Rhodes Ferry Port Guide

Rhodes Town has three separate harbour areas, and which one you need depends entirely on what you are sailing on — the big car ferries and the little fast boats do not use the same quay.

This is the single thing that catches people out in Rhodes. Turn up at the pretty harbour by the Old Town walls for a Blue Star sailing to Piraeus and you are in the wrong place by a twenty-minute walk. Below is what leaves from where, what you will find when you get there, and the practical points on timing, wind and the crossing to Turkey.

The Three Harbours

Working from north to south along the waterfront:

Mandraki is the historic harbour at the northern tip of town, next to the New Town, with the two bronze deer on columns at its entrance. It handles excursion boats, fishing trips and the coastguard. No scheduled ferries leave from here, although plenty of visitors assume they do because it is the harbour everyone photographs.

Kolona sits just outside the Old Town walls, more or less opposite the main entrance. This is where the small and high-speed passenger boats go from — Dodekanisos Express and Dodekanisos Pride, plus other local operators, running to Symi and around the Dodecanese. There is a ticket kiosk and some seating, but not much shade. The eastern side of Kolona is the International Terminal, which handles the Turkey crossing and some cruise calls, and has the passport control and customs facilities.

Akandia is the main commercial port, south of the Old Town. Every big domestic car ferry uses it, including all the Blue Star sailings, alongside the cargo traffic. If your ticket is for Piraeus, Crete or a long Dodecanese run, this is your port.

Akandia: Manage Your Expectations

Akandia is a working cargo quay that also takes passengers, and it is bare. There is a Blue Star ticket kiosk and that is close to the whole story: no proper waiting hall, no shade, no toilets, no food. A passenger terminal has been talked about locally for years, but as of summer 2026 nothing is confirmed as built.

Plan around it. Buy water and something to eat in town first, and think twice about arriving two hours early with children in August, because there is nowhere comfortable to sit it out. Operators ask for an hour before departure, and with a vehicle you should take that seriously.

Getting there on foot from the Old Town is about 20 minutes, or roughly 30 from the New Town bus station. City bus route 6 reaches Akandia, running about hourly, and a free shuttle has run between the port car park and the Old Town, though reports of its timetable are inconsistent and it has been reduced or suspended at weekends. Check locally rather than counting on it. There is no direct airport bus to Akandia either — the KTEL airport services run to the New Town bus station, so you finish the journey by taxi or on foot.

Kolona is much easier. It is a few minutes' walk from the Old Town gates, which makes an early Symi boat genuinely painless if you are staying inside the walls.

Ferry Routes from Rhodes

Rhodes has 30 scheduled Greek connections in our route data, plus the Marmaris crossing, and it is the natural base for exploring the Dodecanese islands.

The short hops are the good ones. Symi is 45 minutes on a fast boat, with Panormitis monastery on the far side of the island reachable in about 50. Halki is an hour and five, Tilos 1h40, Kos 1h50, Nisyros 2h20, Kalymnos 2h30 and Kastellorizo 2h20. Most of these work as day trips in summer, and Symi in particular is the classic one — morning out, late afternoon back.

Further afield, Karpathos is 3h45, Patmos 4h25 and Astypalea 4 hours. Longer sailings run to Sitia in eastern Crete in 7h45, Heraklion in 10h30, Syros in 8h35 and Santorini in 11h40. The overnight to Piraeus takes 12h15, which is the standard way to link Rhodes to Athens by sea.

Wind and Cancellations

Rhodes sits at the gentler end of the meltemi belt, so it is less exposed than the open Cyclades, but summer afternoons still bring north-westerlies and the small boats feel them first. High-speed catamarans and the little island ferries are generally the first to be pulled, around Beaufort 6 to 7. The big conventional car ferries keep going in considerably more than that.

The practical version: if you have a flight to catch or a fixed connection at the other end, put the conventional ferry on the last leg rather than the fast boat. Cancelled sailings are refunded in full, which is fine unless the refund arrives while you are still standing on the quay.

The Marmaris Ferry

The crossing to Marmaris in Turkey takes about an hour and leaves from the International Terminal on the eastern side of Kolona. Because it is an international sailing, check in at the port around an hour before departure to collect your boarding pass — you cannot clear passport control and customs without it. The same terminal processes cruise passengers, so the queues are unpredictable. Bring your passport and give yourself more time than you think you need.

For the wider picture of where else you can sail from around Greece, see our Greek ferry ports index.