Friday 25 September 2026 4:02 pm
| Updated:
Friday 25 September 2026 4:04 pm
Bodrum is rivalling Mykonos
Just a short ferry ride apart, Turkey’s Bodrum and Greece’s Kos make for an easy two-for-one trip. By Nicole Trilivas
Two countries in one weekend. This kind of travelmaxxing can sound like overkill (or straight-up exhausting), but it’s reassuringly easy to pair Turkey’s internationally famous Bodrum with the more laid-back, summer-lazy Greek island of Kos.
The two locations are close enough that, on a clear day, you can see one from the other; and multiple, affordable ferries per day link them together (the speediest option clocks it at around a half hour). Lastly, each destination has its own international airport with direct flights to and from London, meaning you can fly into one and out from another, without wasting time backtracking and clearing customs twice. Here’s how to make it happen…
Two countries in one weekend. This kind of travelmaxxing can sound like overkill (or straight-up exhausting), but it’s reassuringly easy to pair Turkey’s internationally famous Bodrum with the more laid-back, summer-lazy Greek island of Kos.
The two locations are close enough that, on a clear day, you can see one from the other; and multiple, affordable ferries per day link them together (the speediest option clocks it at around a half hour). Lastly, each destination has its own international airport with direct flights to and from London, meaning you can fly into one and out from another, without wasting time backtracking and clearing customs twice. Here’s how to make it happen…
First Up: Turkey’s Bodrum takes on Mykonos
Surrounded by the luminous Aegean Sea on a hilly peninsula upholstered with pine trees in south-eastern Turkey, Bodrum has a well earned reputation for being both luxurious and hedonistic. Think of it as the Turkish version of Greece’s Mykonos or France’s St Tropez.
A one time fishing and agricultural hub (not to mention an archaeological hotspot because of Bodrum’s Mausoleum at Halicarnassus, one of the Seven Wonders of the World), the area first entered the modern global tourism map in the 50s and 60s when the bohemians and creatives started visiting, and things only skyrocketed since then, hitting a high in 1997 with the opening of Milas-Bodrum Airport, putting the peninsula within reach of both domestic and international sybarites .
Today, there are regular daily flights from London to Turkey in peak season, and the airport is around 45 minutes from the peninsula, depending, of course, on your hotel of choice and the traffic.
As a glitzy world-class holiday destination, there’s no shortage of high-end hotels in this part of the world. At the top end, you have the mega yacht charters and private boats, the affluent big-brand chains like Mandarin Oriental and Aman, and newish Turkish arrivals like airy, sleek Maxx Royal. But for something definitively beachy Bodrum, a throwback to its hazy hippy heyday, the place to book is Maçakızı, plopped on an especially pretty inlet on Bodrum’s northern coast.
A legend in Turkey
Family-owned and firmly influential with a cult classic lure (it has its own Assouline coffee-table book, if it’s in doubt), Maçakızı’s roots date back to the 70s when it first opened as a B&B only accessible by boat. It became a full-blown proper hotel in the 2000s, but it stays true to itself, never trying to be something it’s not.
Sure, this means its not as modern as some might expect (some of the rooms need updating, for example), but you can’t say it doesn’t have style. And they even have a few resident dogs onsite (we love Vasilis!), and who wouldn’t love a hotel with resident pets?
Even if you don’t stay, it’s worth visiting for the on-point food and a sizzling scene. At the helm of the hotel’s white-tableclothed Michelin-starred restaurant is Executive Chef Aret Sahakyan, who is known in chichi foodie circles for his new Turkish and broadly Med cuisine. Drawing on his background (born in Istanbul with Armenian heritage and worked extensively in the States), the menu here feels like an expression of location but still suitably fancy, uncommon, and elevated.
Expect haute seafood dinners (grouper cheek with caviar beurre blanc) to more down-to-earth dishes served at lunch (wood-fired pide breads dusted with fresh herbs and cool in-season vegetables glossed with local green-gold olive oil).
FICO European Fraud Map: UK Resilient as Other European Countries See Losses Climb by up to 21%
Shaded by pergolas strung with khaki netting
Beyond the food, Maçakızı is best known as party spot, with an almost-always-packed beach club, set up on pine-wood decks elevated above the green-blue water and shaded by pergolas strung with khaki netting. A few hours here (drinking espresso martinis, taking the occasional cool dip, nodding to bossa nova, etc.) is what’s on the agenda for the guests—Istanbul and Ankara insiders, plus international tastemakers, all magazine-ready in bold bikinis or designer swimming trunks, silk headscarves, and gold jewellery.
The hotel also does an indulgent job with the spa, with open-air Balinese-style salas dotted into the hillside and surrounded by greenery. And there’s an impressive hammam: massive; clad in money-is-no-object amounts of black and white marble; and with a giant picture window, privacy protected by the thick foliage.
Beyond the hotel, you could also check out Bodrum’s Mausoleum at Halicarnassus (go early before it gets hot, if you visit in the height of summer). It’s right outside the port town of Bodrum, on the southern side of the Bodrum peninsula, which is also where you’ll find the 15th-century Bodrum Castle and the ferry port.
Next up: totally chill out in Kos 
The Oku Kos hotel
There are daily ferry boats from Bodrum to Kos, in Greece’s Dodecanese island group. Tickets cost around £20 and it can take as little as a half hour, meaning it’s popular with day trippers, but if you need to detox after the brouhaha of Bodrum, it’s worth staying a while longer. One important note: you do have to go through passport control upon arrival and in peak season, this can add time to the overall journey.
Kos is less showy and elite compared to Bodrum. There is still a party scene and five-star hotels, but it’s less posturing and it’s more about the snoozy sandy beaches; the old town, decked in bougainvillea and little cafes; and historical sites, like the ancient ruins of the healing temple of Asklepieion, where it is said Hippocrates, the so-called father of modern medicine, had his training.
Hotel wise, you’ll want to bed down at Oku Kos, an earthy and unbothered retreat that’s mainly focused on de-stressing and chilling out its almost exclusively European and city-dwelling couples (adults only).
The beachfront property is laid out village style in a compound: whitewashed, low to the ground, and precisely landscaped with tall beach grasses and swishy tamarisks and banana palms. Some of the trendily pared-back rooms, dressed in neutrals of varying hues of creams and browns, have private or semi-private pools, shared with the neighbouring suite.
A rainbow of cut fruit
There’s not much to do here other than wind down. Start with a morning vinyasa sess in the gym before hitting the (hardly spartan) breakfast buffet, an abundant rainbow of cut fruit in wood bowls, phyllo and spinach pies baked daily, and help-yourself prosecco. Then, the only real activity to do is lounge: poolside or beachside, your only choice. (This isn’t the kind of place to ask too much of you.)
Bristled with thatch umbrellas and ornamented with plump bean-bag-style loungers, the swim-able beach is the USP, with fine sand, minimal seaweed, maximum breezes, gentle waves, and island views. Bonus points for the chic burlap beach bags with bamboo handles, provided for use during your stay. Don’t expect a DJ, but there is a beach bar and lounger-side service for a mid-day Mythos beer, should desire strike.
Come dinner time, book a sand-side deck table at the indoor-outdoor To Kima (a name inspired by the Greek word for “wave”). Here, it’s all modern and holistic Greek fare, made social media attractive: lettuce-free salads, lamb souvlaki done over the open fire, risotto-like kritharoto with shrimp, cheesecake baklava with hazelnuts and pistachios, and overly cold bottles of rosé from the Peloponnese mainland. End the night with a stargazing session with the hotel’s resident amateur astronomer.
The airport is only 15 minutes away from the hotel, meaning you don’t have to faff with a return to Bodrum. Because sometimes, when you just have a long weekend, it’s about the destination, not the journey.
Visit Bodrum yourself
Rates at Maçakızı Hotel in Bodrum, Turkey, start from €575 (currently approximately £497) per night, based on two sharing. Go to macakizi.com. Rates at OKU Kos in low season start from €330 (currently approximately £285) per night, based on two sharing. Go to okuhotels.com