The valley path
Wooden bridges and steps following the stream up the ravine, ticketed in season. Cool even in August, which is half the appeal.
Δ.Ε.Σ. ΡΟΔΑ Seasonal timetable — check the current edition before you travel
Rhodes Town to Butterfly Valley by bus
A shaded ravine in the west of the island where Jersey tiger moths gather in their thousands through the summer. Come outside those months and you have a very pretty walk and no butterflies.
- One way
- Not published
- Buses a day
- 3
- First out
- 10:15
- Last back
- 15:45
Where it stops
Neither operator publishes a stop-by-stop sequence for this corridor in a form we can reproduce accurately, so we do not print one. The services call at the settlements along the coast road; the driver and the schedule at the stand are the reliable answer for a specific stop.
Three buses out, three buses back, and the last one leaves at 15:45. The current sheets show departures at 10:15, 11:15 and 13:15, returning at 12:15, 14:15 and 15:45 — the same on weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays. That is the whole service. It makes for a comfortable morning if you take the first one out and the last one back, and a wasted day if you arrive expecting to leave when you feel like it. The moths are a high-summer thing; outside those months the valley is open and empty of them.
Three buses each way, at the same times every day of the week, and the last one back leaves at 15:45. The August 2026 sheets carry no validity window, and whether the service runs between October and April is not established by any document we have.
Departures
| From Rhodes Town | From Petaloudes | Days |
|---|---|---|
| 10:15 | 12:15 | Daily |
| 11:15 | 14:15 | Daily |
| 13:15 | 15:45 | Daily |
Checked against Municipality of Rhodes — Δ.Ε.Σ. ΡΟΔΑ publications ↗ on 18 August 2026. Timetables change with the season — confirm before you travel.
Where the stop is
Everything heading up the west side leaves from here — the airport, Ialysos, Kremasti, Paradisi, Butterfly Valley and the mountain villages beyond them. The operator’s own stop database puts it about twenty metres from the KTEL stand, so this is a question of standing at the right bay in one block rather than finding another part of town.
Do this before you go
The valley runs uphill from where the bus leaves you, and the return is the same distance back down. Knowing the departure before you start up means you can walk it at the pace it deserves.
Get the Rhodes Bus app ExperiencesAt Petaloudes
The walk is the visit: a path up the ravine, crossing the stream repeatedly, under continuous shade.
The moths
The moths
Jersey tiger moths, resting in dense clusters on the tree trunks. They are disturbed by noise and clapping, which is why the signs ask you not to.
Monastery of Kalopetra
Monastery of Kalopetra
At the top of the valley, with a view out over the west of the island — the natural turning point of the walk.
About this route
When are the butterflies actually there?
Through the high summer. They are Jersey tiger moths rather than butterflies, and they gather in the ravine for the season and disperse afterwards — so a visit outside those months is a walk in a shaded valley, which is pleasant but is not what the name promises. The operator’s own fare list flags this corridor as a May-to-September service, which is a fair guide to when it is worth going.
Which operator runs it?
Δ.Ε.Σ. ΡΟΔΑ, from the West Coast Central Station — not KTEL. The whole west side of the island, the airport included, belongs to the municipal network rather than to the intercity coach operator that most visitors have heard of.
How hard is the walk?
Steadily uphill from the lower entrance to the monastery at the top, on steps and wooden bridges. Not technical, but longer than most people expect, and you do it in both directions.