In short
Yes — and for most Western visitors it is simpler than the internet suggests. The Greek “express visa on arrival” (€60) is for Turkish passport holders only, and is valid solely on the island you entered. US, UK, Canadian and Australian visitors need nothing for the entry itself; they travel visa-free into the Schengen area on the ferry like any other Schengen arrival.
Verified against Greek and Turkish official sources, August 2026.
If you search for how to visit a Greek island from Türkiye, you will find dozens of English-language pages describing a €60 visa you can buy at the port. Almost all of them are wrong for the people reading them.
That scheme is for Turkish citizens. If you hold a US, UK, Canadian, Australian or EU passport, you cannot buy it, you do not need it, and what actually governs your crossing is something else entirely — a new EU border system that became fully operational in April 2026 and that most travel guides have not mentioned at all.
What is in this guide
This page sets out both regimes, with dates. It is a reference page: no affiliate links, no recommendations, just the rules and where they come from.
Last checked: August 2026.
Editor’s note
What this page is and is not. It is a summary of published rules for a short hop between Türkiye and a Greek island, aimed at ordinary tourists. It is not immigration advice, rules change, and the authoritative sources are the Greek authorities and your own government’s travel advice. Where we could not reach a primary source — and for the Turkish-citizen visa scheme we could not reach a Greek ministry page — we say so and cite what we did reach.
The two regimes, side by side
| Greek “express visa” on arrival | What a US/UK/CA/AU visitor faces | |
|---|---|---|
| Who it is for | Turkish passport holders only | Everyone else on this page |
| Cost | €60 official (agency fees push the real outlay higher) | Nothing for the entry itself |
| Where valid | Only the island you entered | Full Schengen area, subject to your allowance |
| Length | 7 days, non-extendable | Up to 90 days in any 180 |
| Onward travel | Forbidden — no mainland Greece, no other Schengen state, no island-hopping | Permitted |
| Islands covered | Twelve, as of 2026 | All of them |
| Status | In force since April 2024, extended to April 2027 | Standing visa exemption |
1. The Turkish-citizen scheme, accurately
Greece operates a fast-track visa issued at the port for Turkish nationals visiting specific islands. It began in April 2024 and has been extended to April 2027 by the Greek ministries of migration and asylum and of foreign affairs.
- Islands: originally ten — Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Kos, Rhodes, Kalymnos, Limnos, Leros, Symi and Kastellorizo — expanded to twelve in April 2025 with the addition of Patmos and Samothraki. Some 2026 reporting still says ten; twelve is current.
- Fee: €60, stated. Booking through an agency adds a service fee.
- Stay: seven days, non-extendable.
- Scope: the island of entry only. It does not permit onward travel to mainland Greece or to any other Schengen country, and it does not permit island-hopping.
- Process: issued at the port, with passport control, a biometric or fingerprint scan and a document check.
Sourcing caveat, stated plainly: we could not reach a Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs page confirming the fee or the April 2027 end date. Both come from Greek and European travel press in 2026. Treat the €60 and the end date as reported rather than verified, and the island count as disputed.
2. What actually applies to a US, UK, Canadian or Australian visitor
You are visa-exempt for short stays in the Schengen area. Two systems matter instead.
EES — the Entry/Exit System — is live. Rollout began on 12 October 2025 and the European Commission set 10 April 2026 as the date for full operation. A UK House of Commons Library briefing updated 19 August 2026 notes the deadline was not met at every checkpoint, so expect implementation to vary by port. It replaces passport stamping with a biometric record: a face image and fingerprints, held centrally, recording each entry to and exit from the Schengen area.
What that means for a day trip from Bodrum to Kos or Fethiye to Rhodes:
- Your crossing is a Schengen entry, and your return is a Schengen exit. Both are recorded.
- Your first registration takes longer. Enrolment involves capturing biometrics, and it happens at the island port, in summer, in a queue.
- The day counts against your 90/180 allowance. This is the part that catches people. If you have already spent Schengen days in Europe this year, a lunch on Kos is not free — it consumes allowance you may want later.
ETIAS is not in force. The EU has withdrawn its firm start date and now says it will announce the launch several months in advance, with further postponement widely expected. Guides telling you to apply for ETIAS before a 2026 trip are wrong in the opposite direction from the visa-on-arrival guides — and guides giving a confident 2027 date are ahead of the EU itself.
3. The crossings themselves
| Route | Time | Frequency | Indicative fare |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bodrum → Kos | 15–30 min, most sailings around 30 | ~64 sailings a week, daily year-round | €16–30 one way in summer |
| Fethiye → Rhodes | 1 h 25 fastest | Daily June–August; 3–7 a week in shoulder season; 1–4 a week January–March | from €27.50 Fethiye to Rhodes, from €29.00 on the return |
Several operators work the Bodrum–Kos route. These fares come from ferry aggregators rather than operator tariffs: the Bodrum ferry association’s own tariff page redirected to an unrelated page and its successor domain refused automated access. Prices and schedules should be confirmed with the operator.
4. The practical checklist
- Carry your passport, not a national ID card, and not a photograph of one.
- Check your Schengen day count before you commit. Ninety days in any rolling 180 is the limit, and this trip spends some of it.
- Allow far more time than the crossing suggests. A twenty-minute ferry can sit behind a forty-minute biometric queue in August.
- Do not buy the €60 visa — you cannot, and anyone selling you one is selling you something else.
- Confirm the return sailing time before you leave the port. Shoulder-season schedules thin out sharply, and the last boat is not negotiable.
- If you hold a non-Citizen British passport — BN(O), British Subject, British Protected Person — your Schengen position may differ from a British Citizen’s. Check with the Greek consulate rather than assuming.
What we could not verify
- A Greek government page stating the €60 fee or the April 2027 extension. Both are press-reported.
- Whether the scheme covers ten or twelve islands. Sources published in 2026 disagree.
- Operator tariffs for Bodrum–Kos from the operators themselves.
- Whether any Turkish or Greek authority publishes a consolidated list of licensed operators on these routes.
If you have a primary source for any of these, we would like to see it — this page is maintained, and it will be updated with the source named.