suefahy

To everyone- Greece is such a wonderful place...all of this will be worth it in the end!!

basch0902

Heimdall,

Should I wait to book our July airline tickets from Mykonos back to Athens until after they have finalized their summer timetables? I have six tickets I need to book and I don't want to have any issues with getting seats...since we will be flying home the next day out of Athens.

Also, what are the chances the current flight prices will go down. They seem to be high for the day we want to leave in July (a Sunday).

Thanks!

travelerjan

I'm just guessing that July prices probably will stay high, since it's High Season ... (not making a pun) ... and it's a Sunday, a day that weekenders & those ending a week's holiday will want to travel.

Heimdall

You may find the prices will go down if you wait - equally they could go the other way. Aegean often has saver fares for the hard to fill flights (very early morning and late night), but the majority of the seats are sold at full fare. I'm inclined to agree that there won't be many good deals for July, especially for flights returning to Athens on a Sunday.

Frankly I don't see much point in flying back to Athens from Mykonos anyway - it's a very short and pleasant ferry journey, with more choices for sailings than practically any other island. Most of the ferries go to Rafina, a small port town (much less hectic than Piraeus) only 20 minutes from the airport, and about an hour by bus to central Athens. Ferry times range from 2-5 hours, depending upon type of ship. When Hellenic Seaways releases it's summer timetables, there will be a car-carrying catamaran, Highspeed 2 or 3, taking 2hrs 45min (including a short stop at Tinos) to reach Rafina. There is also Blue Star Ithaki, which goes to Piraeus.

Take the ferry and you won't have to transfer to the airport, check in one hour ahead, or wait for bags at the end of the trip. On the ferries you just turn up at the port about 30 min before departure, and hand over your ticket as you board. As the ferry is arriving at it's destination, you make your way down to the car deck, find your bags, and walk down the ramp when it is lowered - no standing at a carousel wondering if all your bags will appear. ;-) With those time savings, overall travel time on a highspeed is about the same as for a flight, seats are roomier, and ticket prices cheaper.

basch0902

Heimdall and Travelerjan,

Thank you for the information and great suggestions. I thought it would be a safer bet to take a flight in case the ferries were cancelled because of high winds which I keep reading about.

We would much rather take a ferry for all of the reasons you detail above (time, expierence, and expense).

So if it was you, and you had to worry about getting 6 people back from Mykonos to Athens on Sunday for a Monday morning flight home which ferry line would be the safest bet???

Thanks for all of your help!

Heimdall

There are a number of different car ferries which are all safe enough. If you plan to stay in central Athens that last night, Blue Star Ithaki will take you to Piraeus, marginally more convenient for the transfer into town. The tradeoff is about an hour longer on the ferry, and arrival in Piraeus at 7:45pm.

If you wanted to stay nearer the airport, suggest you take one of the car ferries to Rafina, then stay in the Avra Hotel there. It's not exactly 5*, but nice enough (I've stayed there), and only 20 minutes to the airport the next morning.

The problem of ferry cancellation due to high winds is much exaggerated. It does happen, so if you want to be super-safe you could go back to Athens on Saturday and enjoy an extra day exploring Athens. I always keep a close eye on the weather forecasts the last four days or so before the end of my trip. Websites such as http://www.meteo.gr/cf.asp?city_id=16 (there is an English version) will tell you if a Meltemi is on the way, and you can make arrangements to return to the mainland a day or two early if necessary. Blue Star ferries sail in winds up to Beaufort Force 8, so it is rare they are cancelled. See http://www.metoffice.gov.uk/weather/...fortscale.html

LMKDesigns

Hi all, just wanted to let you know that I have finally heard back from Olympic regarding my missing email confirmation for my tickets bought on the Olympic website. I had no response from the [email protected] but when I sent it to [email protected] I got a response back the next day. I don't know if it was because I was questioning whether to contact my creditcard company for a refund or not, but the response was quick...never did have any explanation as to why I didn't receive the electonic confirmation in the first place. If anyone has problems in the future I would definitely email to customer service right away.

basch0902

Heimdall,

Thank you, thank you, thank you. I will use the links you provided and were taking the ferry back to Athens !

Heimdall

Hi basch0902,

Glad you liked the links! Here are a couple more to play with:
http://www.marinetraffic.com/ais/
Warning! This one is addictive! You will have to zoom in to the Aegean, and it will show you all the ferries, tankers, etc in real time. You won't see many highspeeds yet, most are tied up until April.
http://www.mykon.net/mtest/index.php
Mykonos Town Live scans around the town from a live camera above the old port. If you tune in on Good Friday (Apr 2nd) in the evening Greek time, you may be lucky and see the candlelight procession as it happens.

travelerjan

Heimdall, I've adored that marinetraffic thing for YEARS... I got onto it from the Naxos webcam and it's already zeroed in on Greece so you don't have to do the adjusting: http://www.naxosisland.eu/live_ship_data.html Before I shut my computer off at night, I can see the Blue Star ferry docking at Naxos or Paros, such fun!!

And now I can give my "mykonite" friends a live look at their fave place... so thanks!

basch0902

Heimdall,

Love, love, love the marinetraffic!!! Your right, it is addicting. It's a keeper!

Thanks for sharing!

heygal

It's 2:35am western time. The reason I am still up is because I have to deal with both Expedia and Olympic Air to get my flight changed. I am sure a lot of you realized Olympic Air cancelled all their 7am flights and they put me into one that will have a 5 hour layover in Athens. I have to say Expedia is rude and hopeless. I have to call 4 times and the 1st 2 times they attempt to call a Montreal office and not willing to call Greece directly. I then finally call Olympic Air myself, the agent was very responsive, the only thing is she needs Expedia to call them directly. I called Expedia again and this time the rude representative refused to call even though I have mentioned the airline is okay for a change. I hang up and call again to talk to another person and finally he agrees to call them but they need to call @2am my time, 12pm Greece local time to "revalidate" the change. I don't get it but anyway the number I got was not valid. I have to go back to customer service of Olympic Air again and this time I finally get my flight change with no hassle and she emailed me the e-ticket right away. So if you have booked through any online site, don't mention that at all when you call airline, they will ask you to go back and most likely you won't get an answer. Call the airline directly because you have the confirmed ticket number, they can just change without dealing with Expedia.

suefahy

heygal-
Welcome to the Expedia Nightmare....I've booked several flights within Greece for a 17 day trip with my daughters and each flight has been changed. Because Expedia did not enter the flights into their computer under "multiple destinations", most changes were causing me to miss connecting flights, which then had me spending countless hours on the phone getting things straightened out- the customer service reps are rude and when they can't resolve an issue, will instruct you to call them back at a later time so that you will have to explain everything again to yet another rep who wont help you. Once you think all is good, another problem will arise...I have to call them again today...not looking forward to it- needless to say, I will deal directly with the airlines from now on.