UKTraveller222

Hi,

My girlfriend and I are travelling from the UK (EU passport holders) to Athens upon Aegean however we have to alight (via taxi) to Pireaus Port for a boat on to the Islands.

Our flight arrives at 22:10 and our boat departs at 23:55. While I have spoken to BlueStar Ferries and they have said we can collect tickets as late as 10mins before departure. Are we safe in the fact that we have enough time to get through customs collect our bags and take the 30-45min drive on to the port or should we only take carry on luggage?

Thanks for any assistance.

Heimdall

I've arrived on flights from LHR many times late night/early morning. Late nights aren't very busy at Athens Airport, and passengers with EU passports walk through passport control quickly. Once you collect your bags you just walk through the nothing to declare doors, and the taxi rank is just outside the Arrivals exit. Traffic between the airport and Piraeus won't be heavy late at night either, so it should take about an hour to get to the ferry docks in a taxi.

Having said all that, you are leaving little margin for error. If your flight departs late from the UK, even by a few minutes, you risk missing the ferry. Not a disaster, because there are many ferries leaving for the islands about 7-8 hours later, so you could either hang out at the airport or find an all-night cafe at Piraeus to pass the time. You haven't pre-booked your tickets, have you?

UKTraveller222

Hi Heimdall,

This is my fear, that even with the slightest delay we will be cutting everything extremely fine.

Everything has been booked. We have made this trip many times (and never had a problem) however I have never paid attention to timings as we usual are more flexible, this year unfortunately we have had to take a risk. Our boat is a c.9 hour trip on to Patmos.

Heimdall

Keep your fingers crossed, then! If you do miss the ferry, there may be another way to get to Patmos without much delay, e.g. a flight from Athens to Kos or Kalymnos and a ferry from there.

brotherleelove2004

Even late at night the taxi to Piraeus will take at least 45 minutes, if not longer. Don't believe 30-45 minutes.

You can buy your Blue Star tickets from the Aktina Travel kiosk in the Arrivals Hall. If you have to collect your bags one of you can do this while the other waits at the baggage carousel.

But to give yourselves as much time as possible to make that ferry stick to carry-on bags only.

Dogeared

I would not attempt this connection unless I had NO other choice. There are simply too many little things that could go wrong.

I would look for an earlier arriving flight to Athens. That's the simple answer in my opinion.