athens.. here i come!!!
 

i just purchased tickets from houston to athens the other day and am now full swing into &quot;planning&quot; mode. after about 6 months of trying to decide where to go, my boyfriend and i finally decided on athens for spring break (mid-march).<BR>the deal i got for airfare was $482 from houston to athens. i am pretty sure this is absolutely the best deal possible, so i am pleased. i do have a few questions.<BR><BR>1. i tried to reserve a room for a week at the &quot;athens center&quot; hotel through gtahotels.com. the price for the centrally-located, seemingly quite nice 3-star was almost too good to be true at $40 a night (especially since i'd seen the same hotel elsewhere for $47 and $59, etc.) i made the reservation, and thought i was done. the next day i received a confirmation e-mail saying that to finalize my reservation i needed to fax a copy of my credit card, front and back, and print out some form and sign that and fax it too. this seemed like a red flag for a scam to me. especially since i have already given them my CC information. is this reasonable? <BR>i would really like to work it out, esp since this is by far the cheapest rate for this hotel, but i won't fax my credit card info over there... has anyone else had this situation?<BR><BR>2. i was looking at some reviews of restaurants, trying to get a feel for the food and prices. the cheapest thing i saw was 30 EUR per person for greek food. i was a bit alarmed, as one of the reasons i chose athens was i assumed it was &quot;cheap&quot; (due to the low hotel prices) and this is a lot to my budget-traveler sensibilities. <BR>is there cheap food available? any suggestions on eating cheap would be very welcome. we are also prefer vegetarian fare.. especially when traveling.<BR><BR>3. what is the best way to get to the center of town from the airport (our hotel is between syntagma and omonia)? on the way home, our flight leaves at 5:55 a.m. so i expect we will have to take a cab on that leg. how much can i expect to pay? will there be cabs about or will i have to reserve one ahead of time? will that cost more? since this is at the end of the trip i want to know how much to save for it.<BR><BR>3. what is the status of the athens metro? all the info i get on the web is outdated. <BR><BR>4. we were thinking about renting a scooter or motorcycle for at least a day or two. any advice? i know scooters are widely available, but what about motorcycles? is the traffic so crazy that we would be just asking for trouble either way?<BR><BR>5. i really want to take a day trip to delphi. i want to know the best way to get there (cheaply.. of course). <BR><BR>any other day trips you all might suggest?<BR>if the weather is nice, i'd like to go to the beach, not necessarily to swim but just to see the mediterranean. any recommendations on where to go?<BR><BR>i'll probably be posting more questions as the trip gets closer.

Silvana, Congratuations! I think you did indeed get a great airfare! Many here will tell you that you only need a couple of days in Athens, max. But I believe that is a very short sighted view. Athens is incredible, but it can be a tough nut to crack. It is big and crowded and rough around the edges. You may often feel like you're being taken and Greek friendliness is different that we Americans are used to (but that doesn't mean it isn't there). <BR><BR>I can't answer your question about the reservation. I'm sure you will get responses here. Regarding meals; you can eat cheap or expensive, just like anywhere. I had wonderful fresh meals in the Plaka (again, ranging in price). Just prowl around and get off the main paths. DON'T fall for the &quot;taxi and the taverna scam&quot;. When a taxi driver offers to take you to a restaurant by the sea, a &quot;real&quot; Greek restaurant where his mother eats..... know you'll pay $150 for that meal!<BR><BR>Delphi is a great side trip. We took a 2 night tour which I highly recommend. It was pretty inexpensive too. We spent one night in Delphi and one in Kalambaka before visiting Meteora. I can't recommend that you consider that highly enough!<BR><BR>Have a great trip!

I would suggest a day trip to Cape Sounion. We took a bus, it was a long ride (maybe 2 hours?) but worth it. The temple of Poseidon is on a hill there, a good restaurant, and beautiful unspoiled views of the sea.<BR><BR>There are always taxis at the airport, just make sure you ask how much before you get in &amp; make sure there's a meter. The 2 times I've been to Athens I have paid about 20-25 euros to get into the city via taxi.<BR><BR>

silvana<BR><BR>from the airport the Express Line E95 coach runs every 25 minutes to Syntagma. The cost is about E3 and the ticket also gives you one day's use of the metro, buses and trolley buses. the service operates every 25 minutes or so and I think sometimes it is the fastest way to get into the city center as the vehicles have use of the new bus lanes.<BR><BR>The service operates on a 24 hour basis (usually every 35 minutes after 01:30) and you could use it to get you back to the airport directly from Syntagma.<BR> <BR>taxi to the airport at 5am will be at the more expensive night rate and cost about E27 - if pick up is arranged by your hotel there will be an additional charge of a few euro

As far as faxing the credit card information to a hotel in Greece I have found that about half of them have requested I do this and I have personally never had a any problems with it, unfortunatley I'm not familiar with hotel where you are staying.<BR><BR>Last year my 5:00 am cab ride cost about 35 euros they have a surcharge that is applied for off hour cab rides and for having the car called to the hotel.<BR>If you have a warm afternoon and want to go to the beach head towards Glyfada or Vouligmeni it's about 20 minutes the beaches aren't great but not too bad there is also tons of cafes and shops.