Carnival Vista in Rhodes, Greece

Carnival Vista docked a short walk from the old town walled city in Rhodes, Greece. Rhodes is a great port for just getting off the ship and doing things on your own. We didn’t get far on the walk to town before coming across a hop on hop off bus. This bus makes a loop around the touristy area of the island. It goes up to the acropolis and along a hilltop road with a panoramic view of the sea from both sides of the road. We could see the ship from up there. The bus goes down to a public beach where some people got off to spend the day. Then it went into the old town area. Old town has lots of gates in and out of the city’s wall and all sorts of old structures including a castle. You can also walk along the waterfront outside the city gates.

Hop On Hop Off bus in Rhodes, Greece

Greece is a great place for tourists because a lot of things there don’t cost much. The hop on hop off bus cost just 12 euros each. Its route wasn’t as long as in some places, but it did have a pretty good island tour with some good viewpoints along the way and stops at several places with things to see or do.

ruins of temple columns at Rhodes Acropolis – in scaffolding like many European ruins

Athens isn’t the only place in Greece with an acropolis, though it is the most famous one. An acropolis is a citadel built on elevated ground, which is where ancient Greeks liked to build their temples. We got off the bus to see the one in Rhodes. There’s not a lot left of the temple structure and what there is had scaffolding around it. Scaffolding around ancient things seemed pretty common around the areas of Europe we visited throughout this cruise.

looking down on the Olympic stadium

The acropolis in Rhodes doesn’t look like much from the bus, but if you get off there the area has enough to see to keep occupied until the next bus comes by. There’s a good portion of an ancient Olympic stadium down in a hollow besides the few columns from a temple up on the hilltop.

this building has restrooms and a pictorial display of various ancient sports

It’s nowhere near as impressive as the acropolis in Athens, but still worth getting off the bus for. In the building with the bathrooms there’s a little alcove with all sorts of pictures and information about early Greek sports. Besides running they also had things like wrestling, boxing, discus throwing, and swimming. One thing all these sports had in common in the drawings – the participants were all male – and naked.

semi-sub in Rhodes, Greece

We got off the bus again a couple stops before old town in a little touristy area by the waterfront. There we found the Poseidon semi-sub, advertised on a sign for 10 euros each. Since we were first to sign up for the next ride they let us on for 5. Way less than semi sub excursions cost in the Caribbean. We walked around the area a bit before time for the semi sub ride.

inside the semi-sub

With everyone up top the boat took a tour around the harbor and near to the cruise ship before having everyone go into the underwater windowed area below the deck. At first it went slowly along with fish and seagrass in view. A large school of small fish followed the semi-sub, accustomed to having a good feed when it stops for the diver show. A semi-sub is a boat with an underwater viewing chamber. It does not submerge like a true submarine.

diver from the semi sub

Unfortunately we sat on the right and most of the action happened on the left. The diver did get around to our side eventually, but before he got in the water all the fish stayed on the other side, which was also where they dropped food in. After swimming around the boat with the school of fish the diver found a lobster and brought that by the windows. Then he came by with a GoPro camera and took photos of the people inside –  available free on facebook several days later.

gate into the old-town walled city

Once the boat started moving some people went back up and some stayed down below watching underwater scenery for awhile until it got going too fast to see any fish.

ruins of the Church of the Virgin of the Burgh, a 14th century church inside the old walled city on Rhodes – with Vista photo bombing in an arch in the wall on the left side of the picture

From there it was a very short walk to the next stop at old town and not far after that back to the ship. There were things to see along the shore so we didn’t bother getting back on the bus. The wall has quite a few gates. You can get back to the ship along the shore outside of the gates or through town inside. There are windmills in the area where we got off, a lighthouse closer to the ship, and a castle up on a hill. We were three stops away from where we got on by the ship and it was not too long of a walk from there. Anyone without mobility issues could see a lot just by walking around old town without any transportation beyond their own two feet.

church in old town Rhodes

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