kHau3

My girlfriend and I will be heading to Greece next week for a little two week vacation. With the news coming out that Athens and a number of other major cities are experiencing massive work strikes today and some protests due to the upcoming austerity measures being voted on in Parliament, is there cause for concern that our travel plans will be affected by this? My hope is that the strikes will be over by the end of this weekend and transportation services will be back to normal by the end of next week (we arrive on the 27th). Anyone have thoughts on this/suggestions?

clausar

There is a general strike in Greece today, while the Greek Parliament is voting on the new austerity measures.

Strikes in Greece are pretty rare after the elections in 2015.
There are no plans of any strikes coming after today, so i don't think that you will encounter any problems after the 27th of May.

greg

This strike is not that "rare" at this point.

I am in Athens now after making a last minutes flight arrangement to get out of Iraklio when I got hit by the ferry strike on May 18th.

http://www.chaniapost.eu/2017/05/16/...-on-may-18-19/

http://www.independent.co.uk/travel/...-a7739851.html

The strike was going on May 16 and 17, then my May 18th boat from Iraklio to Santorini got cancelled due to strike. People who had to leave the island were scrounging for last minutes flight arrangements if anything is left. The ferry company said "talk to the ticket booth" but all they say is the ticket is usable on same boat at "some" future date when the strike ends. The ticket booth closed window not wanting to deal with angry passengers. When this happens, if you bought tickets from an TA as opposed to directly from the boat company online, it is easier to get a refund if you can get back to the issuing TA office. The "next" day boat was not meaningful as the strike extended to May 19th, so unless I could add two unexpected days in Iraklio, subtracing two days out of Santorini at last minutes cancellation penalty, this was very impactive. If you have a future connecting ferry tickets on days where strikes are not yet announced but you can no longer use, you get stuck with regular cancellation term. In case of Blue Star, 3 days ahead to get full refund.

When I talked to other travelers from Europe, they suspected that further island hopping would face similar snafus and cost penalties, so they were cancelling remaining island trips and are going home early to put one known upper limit to the cost penalties.

greg

If I must make travel arrangements to islands at this time, I would stick to airplanes. Even though tickets are more expensive at the purchase time than the boats, If there is a foul up, what cost difference existed between air and boats get blown out of water by last minutes booking cost alone not counting time lost having to make new arrangements and cancel what is possible. Airports do close due to strike, but not at the same duration as the boat workers.

Heimdall

Well, I've been going to Greece for over 20 years, often in May or June, and have never been affected by a ferry strike, so I agree with clausar they are rare. When strikes are called, they are usually announced about a week in advance, and you can keep up to date by going on http://www.livinlovin.gr/strikes-wor...reece-updated/

So far no stoppages have been announced beyond today (May 19th), so if I were you I wouldn't worry. It's unfortunate for those who have been caught up in the strike over the last four days, but you can take precautions just in case. One thing you can do is be back in Athens (if that's where you fly home from) a couple of days in advance, but even that wouldn't have helped during a four-day strike.

During this strike, local ferry services have continued to run, and in the Cyclades the Sea Jets company has based their two small catamarans Superjet and SeaJet 2 on the islands so service continues to run between Mykonos and Santorini, with stops at Naxos, Paros, and Ios.

clausar

Greg
i was generally speaking about strikes in Greece and what to expect when OP will arrive in Greece on May 27th.
Again generally speaking speaking , general strikes like this one are rare, as are strikes in general in Greece..

Of course it is very upsetting when you are hit by a strike while being in Greece and have to change your plans, but it is good for others to know, that this is the exception.

Heimdall

What you can do, kHou3, is keep informed while in Greece and be prepared to change your plans if necessary. My experience, which clausar can correct if wrong, is that strikes never affect services on the islands. I understand that the KTEL intercity buses on the mainland don't participate in the strikes either, although buses in Athens do.

When the metro, buses, and taxis are on strike in Athens your hotel can arrange a private driver (often a taxi driver using his private car) to take you somewhere, but it will be more expensive than a normal taxi.

My only experience of strikes was when I was in Athens and had to take a KTEL bus to Kalamata. The taxi drivers were on strike, so the hotel arranged a private driver to take me to the bus station. The driver didn't want to be seen taking money, so I was dropped off on the street outside the station. KTEL Messinias buses were running as normal during the strike.

clausar

That is very true Heimdall,strikes almost never affect islands,
the KTEL busses never strike, as it is a private company and bus drivers are usually also shareholders.

I can only recall one KTEL strike back in 2012....
Local KTEL buses in Athens don't participate in strikes of public transportation, which is convenient if you live in areas that are served by KTEL, like Pallini where i live.

Taxis also rarely go on strike, i have no experience of private transfers other than what is legal.. and that would be a limousine or a mini van ,not what i would call cheal Uber is operating in Athens and would offer an alternative, although i have never used it.. ( i am not very excited about the Uber concept)