we met (only 2 other couples on the week we went) had been revisiting for years.

I wouldn't recommend this place as a family destination, but that's one of the reasons we went in the first place. 

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