Where to stay in Rhodes: the best resorts and areas

Rhodes Town is two places in one. Inside the walls is the medieval Old Town, a UNESCO-listed maze of cobbled lanes, the Street of the Knights and the Palace of the Grand Master. Outside is the modern town, with Mandraki harbour, where bronze deer statues stand guard, and Elli Beach right in the centre.

Stay here for history, restaurants and a buzzing evening scene, with the island's resorts a bus ride away. The airport is about 20 minutes by car.

Faliraki is the island's biggest and busiest resort, with a long sandy beach, water sports, a water park and a bar street that made its name with party crowds. These days it is broader than that, and the five-star resorts at its quieter northern end, around Kallithea, are some of the best on the island.

It is about 14 km from Rhodes Town, so the Old Town makes an easy evening out.

Lindos is the postcard you came for: a tumble of sugar-cube houses beneath a clifftop acropolis, with donkeys plodding up the lanes and two perfect bays below, the main beach and tiny St Paul's Bay. In the evening, rooftop bars glow above the village.

Many of the best hotels are just outside the village, on Vlycha Bay or the coast towards Kalathos, so you get the views without the crowds of day-trippers. It is about 50 km from the airport.

Pefkos grew from a handful of pine-shaded coves just south of Lindos into a small, easy-going resort, much loved by returning British couples. The beaches are small and sandy, the tavernas relaxed, and Lindos is a five-minute drive away.

Kiotari, about 15 km south of Lindos, is a stretch of quiet coast rather than a town, lined with big, modern five-star resorts on a long sand-and-pebble beach. It is perfect if you want a peaceful, all-inclusive week with everything on site.

Lindos and its village life are a short drive or taxi away.

Kolymbia is a quiet, spread-out resort on the east coast, with a long beach and a backdrop dominated by the monastery-topped rock of Tsambika, whose own sandy beach is one of the island's finest.

It is a favourite with families and couples who want a calm, resort-style holiday, and it has some stylish newer hotels, including adults-only places with swim-up rooms.

Afandou is a traditional village a little inland, with a long, uncrowded beach of pebbles and sand below it and the island's 18-hole golf course nearby. It is quieter and more local than Faliraki next door, with good-value family hotels.

Ialyssos and Ixia line the west coast just south of Rhodes Town. The beaches here are pebbly and the sea breezier, which makes it windsurfing territory, but the big resorts make up for it with pools and gardens, and the location is hard to beat: the airport is around 10 minutes away and the Old Town about 15.

Theologos and neighbouring Tholos are quiet villages on the north-west coast, close to the airport, with beachside hotels and sunsets over the Aegean towards the Turkish mountains. They suit couples and families who want a simple, peaceful base with a car for exploring.