Greece Mainland Information
Jun 3rd, 2014, 10:31 PM
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Greece Mainland Information
We'll be in Athens in October and will have a rental car on the mainland. We want to see Delphi, Meteora, Metsova, Corinth, Nathflion , Olympia. Epidurous , Patroah and Mycenae. Does anyone have a web address that will show these sites and the driving distances among them? Thanks in advance for your response!
saige
saige
Jun 3rd, 2014, 10:44 PM
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http://www.viamichelin.com/ is a usefull site for driving distances etc but I would add 15-20% more on their duration-of-the-trip estimates.
Jun 4th, 2014, 12:21 AM
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<I will go to Santorini and Zakynthos this August as well. but protests and strikes in Athens make me worried a bit. >
??????
OK, I am bored to repeat same things again and again, so I copy-paste an older post of mine.
____________________________________________
No one can predict the future, but up to now Athens is one of the safest cities in Europe. Media present a really false picture of Athens. Peaceful protests have been happening mostly in Athens and sometimes in other areas of Greece since 35 years ago without anyone making a fuss about it.
Riots is a different matter, and those are street fights among a few eeejits and police. Those do not happen of course on every protest, there have been about 5-6 such events in the whole year of 2011. Yes, 5-6 days of so called "riots" and those concentrated in Syndagma Square.
On 2011 it is true that those "fights" had sometimes expand a bit and are more harsh at times, including a minority even on those troublemakers, who try to burn down banks, offices of multinational chain companies and public service offices, ministries'buildings etc here and there, again mainly around Syndagma Square and surrounding streets. Still these events happened very very rarely and is not an everyday occurance as some media make it to seem. Actually arsons and major damages happened once on 2008, once on 2012 and on an isolated event in a bank on 2011 if my memory serves me right...
No major events for the last couple of years.
About other areas of Greece,mostly on mainland on large cities or large islands with large main towns such as Crete, there have been some protests every now and then, peaceful with a couple of exeptions when a few people tried to burn down or vandalise some local politicians' offices. Those are not really riots, and certainly locals didn't chase tourists or something.
No one can predict the future, but up to now, on my opinion, Greece is absolutely safe for a tourist. Never anyone hurted a visitor, on the contrary locals try to protect tourists, plus if someone just use common sense, it is very easy to plan around and avoid risky events/areas. I guess no one plans to stand between a policeman and a troublemaker, so how one is supposed to get hurt??? This is so far my description of Athens' and Greece's "unrest".
I would be more concerned on Athens safety about pick-pocket crime, which was unheard of some years ago, but unfortunately this is not the case nowdays. Usually thifes target metro lines from Piraues to city center,sometimes from airport to city center, and major metro stops used by tourists, such as Acropolis metro,Syndagma metro, Evaggelismos etc. Buses from airport and around city center are a target too. Use common sense and usual precausions as everywhere in the world,and you'll be fine.
Now...Unconveniance is an other matter, very different than safery of course. I need to point out that various strikes happen all the time in Greece. But onl a few can affect a visitor. Air traffic controlers' strikes are very very rare. ATC announced a strike many times on 2012 and a couple of times on 2013, but it was claimed illegal by courts and didn't happen most of those times. When ATCs strikes did really occured, (this happened maybe 4-5 times in 2011) most flights were just delayed a few hours,as most strikes last only 6-8 hours and only I think in one or two occasions 24-48 hours. In any case strikes are announced days in advance. About other public transport in Athens,it is a very rare occurance for all means of transport to strike at once. This happened 2 or 3 times in extreme circumstances on 2011. Urban buses, metro,taxis,trams etc were all striking in Athens, but government hired out immediately Ktel (intercity) buses to serve the Airport-City Center and City Center-Piraeus Port routes. Furthrmore, hotels could easily arrange private transport. For once again,please note this was a very rare happening and did not happen since 2011 which was a year with much tension on everything politics. Common thing is that when taxis are on strike, metro and buses are working, when metro strikes taxis work and so on... Ferry strikes are nearly non existant. Last year we had 2 strikes of PNO (Greek Nautical Assosiation) that caused some peroblems, as ferries form Piraues and other Athens port did not run to the islands for 1-3 consecutive days to the islands. Again this was very rare, and note that most inter-island services were running as usual even during those strikes. So, to make a long story short, a year has 365 days. 5-6 days of strikes affecting a visitor is not statisticaly a big deal. I agree that if you happen to be unlucky enough to face a strike, it is unpleasant, but stay a bit flexible and there are always alternatives. I can't stress enough that strikes are announced some days in advance, so your plan around them!
As a conclusion, I would say to go for this trip, just try to be updated on strikes or other events that might influence your itenerary and travel logistics.
Have a nice trip!
__________________________________________________ ________
??????
OK, I am bored to repeat same things again and again, so I copy-paste an older post of mine.
____________________________________________
No one can predict the future, but up to now Athens is one of the safest cities in Europe. Media present a really false picture of Athens. Peaceful protests have been happening mostly in Athens and sometimes in other areas of Greece since 35 years ago without anyone making a fuss about it.
Riots is a different matter, and those are street fights among a few eeejits and police. Those do not happen of course on every protest, there have been about 5-6 such events in the whole year of 2011. Yes, 5-6 days of so called "riots" and those concentrated in Syndagma Square.
On 2011 it is true that those "fights" had sometimes expand a bit and are more harsh at times, including a minority even on those troublemakers, who try to burn down banks, offices of multinational chain companies and public service offices, ministries'buildings etc here and there, again mainly around Syndagma Square and surrounding streets. Still these events happened very very rarely and is not an everyday occurance as some media make it to seem. Actually arsons and major damages happened once on 2008, once on 2012 and on an isolated event in a bank on 2011 if my memory serves me right...
No major events for the last couple of years.
About other areas of Greece,mostly on mainland on large cities or large islands with large main towns such as Crete, there have been some protests every now and then, peaceful with a couple of exeptions when a few people tried to burn down or vandalise some local politicians' offices. Those are not really riots, and certainly locals didn't chase tourists or something.
No one can predict the future, but up to now, on my opinion, Greece is absolutely safe for a tourist. Never anyone hurted a visitor, on the contrary locals try to protect tourists, plus if someone just use common sense, it is very easy to plan around and avoid risky events/areas. I guess no one plans to stand between a policeman and a troublemaker, so how one is supposed to get hurt??? This is so far my description of Athens' and Greece's "unrest".
I would be more concerned on Athens safety about pick-pocket crime, which was unheard of some years ago, but unfortunately this is not the case nowdays. Usually thifes target metro lines from Piraues to city center,sometimes from airport to city center, and major metro stops used by tourists, such as Acropolis metro,Syndagma metro, Evaggelismos etc. Buses from airport and around city center are a target too. Use common sense and usual precausions as everywhere in the world,and you'll be fine.
Now...Unconveniance is an other matter, very different than safery of course. I need to point out that various strikes happen all the time in Greece. But onl a few can affect a visitor. Air traffic controlers' strikes are very very rare. ATC announced a strike many times on 2012 and a couple of times on 2013, but it was claimed illegal by courts and didn't happen most of those times. When ATCs strikes did really occured, (this happened maybe 4-5 times in 2011) most flights were just delayed a few hours,as most strikes last only 6-8 hours and only I think in one or two occasions 24-48 hours. In any case strikes are announced days in advance. About other public transport in Athens,it is a very rare occurance for all means of transport to strike at once. This happened 2 or 3 times in extreme circumstances on 2011. Urban buses, metro,taxis,trams etc were all striking in Athens, but government hired out immediately Ktel (intercity) buses to serve the Airport-City Center and City Center-Piraeus Port routes. Furthrmore, hotels could easily arrange private transport. For once again,please note this was a very rare happening and did not happen since 2011 which was a year with much tension on everything politics. Common thing is that when taxis are on strike, metro and buses are working, when metro strikes taxis work and so on... Ferry strikes are nearly non existant. Last year we had 2 strikes of PNO (Greek Nautical Assosiation) that caused some peroblems, as ferries form Piraues and other Athens port did not run to the islands for 1-3 consecutive days to the islands. Again this was very rare, and note that most inter-island services were running as usual even during those strikes. So, to make a long story short, a year has 365 days. 5-6 days of strikes affecting a visitor is not statisticaly a big deal. I agree that if you happen to be unlucky enough to face a strike, it is unpleasant, but stay a bit flexible and there are always alternatives. I can't stress enough that strikes are announced some days in advance, so your plan around them!
As a conclusion, I would say to go for this trip, just try to be updated on strikes or other events that might influence your itenerary and travel logistics.
Have a nice trip!
__________________________________________________ ________
Jun 4th, 2014, 03:26 AM
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Santorini and Zakynthos don't go all that well together, because one is in the Aegean Sea and the other in the Ionian. Of course it is possible to get between the two by air, but there are no direct ferry connections. Other islands in the Cyclades (Aegean Sea) are much easier to reach from Santorini.
Media hype about protests and strikes in Athens is blown all out of proportion. Mariha2912 has give a very good explanation, so I won't repeat anything she wrote except to say that tourists have nothing to worry about.
Media hype about protests and strikes in Athens is blown all out of proportion. Mariha2912 has give a very good explanation, so I won't repeat anything she wrote except to say that tourists have nothing to worry about.
