How Far, How Much, How Long?
 

Hello,
I am planning on attending opening ceremonies, and perhaps two more events at the 2004 Olympics. I was going to start in France, use the train as my lodging at night, and end up in the Greek Islands where my father has a time share. The problem is that the only available lodging spots are in Crete and Kassandra, both rather far away. How long does it take to get from here to there and how much can I anticipate spending on a ferry? Am I crazy?

sweet p,

Your header gives no indication of your question. Plus, your question is very open ended.

Being nice, your last statement says ............

Good luck.

C

Do you already have the tickets locked up for opening ceremonies???

I knew I would be reprimanded if I posted a question. I was trying to be short. I wanted to know how much a ferry generally costs, and how long it usually takes to get from either Crete to Athens or Kassandra to Athens. I've estimated that the distance from either place is approximately 150+ miles. The crazy comment was referring to traveling the distance between lodging to the games daily via Ferry. I would remove this posting immediately and start over if you could only show me the way.

BeachBoi,
I was trying to pin down lodging before I purchased tickets as that appeared to be the largest most expensive problem.

poor baby -- I'll bet you thought that by clicking on Greece at the top here it would put it in a "forum" for questions about Greece. Sadly the country thing only works for searches. I think a lot of people think they are posting something in a more specific forum and thus don't title their questions as precisely as those who frequent this site are used to.

Ferries aren't very expensive, but from Piraeus to Crete is a long ferry ride.

Flying from Crete to Athens is a short hop IF you can afford it.

sweet_p: You weren't being reprimanded. There is no way to remove this thread (well, Fodors could but you can't). But there is nothing preventing you from starting a new thread with a better title. "How Far, How Much, How Long?" does not give ANY clue you are asking about Greece, the islands or the Olympics. As uhoh_busted says - clicking on "Greece" does nothing much for you.

Take a glance at the forum w/o clicking on Greece - you will see all of the threads are lumped together.

try a new thread with a title something like "Athens Olympics - need transport advice from Crete and Kassandra"

In answer to your original question, is it practical to ferry to the mainland and then up to the events on the metro, no it's not at all practical, by the time you get there the day will be over.
Have you tried for accomodation on Aegina which is much closer to the mainland or Rafina which is east of the airport on the mainland? I am assuming by saying the only available lodging spots, are those with the timeshare, it looks like you will have to pay for your accomodation and forego the timeshare idea.

You said it....!
From Crete to Athens the fastest ferry makes six hours (consider as well the difficulty to get 'a seat' during this super-high season).

From Kassandra to Athens you will need 5 to 6 hours drive..or on train(from Thessaloniki)

As the 2004 Olympics are very probably going to be EITHER held in 2005 or later OR held in Sydney (again) in 2004, staying in Crete or Kassandra next year will not get you there.

What is the latest on expected completion dates of venues and main stadium? The last I saw was about three months ago on TV when a very large and aggressive representative of the planning committee was very loudly proclaiming that all would be ready on time, while the backup visuals were showing very large holes in the ground.