Did you know that Rhodes has quite the reputation for ceramics with roots in the Minoan and Mycenaean civilizations? In 1928 the famous ICARO factory was founded here by an Italian, Alfred Biliotti, enamoured by the island’s Iznik pottery. Rebranded by his successor, Konstantinos D. Hatzikonstantis, (in a more definitively Greek fashion) as IKAROS, it enjoyed a golden age between 1948 and 1988. Beautifully coloured and patterned pieces from this period have found their way into museums and galleries throughout the world, including the Louvre in Paris. The baton has been passed to Bonis Ceramics, and the family are into their third generation since Dorotheos Bonis first got the wheel turning in 1969. At Bonis today you are not only invited to choose from a variety of cups, bowls, vases, dishes and the like but also place an order for a custom-made item with your very own specifications!

When it comes to marrying tradition with taste, one of your first ports of call should naturally be the island’s kitchens. A few packets of handmade pasta tucked into your suitcase are a must. Made only with wheat flour without eggs, they come in all shapes and sizes and have names like makarounes, matsi and kolouria. It will remind you of the simple pleasures of a plate of pasta adorned by a sauce of homegrown fresh tomatoes and locally made cheeses, or perhaps even just a little butter and chopped onions.

While we’re talking Greek island cuisine and cultivation, the olive is bound to crop up! You can’t really go wrong taking back a few bottles of olive oil. In your own kitchen, you can replicate the Rhodian habit of using it for, well, absolutely everything! And what of the olives themselves? Before you buy, you can have a lot of fun choosing: Zoupes are the mature black ones flavoured with thyme and gorse; tsakistes or mahairates are green and either crushed with a stone or sliced with a razor so they can debitter and cure; kouloubistes have lemon or quince added to the salt water they are preserved in and, of course, if you prefer dry olives, there are plenty of those as well.

From savoury, we cross over to the other distinctly naughtier side of the culinary street! Every Rhodian home, bakery and cake shop is always overflowing with sweets and sweet pastries. Someone somewhere is always drizzling honey onto something and any attempt at resistance is futile! The traditional melekouni, the flagship Rhodian sweet made from roasted sesame seeds, honey, almonds, orange zest, cinnamon and nutmeg, should be your priority purchase, coming as it does in neat little squares. Special almond flour cookies, fried sweets stuffed with walnuts, sesame seeds and spices, followed by pancakes and mandinades (a fried crispy pastry with the requisite honey topping) form the rest of the first wave in a merciless onslaught. These are flanked by a battalion of spoon sweets; depending on the season practically every fruit grown on the island, along with chestnuts and walnuts, gets stewed, preserved in syrup and eaten with a spoon, hence the name. When your will power has completely evaporated, you will be presented with the formal terms of surrender in the guise of syrupy pastries such as baklava, ravani, kadaifi, samali… and need we really go on? If you can stop yourself from eating everything on the spot, you might want to take any number of the above back at home. Alternatively, keep a box of something to enjoy in a quiet moment and remember late afternoon on a sun-drenched day, a lovely little village with the best cake shop in the world and an owner as sweet as their confectionery.

Staying on the sweet side, the Anevata of Rhodes is cookie royalty round these parts. The traditional sourdough biscuit or bun is baked into the culture, ingenuity and generosity of the island in every way possible. The dough is heavily infused with a melange of aromas straight from locally grown herb and plant varieties, with cinammon, cloves, mastic and aniseed among the favourites. Women’s Cooperative of the village of Apollona bring these time-honoured local recipes and ingredients onto the public radar and mobilise an artisanal taskforce of bakeries to roll out great batches of these tasty treats, especially during festive Easter season. Who would have thought that a humble giftbox of delicious cookies could come to symbolise a whole way of life? Every bite contains tradition-preserving goodness along with exceptional taste.

Now, could you really contemplate taking off from the island without a jar or two of honey about your person? Beekeeping goes all the way back to ancient times, with the mountains, sunshine, flora and fauna making an ideal combination for successful production. In the first century BCE, geographer and historian, Strabo, was in no doubt that the honey here was considered supreme. If the practice of beekeeping gives you a particular buzz, you can pick up plenty of souvenirs in the Bee Museum. As for the product, the prize-winning thyme honey is light in colour, sweet and silky, while the darker pine honey is a little less sweet but full of iron. The heather honey is a real wonder of nature with deep red sunset tones and plenty of nutritional value in every drop, though its slight bitterness make it something of an acquired taste. And if you were wondering where you can find it all, it’s usually staring you in the face! Honey stalls periodically pop up at the roadside, the local kafenios are always good for a jar of the sweet stuff and just in case you miss all these, the food market every Saturday in the main town is a “meet and greet” with local farmers eager to introduce you to all their goodies, of which honey is the mainstay.

With all the food items on offer, we mustn’t forget the accompaniment to every great meal, wine. As with the honey so it is with the wine. Viticulture has always thrived here, happily assisted by the climate and plentiful water resources, in vineyards spread across 6,000 hectares comprising two Designation Origin zones. The result is an enticing range of wines made from the white muscat and athiri and red mandilaria, locally known as amorgiano, complemented by additional grape varieties, assyrtiko, malagouzia and mavrothiriko. Needless to say, you can purchase a bottle almost anywhere, but to get a full sense of the island’s dedication to the vine you should combine your purchase with a visit to a winery for the history of winemaking and a demonstration of today’s production processes. Piperis and Alexandris family wineries, CAIR S.A., the Korikida and Anastasia Triantafyllou Estates and Kounaki Wines offer magnifnificent settings, great insight into life and wine on Rhodes and, after selected tasting, the opportunity to purchase some favourite wines straight from the source.

And finally it’s high time for a little flutter! After a few enjoyable and colouful hours in the Valley of the Butterflies, its two souvenir shops offer playful gifts and keepsakes like hats and accessories, magnets, books, photo collections and sundry items connected by a nature and butterfly-loving vibe.

And there’s no need to get in a flap about where to go, what to do and in what order. Our Guest Relations will put you in the picture all over again about the latest on island exploration, what-to-buy tips and cultural highlights, with a personalised slant towards the kind of holiday you are looking for and the memories you want to keep.

Book now your escape at Rodos Park and happy shopping!