Nature/ ≈ 30 min from the villas
Profitis Ilias and Eleousa
Pine forest, 1930s mountain lodges, and a pond of fish found nowhere else.
When the coast gets too hot, drive up. Profitis Ilias is a mountain of nearly 800 metres in the middle of the island, covered in pine and cypress, where the air is noticeably cooler than on the beach.
The lodges
In the 1930s the Italians built a small mountain resort here, with lodges that look like they belong in the Alps: steep roofs, timber balconies, stone walls. Some have been restored; others are slowly going back to the forest. Look out for deer. The main lodge is called Elafos, Greek for deer.
Eleousa
On the way up, Eleousa is a village the Italians laid out in the same years, with a long square of arcades and pines. Just outside it, a round stone pond is home to the gizani, a small fish that lives only on Rhodes. Nearby, the tiny Byzantine church of Agios Nikolaos Fountoukli is covered in centuries-old wall paintings.
Good to know
Take a jacket in spring and autumn. About 30 minutes from the villas.
