mfk59

So, we want to ferry Santorini to Mykonos midOctober to avoid a long layover in Athens airport otherwise.

Which company should we look at?
How long is the trip, has anyone done this?

Many thanks!!

tower

took the hydrafoil from Sant to Myk a few years ago...quite inexpensive If I recall...stops at several islands along the way..took about 3 hours, I may be wrong. Obviously much faster than the ferry. Try to sit in the rear, less crowded.

stu t.

tower

mfk:

took the hydrafoil from Sant to Myk a few years ago...quite inexpensive If I recall...stops at three islands along the way..took about 3 hours, I may be wrong. Obviously much faster than the ferry. Try to sit in the rear, less crowded.

stu t.

mfk59

thanks!!

do you recall which hydrofoil service you used and was an advance reservation necessary?

brotherleelove2004

The only direct ferry is a catamaran, not a hydrofoil. Two companies, Seajets and Hellenic Seaways, operate them. In October the HS FlyingCat 4 makes the run every day but Wednesday. It takes 2.5 hours. You can book at the airport when you first arrive at the travel desk of Amphitrion Holidays in the Main Hall.

Advance internet purchase in October is unnecessary. In fact you can probably wait until the day of your departure and buy your tickets at the port if you prefer.

tower

Everyone in Santorini referred to it as the Hydrafoil....just sharing my experience with the OP...I know it took about three hours, was not a catamaran of any sort. Did not need a reservation..left from a little cove a few miles from town.

brotherleelove2004

There haven't been any hydrofoils in the Cyclades islands in many years, but since they used to run between Santorini, Mykonos and other Cyclades islands many people still refer to the catamarans as hydrofoils, sort of as a generic term for the highspeed ferries.

I think the old Flying Dolphin hydrofoils are now in use in the Sporades and Saronic islands.

tower

sounds reasonable, brother...yes, they did refer to it as a catamaran, but it didn't look like one...it had the look of a surface-going yellow submarine..at least painted an awful yellow. Very crowded...since Greece is our least favorite country, we haven't been back since. Not to say that we didn't enoy Sant, Myk, and Rhodes...aside from the ruins, Athens did not appeal. Maybe, as we age, we're more jaded...but we are incurable travel lovers and as I've said on this forum before ...we wll "travel until we unravel"..just visited Portugal, my last remaining European country I had yet to visit...we absolutely were enchanted by it, drove everywhere we went.

stu t.

brotherleelove2004

Interesting.........I suspect that what you took to Mykonos was operated by a company that was trying to carve out a piece of the "action" but failed. The old hydrofoils were blue. I don't recall ever seeing a yellow one although someone could have purchased one and repainted it. How long ago did you have that experience?

Gaspard

In the Saronic the old hydrofoils were yellow/orange/strange.
G.

brotherleelove2004

Thanks, I didn't know that.

tower

brother

abour six years ago...
are you a resident?

brotherleelove2004

No. I've been visiting Santorini since 1985.

Heimdall

Brotherleelove is correct about catamarans vs hydrofoils, and I haven't seen a hydrofoil in the Cyclades in the 12 or 13 years I have been going there.

The term hydrofoil is used rather loosely in Greece, and although technically incorrect, even the ferry booking website danae.gr refers to flying cats and HS highspeeds as "hydrofoils".

But wait, there actually is a true hydrofoil running in the Cyclades this summer, according to http://tinyurl.com/4ozjgr. It is the Samos Flying IV operated by Poseidon Lines. I will be interested to see how long it lasts, and how many times it is cancelled due to Meltemi winds.

mfk59

Thanks to everyone!!!

I guess the winds could be an issue midOctober, but at least there's info and a timetable that beats the long layover at Athens airport b/n those islands.