Rhodes: Butterfly Valley & Seven Springs Day Trip with Pickup

4.55

(174 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

We’d already been winding through Rhodes’ west coast for a while when the driver pulled over and handed us a crumpled map—“Petaloudes,” he said, “follow the river.” It smelled like wet stone and pine needles as we stepped into Butterfly Valley. I could hear water trickling somewhere below, but mostly it was just quiet except for the odd laugh from another group. In July you actually see clouds of butterflies here (Panaxia quadripunctaria—our guide seemed proud to say the Latin name), but even in June there’s this hush, almost like the trees are waiting. I nearly tripped on a root watching a tiny crab scuttle by—Potamon rhodium, apparently only found here. Didn’t expect that.

After two hours poking around mossy rocks and wooden bridges, we piled back into the bus (air conditioning felt like a miracle). The drive to Seven Springs took about 45 minutes—enough time to notice how dry and golden everything looked outside compared to all that green shade earlier. At Epta Piges, we got instructions again (“meet back here!”) and wandered off under chestnut trees. There’s this narrow tunnel you can walk through—pitch black, cold water up to your ankles. My friend dared me to go first; I banged my head on the ceiling once and came out blinking into sunlight at this little lake behind a dam. Some kids were skipping stones while their grandma watched from a picnic table. We grabbed lunch at the café by the springs—simple stuff, but honestly that feta tasted better than any I’ve had back home.

I don’t know if it was just being away from crowds or hearing nothing but cicadas for an hour, but something about those two places sticks with me. Our driver joked about “Greek time” when we left late (no one seemed bothered). On the way back to Rhodes City I kept thinking about those silent woods in Butterfly Valley and how different they felt from anywhere else on the island.