Greece travel guide

Two kinds. Conventional ships (Blue Star, Minoan, ANEK/Attica) sail in almost any weather, carry cars, and cost half as much: Piraeus–Naxos 5 h 30 for about €40, Piraeus–Santorini 7–8 h for €45–50, Piraeus–Heraklion overnight 9 h with a cabin from €80 per person (deck €40). Fast catamarans (SeaJets, Golden Star, Hellenic Seaways) cut the time by half — Piraeus–Santorini 5 h for €80–90, Rafina–Mykonos 2 h 30 for €60–70, Heraklion–Santorini 2 h for €70–80 — and are the first thing cancelled when the wind rises. Inter-island hops within a group are short and cheap (Naxos–Paros 45 min, €10–15; Rhodes–Symi 1 h, €20). Book on Ferryhopper or the operator's site; August and Easter sell out four to six weeks ahead, the rest of the year a few days suffices.

Rule of thumb: Between islands of the same group, or Athens to any Cycladic island → ferry. Prefer the conventional ship for any leg you cannot afford to lose, and never on the same day as a flight home.

Aegean/Olympic and Sky Express fly Athens to about 30 airports; Ryanair covers Thessaloniki, Chania and Rhodes. Athens–Heraklion 50 min from €50–100, Athens–Rhodes 1 h, Athens–Santorini 45 min (€80–150 in summer; the ferry is €45–90 and 5–8 h), Athens–Thessaloniki 55 min from €50. Thessaloniki–Heraklion and Thessaloniki–Rhodes fly direct in season, which saves a day via Athens. Corfu, Rhodes, Crete and Kos have direct flights from most of Europe — no need to route via Athens at all.

Rule of thumb: Athens to Crete, Rhodes, Corfu, Thessaloniki or the north-east Aegean (Lesvos, Chios, Samos) → fly. Athens to Santorini or Mykonos in July–August → fly if the fare is under €120, the ferries are full and slow.

The way to see the mainland and the big islands. Rentals €30–45 a day in shoulder season, €60–80 in August, from local firms (often better than the majors — check the excess). Non-EU licences: UK licences are accepted alone; US, Canadian and Australian drivers officially need an International Driving Permit and rental desks increasingly ask for it. Tolls are real: Athens–Thessaloniki about €35, Athens–Patras €12, the Rio–Antirrio bridge €14, Attiki Odos €2.50 per pass. Fuel about €1.80 a litre. Times: Athens–Nafplio 1 h 45, Athens–Delphi 2 h 15, Athens–Kalambaka 4 h, Athens–Thessaloniki 5 h, Heraklion–Chania 2 h. Putting a car on a ferry costs €60–120 each way to the Cyclades — rent locally on the island instead. Driving standards are aggressive; overtaking on the hard shoulder is normal, and the tail of the Athens rush hour runs to 8 pm.

Rule of thumb: Peloponnese, Epirus, Meteora, Crete, Rhodes, Halkidiki → car, rented on arrival at that leg. Cyclades → rent for one or two days on the island, never ship a car across. Athens → no car at all.

One useful line: Athens–Thessaloniki, on the intercity via Larissa, 4 h 15 to 5 h, €25–50 depending on how early you book (Hellenic Train, owned by Italy's FS). The February 2023 Tempi head-on collision that killed 57 exposed a broken safety system; the line has run at reduced speeds and thinner timetables since, and the plane is faster and often cheaper. One daily direct train reaches Kalambaka for Meteora (about 5 h; otherwise change at Paleofarsalos). The Athens suburban line (Proastiakos) runs to the airport (€9, 40 min) and west to Kiato and Aigio on the Corinth gulf. Everything else on the network is a footnote.

Rule of thumb: Train only for Athens–Thessaloniki when you want city centre to city centre with luggage, or Athens–Kalambaka on the direct service. Otherwise plane or coach.

The regional coach network — one cooperative per prefecture, under the KTEL umbrella — reaches everywhere a car does, cheaply and on time. Athens–Nafplio 2 h €15, Athens–Delphi 3 h €18, Athens–Kalambaka 5 h €30, Athens–Thessaloniki 6 h €40–50 (against 4–5 h by train and 55 min by plane). Athens has two terminals 5 km apart: Kifissos for the Peloponnese and the west, Liosion for Delphi, Meteora and central Greece — check which. Book online (ktelbus.com aggregates most regions; otherwise the prefecture's own site) a day ahead in summer. On islands, KTEL buses link the port to beaches and villages for €2–3 and are the alternative to a rental.

Rule of thumb: Mainland day trips without a car (Delphi, Nafplio, Epidaurus, Meteora) → KTEL coach. Sites 60 km apart on a loop → car instead; the coaches run twice a day and not between sites.

Athens: three metro lines plus tram and trolleybus, one 90-minute ticket at €1.20 (contactless on the gates since 2024, or the Ath.ena card), a 3-day tourist ticket at €20 that includes the airport metro (€9 one way otherwise; the X95 express bus is €5.50 and runs all night). Taxis are yellow, metered, cheap by European standards (€1.80 flag, €4 minimum) and bookable on FreeNow or Uber (which routes you to a taxi). Thessaloniki's single metro line opened in November 2024 after 18 years of digging; the waterfront is walkable end to end. Islands: the port-to-town bus, taxis that are few and unmetered at night, and walking.

Rule of thumb: Athens → metro and walking, no car. Airport ↔ centre by metro (€9) for one or two people; the €40 flat-fare taxi for three or more or after midnight.