Athens Travel Forum

Hello,

I am wondering about prices, times & ports & even if ferries are the right way to go. If you have any advice (for a 1st time traveller!) it would be much appreciated. We are traveling at the end of August this year, hoping to go from Athens to Naxos then Santorini. We are also hoping to fly from Santorini back to London...if there are any suggestions re this that would be great!

Cheers =)

Ferries are the best way to move between islands and to islands from Athens.
The port in Athens is the Piraeus, from there you can take ferries head all the islands.

Here's the official website of the Flying Dolphins:

http://www.hellenicseaways.gr/index.asp?a_id=209

August will be pretty packed up, so it is maybe better to book in advance, but in any case you can even buy tickets on the islands.

Don't worry about the accomodation, at every port you will find dozen of people offering you hotel rooms, just always discuss the price, never accept the first one, and since you are going there in August and it will be pretty hot, request Air Conditioning in the price :)

Hope this was what you needed to know.
Enjoy your holidays in the fantastic Greece.

Enzo

Since you are going at THE very most crowded time of year, I would not myself count on the lodgings from the people holding up signs at the Naxos port -- their rooms may be fine, but often the location is not convenient (not near beach, or away from beach towns, not near bus, etc). Here are 2 good lists to peruse -- e-mail places that look good, and compare. If your time is limited do you really want to chance a bad choice?

The beach towns of Ag. Prokopios, Ag. Anna, and Plaka have many accommodations, and you can use bus or rent skooter to get into Naxos town. OR stay in St. George beach (shallow, but convenient), walk to town night-life, and do the reverse --take busses to deeper beaches by day.
http://www.naxos-island-greece.com/naxos-hotels/naxos-hotels.html
http://www.thegreektravel.com/naxos/hotels.html

Santorini prices in August will be shocking to you -- and don't look for rooms with a caldera view that time of year unless you have 200L-plus to spend. In that hot weather you will want to stay in a beach town (tho the beach will be black & gritty) or else try for a pool hotel.Here is a list of "budget" hotels in Fira Town... some of them have pools.
http://www.santorini.com/hotels-in-santorini/fira-hotels1.htm

About flying back to london direct from Santorini you will have to rely on the UK experts; probably Jet Blue, or maybe Aegean Air have flights now.

Cheers for the info....do you know any good sites for the cheaper/slower ferries???

http://www.ferries.gr if i'm not wrong

see my greek page to see the link, I booked everything with a Crete company some years ago, after a thourough research

Ferries: www.gtp.gr and www.openseas.gr

Easyjet flies non-stop from Mykonos to London and there's a daily ferry from Santorini to Mykonos, arriving at 2:45 PM.

There are UK charter companies that fly directly to Santorini so you might want to look into one of them for your return flight.

http://www.greeka.com/greece/greece-charter-flights.htm

1. It's the most expensive time to go as regards accommodation.

2. Athens(Piraeus) > Naxos > Santorini is a straightforward ferry route run several times a day (07:30, 17:00, 22:00 approx from Piraeus), so is Santorini > Mykonos, and Santorini > Piraeus, and Santorini > Heraklion(Crete). Avoid HiSpeed ferries they cost double. It's about 30 Euro Piraeus > Santorini, less for the other shorter distances.

3. Easyjet have direct scheduled flights from Mykonos or Athens or Heraklion(Crete) to London(Gatwick).

There are charter fligts from the same airports to various UK airports as well, however getting one in peak season, August, may be difficult.

Aegean Airlines also go from Athens to London(Stanstead).