Athens during Easter weekend
 

Transportation, shops, resturant, are they open during the Easter weekend.
Many thanks.

ttt

Greek-Orthodox Easter or Western Easter? Attention, the Greeks celebrate Easter on a different date.

Not this Easter. It's the same date.

Hotels, Planes, Trains, Buses and Ferries will all be booked solid. Be sure you have confirmed reservations.

Greek Easter and Western Easter both: April 8, 2007

brotherleelove:
BTW, I like your screen name. Do you know if the shops, resturants, all the public places in AThens are open on April 6th, 7th, and 8th because of the Easter weekend?

Hi there,
We left Athens for Crete last year on the Thursday before Easter. The city was turning into a ghost town. On the plus side, the traffic was extraordinarily light. Most things will probably be open for most of the day on Saturday. And the museums on Crete were free because of the holiday. But Friday evening and Sunday will be hard to accommodate, especially as far as shopping and public transportation. We stayed at a resort on Crete that had a special Easter program and festivities. You might want to check some of the Athens hotels and resorts for something similar. I think you should probably make your reservations as soon as possible. You also may want to plan on attending a midnight mass Sat evening into early Sun morning (it's okay if you leave around 12:30 or 1:am before the service ends). Enjoy!

My best guess is that the shops will be open on the 6th and 7th, but not on the 8th.

We arrive 14th april 2007 Would it be fair to say all will be back to normal and all Easter activities over? We are just sooooooooooooooo excited. We hope to spend 5 nights in Athens before heading off to several of the islands.
Is there anything else happening in Athens/Greece we should know about in the second half of April/first two weeks of May? thanks heaps Karen.
These forums are awesome!

Seall as a previous poster mentioned, Athens during Easter is a 'ghost' city but that's not a bad thing for a tourist! You'll enjoy the city without the extreme traffic. You definitely won't have a problem with restaurants. Shops are closed Sunday and Monday after Easter.
Of course you didn't mention where exactly you will be spending Easter? IN Athens or the islands? Because most of the Athenians go away during that period to their hometowns or the islands, so everything there will be open during that time!

Thank you all so much.
Crisitine:
We will arrive in Athens at 1:00 in the morning and are planning to stay in the airport for few hours and fly to Crete at around 6:00 in the morning rent a car and stay for 2 days. Early morning of the 3rd day fly to Santorini(we ike to take the ferry but the schedule is not out yet so assuming there is not, plan on flying for now)stay in Santorini 4 days and on Friday April 6th fly to Athens and check in to hotel in the center and explore the city. Saturday full day tour to Delphi, Sunday explore the city on our own and in the afternoon fly back to States.If there is any suggestions to change things around, please let me know. Thanks

Seall,
first of all i think that Crete for 2 days is just too little time. I would
add one day there (Chania and Rethymno) and stay 2-3 days in Santorini. I think the period you're going that you wont' be able to swim, you'll be a little bored there a lot of days. Dont' get me wrong, the scenery is beautiful but i think that 3 days is more than sufficient.
You can also read this article that i found about Easter in Greece: http://www.greecetravel.com/easter/

Thank you Cristine27.

Since you are flying in on Friday, out on Sunday, and have a full day tour on Saturday, you should be fine. Just realize that the shops and smaller restaurants will be closing early, by 5:pm on Saturday; it's like our Christmas Eve. I'd try to arrange for Saturday's dinner now. Also, you will probably not be able to get any meat dishes at most places on Friday.

I definitely agree with Christine on flipping the time in Crete and Santorini. Be sure to tour the Palace of Knossos in Heralkion on Crete.

Any more suggestions are appreciated.
Thanks.

Santorini might be quite cold and windy. Be sure to bring some warmer clothes; I don't think you can plan on going to the beach. We enjoyed stopping at the Roussos vineyard.