Ferries to Western Cyclades
 

Hi, I'd be very grateful for some advice. I'll be going to Milos and Sifnos in April, back after Easter. Web info makes me believe there are several ferry companies that ply the route between Milos-Sifnos. However, I have not found a proper ferry company website that allows me to book - the only transport i could book, for various dates [I tried many options] is the ghastly Seajets, 34 quid, more than twice as expensive as the old ferry. It seems the ordinary ferries only run in the winter, can this be? PLEASE if anyone knows what happened to the ordinary ferries, or if you know a reliable ferry booking site - apart from ferries.gr ssl.direct ferries which only come up with Seajets - could you write a quick post? Many thanks!

The “ordinary” ferries run year round, while Sea Jets is primarily a highspeed ferry company that runs in summer. Greek Orthodox Easter is May 5th in 2024, while Easter was three weeks earlier on April 16th in 2023. What you need to do is go on the website openseas.gr and roll the calendar back to April 2023 to see what was running last year. Chances are the Zante ferry Dionisios Solomos will be running the same days of the week in 2024, but doesn’t publish its timetables more than a few weeks in advance.

The summer ferries tend to begin their sailings around Easter every year. Dionisios Solomos is a lifeline ferry contracted with the government to provide year round essential services to the islands for the benefit of island residents. Fares are very low and you don’t need to book in advance, but you need to know when it is sailing, as it doesn’t run every day. There may be changes if contracts are renegotiated between now and April.

What I would recommend is to book a flight with Aegean Airlines/Olympic Air or Sky Express from Athens to Milos. Sifnos doesn’t have an airport, so you will have to ferry from Milos to Sifnos, and again by ferry back from Sifnos to Piraeus.

EDIT TO ADD: ferries are never full in April except around Easter, which as I wrote isn’t until May 5th in 2024. Buy your tickets from an agent when you get to Athens. It would be unwise to book in advance with Sea Jets, as they usually change their timetables after they are published. You will need to book the flight in advance.
https://en.aegeanair.com/

https://www.skyexpress.gr/el

https://zanteferries.gr/en/timetable...tern-cyclades/
wait until the April timetable will be published

Might I suggest downloading the FerryHopper app? It served us very well last year when we went to Sifnos although we purchased our tickets well in advance even though people say there’s no need. Living on an island like we do, which rely on ferry as the main and affordable transportation option, we always buy our tickets in advance. Regarding Seajets though I don’t get what all the hubbub is about their service. I keep reading the dreaded Seajets. It’s a fast ferry plying on the sea which can get rough. You’d never survive a fast ferry on the Atlantic I can tell you that which is why they’re cancelled when winds get above 35mph. Good luck to OP

The bad reviews for SeaJets are mostly for their small passenger-only ferries, Superjet and Superjet 2, formerly named SeaJet 2. The larger Sea Jets ferries, eg the Championjets, can carry cars and trucks as well as passengers, and are much more stable. According to their website Sea Jets currently has 29 ferries, including a few large conventional vessels.

The problem for booking far in advance is that you will miss the “ordinary” ferries which publish their timetables only a few weeks in advance in most cases, because these are lifeline ferries run under contract with the Greek government, and they can’t publish a timetable until they know they’ve won the contract. Generous subsidies make these contracts attractive, and when a different ferry company wins, the timetables usually remain the same. Therefore, if you go on openseas.gr and wind the calendar back as I suggested in post #2, looking at sailings the same day of the week, you have a good idea of what will be running on those same days in 2024.

A good example of what I was trying to explain in my last post can be found in neckervd’s link for Zante Ferries (post #3). Their current timetable runs until February 29th.

Thank you to all for your helpful suggestions!
 

And apologies for not thanking you earlier. Sickness and a death in the family kept me from from following up my travel plans.
Many thanks for taking the time to respond in such a detailed. way.
Kind regards,
LouisTD

Thank you for your helpful suggestions!And apologies for not thanking you earlier. Sickness and a death in the family kept me from from following up my travel plans.
Many thanks for taking the time to respond in such a detailed. way.
Kind regards,
LouisTD

hey, no worries, life has a way of getting in the way.

oh, I’m aware of the small ferry issues, yet, I’ll say this again, I live on an island served by fast ferries that do not take cars as they’re small and only reach speeds of 20-30 knots, much slower than those of the Aegean Sea, and they’re cancelled when winds get above a certain speed yet they can get quite bumpy when they do run at wind speeds of 30 mph. It doesn’t bother me.

Hi 'Happy Traveller too', and many thanks for your tip regarding the Ferryhopper app. It is certainly much better/ quicker / easier to use than all the other search possibilites online combined. I totally agree about Seajets, but I fear they seem to have upsurped some routes. For 4 May, when I need to go from Milos to Sifnos, there are only Seajets options unfortunately. The Rough Guide mentions additional "small ferries " that ply to neighbouring islands. Would you perhaps know how to get information about those? They don't seem to be on the Ferryhopper app.
again, many thanks for your advice so far!
kind regards
LouisTD