Travelling to Lindos in Rhodes this week reminded me how seasonal some leisure destinations are. The resort of Viycha Bay Lindos was a complete ghost town on 29th April, as our EasyJet flight arrived a day before the official resort opening, and we were the only 4 guests at the beautiful Blu Hotel on the first night.

At this time of year, the weather is a bit hit-and-miss in Greece, and the previously forecast four Sunny days quickly turned into cloudy days, when jumpers needed to be purchased urgently.

The upside was that we fully explored both Viycha and the Lindos itself, whilst making some new friends in the local Greek hospitality industry. It was also interesting to see a resort wake up after being virtually mothballed for 6 months during the winter, with generators being powered up as hotels opened and sun beds being dragged out across the beaches.

Interestingly, on the first day, only the Lindos White Hotel & Suites, which was featured by both Easyjet Holidays and Jet2 Holidays on an All-inclusive basis, was rammed with customers fighting over sunbeds, whilst most hotels remained empty. Looking up EasyJet Holiday prices showed me why, as customers had clearly grabbed a bargain All Inclusive break for £641 per person, a 50% discount on peak-season pricing.

Vicha Bay is actually not connected to Lindos at all, with a taxi around the headland required to access the picture-perfect beauty of Lindos Town itself, and locals advised us not to bother visiting during the day, as quote “It’s full of American Ice cream lickers off Cruise boats during the day”, as Lindos is the third most visited destination after the Acropolis of Athens with nearly 1 million visitors per year.

Like London Gatwick, the hotels in the surrounding bays all included the word Lindos in their names to create an association with this well-known resort, which I can hardly criticise, given that I forced the renaming of Sanford Airport to Orlando Sanford when I built it whilst heading up Airtours Overseas and Commercial operations in the 1990s.

As with many newer resorts in the holiday sector, Lindos has recognised that holidaymakers are willing to pay a premium for high-quality accommodation. The large, sprawling complexes built into the hills of Viycha are modern temples of glass and stone, with suites, swim-up pools, spas and excellent service.

What the resort cannot control, however, is the weather, and unfortunately, our short break was beset with clouds and cool temperatures of 19 degrees or below.

Beach resorts are only really geared up for mass tourism with sunshine, as there are few things to do if the weather turns cold, apart from long walks, leisurely lunches and lots of drinking in the resorts’ bars, whilst watching the Premier League on satellite TV.

But the cool weather does make you much more social, and we have probably met and chatted with more other couples than on any other trip I remember, because, when you think about it, sunshine is an isolating factor, as we normally spend many hours in solitude, reading or relaxing on sunbeds around the pool, not talking to anybody else.

Instead, this year, the combination of chat and human interaction has stimulated my mind into its usual hyperactive mode, and I have found myself doing business plans to reshape an existing business by splitting it into two distinct companies/products and creating a new AI Tool called “Muppet ME”.

Having an AI incubator gives me the luxury of a talented tech team that can know up products in days, so I set them the task of building the “Muppet Me” App to simplify the complex AI process of creating a Muppet Avatar of people that can be taken and used within fun holiday images like the one attached to this blog. Yup, even I must worry that I’m going completely mad, but it’s a bit of fun.

When visiting Lindos itself, it was noticeable that the local government has controlled its tourism development, with Lindos preserving its 16th-18th-century Ottoman heritage, including whitewashed houses, narrow alleys, hidden courtyards, and compulsory rooftop restaurants.

All the new, larger hotels had been pushed to the surrounding bays, with the bay of Lindos itself left undeveloped to preserve Lindos’ historic feel and as a day-trip attraction.

This is just the sort of action that is needed to allow a resort to enjoy large volumes of daytime cruise passengers without affecting its core 7-night holiday makers, who then fill the resort’s plentiful restaurants in the evenings.

Also, as with other Greek resorts I have visited, the Greek hoteliers simply do not want to extend their season into April, because they enjoy their winter breaks and cannot understand why customers would want to come earlier, given the cooler weather and the likelihood of rain.

Perhaps next year I’ll take more notice of this sensible logic and return in June, as the hotel, resort and people are truly special hosts.