Travelling the furthest I’ve ever been across the globe, I went to Rhodes, Greece.

Will and I have spent the last few months highly anticipating this week away. It was our first couples trip abroad so I was really excited for us to spend some time adventuring abroad together. It was fantastic.

In true blogger style, I of course want to share it with you and show you my photos and videos. I hope you enjoy!

Despite expecting delays from the horror stories we have recently heard about Bristol Airports issues, our flight out to Greece was a very smooth process (the way back was a very different story but I will get to that later…)

We were lucky enough to even be allowed a nosey around the cockpit as our pilot was a member of Will’s cricket team which was incredibly cool.

If you’ve read some of my previous writing about flying, you’ll know it is a situation that triggers my anxiety, but I was remarkably okay. I kept saying to Will how surprised I was that I felt okay. It obviously helps that Will had come with me and that everything was smooth, but it reassured me that it won’t be a horrific experience when I fly out with my parents to New Zealand later on this year.

So after the very cool experience of seeing the cockpit, unfortunately, our flight was disrupted by someone’s smelly farts (the worst I’ve ever smelt) practically every 20 minutes. Other than the regular pulling of my t-shirt over my nose and exchanging glances with other passengers who equally did not enjoy the aroma brewing on the plane, I read my book and enjoyed the view as we flew over the Pyrenees mountains.

Once we landed, TUI put us on a bus to our hotel. We knew that that hotel was going to be nice after having saved for months for this trip, but I didn’t quite expect it to be as spectacular as it was. Upon arrival we were greeted with champagne, and we could hear water noises which turned out to be a huge indoor waterfall: I have never felt so much like an imposter…but I did love it! We were really lucky in the fact that they also complementarity upgraded our room which then had a view of both the pool and the sea.

After a wander around the hotel, we headed to bed as we had arrived in the late evening and were knackered from the travelling.

For our first full day, we wanted to make the most of the hotel facilities. We enjoyed a day chilling and reading by the pool, and of course, testing out all of the all inclusive cocktails.

The next day (I think — the concept of time always gets a bit scrambled when you are on holiday), we took a walk through Kolymbia and went to the beach to get away from the resort and have a dip in the sea.

When we got there, there were a load of signs warning people to be careful of sea urchins which were further down the beach…. unsurprisingly this spooked me a bit so I refused to go into the water without sandals on my feet. I did get some funny looks, but the sandals were excellent floatation devices and helped me bob around on my back in the sea for ages (much to Will’s jealousy as he somehow just doesn’t float!).

I also had to purchase more suncream as mine was already looking a bit low (by the end of the holiday, I went through almost two whole bottles #gingerproblems).

That evening there was entertainment at the hotel from a singing group. They had some superb miming dance moves that I had a great time embarrassing Will with when I tried to replicate them. I even partook in the conga line!

When we booked our holiday, I decided I liked this hotel the best as it was right next to a hill. Climbing the hill was at the top of my agenda for holiday activities. So we got up early one morning to try and avoid the heat (spoiler alert: it was still incredibly hot) to climb up the hill.

The footpath was quite loose underfoot so mixed with the heat and steepness it was quite a tough walk. The views were worth the hard climb. Seeing the coastline from up high is always a spectacular view but with how blue and clear the Mediterranian Sea was here, it was something else.

We were then exhausted from the walk and flopped for a while afterwards on a sun lounger in the shade.

Tuesday was our Rhodes day. But before that, we had a trip on a pedalo.

I felt really travel sick on the pedalo so spent the majority of the time swimming around it or climbing up and jumping off into the crystal blue water. Maybe I’m not very well travelled, but I have never seen water this clear before.

After the excitement of the pedalo, we took an evening bus into Rhodos to see Old Town.

Be warned, the buses cram as many people as they can physically squeeze together until it’s impossible to get any more people on… it was a very sweaty and uncomfortable 40-minute bus journey but I’m pleased we did it as Rhodos was such a beautiful town.

Just walking along the cobbled streets and through the old fort stone walls, you could feel the history that has taken place here. It is a medieval town and the oldest inhabited town in Europe. Some of the architecture was reconstructed by the Italians in the 1940s but everywhere had an undeniable historic feel to it, it was really beautiful.

We stopped off in a couple of places for some drinks, but we pretty much spent our entire visit exploring different streets and watching them come alive as the evening drew in. I’m pleased Will had his bearings about him because I would’ve got lost in the maze of cobbled streets.

After Rhodos, we had an early start to get to the harbour for a boat trip into Lindos.

This was a TUI excursion that was well worth paying for.

The boat trip itself was incredibly scenic as it followed the west coastline of the island. We could see each bay, and we think that we even caught a glimpse of what might have been the volcano that lies on the island.

Thankfully I didn’t feel travel sick on the boat like I did on the pedalo!

When we arrived, so did many other boats and you can see why; The views, beautiful alleys, and the history of the acropolis is a tourist magnet.

The town encapsulated the epitome of what you would expect a historic greek town to look like. It was beautiful. Despite being 2 of many many tourists, it was still worth the visit.

It was a long walk up to the Acropolis, especially in the midday sun. After a Google, I found that it was 250 steps up to the acropolis so that does make me feel much better about being the sweaty mess that I was all day. I barely took any photos, the ones we have are thanks to Will, I gave him my camera while I sat in the shade for 5 mins refusing to move.

The acropolis itself was fortified by the greeks, then Romans, and is still undergoing restoration now. From here there were amazing views of the coastline and the fishing village.

We also grabbed some lunch while we were here, in a place called Steffany’s. It was a rooftop restaurant so we had some amazing views while we ate and enjoyed sitting down for a while. My pasta dish was so so so scrummy that I had to grab and share a snap of it

The boat trip on the way back from Lindos has got to be the highlight of my holiday. The captain pulled the boat over into some beautiful bays along the east coast and gave us time to have a dip.
Swimming in the clearest of blue water whilst looking out at the most beautiful panoramic coastal views was a feeling of bliss I will never forget. It was a fantastic way to cool off from the walking in Lindos too, every time I got hot and bothered there I reminded myself of the coming swim stops and they did not disappoint my expectations one bit.

Our final full day was a rested one. We ended the day with a date night at a greek cuisine restaurant followed by drinks at a bar listening to live music and playing card games.

After one final swim, we checked out of our room and soaked up the last of the sun before our journey home. It was a 40 degree day so I have to admit, the soaking up of the sun was actually hiding from it under the shade.

The journey home was sadly a bit of a nightmare experience. We were put in separate seats, and we had 3 hour delays at the airport (after already being in the waiting lounge 2 hours early). When we eventually got on the plane, I was a bit of an anxious Abi but the flight attendants were amazing and so so lovely, they even were able to seat Will and I next to each other. Big Boo to Bristol Airport but a big thanks to the pilot and flight attendants on our plane, they were fab.

We slept for as much of the flight back as possible, and arrived back at our homes around 4:30 am (which actually felt like 6am for us now being on Greece time). Thanks to Mum and Dad for being legends and still coming to collect us at the silly o’clock time we landed.

Despite the journey home being a palava, our time in Greece on the island of Rhodes was remarkable! In our 5 years together, it was our first ‘proper holiday’ and first time abroad as a couple AND Greece was a beautiful and great place to visit.

I keep joking to friends and family that I haven’t actually been away as my sunburn cleared up really quick, and there is no sign of a tan… it’s like I never really left England.

I hope you have managed to get away this summer too!

I really enjoyed this trip and writing a little blog round up of it, it’s made me want to do a bit more travel blogging so perhaps you might see a bit more of that in the future!