Ladiko Bay, RhodesThe calm, sandy cove next door to Anthony Quinn — the gentle swim stop on the east-coast day cruise where everyone, even the nervous ones, gets in the water.

I had a mother and her two small girls on board last August — the kind of family that books a boat day and then quietly panics about whether the children will actually get in the sea. At Anthony Quinn the water drops away fast and the girls clung to the swim platform, unsure. So we moved the two minutes around the headland into Ladiko, dropped anchor over the sand, and within ten minutes both of them were paddling off the back of the boat in water you could stand up in, refusing to come out. Their mum sat on the steps with her feet in the water and finally relaxed. Ladiko is the bay that does that.

Ladiko Bay sits about 3 km south of Faliraki and 16 km from Rhodes Town, on the same stretch of east coast as its famous neighbour. It’s really two small back-to-back coves either side of a low headland: on one side the dramatic, deep, rocky inlet everyone knows as Anthony Quinn Bay; on the other, the softer, sandier, calmer cove that is Ladiko proper. They’re barely 400 metres apart — a five-minute walk over the ridge, or a two-minute hop by sea.

Anthony Quinn gets the postcards. Ladiko gets the swim — it’s the cove where everyone actually gets in the water. Here’s the whole story, and why the two together make the perfect morning by sea.

Why it’s called Ladiko

Here’s a small thing the beach guides mention and then drop. Ladiko is the Greek word for the vessel used to store and carry olive oil. The bay earned the name because, long before it was a swimming spot, this calm, sheltered cove was where olive oil was loaded and unloaded from small boats. That’s the same quality that makes it a lovely swim today: it’s protected. The headland and the shape of the inlet keep the wind and swell out, which is exactly why people once trusted it with their cargo and why families now trust it with their children. Half the famous beaches on Rhodes are named after saints or actors. This one is named after an oil jar.

Ladiko vs Anthony Quinn Bay: which is which

People mix these two up constantly, partly because they share a headland and partly because some maps and tour listings lump them together. So here’s the honest split from someone who anchors at both most days in season.

Anthony Quinn Bay is the emerald-green, pine-fringed inlet from The Guns of Navarone. The shore is pebble and rock, the water deepens within a few strokes, and the snorkelling is the best on Rhodes — but it isn’t a wade-in beach, and it fills early.

Ladiko is the gentler twin. The shore has fine sand mixed with a few rocks, the water stays shallow and warm close in, and the bay is so sheltered there are rarely any waves. It’s the better choice if you have small children, if you’re not a confident swimmer, or if you simply want to float rather than freedive. If you only have time for one and you want the iconic view, walk down to Anthony Quinn. If you actually want to get in and stay in, go to Ladiko. On the boat, the point is moot — we give you both, in the right order.

What the bay is actually like

Picture a small, rounded cove maybe a couple of hundred metres across, hugged on both sides by low, scrubby headland. The sand is fine and clean, with some larger rocks scattered at the edges and out toward the points — which is where the snorkelling lives. The water in the middle is shallow and almost still, shading from clear gold over the sand to a deep emerald where the rocky walls drop away. Because it’s so well hidden in the bay, Ladiko hardly ever has waves. On a normal summer morning it’s flat as a pool.

There’s a beach bar and a small taverna up behind the sand, freshwater showers, and sunbeds and umbrellas for hire. A fair warning the postcards skip: the loungers are not cheap and the cove is small, so it gets crowded and the good spots go early. Reviewers regularly mention paying around €30 for two beds and an umbrella. It’s a beautiful spot — just not a secret one any more, which is one more reason arriving by sea changes the day.

The shipwreck on the seabed

This is the part I tell guests to look for, because almost nobody knows it. At some point in antiquity a merchant ship went down in this bay, and the seabed is still scattered with the evidence — broken ceramic, and rocks fused with the shards of old amphorae, the big two-handled jars the Greeks used to ship oil and wine. You’re not going to surface with a museum piece, and you shouldn’t touch what you find because it’s protected antiquity — but knowing it’s there changes the swim. Out toward the rockier edges, mask down, you’re looking at the floor of a bay that was a working harbour two thousand years before it was a sunbed.

For divers, Ladiko and Anthony Quinn together are among the most interesting sites on Rhodes, with walls dropping to 30–35 metres and small caves in the rock. For the rest of us, a mask and the shallows are plenty.

It’s a 6.5-hour day, from €140 per adult, capped at 20 guests. The order is deliberate: we do the deep, dramatic snorkel at Anthony Quinn first, then drop into Ladiko for the easy swim where the nervous ones in the group find their confidence, then on to the cave.

Don’t take my word for it

I’m the captain — of course I’ll tell you the calm cove is wonderful. So here is the part that matters more: what our guests write afterwards. These are real, verified TripAdvisor reviews of DanEri Yachts, and the same notes come up again and again — the crew, the fresh food, the small boat, and how safe and looked-after people felt in the water.

You’ll notice the things that come up most aren’t the named beaches at all — they’re how safe people felt and how good the crew were. That’s exactly what makes a stop like Ladiko work for a family. The calm water does half the job; a crew that hands a nervous swimmer a float and stays alongside does the other half. We have both covered.

Practical notes before you go