It’s said that when the Gods divided the lands, they forgot Apollo, so they gave him Rhodes. And you can see why the island of the sun god gets its name; Rhodes averages some 300 days of sunshine a year.
As the British summer limps into season, an island dedicated to the sun god sounds like a far happier prospect than chancing the weather in Blighty, but even those 300 days are surpassing themselves as the mercury exceeds 40 degrees on my arrival. It’s not often you want a cool welcome when you arrive at a hotel but the air con in the lobby of the Lindos Grand is just what is required.
The Lindos Grand is the flagship in a portfolio of properties on the Rhodes, each with their own offering, and even from the lobby the Grand is defined by its minimalism. It’s Grecian in the truest sense; plenty of marble, whitewash and open spaces, working wonders with the natural light, but with a contemporary spin; framed by right angles in its modernist, even brutalist architecture, and exaggerated by an absence of décor.
All of this is but a backdrop, however, to the first thing you see as you walk in – a gargantuan infinity pool. It’s a monstrous 1000m2, longer than an Olympic – as I found to my fatigue attempting several lengths – and as you walk up to it, past stripped-down sun worshippers bronzing themselves like turkeys on a spit, it gradually reveals the bay below.
The Italians, I’m told, have nicknamed it ‘Paradiso’, and from this vantage point it’s easy to see why. The most perfect blue sea – arguably the purest in the Mediterranean – defines Rhodes, and particularly this part of the island. It’s compensation for shingle beaches but, boy, does that make it look pretty.
It may be calling to me from beyond the rooftops, but the sea will have to wait momentarily, however. Within seconds of the buggy ride to the room, I’m into my trunks and flopping into the wrap-around plunge pool like a warthog at a watering hole. It, too, provides another vantage point to the bay; rows of regimented villas in shimmering white set against the earthy tones of the surrounding hillside, mirrored by their interiors in minimalism of polished concrete, stripped wooden fittings and rich white cotton bed linen. From the cool, air-conditioned interior, I sip a Nespresso after my dip and gaze down once again at the bay below.
That first sight of the pool might emit a ‘wow’, but perhaps more fitting is the cry of ‘Thalatta! Thalatta!’ (‘The Sea! The Sea!’), the relief of the Greek army returning from their Persian campaign in 400BC. A tenuous link for the classicists among you, but it also accounts for the name of the hotel’s signature restaurant, set on a huge terrace overlooking the bay. And it sets up what makes the Lindos Grand leagues ahead of its competitors, the culinary offering.
Stavros Manousakis, the Executive Chef, is a marvel with presentation and execution, taking Greek classics and turning them into an art form; a traditional soup becomes a dressing to a lobster tail with a boule of fennel ice cream, there’s scallops with smoked eel and black garlic, and a waxy, bite-sized pumpkin reveals a pumpkin and yuzu parfait. One wonders whether Michelin should visit, but I would argue it benefits without. With Michelin comes expectation, and judgment; this feels like a discovery, to come to a distant hideaway on a Greek island where your expectations aren’t simply exceeded, but eclipsed entirely.
Manousakis has been with Lindos for 14 years but travels extensively to discover new ideas and hone his craft, most recently spending three months in Japan. That’s evolved into the omakase concept in the hotel’s ‘food hall’, a row of eateries adjoining the garden. This, however, is Greek-Japanese fusion, if you can imagine such a thing. There’s a selection of sashimi, but that’s as much as you’d recognise. It’s as much an experience as a meal; Stavros invents and improvises as he goes, a score of one-bite dishes and small plates – a soup dish with sea bream, grilled langoustine, a scallop served in its shell – delivered as casually as if he were entertaining at home.
I got my hands dirty, as it were, with him the next day in a cookery class. Although, less a class in the traditional sense, as a showcase. I, and my fellow pupils, weren’t so much following instructions by rote, more sous-cheffing for him. On the menu, our lunch, consisting of classics, naturally. I was laying out slices of potato and grilled aubergine for the moussaka, grating courgette for the tzatziki and watching him create a Greek salad as second nature.
What stood out were the deft touches of craft, those little secrets you don’t get in recipe books; he told me a story of how he brought a ‘grandma’ to the hotel from a village in the hills, who showed him how to make a better tomato and garlic sauce to go with his grilled fish, using just rustic techniques, no mod cons. Class finished, our handiwork was enjoyed over a late lunch on the terrace, with a long, cool Collins made with mastiha, the spirit from the island of Chios. It was as if everything about being on holiday suddenly came into focus in that moment.
Lindos (photo by Blanche Pelota, courtesy of Unsplash)
Staring wistfully into the bay one evening, I was curious about the nearby town of Lindos, from which the hotel gets its name, the other side of the headland opposite. I’d been told there was an ancient acropolis site but certainly wasn’t expecting what I saw when I ventured there.
Looking across the next bay to the town, it looks like something of a film set from an ancient Greek odyssey. The medieval old town – its buildings predominantly white, of course – hugs the hillsides above which perches the remains of the temple, surrounded by a medieval bastion. Inside the town, beautiful narrow flagstone lanes of whitewashed walls and stone arch doorways are covered by awnings of draping bougainvillea. It is, principally, made up of restaurants, gelateria and boutiques designed for tourists, but it’s limited in its tat (bar the football strips and fridge magnets), thankfully, and it’s delightful to wander round.
Lindos Acropolis (Photo courtesy of Rhodes Tourism)
One gradually meanders upwards, before you break through the last of the rooftops and up a steep, pine-covered path that lead up to the temple. What meets you is far more than a few ruined columns and token tableaux; this ancient dedication to Athena, built around the time those 10,000 soldiers were returning from Persia, features not just the temple, but multiple buildings including a theatre, with orchestra hollowed out of the rock, and a sacrificial boukopion at the top, eerily evocative in the wind coming off the sea below.
As the summer holidays land, and the shrieks of children threaten to break the stillness of a quiet poolside retreat, the adult-only Lindos Grand presents a welcome alternative for those seeking a more laid-back, cultured spot in the south of the island, away from the bustle of Rhodes town and the freneticism of Faliraki. And amid the myriad of options presented by the Greek islands, the hotel, and its blissfully serene surroundings certainly puts this part of Rhodes on the map.
Lindos Grand Resort & Spa is located just moments from Lindos old town, comprising 189 contemporary rooms with lavish amenities – many boasting panoramic sea views and swim-up L-shape private infinity pools. For more information, including details of dining experiences, please visit www.lindosgrand.com.
For more information about Rhodes, please visit the official tourism website at www.rhodeswelcome.gr.
Larry’s Rhodian odyssey continues next weekend, as he ventures further south still, towards the family-oriented property in the Lindos portfolio…
