Boat trips
Day trips
The island
Turkey is roughly a twenty-minute crossing from Kos Town port — the easiest second country you will ever add to a beach holiday, and the only Kos excursion where the paperwork matters more than the weather.
Bookable now
What you're seeing: real departures for the coming weeks, pulled from GetYourGuide. On a border crossing, open the listing and read the inclusions carefully — port taxes and check-in times are declared there, not in the headline price.
Quick summary
Short crossing, real border. Read the passport and entry rows before you look at the price.
| Crossing time | Roughly 20 minutes from Kos Town port to Bodrum Castle port. It is one of the shortest international ferry hops in Europe. |
|---|---|
| Price from | Same-day return tickets typically start in the €40s per adult. Turkish port tax may be charged on top. |
| Sailing times | We do not publish them. Several operators run the route, times shift with the season, and a stale timetable makes people miss boats. Get them from your operator or the ferry agent. |
| Travel document | A valid passport. A national ID card is not sufficient, including for EU citizens. |
| Visa or e-visa? | Depends entirely on your nationality, and the rules change. Check your own government's travel advice for Turkey and the official Turkish e-visa site before booking. |
| Port tax | Often charged separately from the fare, at booking or at the port. Ask the agent what is included. |
| Check-in | Well before departure — your ticket states the cut-off. Passport control on both sides is the bottleneck, not boarding. |
| Time to allow | 8–11 hours door to door, of which roughly 5–6 hours is ashore in Bodrum. |
| Currency in Bodrum | Turkish lira. Cards work in most shops and restaurants; the bazaar prefers cash and will take euros at its own rate. |
| The hard deadline | The last return sailing. Miss it and you are paying for a hotel in Turkey and re-crossing tomorrow. |
Price bands come from publicly listed operator prices on GetYourGuide for the current season. Entry requirements are set by the Republic of Turkey and your own government, not by us or by the ferry operator — verify them at source. How we source numbers.
Read this before you book anything
You need a passport, not an ID card. And if you are not an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen, leaving Schengen for Turkey uses an entry — on a single-entry Schengen visa you may not be let back into Greece. Check the entries on your visa first.
Three ways to do it
The boat is the same boat. What differs is how much planning you hand over, and whether the last sailing is a deadline at all.
Option 1
From the €40s / adult, return
Pick this if you are a confident independent traveller who will set an alarm for the return sailing without being told.
Option 2
Ferry plus handling / adult, return
Pick this if it is your first border crossing of the holiday, or you are travelling with children and would rather not be the one reading the small print.
Option 3
Ferry plus a hotel open return
Pick this if you want Turkey properly rather than as a five-hour sample, and your visa allows the re-entry to Greece.
What "day trip" does and does not include
Most Kos–Bodrum products are transport, not tours. Unless the listing says guided, nobody meets you on the Turkish side. That is usually fine — the old centre is small and walkable — but do not expect a guide because you booked an excursion.
The border, step by step
A real frontier between an EU Schengen state and a non-EU country. The crossing is trivial; the paperwork is not optional.
Whether you need a visa or e-visa for Turkey depends on your nationality and changes over time. We deliberately publish no visa rules or fees here: a page six months stale can cost you your trip. Check two official sources — your own government's travel advice for Turkey and the official Republic of Turkey e-visa website — before you pay, not the night before.
If you are not an EU, EEA or Swiss citizen: Greece is in the Schengen area and Turkey is not, so a day out means exiting and re-entering Schengen. On a single-entry visa the re-entry may simply be refused. A visa-free day allowance is affected too. Confirm your position with the authority that issued your visa.
Buy a same-day return rather than two singles — the return leg is the part that sells out. Carry the physical passport: an ID card will not get you on the boat, and neither will a photo on your phone. Check the expiry date now, not at the desk.
Your ticket states a check-in cut-off. Treat it as firm and add margin, because the queue is Greek exit passport control, not boarding. In peak season several sailings share one small terminal on the quay.
Twenty minutes and you barely sit down. On arrival you pass Turkish passport control inside the port terminal, directly below the castle walls. If port tax was not prepaid, this is normally where it is collected.
You must clear Turkish exit control before boarding, and the queue builds as everyone returns at once. Note the return time in writing when you land, set an alarm for an hour before it, and start walking back then.
You clear Greek entry control at Kos Town port, re-entering the EU customs area, so EU allowances apply to anything you bought. Do not guess the limits on tobacco, alcohol or goods — check with Greek customs or official EU guidance. Counterfeit branded goods are seized, not waved through.
Entry requirements, visa terms and customs allowances are set by governments and change without notice. Nothing on this page is legal or immigration advice — verify with your own government's travel advice and the official Turkish e-visa service before you travel.
Timing
The strait is short and partly sheltered, so this is the Kos crossing least likely to be cancelled. But the meltemi — the northerly summer wind that builds in the afternoon and peaks in July and August — can still stop small fast craft, and a cancelled return is worse than a cancelled outbound.
Castle first, while it is cool and before the cruise groups land. Bazaar in the middle of the day, when the shade between the buildings works for you. Seafront and marina last.
Bodrum takes cruise calls, and a big ship in port changes the old town completely. It also has fixed weekly market days, worth hitting or avoiding depending on your taste. Ask your ferry agent which days are heavy — they carry the crowds.
Practical access
The geography is on your side. The ferry berths at the castle port, so you land inside the sight you came for: the castle gate is two minutes from the terminal door, the bazaar lanes start behind it, the marina is a flat walk west.
The Castle of St Peter was built by the Knights of St John — the same order that raised Neratzia Castle at the mouth of Kos Town harbour — using stone robbed from the ruined Mausoleum. Inside is the Museum of Underwater Archaeology, holding cargo from Bronze Age and later wrecks. Check current opening days and the entrance fee officially before planning around it.
Narrow lanes of textiles, spices, leather, tea and copper behind the castle. The first number is not the price. Counterfeit brands are everywhere and a customs problem on the way home, so buy the spices, not the watch.
The marina is where wooden gulets are still built and moored, and walking it costs nothing; lunch there is priced for yacht crews. With time left, the Mausoleum site — one of the Seven Wonders — is a short walk inland, though what survives is a foundation pit. The hillside theatre repays a steeper walk better.
The currency is the Turkish lira. Cards work in most shops and restaurants; the bazaar prefers cash and will take euros at a rate that suits the seller. Quayside exchange desks give the worst rates in town — use a bank ATM, or just pay by card.
Do not treat it as a beach day
People arrive in swimwear expecting a Turkish beach trip. This is a town day: castle, museum, market, harbour. Swim on Kos instead — see the beach comparison.
How to save
The bare same-day return is the cheapest way across, and the old town needs no guide: castle, bazaar and marina are all within ten minutes of the berth. Pay for the handled version only if the paperwork worries you.
Operators price children below full fare and infants often travel free, with age bands set per operator. But every passenger needs their own passport, infants included — there is no family document that works here.
Seafront and marina restaurants charge harbour prices. Two streets inland the same meal costs noticeably less, and lira prices beat the euro price offered to tourists.
The bazaar, the marina walk, the promenade and the mosque courtyards cost nothing, and the castle exterior is the photograph most people came for. A good day here can be one ticket and one lunch.
Kos has no island-wide sightseeing pass, and nothing sold on Kos covers Turkish museum entry or port tax. Savings come from operator bundles and shoulder-season fares.
| Item | Budget |
|---|---|
| Same-day return ferry | From the €40s |
| Turkish port tax | Often extra — ask |
| Visa or e-visa, if required | Depends on nationality |
| Castle and museum entry | Check official site |
| Lunch away from the seafront | Modest, in lira |
| Bus or taxi to Kos Town port | €2–30 |
Ferry price band compiled from publicly listed operator prices on GetYourGuide for the current season. We do not publish port tax, visa fees or museum entry figures: they are set by authorities outside our reach and go stale quickly. Confirm each at source.
One booking, one clock
Book outbound and return together with the same operator. Two singles from two agents means two sets of times to reconcile, and nobody accountable if the first boat runs late.
How to get there
Everything starts at Kos Town port, and from the resorts that leg is the one people underestimate.
The international ferry terminal is on the harbour beside Neratzia Castle, walkable from the town centre and a short taxi from Lambi or Psalidi. Allow ten minutes more than the map says: the quay is longer than it looks.
KTEL buses link Tigaki, Marmari, Mastichari, Kardamena and Kefalos with Kos Town, but the first services can run later than an early check-in needs. For an early sailing, take a taxi or book a trip with hotel pickup. Kefalos is a 45-minute drive.
Free parking near the harbour is gone by 08:30 in summer. Use a paid waterfront lot rather than circling — and remember the car stays on Kos. You cannot take a hire car to Turkey on a day ticket.
Find your operator's desk, hand over passports, and expect a wait at Greek exit control. Keep the return half of your ticket somewhere you will not lose it in a bazaar.
Context
Kos sits at the eastern edge of the Dodecanese, in a strait barely wide enough to call a sea crossing — the Turkish coast is visible from the eastern beaches on a clear morning. For most of recorded history the two shores were one region: the same trade, the same language of commerce, often the same ruler.
Bodrum is ancient Halicarnassus, capital of Caria and birthplace of Herodotus, usually called the first historian. The tomb of its satrap Mausolus was extravagant enough to give every later grand tomb the word mausoleum, and counted among the Seven Wonders. Earthquakes brought it down, and the Knights of St John quarried its marble for the castle you walk into off the ferry.
That castle is why a Kos visitor feels an odd familiarity in Bodrum. The Knights of St John fortified both shores of this strait, and Neratzia Castle at the mouth of Kos Town harbour is its sibling: same order, same era, same water. Two castles, two countries, twenty minutes apart.
The modern difference is political, not geographical. Greece joined the EU and the Schengen area; Turkey did not. That single fact turns a twenty-minute boat ride into a border crossing with passport control, a customs allowance and a visa question — and explains why prices and menus feel so different for such a short hop.
Bodrum itself is no museum town: a working Aegean resort city with a yacht-building trade that still uses hand tools. Five hours shows the historic core and nothing else — a fair argument for the overnight. If Turkey is not for you, the Nisyros volcano day trip is the other great off-island day from Kos, the ferry guide explains the Greek routes, and the excursions overview compares every format. Start at the Kos boat trips home page.
FAQ
Roughly 20 minutes from Kos Town port to Bodrum Castle port. The crossing itself is the quick part of the day: passport control on both sides, plus the check-in cut-off, is what turns it into an 8 to 11 hour trip door to door.
Yes. You need a valid passport; a national ID card is not sufficient, including for EU citizens. Every passenger needs their own document, infants included. Take the physical passport, not a photograph of it, and check the expiry date before you book.
That depends on your nationality, and the rules change, so we do not publish them here. Check your own government's travel advice for Turkey and the official Republic of Turkey e-visa website before you buy a ticket. Doing it at the port is too late.
Only with care. Greece is in Schengen and Turkey is not, so the day trip means exiting and re-entering Schengen. On a single-entry visa you may be refused re-entry to Greece and left in Bodrum. Check the entries on your visa, and confirm your position with the authority that issued it, before booking.
Turkish port tax is commonly charged separately from the fare, either at booking or at the port on arrival, and it is the most frequent surprise on this route. Ask exactly what your price includes, and carry a means of paying it.
We do not publish them, on purpose. Several operators run the route, sailings shift with the season and some stop outside summer, so a printed timetable on a guide page is how people miss boats. Get current times from your operator or a ferry agent, and confirm the return on the day.
You stay in Turkey. There is no late alternative, so you pay for a hotel, buy a new crossing the next day and re-enter Greece then — which raises the visa question again. Note your return time when you land, set an alarm for an hour before, and allow for the exit queue.
Bodrum Castle and its Museum of Underwater Archaeology first, the bazaar lanes behind it in the middle of the day, then the marina and seafront on your way back to the port. All three are within about ten minutes of the ferry berth, which is why five hours is enough for the historic core.
Check live sailings, prices and cancellation terms for the Kos to Bodrum day trip on GetYourGuide — the authorised reseller we link to throughout this guide. Sort your passport and entry requirements first.
