I'm wondering if there is a day trip via ferry, chartered boat, or organized tour from Rhodes town to Turkey? My husband and I will be traveling the greek islands late September and we would love a chance to see Turkey for a day as well. Does anyone know if day trips exist? I'd much rather go ourselves than do an organized tour, but if that is the only way, I'm fine with it.

Thank you!

Yes. You can go to either Bodrum or Marmaris as a day trip. Go to the ferry port and you will find an agency that will sell you tickets for this.

Do you know how long of a ferry it is? It looks like Bodrum is further than Marmaris. Have you been to either of them?

Thanks!

Frankly, Bodrum and Marmaris are fair sized resort towns filled with hotels and tourist restaurants. Bodrum has a little more charm than Marmaris to me. Marmaris has a long waterfront though with dozens of charter boats. I suppose if you're going there to say you've been to Turkey, it's OK, but it really isn't "seeing" Turkey at all. In fact, you'd hardly know you weren't still at a typical Greek island tourist port.

Bodrum is about 60 miles from Rhodes town, I think Marmaris is about the same. That would mean a trip of about 3 hours hours. I've been to Bodrum, spent a couple of weeks exploring the area once. I agree, Bodrum is interesting. There's an excellent Crusader's castle there built in the 15th century (if I'm not mistaken), just a short walk from the ferry port.

I have gone the other way: From Turkey to Greece. I think it was from Marmaris to Rhodes, and from Bodrum to Kos. Bodrum is more interesting because of the castle. It was nice to sip wine sitting on sheepskin covered old stone benches, and check out the 500 years (?) old graffities on the wall. Carving stone must take a lot more time than spray paint. But bored young men stay the same from century to century.

There are lots of firms offering crossings between Rodos and Turkey in summer. Greek boats go to Marmaris and back every day, and Turkish boats do the trip the other way (from Turkey in the morning, returning in the evening).
The trip to Marmaris is about an hour each way in a hydrofoil or fast catamaran. None of the vessels is very large, so sailings can be disrupted by the weather. Fares are relatively high, partly because of port and other taxes. One operator with a web site is www.seadreams.gr but almost any travel agency in Rodos will have details.
For Turkish boats, see www.yesilmarmaris.com and www.bodrumexpresslines.com.

I did the hydrofoil from Marmiris to Rhodes for a day trip. It was expensive but I wanted my boyfriend to see Rhodos town. I don't think there is allot to see in Marmaris although it is nice enough. We used it as a stepping stone to Rhodes. I was wondering if I failed to shop around for a better ferry deal. Because later when we took the ferry from Cesmes to Chios I found that there were 3 ferries at significantly varying prices. Most annoying was the tourist office on the quay in Cesmes that said there was only one ferry, the most expensive one. I wonder if there are other cheaper ferries in Marmaris.