Santorini Ferry
 

We are planning to fly to Santorini from Athens and then take the Highspeed ferry back. They offer VIP seat or table, as well as business seat or table. Does anyone know the difference?

We just took the highspeed from Crete to Santorini. We were in regular business class seats, but there were also 4-seat configurations with a table inbetween. Don't know what the VIP seat or table is.

Although you didn't ask, I just wanted to mention that you should definitely take motion sickness pills along if you are prone to that. We had very rough boat rides on the hydrofoils ( Crete-Santorini, and Santorini- Mykonos).

Our Greek friends actually told us that this is very common on the hydrofoils especially in the summer season, and that the regular ferries, although longer rides, are not as turbulent.

We took the highspeed ferry from Athens to Santorini in June. The business class seats are either airplane style seats in rows or, if you reserve a table, you sit in two facing forward and two facing backward with a table in between. The VIP seats are upstairs from both economy and business class. They also seemed to have a separate outside deck space up there, too. We didn't see them since we couldn't get up there without showing VIP reservations. We reserved (online ahead of time) a business class table and we were very happy with our choice. Since we were taking an early ferry, it was nice to have a table to eat breakfast on and it was perfect for our two young girls to color, etc. I reserved business class on our outward journey because I'd heard that economy was very smoky. Ironically, business class (even our non-smoking section) was smokier than economy. We sat at an economy table on the way back and that was just fine. I am very prone to seasickness and I did just fine on the highspeeds. Have a good trip!

How long is the standard ferry ride from Mykonos to Santorini? What about on the Hydrofoil? We are travelling with Gate1Travel and they "Do their best" to get you on a Hydrofoil, but don't guarantee it.

First of all, there is no longer a car ferry all the way from Mykonos to Santorini. You have two options. There's a Hellenic Seaways highspeed catamaran that takes about 2.5 hours. This ferry is a daily occurrence in September except for the 13th and the 27th. If you can't get a booking on that ferry you'll have to take another highspeed (I J) ferry from Mykonos to Paros at 10 AM and switch to a car ferry that leaves Paros at noon for Santorini.

Robin - see my post under the Naxos-Mykonos header!

Brotherleelove is right. Just got back a few weeks ago. We were traveling on Wednesday from Mykonos to santorini. You have to stop in Naxos. Wish we had more time...it does have one pretty cool ruin site. There are NO high speed ferries on Wednesdays, AT ALL! Don't know the day of your travel but, I'd recommend planning ahead. Because we were told not to worry...We had no idea and our travel agent never mentioned. We were lucky to get a seat on the "slow boat" and we lost an entire day of travel between Myk-San. It is almost as cost effective to fly for a slightly higher cost (really not that much if the seats are available). I'd recommend the high speed if I were you-simply for the time factor. We had seats in all class levels on the different slow boats; they were really not all that differnet since you can move around the boat and go to the restaurants, lounges, etc.Like an airplane, we just slept mostly...

Thanks for the info! We will be ferrying on Thursday so hopefully we will have better luck.

we reserved business class and got a table by chance. having the table is nice. the seas were rough but the boat ride was fairly smooth on the Fly Cat IV. the biggest joke is the luggage situation! I hope you are traveling light. In the business class, there are overhead compartments for small bags, (like an airplane) none downstairs in Economy.

NYerr, so where do you put larger bags? I remember on the old Flying Dolphins they ended up in a huge pile by the entrance.

The larger bags go in large storage bins either on the outside deck of the economy section or immediately inside the economy section.

Well, there are luggage areas, but they overflow and it is a bit of a joke. Imagine a hundred or so people trying to get to an area midway in the economy section to get their bags, while people with their bags are trying to get out. Somehow the madness works, but it is very amusing. No wonder the ferry runs late when it is near capacity. If you have larger luggage they insist you embark on the back of the boat. We did not have large suitcases, so we entered midship, having to negotiate some stairs. The luggage bin was already full, so the bags went into the aisle nearby.

One writer says it took 2.5 hours from Santorini to Mykonos, but the schedule on Hellenic Seaways shows leaving Santorini 11:50 and arriving in Mykonos 14:25--that's 4.5 hours--anyone know about getting there in 2.5 hours? By the way, Olympic and Aegean suck for not having direct flights from Santorini to Mykonos--what's up with that??????????

Sky Express - http://www.skyexpress.gr - do flights between Santorini and Mykonos.

The Hellenic Seaways FlyingCat #4 takes 2.5 hours to get to Mykonos, not 4.5 hours as previously stated.

YiorgosM-do the math again and you will see that you are mistaken.

11:50 to 14:25 is approximately 2.5 hours.

Math was never my strong suit--thanks VERY much for helping me out--2.5 hours doesn;t seem so bad!!! Thanks again!!!

That's all great advice, as usual. I just want to check that you aren't thinking that the fast ferry will provide a romantic/scenic trip. It doesn't! It's so boring and our trip from Athens to Santorini took about 6 hours (not the 4 hours that was quoted) which is such a waste. If you can fly (30 minutes) then I would recommend skipping the ferry trip altogether. Hope you love Santorini as much as we did. Take the bus across to the beaches - Kamari and Parissa, they are worth checking out.

Dear Fodor's friends,
Another Santorini-Mykonos hydrofoil question--
do you get a seat assignment in economy or business class or both?
I would love to just fly but apparently Olympic and Aegean don't fly Santorini-Mykonos and the prices to fly back to Athens and then to Mykonos are prohibitive. I looked at the Sky Express website but their schedule is for last year.

A Santorini question--are the archeological ruins worth seeing?

Many thanks.

The Santorini-Mykonos ferry is a catamaran, not a hydrofoil. All seats are assigned.

Be patient - Sky Express and the ferry companies will be updating their websites for 2008 soon.

When we took the fast ferry from Athens to Santorini, our seats were allocated, and not together. But we had been reassured that people chat to each other and swap seats. Sure enough when the lovely Greek man next to me realised that my husband was on the other side of the aisle about 10 rows away, he offered to swap. No drama at all!

Sorry if this sounds like a lecture, but some of you may be interested in the different types of ferries.

Hydrofoils are not the same as catamarans. <i>There are no hydrofoils between Athens and Santorini or Crete&gt;Santorini&gt;Mykonos.</i> They are only used in sheltered waters.

Athens to Santorini is served by the Highspeed series, huge car-carrying catamarans, almost as large as the conventional ferries. These ships are very smooth and stable.

Crete&gt;Santorini&gt;Mykonos is served by the Flyingcat series, smaller passenger-only catamarans, which cause problems with some people in rough weather. In calmer weather they are also very smooth.

Go to http://www.hellenicseaways.gr/index.asp?a_id=209 and click on &quot;The Fleet&quot; if you want to see pictures and stats of these ships. This is a hydrofoil: http://tinyurl.com/2y5a2v

Yiorgos, you really should post that ruins question on a separate message -- people who are not interested in a ferry may not open this message.

To your query: do you mean the Minoan village of Akrotiri? Definitely very interesting -- BUT it has been closed since 2005 due to collapse of some scaffolding, and no re-opening date has been announced; certinly not '08.

If you mean ancient Thira, I think it is mainly about the climb and the marvelous vista of the Aegean. It is about 5 acres+ of higgledy-piggledy ruins with no signage at all... if u can find a map of ruins in a guide book (I never could) u can make some sense of it; luckily 2 of my travel pals on that trip were architects so we puzzled it out. NOTE: you can drive up part way if u have a car, or share a taxi(us). We walkd back down --goat path then 16 switchbacks -- and then bus backto Fira.