Rhodes appears twice in Scripture — as a trading partner of Tyre in Ezekiel 27:15, and in Acts 21:1 where Paul’s ship called in on his final journey toward Jerusalem.
Our cruise docks here for a full day — 7am to 6pm — and after a group devotion on board, the walled Old City is yours to explore.
Rhodes’ Old City is a UNESCO World Heritage marvel: intact medieval walls, the Street of the Knights, and lanes that have hosted traders for three thousand years.
Rhodes also makes the tour’s best souvenir stop: olive-wood boards, sea sponges, thyme honey and hand-painted ceramics fill the lanes at prices gentler than Santorini’s. Haggle kindly, carry cash for the small shops, and remember your suitcase’s opinion before buying the amphora.
Paul’s stop here was brief, but it anchors Rhodes in the New Testament’s geography. From the harbour where ancient ships moored — once guarded, legend says, by the Colossus — you follow the same waterfront the apostle saw.
It is a day of joyful wandering: bougainvillea, stone archways, sea views from the walls.
The Colossus is long gone — the hundred-foot bronze wonder stood barely fifty-four years before an earthquake felled it in 226 BC — but the harbour it guarded still receives ships exactly where ours docks. Two bronze deer on columns now mark the spot tradition assigns to its feet.
We deliberately keep Rhodes unstructured. After several teaching-intensive days, a free day lets couples linger, photographers chase light, and friends find a taverna table for a long lunch.
The Knights of St John made Rhodes their fortress home for two centuries, and their Street of the Knights survives as one of Europe’s best preserved medieval streets — each national ‘tongue’ of the order with its own inn, coats of arms still crisp above the doors.
Every Roam Shalom free day still begins with the Word — devotions frame even the unscheduled hours.
Comfortable shoes: the Old City’s sea-pebble paving is beautiful and bumpy.
“And it came to pass, that after we were gotten from them, and had launched, we came with a straight course unto Coos, and the day following unto Rhodes.”
— Acts 21:1 (KJV)
Docked until evening, the ship is steps away — return for lunch, a swim or a rest whenever you like. This rhythm is why we love the cruise format for multi-generational groups.
Paul’s connection is brief but concrete: Acts 21 lists Rhodes as a waypoint on his final, resolute journey toward Jerusalem — ‘and the day following unto Rhodes.’ A church tradition also links the apostle to the small bay at Lindos further down the coast, still called St Paul’s Bay.
The view from the Palace ramparts, mastic ice cream in the old town, and the harbour gate at golden hour as we prepare to sail.
Give yourself one unplanned hour inside the walls: mandraki windmills, bougainvillea against ochre stone, the call of gulls over the ramparts. Free days exist so that beauty can ambush you.
History buffs should find the Archaeological Museum inside the Knights’ old hospital — a building as remarkable as its collection — and the Palace of the Grand Master’s mosaic floors, lifted from nearby Kos. Rhodes wears seven civilisations in a single square mile, and it wears them lightly.
Is Rhodes easy to explore without a guide?
One of the easiest ports anywhere: the ship docks a short walk from the old town gates, the walled city is compact and pedestrian, and every lane eventually returns you to the harbour. We hand out a marked map, agree a meeting point, and set you free.
What should we not miss inside the walls?
The Street of the Knights, the Palace of the Grand Master, the view from the walls if the circuit is open — and an unhurried lemonade in a courtyard café. If you want a beach hour, Elli beach is minutes from the gate.
Beach-lovers have options too: Elli beach sits minutes from the walls, all deckchairs and impossibly clear water. More than one traveller has read the day’s chapters ankle-deep in the Aegean — devotions with a horizon. Free days are for exactly this.
A whole day inside a living medieval city, with your ship waiting at the walls. That’s day seven of our Greece journey.
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