princess_01ca

Hello All

I am trying to plan transportation options as the subject line states and I have 3 quick questions

1)Our flight is scheduled to arrive at Athens new(er) airport at 15:30, Aegean Air has a flight to Santorini leaving at 17:00. Does anybody have a feel whether this could be enough time(assuming we land on time into Athens).

2)The Bus from the airport to Piraeus Port, I believe it is Bus 96 but approximatly how long is the ride. we would be travelling at around 16:00 on a Thursday.

3)We are trying to book a cabin on a overnight ferry to Santorini. Our tickets come to a total of 75euros but the travel agent in Athens we are dealing with want an additional 75euros for Handling and post. Can one deal with the boat companies directly. The boat we are thinking about are owned by Hellas Flying Dolphins and their website doesn't currently do on-line bookings! Any ideas?

Thanks for any help

P_M

I can only help you with #3. When I was in Greece I had no problems booking a ferry without any assistance from a TA. I looked at Hellas Flying Dolphins' web page and there is a phone # you can call. I know that's expensive, but it costs a lot less than 75 euros. Instead of having the tickets mailed to you, maybe they can e-mail you a confirmation and you can just pick up your tickets when you board the ferry. Good luck.

GeoffHamer

Which date are you travelling, or do you have the name and departure time of the ship? Some of the Greek ferries have lots of cabins, so there is no need to book in advance, but others do not.

111op

Regarding your question 1, I'm facing a similar problem -- see
http://www.fodors.com/forums/threads...p;tid=34496696

If your flight is on time, I'm fairly confident that you'll make it -- do you have luggage checked? You'll have to clear immigration in Athens, I believe.

I've done some research, and I read somewhere that the Athens airport is designed to enable passengers to make 50-minute connections. Whether this is true in practice is debatable, of course.

If there's a delay, then you could be in trouble. You may not want to be on the last flight out to Santorini -- just in case you miss it. Or plan for the possibility that you may need to take a ferry.

princess_01ca

Thanks for all the replies.

To 111op, I actually saw your thread, but I am not entirely certain you received a clear answer concerning 1h 40 minutes. Does, 10 minutes to spare mean 10 minutes after arriving at the gate, they halted passengers? 10 minutes doesn't seem like much of a buffer!

I suspect that 90 minutes should be ok, I have noticed with a lot of our inter Europe flights, that we have been leaving late but almost always make it up in the flight time. I can only assume that there is some time buffering going on when determining departure and arrival times.

To GeoffHammer - we plan to go mid June(10th to be exact, a Thursday) on the Poseiden Express. I have read(mostly likely from here) that during June to August it is better to make reservations if you wish to have a cabin.

To P_M - I had actually seen the number you mentioned but at the time clicked the link below it for Travel Agents, thinking that I would most likely get sent there anyways if I telefoned one number. I got the impression, they prefer to have TAs handle the ticket parts.

Thanks for all your replies.

GeoffHamer

The POSEIDON EXPRESS is a good overnight ship with several hundred berths - she was built as the SAINT PATRICK to run between Ireland and France.

111op

Hi princess, I was encouraged by joe's observations that lines to check in and to clear immigration are usually short. Couple this with the observation that the airport is designed to faciliate 50-minute connections, it sounds like 1.5 hours should be ok.

I'm trying to think positive, of course.

Also, don't forget that we can all run if necessary. That should shave off a few minutes.