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Gone are the days of the dolmus cooperatives run by the towns and villages around the Bodrum area. It used to be that you could tell where a bus was going by the color of it. The red ones were heading to Yakakoy, the yellow ones to Torba… so if you saw a bus in the distance, you knew where it was heading.

For the past couple of years the local dolmus have been running in parallel with the Mugla district Buyuksehir buses. These newer buses come in a couple of different sizes, but they all have similar exteriors, so you could spot the difference between a dolmus and a city bus.

The timetables were pretty similar, and our local dolmus used to show up five minutes before the city bus was scheduled to arrive, to get a jump on the competition. When we were heading to Bodrum, we used to wait for the city bus because we could use our Kent Card to get discounted fares.

But on the shorter routes we’d always just jump on the first available dolmus, and I still have fond memories of our first trip to Bodrum when we bowled up to the organized chaos that was the Bodrum Otogar, and hopped on the next dolmus that was departing, with no idea where we were going. As luck would have it, it was bound for Torba, and we spent the day relaxing on the sun decks, and discovered a new destination we hadn’t been to before.

But in 2018 the local transport options changed. The much-loved traditional dolmus buses were forced out of the running. The routes were taken over by the Mugla City Council, and drivers had to switch over to driving the newer looking buses that the city buses run, which are more disability-friendly.

Of course, as with any change their was uproar. It was tough for the dolmus drivers, but it has created a seamless supply of local buses—all of which now accept the Kent Card.

Change is hard, seeing the dolmus being phased out signals the end of an era. But the writing was on the wall. Back when we bought our house here each town had their own city council and ran their area like a mini-fiefdom, but over the years the areas have been shuffled around and now we’re all part of the Bodrum city council which is snuggled more closely under the Mugla City Council. I wonder what changes are next?

Local Bus times

To find out local bus times for the Bodrum Peninsula, you can visit the Otobus page on the Mugla website. Just enter your starting point and destination, and it’ll display a weekday, Saturday, and Sunday timetable.

TIP: Destinations use the Turkish spelling, so if you’re typing Gumuskaya or Gumusluk into the field it won’t show any results. So just type the first letter “G” and it’ll show you the options, so that you don’t have to type in any of the Turkish alphabet.

TIP: Although there’s a long list of destinations (this website covers the entire Mugla district), the list diminishes once you’ve added your From (Nereden) location, and the results in the To (Nereye) locations will only show available routes, so you’ll have a much shorter list to choose from.

https://www.mugla.bel.tr/otobussefersaatleri

Reading the timetable

Here’s an excerpt from the Gumusluk to Turgutreis timetable, and you’ll notice that some of the times have Belediye next to them. This is because although buses run from the same starting and ending point, they can take different routes, and this text indicates that the bus route goes through the village via the Belediye office, as opposed to the more direct main road route.

So when you’re looking at your bus times, you’ll be able to tell which route your bus is taking.

If all you care about is getting to your end destination, you don’t need to worry about this route destination, but if you’re getting off the bus somewhere along the route, then you’ll need to make sure you’re getting on a bus that goes past your destination.

I hope this article helps you to get around the Bodrum Peninsula under your own steam. If you have any questions about getting the city buses to travel around the local area, just leave me a comment below.

For more articles about exploring the Bodrum area, check out the Getting About articles on this website.