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Where do I catch my Turgutreis bus?

Turgutreis is one of the main commercial and tourist hubs on the Peninsula, and its robust public transport system makes it easy to reach from a all over the peninsula. But there’s a couple of caveats that make it a little confusing about where the buses leave from, so this post aims to unravel that confusion so you know where to catch your bus.

Standardizing the dolmuş and city buses

The dolmuş, run by local neighbourhood cooperatives, used to be the only game in town and these minivans were a regular sight zipping around the peninsula. Then the Muğla Büyükşehir Public Bus service (aka The City Bus) was launched by the Muğla local council. For a while these two local bus services ran parallel services, which was a bit stupid because the timetables overlapped rather than being spread out. But more recently the local bus service and structure has evolved into what we have today.

Up until 2018 you could tell the difference between a dolmuş and a city bus. As well as looking different, the public bus was cheaper than the dolmuş, and you could pay for a public bus with a Kent Card, whereas you had to have cash for the dolmuş.

But then Muğla standardized the bus service and now all buses are the newer disability-friendly Büyükşehir buses (although they do come in different lengths based on the route). They pricing and timetables have also been standardized, and all vehicles have the prepaid Kent Card machine installed.

Departure points for the Turgutreis bus and dolmuş

Most public transport users won’t be able to tell the difference between riding a bus run by a local cooperative or one run by the local council, but something to bear in mind is that in places like Turgutreis, the public bus station is at the other end of town than the dolmuş station, although their routes join up before they leave town.

A couple of years ago the dolmuş station was moved from the centre of town to the coach station by the Gümüşlük turning.

• Location: At the intersection of Gümüşlük Caddesi and Mehmet Hilmi Caddesi
• Google Coordinates: 37.009627, 27.265807

The City Bus station has taken over the old dolmuş station plot, located adjacent to the textile area of the weekly Saturday market.

• Location: At the intersection of Karadasli Caddesi and 4046 Sokak
• Google Coordinates: 37.005997, 27.260084

If you’re walking through the textile and clothes section of the weekly Saturday market, look out for Big Smash and A101 and then cut-through to the bus station located adjacent.

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The City buses from Turgutreis to Gümüşkaya turn at the traffic lights by the coach station and stop at the bus stop where the City buses stop. This is adjacent to where the dolmuş depart from. One Saturday, after a visit to the weekly market, we walked to the dolmuş station to get a bus to Gümüşkaya and the driver pointed us to the bus stop to get the next City-run bus because it was a long wait for the next dolmuş.

But when the City bus arrived half-an-hour later, it drove past without stopping as it was already full. So we wandered back over to the row of dolmuş (cooperative run) buses for the next available one, which turned out to be not much of a wait, because as is usual on a Saturday, it’s standing room only on the bus.

We decided it was more convenient to look into catching the City bus the following week, so we didn’t have to shlep up the road in the heat with a big bag of market shopping, but when I got to the bus station on Saturday, the city bus timetable to Gümüşkaya is only every 2-hours, and as I’d just missed one, I had to walk up to the dolmuş station anyway for the more frequent cooperative service.

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Turgutreis Routes

The routes that leave from this dolmuş station include the local Turgutreis to Gümüşlük and Gümüşkaya service, and also the Turgutreis to Golköy Coastal Service Bus route. This coastal route runs along the northern part of the Peninsula connecting Turgutreis to Golköy and passes through Kadikalesi, Gümüşlük, Yalıkavak, Gündoğan, and Türkbükü. The Akyarlar service also runs from this bus station, and there are timetables posted on the bus stop which is next to where the dolmuş park.

There are also a collection of timetables posted at the city bus station, which is where all the Bodrum to Turgurtries buses run from, as well as the local Turgutreis routes going to the neighbourhoods that were designated as their own Mahalle. On this timetable it’s designated whether the route is run by the City bus or the dolmuş.

There are buses from Turgutreis to Akyarlar from both bus stations.

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The most current timetables are available on the local government website:

• www.mugla.bel.tr/otobussefersaatleri

Although the online timetable shows all departures, it doesn’t show whether it’s a city bus or dolmuş, so you don’t know where it leaves from. But if you’re actually at the bus station, you’ll see a posted timetable for the buses leaving from that location.