lisa

Could use some advice from experienced Greece-going Fodorites. In late August, we are flying into Athens and staying 1 night (at the Hilton), then flying out late the following afternoon to Santorini (just bought our tickets). We will be on Santorini for 5 days (staying at Anastasis Apartments in Imerovigli) and then will take a ferry to Folegandros for 5 days (staying at Anemomilos Apartments). Then we somehow have to get from Folegandros to Athens, where we are overnighting at the Sofitel at the Athens airport prior to our flight home. This will be the first week in September. From perusing the ferry schedules online, it looks to me like our best option for getting from Folegandros to Athens would be to ferry from Folegandros to Paros and then fly from Paros to Athens, allowing ourselves plenty of time in between. Does this make sense? It looks like there is a 12:10 pm ferry from Folegandros that gets to Paros at 3:40 pm, and then an Olympic Airlines flight that leaves Paros at 7:05 pm and arrives in Athens at 7:40 pm. I assume we could take a taxi or bus or something from the Paros ferry port to the Paros airport? (We are wanting to fly rather than ferry into Athens to avoid arriving on a ferry into Piraeus shortly before midnight and then still having to get to our Athens airport hotel from Piraeus -- since our flight home leaves Athens the next morning at the ungodly hour of 5:30 am.) And if we wanted to poke around Paros for an hour or two before our flight from Paros to Athens, is there anyplace to leave our bags?

The only other option that seemed to present itself would be to ferry from Folegandros back to Santorini and fly from Santorini to Athens, but that's more backtracking (plus a bit more expensive, and would require leaving Folegandros on an earlier ferry, at 10:50 am).

Better ideas anyone? Is this doable? And since this is in high season (or very soon thereafter anyway), should we buy our ferry tickets from Santorini to Folegandros and from Folegandros to Paros in advance? And if so, when & where?

Thanks in advance.

lisa

Anyone?

oregontrails

If you can get an earlier flight from Santorini to Athens I would go that route. You leave Folegandros a few hours earlier, it's a shorter ferry ride, and if you can get into Athens earlier then you can hopefully have a more relaxing late afternoon/evening in Athens for your early flight home.

GeoffHamer

There is no need to book ferries more than a few days in advance, so you can do that when you get to Greece. Complete schedules for all the operators are not known a long time in advance. However, it's not a good idea to have tight connections for your flight out of Greece - your journey from the islands can be affected by weather or all kinds of unforeseen circumstances.
As for luggage on Paros, the islands all have places for luggage - ticket agents often do it, or cafés will sometimes look after luggage.

brotherleelove2004

Your ideas seem to be reasonable and well-thought through. Flying from Paros back to Athens seems to be the best solution.

lisa

Thanks all.

Brotherleelove2004 -- coming from you, that means a lot! You are the Greece Guru!

Guess I will wait on the ferry tix until we get to Greece (in which case we will be buying the Santorini-Folegandros tix 5 days before the ferry, and the Folegandros-Paros tix 10 days before the ferry). Can't wait that long on the Paros-Athens flight tix though, so will buy those in the next month or so I suppose...

I appreciate the reassurance!

brotherleelove2004

"In the next month or so.....?" You need to buy those Paros-Athens tix as soon as you possibly can. If you don't there's a good chance the flights will be full. August is the absolute busiest time the year, and savvy travellers are buying _NOW_ to insure they get what they need. You should too.

tracyk

brotherleelove is correct. I am doing an identical trip in June/July. I tried to book a flight from paros - athens today and discovered all flights were fully booked on the day I need to fly. I just booked my Santorini - Athens flight, which will require some back-tracking. Oh well, there are definitely worse places to have to go BACK to.

brotherleelove2004

Amen to that!

lisa

OK, thanks for lighting a fire under me. I will go ahead and buy our Paros-Athens tix now and hope the Folegandros-Paros ferry schedule doesn't change too much between now and the first week in September!

brotherleelove2004

I'm glad you checked in. Good luck, I hope you get them.

Gardyloo

Lisa, this is OT but since (at the moment) the thread is near the top, I'll add a request and suggestion.

Post any followups or further questions in a new thread, but next time leave some spaces between words in the title. Unfortunately Fodors' prehistoric software can't see dashes as spaces, so all the words run together and make the message list window (left window) grow out of proportion, requiring us to scroll to see the message titles. It becomes quite irritating to many of us (okay, it's all about me )

So thanks for letting this thread "sink" and replace it with one that doesn't goof up the site's apprearance for everyone.

Not angry, kiss kiss - just a suggestion. Thanks.

April

The title looks ok on my computer. Anyway, as much as I adore Folegandros and the Anemomilos Apartments, you might find five days a little long on the island. I would cut back a day and spend it in Athens.

tracyk

Lisa - I was told by Olympic Airways today that the flight is fully refundable if you notify them at least 24 hours in advance (and 50% refundable if it is within 24 hours). So, if this is correct, there is no downside to booking your Paros-Athens flight early. If the ferry schedules end up changing, you should be able to get your money back. I'd double check with Olympic (in case I got bad information). Let me know if they tell you something different.

brotherleelove2004

Considering the financial reputation of Olympic, I'd take that info with a grain of salt. I'd be very surprised if there wasn't at least some sort of fee for the cancellation even if it was more than 24 hours in advance. That's SOP for airlines everywhere, isn't it?

lisa

To follow up on this...after reading the preceding posts, when I immediately went to book the flight I wanted from Paros to Athens -- it WAS already sold out. D'oh! So instead I decided we would take the ferry from Folegandros to Santorini and fly from Santorini to Athens, so I booked a 7pm evening flight on Aegean Air from Santorini to Athens which I thought would leave us lots of extra time in case of ferry delays or changes in the schedule, etc.

Now today I double-checked everything and it appears that since I booked my flight, the ferry schedule HAS changed and the only ferry that day from Folegandros to Santorini doesn't arrive on Santorini until AFTER 7pm ...after we're already supposed to have left on the flight from Santorini to Athens...argh.

My Aegean e-ticket is at home so I will have to look at the terms and whether it is refundable or changeable...

Just all part of the fun of planning a trip to Greece!

Judy

We did a similar trip in May and were able to change an Aegean Air flight without penalty.
We relied on the people at Anemomilos Apartments, which, by the way, were the highlight of our trip, to advise us regarding getting on and off the island.

Judy

I hit post too soon. Have you looked into ferrying to Naxos for a flight to Athens?

Retsina

You've been given some bad advice by people I'm afraid.

You simply have to get the ferry from Folegandros to Piraeus. The ferry schedule is on a blackboard outside the ferry agent in the Chora of Folegandros, all you need to do is take the ferry so you get back in time for your flight. There is also a bus timetable for the port.

All this nonsense of going via Paros or Naxos or Santorini and then flying to Athens is quite ridiculous and complex, and should only be a backup plan if you really get stuck.

I have been to Folegandros 3 times and I have said before that it is preferable to go to Folegandros before Santorini due to the ferry system.

lisa

Retsina -- Part of the reason we wanted to fly back to Athens rather than ferry is because we are staying there at the airport for our last night in Greece (at the Sofitel). Just seemed easier logistically on the Athens end, to land at the airport and check into our hotel rather than ferrying to Piraeus and then having to get to the airport. But if we have to then I guess I will see if we can cancel our flight and just take the ferry instead. By the way, I was relying on the gtp.gr website. Apparently the ferry schedule just changed.