There are several ways to get to the Greek island of Symi, but one thing you can’t do is land a plane here. You need to travel first to Rhodes, Kos, Athens or even Turkey and then come by boat.

So what is the best way to get to the nearest airport (Rhodes Diagoras)? That is going to depend on where you are coming from and what your budget is, what time of year you are travelling and many other things besides.

What we’ve done here is have a quick look around (January 2011) to see which companies are offering what flights to Rhodes. We don’t endorse any of these companies, and we are not saying these are the only ones. You must do you own online search, visit a travel agent and make arrangements, but the list below may give you some ideas of how to get as close to Symi as you can by plane.

Once you are at Rhodes airport you will need to get to the harbours and on to Symi. We have a page about getting from Rhodes to Symi here.

In the winter I’ve always used easyJet from Athens to Rhodes or London, and Aegean or Olympic for the internal flights from Rhodes to Athens. The following lists are based on a search for summer (May onwards) flights into Rhodes airport during 2011.

Sites offering cheap flights to Rhodes and on to Symi:

Trip Advisor | Expedia | Pack your bags | Intickets (Also deals with ferry tickets)

Sites offering information about airlines flying into Rhodes

Sky Scanner | Fly low cost airlines (Also has a blog)

Airlines flying in to Rhodes airport, links to their own sites and samples of the cost of flights
Sample prices for one adult, from Gatwick (or if the airline didn’t use Gatwick, then as close as I could find), to Rhodes, first week of May – as of January 15th 2011. These prices are just a guide; prices can go up and down and all over the place – you need to run the search engines on the sites, which is exactly what I did and had no trouble doing so.

Condor
London Gatwick to Rhodes, May 2nd one week return, single adult fare: (re-directed to Fly Thomas Cook:) From £95.99 to £112.99, outward bound and £40.99 to £50.99 return flight.

easyJet
London Gatwick to Rhodes, May 2nd one week return, single adult fare: From £75.99 to £92.99, outward bound and £36.07 to £73.07 return flight.

German Wings
Although recommended by some low cost flights websites, I couldn’t find Rhodes on their destination list.

Jet2
Manchester to Rhodes, May 24th one week return, single adult fare: £119.99 outward bound and £39.99 return flight.

Jetairfly
Brussels to Rhodes, May 2nd one week return, single adult fare: €299.99 outward bound and €199.99 return flight. Alternatives were also given for other days and these prices were much cheaper.

Norwegian Air Shuttle
First available flight from Gatwick to Rhodes was not until June/July and then I could only find a return from Rhodes to Gatwick via Stockholm at £689.20 for the full flexi, or £188.20 for the low fare.

Ryan Air
London Stanstead to Rhodes, 1st week of May: Outward bound, including all taxes etc £107.06, coming back £39.99 incl. (Not including ‘optional charges, like ‘checked baggage’ – yeah, like you’re really going to go on holiday with no suitcase.)

Smart Wings
Note: Baggage free of charge. Bravo! But this airlines seems to only connect Prague to Rhodes and back again for around €148.00

Thomas Cook Airlines
Many flights and departure cuties, but not in the UK or Denmark, Sweden etc. I chose Brussels and found: First week of May outward bound to Rhodes €145.00 and return a week later €135.00

Thompson Fly
London Gatwick to Rhodes, May 2nd ten nights return, single adult fare: From £207.11 outward bound and £34.82 return flight.

Transavia
Amsterdam to Rhodes this time (and many other cities and loads of destinations in Europe) for: €178.57 outward bound (I wonder where the .57 goes) and €161.00 return.

TUIfly
Berlin Schönefeld to Rhodes, first week of May, via Hamburg or other places, €139.00 outward and €159.00 return

Let us know about broken links, better deals or other airlines and flights

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