Rhodes's World Heritage-listed Old Town is a medieval beauty

The largest island in the Dodecanese chain, Rhodes is one of Europe's top package holiday destinations.

It is the sunniest of the Greek islands, has a near-uninterrupted stretch of sandy beaches fringing its sheltered east coast and is crowned by a medieval, World Heritage-listed Old Town that bowls visitors over as they pull in by ferry.

Throw in a pumping nightlife, delectable restaurants, a clifftop acropolis, a restored Italian palace, Ottoman-era mosques, an old Jewish quarter, remote monasteries, a forested interior, some picturesque vineyards, quaint farming villages, decent scuba diving and sensational windsurfing off its southernmost tip and there's little here not to like. Except for perhaps the other visitors, but you can avoid them by steering clear of Rhodes' New Town and the resort town of Faliraki on the east coast.

Avid sightseers won't want to miss Rhodes's two most impressive monuments: the 14th century Palace of the Grand Masters, originally built by the crusading Knights of St John and later restored with the intention of being Mussolini's summer home; and the Acropolis of Lindos, perched on a clifftop overlooking the town of Lindos and affording spectacular views of the island.