Six days carry the marmaris rhodes santorini tour from the Turkish coast over the sea to Rhodes, on by air to Santorini and, after a night on the water, into Athens. Further islands for the same journey are a click away in the tours in Greece collected on this site.
Below you find how the route runs, what Marmaris adds, how the ferry to Rhodes works, which season suits the trip, Rhodes Old Town with the Palace of the Grand Master, Lindos and the east coast, the flight to Santorini, the Fira, Oia and caldera views, and a FAQ for travellers.
What is the marmaris rhodes santorini tour, and how does the route run?
Six days make up the marmaris rhodes santorini tour, a line drawn from the Turkish coast to Athens. A ferry crosses from Marmaris to Rhodes. A flight lifts the traveller on to Santorini, and a night ferry sails to the mainland. A free day in Athens closes the plan.
Read from east to west, the marmaris rhodes santorini tour is a chain of four places. Marmaris opens the line from its harbour. Rhodes is the first Greek island on it, and Santorini is the second. Athens ends the chain. This page explains each link, and the list below names the six days.
- Day 1: Ferry from Marmaris to Rhodes
- Day 2: Rhodes, then flight to Santorini
- Day 3: Free day on Santorini
- Day 4: Santorini, night ferry to Athens
- Day 5: Arrival in Athens, open day
- Day 6: Breakfast, check-out, end of plan
Rhodes has led the Dodecanese since antiquity, as Wikipedia describes it. That group lies off the Anatolian coast, with the Cyclades as its western neighbour. Santorini lies in the Cyclades, where its island group forms a ring around a caldera. The marmaris rhodes santorini tour therefore travels west, from one group to the next.
The word Dodecanese means twelve islands. Byzantine sources used it for twelve Cyclades islands around Delos, and writers kept doing so until the eighteenth century. The shift to Rhodes and its neighbours has roots in the Ottoman period. The marmaris rhodes santorini tour thus reaches the island group that first held the name.
Each leg gets the vehicle that fits it. A ferry crosses the sea between the Turkish coast and Rhodes. A flight bridges the two island groups. The night ferry covers the sea between Santorini and the mainland, so the sailing hours pass as sleeping hours. That is why the marmaris rhodes santorini tour mixes air and sea.
Day four holds free time on Santorini while the traveller waits for the ferry. A transfer then leads to the port. A traveller who wants longer on one island adds nights there, provided the links allow it. The traveller can also move the whole marmaris rhodes santorini tour to their own days.
What does Marmaris add to the marmaris rhodes santorini tour?
Marmaris adds the Turkish start to the marmaris rhodes santorini tour, and its place on the map is unusual. Two long peninsulas reach out beyond the town, Bozburun to the south and Datca to the west. Between the two arms lies Symi, a Greek island.
The town spreads south until it runs into Icmeler, and then a road crosses the mountains to Turunc. Wikivoyage likens the peninsulas to lobster claws, with Datca as the narrow one, 70 kilometres long. Visitors for Symi go through Rhodes, because no direct sailing runs there from Turkey. Rhodes is also the next stop on the marmaris rhodes santorini tour.
The old quarter gathers around Marmaris Castle, which is now a museum. Wikivoyage lists daily opening, with a closing time after eight in the evening. Hours change, so check the museum’s own page before a visit. The later afternoon sailing that the marmaris rhodes santorini tour allows leaves room for a visit.
Seasonal flowers fill the courtyard, and the largest of the seven galleries is an exhibition hall. A small lighthouse stands south of the castle. Wikivoyage places the Hafsa Sultan caravanserai, an old roadside inn, just north of the castle and lists it as closed. Wikivoyage calls the covered bazaar a place for errands, not for sightseeing.
Gunnucek is the easiest way into Marmaris National Park, a rugged area of pine forest and walking trails. The peninsula is the westernmost home of the tulip Tulipa armena. Elsewhere this species grows on high ground in the east. A walk here shows a side of the coast that the marmaris rhodes santorini tour only passes by.
Sedir Island, also called Cleopatra Island, lies in the Gulf of Gokova, and boats reach it from Camlik or Akyaka. On the island, the ruins of Kedrai include an amphitheatre, a sanctuary to Apollo, a cistern and city walls. A boardwalk runs through the site, past two Byzantine churches. Cleopatra Beach is made of ooids, tiny limestone spheres.
The town beach is sandy but narrow, and the public strip lies west of downtown. Boat trips circle the bay, and half a dozen hamams, the traditional Turkish baths, wait in town. These small things fit around a ferry timetable. That makes Marmaris an easy first stop for the marmaris rhodes santorini tour.
How does the ferry from Marmaris to Rhodes work on the marmaris rhodes santorini tour?
The marmaris rhodes santorini tour crosses the sea by foot-passenger ferry. Wikivoyage lists these boats on the Rhodes link from April to October, and the crossing takes one hour. The route has neither a car ferry nor a winter service. Day one of the plan holds this crossing.
Wikivoyage reports a morning sailing and an afternoon sailing for each company on the route. That is why the plan names a later afternoon sailing as a choice. A late boat shortens the first day in Rhodes, but the check-in at the hotel stays the same. The marmaris rhodes santorini tour works with either boat.
The marmaris rhodes santorini tour leaves from the Marmaris ferry terminal. Wikivoyage puts the castle and the town centre a 1 km walk away, across the harbour footbridge. Taxis wait at the terminal for the boats. Wheeled traffic goes the long way round, the page adds. Wikipedia counts two major marinas in Marmaris, besides smaller ones.
On the Rhodes side, the Central Port takes the scheduled sailings to and from Turkey, Wikipedia states. Wikivoyage lists two harbours on the east waterfront of the New Town. One is commercial, and the other is the yacht and ferry basin at Mandraki. A dock by the ruins of Kamiros serves mainly Halki, Wikipedia states.
The sea can change a sailing. Wikipedia describes a dock near Lardos, on the rocky east shore of Rhodes, as a port in development. The page calls it an alternative for days when bad weather blocks the Central Port. Timetables therefore follow the season and the sea. Check your sailing before the marmaris rhodes santorini tour begins.
The ferry crosses a border, so a passport is part of the day. Your own government publishes entry rules on an official page. Read it for the rules that cover your passport. Do this before you book the marmaris rhodes santorini tour, and again before you travel.
The number of boats depends on the page you read. The Rhodes city entry in Wikivoyage lists four daily ferries from Marmaris and Fethiye together. The Marmaris entry lists two companies with two sailings each. The official timetable for your date settles the count for the marmaris rhodes santorini tour.
Which season suits the marmaris rhodes santorini tour?
Santorini has two shoulder seasons, Wikivoyage states. One runs from April into June, and the other covers September and October. The marmaris rhodes santorini tour fits both windows. They sit inside the ferry months from April to October, so the Marmaris boat sails in each of them.
The ferry shapes the dates. Wikivoyage gives April to October as the sailing months on the Marmaris link and notes no winter service. For Santorini, it starts the island season around the first of April or Greek Easter. Both open together, so an earlier date leaves the marmaris rhodes santorini tour without a boat.
Spring dries out quickly in Rhodes. The Wikipedia table for the airport lists 35.7 millimetres of rain in April. Late spring has 18.7 and June has 2.0. Sunshine grows too, from 271.3 hours in April to 371.4 in June. A spring marmaris rhodes santorini tour meets longer and brighter days with each week.
Summer brings the wind to Rhodes. Wikipedia reports strong seasonal winds in this part of the Aegean. They make the island a sailing destination, and regattas are held there. Wikivoyage names Fanes as the wind surfing and kite surfing resort and mentions its summer winds. A summer ferry day on the marmaris rhodes santorini tour sails in that wind.
Marmaris has its highest temperatures during heatwaves in July and August, Wikipedia notes. August at Rhodes airport averages 30.7 degrees Celsius by day and 1.3 millimetres of rain, the Wikipedia climate data show. Wikivoyage calls Santorini unpleasantly hot in summer and adds cruise ships and beach crowds. Pack for sun on a summer marmaris rhodes santorini tour.
September opens the second window of the marmaris rhodes santorini tour. Wikipedia notes that Marmaris cools in September and stays warm and bright in October, with spells of rain. The Rhodes airport table lists 7.9 millimetres of rain in September and 41.4 in October. Wikivoyage adds that Santorini businesses begin to shut for the year as October ends.
Winter belongs to another trip. Wikivoyage reports that by December the bulk of Santorini businesses, hotels and guest houses among them, are shuttered until spring. In the Rhodes airport table, January brings 130.3 millimetres of rain and daytime highs near 15.4 degrees Celsius. The marmaris rhodes santorini tour has no ferry then.
What do Rhodes Old Town and the Palace of the Grand Master add to the marmaris rhodes santorini tour?
The walled medieval town of Rhodes carries a UNESCO listing. Inside it stands the palace of the Knights’ leader, the Grand Master, which Italian builders later restored. The marmaris rhodes santorini tour keeps Day 1 and Day 2 open, so this quarter can fill a day.
Wikivoyage plans the visit in days: one at the least, and two when every museum is on the list. The marmaris rhodes santorini tour leaves room for both. About 200 lanes there carry no name, so the same page urges a good map. The walls, the gates and the Street of the Knights belong to this quarter too.
The Knights Hospitaller left Cyprus for Rhodes, Wikipedia explains, when the Knights Templar came under persecution. Pope Clement V then confirmed that the Hospitallers held the island, and the order stayed for two centuries. Visitors on the marmaris rhodes santorini tour walk through the old headquarters of a Crusader order.
Wikipedia’s fact box names three builders for the palace: the Byzantine Empire, the Knights Hospitaller and the Kingdom of Italy. A citadel of the seventh century came first, and the Knights made it a palace in the fourteenth century. After a gunpowder blast wrecked the upper floors, the architect Vittorio Mesturino drew a new design.
No remains or papers from before the Ottoman era were left to copy, Wikipedia says. Mesturino chose to create a building that also served as a working government office. Critics later faulted it for its lack of historical accuracy. The marmaris rhodes santorini tour therefore shows a palace rebuilt in the twentieth century on medieval ground.
Victor Emmanuel III, Italy’s king, used the castle as a holiday residence, and Benito Mussolini followed him. A big plaque by the gate still carries the second name. In nineteen forty-eight the island was handed to Greece, and the palace then became a museum. Wikivoyage finds it impressive from outside and points to the Archaeological Museum.
Among the ports of the island, Wikipedia names Mandraki as the oldest, in the city centre. Bronze deer on stone columns of the Venetian period guard the harbour entrance. Beside the fortress of Agios Nikolaos, three medieval windmills once ground grain brought by ships. A free hour on the marmaris rhodes santorini tour suits this waterfront.
What do Lindos and the east coast of Rhodes add to the marmaris rhodes santorini tour?
Wikipedia describes Lindos as part ancient site and part fishing village, found along the east coast of Rhodes. Wikipedia measures the distance from Rhodes city as about 40 kilometres, heading south. The marmaris rhodes santorini tour can reach it on a free day. The village sits in a large bay, below its acropolis.
Wikivoyage gives 56 kilometres for the bus journey from Rhodes city, so read the two numbers as a rough measure. Across the water, Charaki faces Lindos; Wikipedia calls it a small resort and a fishing village. The marmaris rhodes santorini tour sets no fixed visit on Day 1, so this outing fits.
A legend credits a divine son of Zeus with founding Lindos. Wikivoyage says Dorians settled it instead, and Wikipedia dates their arrival to about the tenth century BC. Wikipedia ties the decline of Lindos to the founding of Rhodes city in the late fifth century BC. The marmaris rhodes santorini tour reaches one of six Dorian cities.
Visitors on the marmaris rhodes santorini tour begin the climb at a trireme relief of about 180 BC. The Doric temple of Athena Lindia took its final form about 300 BC. In the fourteenth century the Knights built a fortress that partly covered the older buildings. A church of Saint John stands on the ruins of an earlier church.
The early twentieth century brought a Danish dig to the acropolis, directed by Christian Blinkenberg and Karl Frederik Kinch. The dig reached the rock itself, and every building left its foundations in view. Wikipedia adds that Greek and international archaeologists now restore and protect the ruins under the Ministry of Culture.
Wikivoyage describes the east side of Rhodes as a near-continuous line of sandy beaches with calm water. The wind comes mainly from the west, so the stonier west coast suits surfing. Faliraki offers a long sandy beach and a choice of tavernas. That stretch of the marmaris rhodes santorini tour suits a swim after Lindos.
Kalithea, just north of Faliraki, has a spa that Italians built, with separate beaches to its south. Anthony Quinn Bay, listed as Ladiko Beach, has a small beach on one side. Its rocky side has a man-made platform for sunbathing. Free time on the marmaris rhodes santorini tour leaves room for these stops.
How does the flight from Rhodes to Santorini fit the marmaris rhodes santorini tour?
The flight is the only air leg of the marmaris rhodes santorini tour, and it fills day two. Wikipedia gives both airports the same latitude to the minute, thirty-six degrees twenty-four minutes north. The plane therefore flies almost straight west over the Aegean Sea. Ferries cover the other legs.
Day two of the marmaris rhodes santorini tour opens with time at leisure in Rhodes. After that, a ride to Rhodes airport starts the flight. At the other end, another ride leads from Santorini airport to the hotel, where the night is spent. The plan flies here and sails later, so the trip uses a plane and a ship.
Rhodes International Airport carries the name Diagoras. Wikipedia says civil flying began there after the Second World War, on the site of a nearby military airfield. A newer passenger terminal was built for the growing number of charter flights. The apron holds up to twenty planes of the smaller classes, and three parking positions take larger aircraft.
Day two already holds a transfer to the airport. Wikivoyage adds two back-ups for Rhodes. One is the west coast bus station, which sends buses to the airport and along the western shore. The other is the taxi, painted dark blue with white roofs. For taxi rides, it advises you to insist that the meter stays on.
Runways show the scale of each field. At Rhodes, Wikipedia lists a single asphalt runway of 3,305 metres. The main runway on Santorini measures 2,197 metres. A parallel strip beside it is marked and lit as a taxiway. The marmaris rhodes santorini tour therefore lands on the shorter of the two runways.
Wikipedia route tables list Santorini as a seasonal destination from Rhodes, and Rhodes as seasonal from Santorini. Seasonal means the link does not run all year. Check the dates on the official airport pages before you fix day two. The plan can move to your own days, so the marmaris rhodes santorini tour follows the timetable.
Wikivoyage places Santorini (Thira) National Airport southeast of Fira, about ten minutes by road. Buses link the two in ten to fifteen minutes, it adds. Almost every bus line fans out from Fira, so a trip between two other villages needs a change there. Remember that hub on day three of the marmaris rhodes santorini tour.
What do Fira, Oia and the caldera add to the marmaris rhodes santorini tour?
Day three of the marmaris rhodes santorini tour is free, and the caldera rim holds it together. Fira, the capital, stands on the cliff top, Oia lies at the northwest end, and Imerovigli sits between them. A signposted path along the rim runs from Fira north to Oia.
The caldera shapes every view on Santorini, and the marmaris rhodes santorini tour looks at it from the rim. Wikipedia measures it at about twelve by seven kilometres, with steep cliffs three hundred metres high on three sides. A list of one hundred geological heritage sites also names it. The International Union of Geological Sciences drew it up.
Fira clings to the rim, and the old port far below has no road. Wikipedia names two ways up. One is a zigzag footpath, walked or ridden by donkey. The other is a steep cable car from a lower terminal at the port. The central square, Plateia Theotokopoulou, holds banks, pharmacies and the stop for buses and taxis.
Start the rim walk of the marmaris rhodes santorini tour at Agiou Mina Street. Wikivoyage says the street follows the crater edge to the cable car. Walking north keeps the main part of Fira in front of you. Signs marked To Oia appear before the path leaves the town.
North of Fira lie Firostefani, a quieter village, and Imerovigli. Wikipedia describes Imerovigli as a village on the rim, crossed by narrow paved paths. A monastery stands on the path that joins it to Fira. The Wikivoyage bus list shows the bus to Oia calling at both villages on its way.
Venetian Oia had the Agios Nikolaos Kastell, one of five local citadels. Armeni bay, reachable on foot or by mule, was once an important boatbuilding centre. A Greek National Tourism Organisation programme sought new uses for old houses there. The organisation received the Europa Nostra Prize. Day three of the marmaris rhodes santorini tour walks through it.
Blue-domed churches stand among the white houses on the crater lip of Oia. Wikivoyage counts two windmills in the village, and mills in the same style stand on nearby Cyclades islands. Wikipedia adds sunset views over the caldera. Caldera boat cruises leave from Oia or Fira, giving the marmaris rhodes santorini tour a sea option.
What else do travellers ask about the marmaris rhodes santorini tour?
What is on board the night ferry from Santorini to Athens?
The night ferry that ends Day 4 of the marmaris rhodes santorini tour has services on board. Wikivoyage says the overnight ships have restaurants and bars, plus cabins that are cramped but clean. A traveller sleeps at sea, and the plan lands in Athens on Day 5.
A cabin is one choice for the night. Wikivoyage names two more for the marmaris rhodes santorini tour: dormitory beds and reclining seats. It adds that a traveller can also sail without a booked bed. Then boarding can start a small rush for the good places to sleep. Bench seats in the quieter parts are the example Wikivoyage gives.
Wikivoyage describes finders-keepers seating on conventional ships. It lists open racks, coin-operated lockers and a secure room among the ways ships store bags. On Day 5 the marmaris rhodes santorini tour begins at the port. Wikivoyage adds that an early ferry can let passengers rest aboard until breakfast.
How does the free Athens day begin after the ferry reaches Piraeus?
The free Athens day of the marmaris rhodes santorini tour begins at the port of Piraeus. Line 1 of the Metro leads from there to the centre. It runs north to Kifissia, and Wikipedia says it predates the other two Athens Metro lines.
Line 1 began as the first steam railway in Greece, joining Thiseio and Piraeus in the nineteenth century. Electric power came in the early twentieth century, and the public came to call it the Electric. So the marmaris rhodes santorini tour reaches the centre of Athens on a line with a long history.
Wikipedia says 3.2 kilometres of the line lie underground in the centre of Athens. After the Second World War the line grew north until it reached Kifissia, Wikipedia adds. Wikivoyage calls the antiquities of central Athens an easy day trip by Metro from the port. That idea fits the free Athens day within the marmaris rhodes santorini tour.
What matters when a flight and a ferry share one plan?
A flight and a ferry in one marmaris rhodes santorini tour ask for different bag habits. Wikivoyage notes that a ferry seldom offers its own baggage check-in or security screen, unlike an airport. Passengers carry their own bags aboard, so a bag that one person can handle is the sensible choice.
In this plan the flight comes first, on Day 2, and the ferry follows on Day 4. A free day in Athens comes after the ferry, not another flight. So a late ferry misses no connection on the marmaris rhodes santorini tour. Wikivoyage Greece names weather, strikes and breakdowns as causes of ferry delays.
The Piraeus page adds a note on luggage. Walking across the municipal centre and the port works well without luggage, it says. Pack for the marmaris rhodes santorini tour with the flight in mind. Read its bag allowance on the carrier’s official page.
What can fill a free day in Rhodes when nothing is booked?
A free day in Rhodes on the marmaris rhodes santorini tour can hold two museum stops. One stop sits inside the medieval walls, and the other lies in the modern part of the city. Wikivoyage lists the Archaeological Museum and the Aquarium, and Wikipedia describes what each one holds.
The Archaeological Museum fills the old hospital of the Knights, which builders began in the fifteenth century. Wikipedia shows a Hellenistic pebble mosaic of Bellerophon on Pegasus. The collection also holds a statue of Aphrodite crouching, dated to the first century BC. Wikivoyage says the exhibits stand mainly on the second floor, past the big stairs.
The Aquarium is an Art Deco building by the Italian architect Armando Bernabiti. It began as a research institute, and Wikipedia says the early work studied sponges and the fisheries of the Aegean. A separate area cares for hurt turtles and seals. Both stops suit the marmaris rhodes santorini tour, because the plan leaves Day 1 and Day 2 free.
What changes when a night is added on an island?
An extra night on Rhodes pushes the flight to Santorini back by a day. An extra night on Santorini pushes the ferry back. The plan allows added nights on every island of the marmaris rhodes santorini tour, subject to ferry and flight connections.
On the marmaris rhodes santorini tour, a night added in Rhodes gives the Old Town a second day. Wikivoyage advises at least a day there, and two days if every museum is on the list. About 200 of its streets and lanes carry no name, Wikivoyage notes. A wrong turn becomes part of the walk.
A night added on Santorini lets a traveller leave the caldera rim for a village inland. Pyrgos crowns Santorini as its highest point. Wikivoyage adds a Venetian castle, a monastery and narrow streets. Vothonas anchors the wine industry of the island, and it sits in a ravine. Either village stretches the marmaris rhodes santorini tour inland.