Rhodes News

New Year Weather

A further temperature drop and strong Northerly winds across the country will dominate the weather for the end of 2025 and into the New Year. In the evening hours of Wednesday, December 31, and the early morning hours of Thursday, January 1, temporary local snowfalls are likely to occur even in low-altitude areas of Macedonia, […]

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New Year Retail Times

The recommended retail opening hours in Greece during the New Year period have been announced. These are:- Supermarkets can be open on New Year’s Eve, December 31, from 08:00 until 20:00, with some large departmental stores closing at 14:00. Smaller retailers are likely to shut at noon or late afternoon. However, all shops will be […]

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The Greek Tradition of Vasilopita

‘Vasilopita’, (Basil Pie), is an ancient New Year tradition that is still widely followed by Greeks to this day. At the cutting of the special New Year Vasilopita cake, each slice will be named and offered to those present, be they family or friends. Whoever is lucky enough to get the coin or trinket, which […]

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Sunrise Continues to be Later!

You may have noticed that even though we have passed Winter Solstice (December 21), the Sun continues to rise a little later each morning. This is due to the fact that the Sun moves with what seems to be a very slightly slower-than-average westward daily motion in the sky (measured with respect to our uniform […]

New year

Greek New Year Traditions

The traditional foods for the New Year celebrations in Greece include dishes that are shaped by timeless regional customs. There is no other celebration in the Greek calendar carrying such a deep symbolism since it’s associated with wishing for luck, prosperity, welfare, and happiness for the coming year. It’s the Greeks’ wish that all the […]

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Updated Travel Guides to the Greek Islands

We are pleased to confirm that our fully revised 2026 travel guides will be available in paperback form from most international book retailers in January. However, for 2026, we are also launching our travel guides for the first time on Amazon Kindle* for those who would prefer our books in a digital format. We continue […]

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Airbnb Fined for Unlicensed Properities

The Spanish government has fined the short-term property rental giant Airbnb €64m (£56m) for advertising and renting out unlicensed apartments. It was also confirmed that some of the properties advertised within Spain were prohibited from being rented. The fine cannot be appealed and means Airbnb has to pay the penalty, as well as removing all […]

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World’s Temperature Continues at Record Levels

The Copernicus Observatory, the Earth observation component of the European Union’s Space programme, is expected to report that 2025 will be the second-warmest year on record globally. The observatory also notes that November 2025 was “the third warmest globally” on record. 2025 presents a temperature level identical to that of 2023, pending the statistics for […]

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Old Greek Christmas Traditions

Although the modern approach to Christmas is celebrated across Greece, there are also many old traditions that are still followed in many parts of the country. Below are a few of the best-known. Kallikantzaroi According to the Greek version of the universal myth of evil spirits, our world connects to the underworld through a tree. […]