Rhodes to Marmaris Day Trip

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip crosses from Rhodes to the Turkish coast by high-speed boat for a day in Marmaris, with its castle, bay and marina, and the Carian shore around it. The trip is one of the Greece Tours on Greece Ville, listed with the other Rhodes tours.

This post covers the formats on sale, the setting of Marmaris, its ancient past, Marmaris Castle, the 1522 campaign, the modern town, Icmeler, Turunc and Mugla Province, then Caria, Amos and Loryma, the Bozburun and Datca peninsulas, Knidos, Sedir Island, Kaunos, Dalyan and the questions that come up before booking.

 

What is a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip?

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip is a crossing from the Greek island of Rhodes to the town of Marmaris, a port and tourist resort on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey. Marmaris is a municipality and district of Mugla Province.

Marmaris covers an area of 906 square kilometres. Its population stood at 97,818 in 2022. The town lies along the shoreline of the Turkish Riviera in the southwest of the country.

Ferries run from Marmaris to Rhodes, and summer visitors in Marmaris take day trips to the island. The sea link between the Turkish port and the Greek island therefore runs in both directions.

Marmaris is known for its honey. Its main source of income, however, is international tourism. The town also serves as a popular wintering location for hundreds of cruising boaters.

The name Marmaris dates from the period of the Beylik of Mentese. It comes from the Greek word marmaron, meaning marble, after the rich marble deposits of the region and the port’s marble trade.

Marmaris District is made up of 25 neighbourhoods. Dalaman Airport lies to the east of the town, and Marmaris can also be reached by road on the D-400 highway.

• Departure: The crossing starts on the Greek island of Rhodes.
• Arrival: The boats reach the port of Marmaris on the Turkish coast.
• Second island: Ferries from Marmaris also serve the Greek island of Symi.
• Character: Marmaris is both a working port city and a tourist resort.

In short, a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip links a Greek island with a Turkish district known for honey, marble history and a busy port.

Which Rhodes to Marmaris day trip formats are on sale?

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip is sold in two directions on this page. One format leaves Rhodes by high speed boat. The reverse formats start in Marmaris and cross to Rhodes by ferry or catamaran, and one of them includes transfers.

The format that starts on the Greek island is titled Rhodes: Marmaris Day Trip by High-Speed Boat. It is the only listing in the set that departs from Rhodes and returns there.

The reverse formats all start in Marmaris on the Turkish coast. One is titled Marmaris: Rhodes Day Trip by High-Speed Ferry with Transfers. Another is titled From Marmaris to Rhodes Same-Day Return Tour.

A third reverse format is titled Independent Rhodes Day Trip from Marmaris by Catamaran. A fourth is titled Day Trip to Rhodes from Marmaris. Both end the day back in Marmaris.

The titles name three kinds of vessel: a high-speed boat, a high-speed ferry and a catamaran. Only one title adds transfers. A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip is therefore a choice of direction and vessel.

• From Rhodes: The high-speed boat format leaves from the Greek island.
• Ferry with transfers: The high-speed ferry format starts in Marmaris and adds transfers.
• Catamaran: The independent format crosses from Marmaris to Rhodes by catamaran.
• Return tours: Two further titles run from Marmaris to Rhodes and back without naming a vessel.

Visitors who stay on Rhodes can pair the crossing with a Rhodes Old Town tour. The tour cards and availability boxes on this page list live dates for each format.

Where does a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip land on the Turkish coast?

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip lands on the Mediterranean coast of southwest Turkey. Marmaris sits between two intersecting sets of mountains by the sea, on a bay along the shoreline known as the Turkish Riviera or the Turquoise Coast.

The Turkish Riviera covers parts of southwest Turkey. It takes in the provinces of Antalya, Mugla and Aydin, along with southern Izmir and western Mersin. The region faces both the Mediterranean and the Aegean.

This coast extends over about 1,000 kilometres of shoreline. Domestic and international tourists visit it frequently. Marmaris appears in the list of its internationally known towns, alongside Bodrum, Fethiye, Antalya and Alanya.

The town faces a bay with islands in it. Boat cruises from Marmaris visit these islands. The resort of Icmeler lies directly across the bay from the busy port of Marmaris.

Marmaris has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate, Koppen type Csa. Summers are hot and dry, and winters are mild and rainy. Annual rainfall averages 1,257 millimetres, and heavy cloudbursts can cause flash floods.

• National park: Marmaris National Park was established on 30 January 1996.
• Plants: The park lists 514 plant species, and 54 of them are endemic.
• Wildlife: Surveys in the park identified 112 bird species, 21 mammal species and 29 reptile species.
• Rare tulip: The Marmaris peninsula is the westernmost habitat of Tulipa armena.

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip thus arrives at a mountain-backed bay on the Mediterranean shore of the Turkish Riviera, in the southwestern corner of Turkey.

What ancient history lies behind a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip?

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip reaches a site with a long ancient history. In antiquity the area formed part of Caria, in a district that belonged to Rhodes. It had a harbour and a grove sacred to the goddess Leto.

The historian Herodotus wrote that a castle had stood on the site since 3000 BC. The area later came under the control of the Persian Empire, before the arrival of Alexander the Great.

In 334 BC Alexander invaded Caria and besieged the castle. The town’s 600 inhabitants saw no chance against his army. They burned their valuables inside the castle and escaped to the hills.

The invaders saw the strategic value of the castle. They repaired the destroyed sections to house a garrison numbering in the low hundreds. The main army then returned home.

Nimara Cave stands at the highest point of Heaven Island near Marmaris and served as a place of worship from ancient times. Excavations in 2007 pushed human presence there back by almost 12,000 years.

• Diagoras: In 2018 archaeologists found the 2,300-year-old pyramid tomb of the boxer Diagoras near Marmaris.
• Belief: Local people took the tomb for the grave of a holy person.
• Cult: Nimara Cave held a cult of Leto, mother of Apollo and Artemis.
• Offerings: Cremations, glass beads, terracotta and sculptures of Leto lay on stone altars.

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip therefore lands near a castle site, a cave shrine of Leto and a boxer’s tomb that together span thousands of years.

What does Marmaris Castle add to a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip?

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip arrives in the town of Marmaris Castle, a fort that Suleiman the Magnificent reconstructed during his expedition against Rhodes. It is one of a small group of castles in Turkey that also hold a museum.

The only known written source on the building of the castle is the Ottoman traveller Evliya Celebi. He visited Mugla and its surroundings in the 17th century and wrote of it in his work Seyahatname.

According to Celebi, Sultan Suleiman ordered the castle built on this shore before his expedition to Rhodes. The castle then served as a military base for the Ottoman Army during that campaign.

A French warship destroyed an important part of the castle during the First World War. The 1957 Fethiye earthquakes almost completely destroyed the town, yet the castle and the historic buildings around it were left undamaged.

Locals lived inside the castle until 1979, among 18 residences, a fountain and a cistern. Renovation began that year, and the fort opened as a museum in 1991 with seven galleries.

• Registered: The fort was registered as a monumental structure in 1983.
• Exhibition hall: The largest of the seven galleries serves as an exhibition hall.
• Courtyard: Seasonal flowers fill the courtyard of the castle museum.
• Caravanserai: Suleiman’s mother Ayse Hafsa Sultan built a small caravanserai in the bazaar at the same time.

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip thus reaches the same fort, now a museum, that served the Ottoman Army in the campaign against Rhodes in 1522.

How does the 1522 siege of Rhodes connect to a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip?

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip retraces in reverse the sea route of a well-recorded Ottoman campaign. In 1522 Suleiman the Magnificent launched his attack on Rhodes from Marmaris, and the town served as a base for the Ottoman navy.

Suleiman ruled as Ottoman sultan from 1520 to 1566. Belgrade fell to him in 1521. He then turned his attention to Rhodes, base of the Knights Hospitaller, and built Marmaris Castle as a naval base.

The Ottoman invasion force of 400 ships reached Rhodes on 26 June 1522 under Coban Mustafa Pasha. Suleiman arrived on 28 July with an army of 100,000 men and took personal charge.

It was the second Ottoman attempt on the island, after a failed siege in 1480. After a five-month siege, representatives of the city’s Latin and Greek inhabitants accepted Suleiman’s terms on 22 December.

The knights received twelve days to leave the island. On 1 January 1523 they sailed away on 50 ships to Crete. The conquest cost the Ottomans 50,000 to 60,000 dead from battle and sickness.

• Adviser: Piri Mehmed Pasha convinced Suleiman to attack Rhodes and urged him to hurry.
• New commander: Ahmed Pasha, an experienced siege engineer, replaced Mustafa Pasha.
• After Rhodes: The Knights Hospitaller moved to Sicily and received Malta in 1530.
• Opera: William Davenant wrote the first English opera, The Siege of Rhodes, in 1656.

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip therefore links the two shores that faced each other in 1522, the Ottoman base and the island stronghold.

What Ottoman and modern history meets a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip?

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip arrives in a town shaped by Ottoman rule, foreign fleets, war and a building boom. Marmaris is now a major package holiday destination and a centre for sailing and diving, popular in particular with British visitors.

In the later Middle Ages, Marmaris formed part of the Beylik of Mentese. The town kept its Greek population throughout Ottoman rule, up until the end of the First World War.

In 1798 Admiral Nelson assembled his fleet in the harbour before sailing for Egypt and the Battle of the Nile. In 1801 a British force of 120 ships anchored in the bay for eight weeks.

After the Greco-Turkish War of 1919 to 1922 and the population exchange, the Greek population of Marmaris left for Greece. Turkish migrants from the Balkans settled the town in their place.

After a construction boom in the 1980s, little is left of the fishing village that Marmaris was until the late 20th century. The town now has two major marinas and smaller ones.

• 1801 force: Admiral Keith and General Abercromby used the bay to train 14,000 troops.
• Fires: The district saw a large number of forest fires in the early 2020s.
• Sport: The Amiral Orhan Aydin Sports Hall hosted the 2013 Men’s European Volleyball League Final Four.
• Twin towns: Marmaris is twinned with Furth, Jinan, Ordu and Dzerzhinsky.

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip therefore lands in a town where Nelson’s fleet once gathered and where a regatta now draws domestic and international crews in late October.

How does Icmeler relate to a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip?

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip lands at the port of Marmaris, across the bay from the resort of Icmeler. This holiday resort lies 8 kilometres southwest of Marmaris, and these days the two places more or less run into each other.

Icmeler is a neighbourhood of the municipality and district of Marmaris, in Mugla Province. Its population was 6,735 in 2022. Before the 2013 reorganisation, it had the status of a town, or belde.

Pine forests surround the town on three sides. Hiking on the surrounding mountains is popular and gives wide views of the region. The place was once a quiet village of fishermen and sponge divers.

Accommodation and other tourist facilities spread quickly across the old village. The resort grew on the custom of tourists who wanted a quieter alternative to the busier city of Marmaris.

Water sports facilities keep growing in Icmeler. They include scuba diving, windsurfing and waterskiing. The resort is known for shopping and a relaxed pace, while nightlife in Icmeler is rather scarce.

• Name: In English the name of the resort sounds roughly like eech-mell-er.
• Evenings: Restaurants and pubs in the resort feature live music, shows and acts.
• Region: The busy port of Marmaris gives its name to the whole region.
• Marble name: Marmara, historically Merme, is the name for marble, a stone found in abundance in Turkey.

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip thus reaches a bay with two linked resorts, the busy port town of Marmaris and the quieter neighbourhood of Icmeler to the southwest.

Where is Turunc in relation to a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip?

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip lands in the district that also holds Turunc, a holiday resort south of Marmaris on the Mediterranean coast. Turunc is surrounded by the Taurus Mountains and is a former fishing village populated since ancient times.

Turunc belongs to the municipality and district of Marmaris in Mugla Province. Its population was 1,939 in 2022. Before the 2013 reorganisation, it was a town in its own right, or belde.

Its location by the sea gave the village a variety of precious resources. The wider region has developed fast in recent years, yet the natural environment of Turunc has been preserved.

Turunc has won the Blue Flag award in recognition of its clean beach and water quality. Restaurants, bazaars and bars line its waterfront, while exclusively adult venues in the resort are rare.

The warm climate allows a tourist season of seven months, from April to October. The closest airport is Dalaman Airport, 120 kilometres east. Izmir’s Adnan Menderes Airport lies 270 kilometres north.

• Distance: Turunc lies 20 kilometres south of Marmaris, on the Mediterranean Sea coast.
• Road: The road to Turunc passes through the Taurus Mountains and has a very low speed limit.
• Size: The resort measures about 1 kilometre from one side to the other.
• Neighbours: Icmeler and Marmaris, both nearby, are popular with holidaymakers.

Turunc thus adds a Blue Flag beach and a mountain setting to the wider Marmaris district, where a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip lands at the port.

Which Turkish province holds the port of a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip?

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip lands in Mugla Province, a province and metropolitan municipality at the southwestern corner of Turkey. The province lies on the Aegean Sea and holds the holiday resorts of Marmaris, Bodrum, Fethiye and Oludeniz on its coast.

Mugla Province covers 12,654 square kilometres. Its population was 1,048,185 in 2022. The seat is the city of Mugla, about 20 kilometres inland from the coast.

At 1,100 kilometres, the coastline of Mugla is the longest of any province in Turkey. Lake Bafa lies in the district of Milas. Small plains surrounded by mountains shape the inland landscape.

In 1261 Menteshe Bey established his rule over the Mugla region. His beylik held the city until 1390, when the Ottoman Empire took it. Sultan Mehmed the Conqueror restored Ottoman control in 1451.

Mugla is rich in ancient ruins, with over 100 excavated sites, among them the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Letoon near Fethiye. Herodotus of Halicarnassos is listed among its notable residents.

• Airports: Dalaman and Milas-Bodrum airports serve domestic and international flights for the tourism industry.
• Marinas: Yacht marinas operate in Bodrum, Marmaris, Fethiye and Gulluk on the provincial coast.
• Tamerlane: After the Battle of Ankara, Tamerlane returned the region to the Menteshe Beys.
• Notable resident: Former president Kenan Evren lived in Marmaris after he retired.

Bodrum lies in the same province as the port of a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip, and the Kos to Bodrum day trip reaches it from another Greek island.

What was Caria, the ancient region around a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip?

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip lands on the coast of ancient Caria. This region of western Anatolia ran along the coast from Mycale south to Lycia and east to Phrygia. Its people spoke Carian, a native Anatolian language closely related to Luwian.

Greek settlers reached Caria in the Early Iron Age. Protogeometric pottery appears in the area around 1100 BC. The coast of Caria formed part of the Doric hexapolis, a group of six cities.

Herodotus described the Carians as Anatolian mainlanders. He reported that they saw themselves as a seafaring people, akin to the Mysians and the Lydians. Their name came from the name of their king.

Croesus of Lydia, king from 560 to 546 BC, held Caria briefly. The Persian Achaemenid Empire made it a satrapy in 545 BC. Caria later joined the Ionian Revolt of 499-493 BC.

Alexander III of Macedon took Caria in 334 BC. Ada of Caria, a former queen dethroned by the Persians, helped him on condition of regaining her throne. She then declared Alexander her heir.

• Bronze Age: Hittite texts name a region called Karkiya, or Karkisa, an uncertain match for Caria.
• Language: Carian belongs to the Luwic group of the Anatolian family of languages.
• Roman era: Caria became a separate province of the Diocese of Asia after reforms in the 4th century.
• Turkish rule: The Mentese Dynasty captured the region in the early 13th century.

The Rhodian Peraia was a section of this coast under Rhodes. It included Loryma and Amos, two ancient sites near the end point of a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip.

What are Amos and Loryma, the ancient coastal cities near a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip?

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip reaches the coast where Amos and Loryma stood, two ancient towns of the Rhodian Peraia. Amos lies on the hill of Asarcik above the gulf of Marmaris. Loryma held a fortified harbour facing Rhodes.

Amos was a deme of ancient Caria. Its name possibly comes from a Greek word for sandy. In the 5th century BC it joined the Delian League. Its inscriptions use the Doric dialect.

The Hellenistic wall of Amos still stands 3 to 4 metres high on the north slope, with five towers. The theatre seated around 1300 people and keeps remains of its skene and orchestra.

Loryma was a small fortified town and harbour near Cape Cynossema. It stood at the western end of the Rhodian Chersonesus, twenty Roman miles from Rhodes. The modern name of its bay is Bozuk Buku.

William Martin Leake described the towers, tombs and ramparts of Loryma. Theodore and Mabel Bent explored the site in March 1888. Above the bay, a curtain wall of large stone blocks rings the hilltop.

• Temple: Inscriptions link a small temple at Amos to Apollo Samnaios, a deity known only from this site.
• Tombs: Rock-cut tombs mark the necropolis of Amos, north of the city walls.
• Bishops: Loryma sent bishops to church councils in 680, 787 and 879.
• Writers: Freya Stark spent a night in the sheltered harbour of Loryma and wrote about it.

Both towns belonged to Rhodes in antiquity. A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip retraces the sea link between the island and this mainland coast.

How do the Bozburun and Datca peninsulas frame a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip?

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip ends in the district that holds the Bozburun Peninsula. This mountainous land lies between the Aegean and Mediterranean seas, with the Greek island of Symi to the west. The long Datca Peninsula lies to its north.

The peninsula takes its name from the town of Bozburun. Its tip was Cape Aphrodisias in antiquity. Mount Phoenix, now Karayuksek Dag, marked the start of the Rhodian Peraia.

The coastline is highly indented, with secondary peninsulas, bays and islets. Ruins of ancient settlements dot the land, among them Bybassos, Hygassos, Kastabos, Tymnos, Syrna, Thysanos, Phoenix, Amos and Kasara.

The name Datca comes from Stadia, an ancient town near Cnidus. Over time Stadia became Tadya, Dadya, Dadca and then Datca. For a brief period, the town and peninsula carried the name Resadiye.

Bencik Cove, 1.5 km long, ends at the eastern isthmus. Herodotus wrote that the Knidians sought to dig a canal there in 540 BC. After an oracle forbade it, they surrendered to the Persians.

• Climate: Datca has a hot-summer Mediterranean climate, with dry summers and mild, wet winters.
• Population: The Datca district covers 436 km2 and counted 25,029 people in 2022.
• Farmland: In the 1880s, the hydrographer Thomas Abel B. Spratt noted groves of olive, valonia and almonds in the Datca plain.
• Sailing: The coves and bays of the Datca Peninsula feature in the Blue Cruise along the southwest coast of Turkey.

Symi lies west of the Bozburun Peninsula. A Symi day trip from Rhodes covers that island, while a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip reaches the mainland side.

What was Knidos, the Greek city linked to a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip?

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip touches the same coast as Knidos, a Greek city of ancient Caria and part of the Dorian Hexapolis. By the 4th century BC, Knidos stood at modern Tekir, at the western tip of the Datca peninsula.

Knidos was built partly on the mainland and partly on Triopion, an island or cape. A causeway and bridge once joined the two. Today a narrow sandy isthmus forms the link.

The causeway split the channel into two harbours. Two strong moles enclosed the larger southern one. The city measured a little less than a mile from end to end.

Herodotus called the Knidians Lacedaemonian colonists. Diodorus Siculus named both Lacedaemonians and Argives as founders. The Dorian Hexapolis met on the Triopian headland and held games for Apollo, Poseidon and the nymphs.

An oligarchic senate of sixty members first governed the city. Knidians colonised Lipara and founded a city on Corcyra Nigra. The astronomer Eudoxus and the historian Ctesias both came from Knidos.

• Aphrodite: Praxiteles carved the Aphrodite of Knidos, the marble cult statue of the Temple of Aphrodite.
• Lion: C. T. Newton found a lion carved from one block of Pentelic marble, now in the British Museum.
• First survey: A mission of the Dilettante Society in 1812 gave the first Western knowledge of the site.
• Harbour: In 2022, a low tide revealed ruins of an ancient port near the site.

Iris Love excavated at Knidos between 1969 and 1972. She identified a round building as the temple of Aphrodite, part of the Carian story behind a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip.

What is known about Sedir Island and its sand near a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip?

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip shares this coast with Sedir Island, also known as Cleopatra Island. The small island lies in the Gulf of Gokova, off the coast of Ula. Its beach is known for sand made from seashells.

The Turkish name of the island is Sedir Adasi. Legend says that Anthony and Cleopatra swam here. The same legend claims that ships carried the sand from the Red Sea especially for Cleopatra.

The tale holds that such sand was found only in Egypt. Contemporary research offers a local explanation. It links the sand to the continual erosion of the sandstone bed on the island itself.

Each grain of sand on the beach forms a sphere. For this reason, the government keeps the beach under heavy protection. The aim is to prevent the removal of any sand.

Ancient Cedreae, a city of Caria, stood near Sehir Adalari. Its inhabitants were mixobarbaroi, a mixture of Greeks and barbarians. Lysander took the city while it was in alliance with the Athenians.

• Tribute: Cedreae appears in Athenian tribute records between 454/3 and 415/4 BCE.
• Rhodian link: In the Hellenistic era, Cedreae became one of the key Rhodian demes.
• Temple: Only the foundations survive of a Doric temple near the summit, later used for a Christian church.
• Necropolis: A sizable necropolis with built tombs and sarcophagi lies on the mainland opposite the island.

For sea outings on the Greek side, a Rhodes boat trip covers the island coast. A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip crosses instead to the Carian mainland.

What do Kaunos and its rock tombs add to a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip?

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip ends on the old Carian coast, where Kaunos stood west of modern Dalyan. Six rock tombs on the Dalyan river, dating from the 4th to the 2nd century BC, form the prime sight of Dalyan.

Kaunos was a key sea port whose history is traced to the 10th century BC. Silting of the former Bay of Dalyan and the formation of Iztuzu Beach left it about 8 km from the coast.

The Carian name was Kbid, and Lycian texts used Xbide. Myth names King Kaunos, grandson of Apollo, as founder. His twin sister Byblis wept, and the Calbys river emerged from her tears.

Kaunos joined the Delian League after the Persian retreat. The satrap Mausolos, who ruled from 377 to 353 BC, enlarged and walled the city. In the early 2nd century BC, Rhodes bought Kaunos from Ptolemy’s generals.

Malaria struck in the 15th century, and the city was abandoned. Richard Hoskyn, a Royal Navy surveyor, visited the ruins in 1840 and published an account in 1842. Prof. Baki Ogun began excavations in 1966.

• Tomb fronts: The tomb facades resemble Hellenistic temple fronts with two Ionian pillars.
• Theatre: The theatre has a diameter of 75 m and held 5000 spectators.
• Acropolis: The acropolis stands on a 152 m high rock fortified with Byzantine walls.
• Niche tombs: At the port of Candir, tens of niche tombs are cut into the rock of Kiziltepe.

Kaunos lies inside the Koycegiz-Dalyan Special Environmental Protection Area. Its ruins sit amid wildlife on the wider coast of a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip.

How do Dalyan, Iztuzu Beach and Lake Koycegiz relate to a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip?

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip reaches the town from which day tourists travel to Iztuzu Beach near Dalyan. The beach is a narrow spit, 4.5 km long, between the Dalyan river delta and the Mediterranean. Lake Koycegiz lies upstream.

Dalyan means fishing weir in Turkish. Bass, mullet and sea bream swim upstream from the sea to Lake Koycegiz to spawn. Weirs catch them on their way back to the sea.

In 1987, work began on a hotel at Iztuzu Beach, a breeding ground for loggerhead sea turtles. June Haimoff and David Bellamy launched a campaign. Prince Philip asked for a moratorium, and building paused.

In 1988 the beach and its hinterland became a protected area. Iztuzu now records an average of around 300 nests per year. Speedboats are banned within a 1-mile zone of the beach.

Lake Koycegiz covers 5200 hectares and ranks among the largest coastal lakes in Turkey. It formed about 7500 years ago. A narrow, reedy channel called Dalyan links it to the Mediterranean.

• Turtles: The loggerhead turtle, Caretta caretta, is on the IUCN Red List of endangered animals.
• Awards: The Times named Iztuzu Beach winner for Best Open Space (Europe) in 2008.
• Lake life: Two endemic dwarf gobies, Knipowitschia byblisia and K. caunosi, live in Lake Koycegiz.
• Islands: Five uninhabited islands lie in the lake, among them Hapishane Adasi, or Prison Island.

June Haimoff told the story in Kaptan June and the Turtles, published in 1997. Her old beach hut is now a small museum at Iztuzu, on the coast beyond a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip.

What do travellers ask about a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip?

A Rhodes to Marmaris day trip runs from Rhodes by high-speed boat, and listed tours also run the other way from Marmaris. The questions below cover both directions, the castle in Marmaris and the ancient sites of Caria nearby.

Does a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip run from Rhodes and also from Marmaris?

Yes. Listed tours run in both directions. From Rhodes, one offer is a Marmaris day trip by high-speed boat. From the Turkish side, another offer is a Rhodes day trip by high-speed ferry with transfers, which starts in Marmaris. The choice depends on where the traveller is based.

What stands in Marmaris itself at the end of a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip?

Marmaris Castle stands in the town. The fort was registered as a monumental structure in 1983 and opened as a museum in 1991. Above the gulf of Marmaris, on the hill of Asarcik at Hisarburnu, or fortress point, lie the walls and theatre of ancient Amos.

Which ancient sites lie near the end of a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip?

The whole area belonged to ancient Caria. Kaunos stands west of modern Dalyan, with six rock tombs on the Dalyan river. Knidos lies at modern Tekir on the western tip of the Datca peninsula. Amos lies above the gulf of Marmaris, and Loryma faces Rhodes.

Can a Marmaris-side visitor do a Rhodes to Marmaris day trip in reverse?

Yes. Listed tours start in Marmaris and cross to Rhodes for the day. One offer is an independent Rhodes day trip from Marmaris by catamaran. Another is a day trip to Rhodes from Marmaris. A same-day return tour from Marmaris to Rhodes also appears in the listings.