Rhodes tours from cruise ship: how to choose one that fits the hours you actually have

Every other decision on a holiday can be made loosely. This one cannot. A missed all-aboard time is a different kind of problem from a missed dinner reservation, and it is the reason Rhodes tours from cruise ship calls should be chosen by duration first and by everything else second. The good news is that this is easy: the fifteen listings on this site publish their lengths, they range from two and a half hours to seven, and there is something in almost every bracket.

The subtraction, written out. Start with the hours your ship gives you ashore. Take off the time to get from the terminal to wherever your boat meets you, which you will know from the listing page and not from us. Take off the same again for the return. Then take off a buffer — we would not use less than an hour, and two is more comfortable — because a swimming stop that runs long is a lovely problem on a holiday and a serious one on a port call. What remains is the longest duration you should be looking at. People who do this arithmetic before browsing choose well; people who fall for a seven-hour day and then try to make the numbers work are the ones who spend the afternoon watching a watch.

What we deliberately do not know. How many cruise ships in Rhodes today is a question only the port's own daily board can answer, and it changes with every date. Whether your particular ship is alongside all day or only until mid-afternoon is printed in your own documents. Search for cruise ships Rhodes and you get arrival boards; search for a tour and you get durations. Only the second of those is something we can help with, and pretending otherwise would be the fastest way to make this page useless.

Why the durations are the honest part. Ratings and review counts tell you whether a trip is well run. Duration tells you whether it is possible. On this site the shortest listing is $45 at two and a half hours, rated 4.9 from 508 reviews — which happens to be both the shortest and the best-rated short trip here, and that is the sort of coincidence worth using.

Under five hours ashore. Most Rhodes tours from cruise ship calls land here. You are in the two-and-a-half to three-hour bracket and you should be happy about it, because this is where two of the strongest listings on the site live. $45 covers Anthony Quinn Bay and hidden caves in two and a half hours at 4.9 from 508 reviews. $56 is three hours across three bays with an open bar and 1,857 reviews at 4.8, and it is our price-from listing. And $102 is three hours with a marine biologist on board, snorkeling at Stroggyli and underwater photos included — our top pick on the whole site, and short enough for a tight call.

Five to seven hours ashore. Now the five-hour listings open up. $70 puts you on a fully equipped fishing vessel with a local crew, swimming and fresh food, at 4.8 from 445 reviews. $1,218 is the whole boat for up to twelve guests over five hours with a BBQ and drinks on the return, which for a family group with a long call is the one listing here that turns a port day into something else entirely. Planning one day in Rhodes from cruise ship hours rarely leaves room for more than this.

Eight hours or more ashore. Only now would we look at the six- and seven-hour days: $71 with its buffet lunch and 2,483 reviews, $97 on a traditional caique with gourmet food, or $145 for seven hours with a biologist, Alimia Island and a BBQ lunch ashore. These are excellent days and they are the wrong purchase on a six-hour call. Choosing among Rhodes tours from cruise ship options is mostly the discipline of not booking the best day on the site when you do not have the hours for it.

The case for staying in town instead. Sometimes the answer is that no boat fits. A short call with a late tender and an early all-aboard leaves time for the medieval town and not much else, and that is a perfectly good day. People type Rhodes old town harbor cruise ship into a search box because the old walls and the water sit close together; where your own ship ties up, and how long the walk is from it, are on your ship's paperwork rather than in any listing here. We would rather tell you to check it than invent it.

Booking the longest thing you can technically afford in time. The number of cruise ships in Rhodes on a summer morning means a busy waterfront, and busy waterfronts are slower than empty ones. A seven-hour day inside an eight-hour call has no room in it for anything at all.

Assuming a tour is near the terminal because the island is small. The listings on this site name Stegna beach, Anthony Quinn Bay, Ladiko, Kallithea and Afandou among their stops, and a boat that stops somewhere does not necessarily leave from near you. The meeting point is on the listing page. Read it.

Expecting a road trip from a boat site. A Lindos tour from Rhodes is a land excursion, and not one of the fifteen listings here names Lindos: these are boats, and what they sell is water, bays and sea caves. If the medieval village is the thing you came for, this is the wrong page and we would rather say so.

Treating a rating as a fit. $145 is a superb seven-hour day at 4.8 from 234 reviews and it is the wrong booking on a six-hour call. $45 is 4.9 from 508 reviews and fits almost any call. When the clock is fixed, fit beats quality, because a tour you leave early is worth less than a shorter one you finish.

Not asking about children, gear or food. $63 is described as suitable for all ages. $71 includes a buffet lunch and unlimited drinks, $56 an open bar, $145 a BBQ lunch ashore. These things are written on the listings, and the five minutes it takes to read them is the cheapest part of the whole day.