Bodrum

The distance is roughly 20–24 km. Fast catamarans cross in about 20–30 minutes — one newer boat is advertised at 15 — while conventional ferries take 45 to 60. Sailings cluster in the morning and mid-afternoon, and the frequency roughly doubles between June and September.

Because the crossing is so short, the journey time is dominated by formalities rather than by sea time: budget for the port, not the boat. See Kos to Bodrum for current departures.

Kos is Greek, so this is an external Schengen crossing in both directions. Everyone passes passport control and security, which is why operators ask you to be at the terminal 60–90 minutes before departure in summer — several times the crossing itself.

Turkish citizens holding an ordinary passport need a Schengen visa; green (special) passport holders travel visa-free for up to 90 days. A seasonal door visa scheme exists for short tourist visits and typically wants a biometric photograph, the ferry ticket, a hotel booking, travel health insurance and a completed form — arrange it days ahead, not on the morning.

Coming the other way, a Turkish port tax is added on arrival and is not part of the ticket price.

Most guides stop at Kos and Rhodes. Bodrum also has scheduled links deeper into the Dodecanese, run by small agencies rather than the big lines:

• Leros — about an hour, operated by Tilos Travel. Bodrum to Leros.
• Tilos — around two and a half hours, same operator. Bodrum to Tilos.
• Patmos — roughly three hours, listed under Meander Travel, though sailings are seasonal and thin.

These run once a day at most and often only on set weekdays. They are the difference between an island-hopping route that works and one that needs a night back in Bodrum.

The Kos crossing is worked by several small companies rather than one line — Bodrum Ferryboat Association, Kos–Bodrum Express Lines, and Greek agencies including Exas on the Kos side. They sell across each other's sailings, so the company on your ticket may not be the company on the hull.

This matters when something goes wrong: the carrier named on the ticket sets the terms, not the agency that sold it.

Kos–Bodrum is sold heavily as a day excursion, typically about eight hours ashore and running May to October. Hotel pick-up on the Kos side is often available for a small surcharge.

If you are travelling one-way with luggage, note that day-trip tickets and point-to-point tickets are priced and sold differently, and the excursion fare usually assumes you return the same evening.

The Aegean here gets the meltemi in high summer — a strong, dry northerly that can blow for days. It is the fast craft that suspend first; the conventional ferries keep going in conditions that ground the catamarans. In winter the picture reverses in a different way: the Dodecanese links thin out to almost nothing and Kos becomes the only reliable connection.

Kale Port is walkable from most of central Bodrum. Cruise Port is a short taxi or the free shuttle. Turgutreis is a genuine journey — 20 km west, roughly half an hour by road, with dolmuş minibuses running through the day.

Bodrum's airport (BJV) is about 35 km from the centre, so a same-day flight-and-ferry combination needs real margin, especially with the 60–90 minute check-in.