Is traveling from London or somewhere nearby such as Brussels to Athens a feasible trip both from a time and money standpoint. Arrive London 8/25 and would like to be in Athens 8/30. Would it waste too much time or would we have the time to stop off in different places along the way. Thought it might be fun but I was unable to find the different connections on the German rail website. Thanks.

www.seat61.com/Greece.htm

It's a very enjoyable journey if you take a train to Italy, then a ship. Some possible routes are on www.seat61.com.

Hi J,

Enter London/Athenes at www.bahn.de.

Click "details for all"

You can also see the intermediate stops along the route.

possible

eurostar Lon-Paris - 1 day
Paris overnight train to Rome- 1 day
train to Bari- i day
boat to Patras, Greece - 1 day

so you'd have one or two days to break your journey.

If doing all this look into some kind of railpass as it may be cheaper than buying tickets en route.

or do the night train Paris-Venice and then take the direct Venice-Patras ferry. easier, quicker, less hassle

Just like Man in Seat 61 says - www.seat61.com/Greece.htm#Venice

Thanks for all of the information. Someone also told me that I could take the Orient Express to Istanbul and then connect over to Athens. Now the big question is spend the time in London and fly or take the train. Thanks again.

Orient Express doesn't go to Istanbul, it goes to Venice - www.seat61.com/OrientExpress.htm

It's many years since the Orient Express went to Istanbul. In recent years, there have been two trains known as the Orient Express, one was a normal overnight train from Paris to central Europe, and the other was the very expensive VSOE tourist train from Paris to Venezia. There is an ordinary overnight train which goes directly from Paris to Venezia (the VSOE train takes a roundabout scenic route), and then you can get a ship to Greece (www.minoan.gr or www.anek.gr).

Someone also told me that I could take the Orient Express to Istanbul and then connect over to Athens.

yes you could - you could also take the trans-Siberian train to China and come back to Athens - makes about as much sense - via Istanbul would take about three days longer i think than via Venice.

Jon,

How adventurous do you want to get?

There are alternative routes rather than going through Italy and taking the ferry...here is one...

Take the Eurostar from london and connect in Paris (Est) to Strasbourg and on to Vienna.

From Vienna the train to Beograde

From beograde to Thessaloniki in Greece and change there for Athens.

It is a fabulous route but be prepared for possible interruptions/disruptions/bizarre conditions on and off the train or for the trip to go as smooth as can be.

Takes about 48 hours to do. Bring peanut butter to snack on!

a less rigorous and iffy interruptions, etc. route of Dukey's would be to take the Paris-Venice train, then hop over to Rijeka, Croatia via Trieste (a fascinating unique city) then hop the Jadrolijna (sp?) boats that go along the coast to Igoumenitsa, Greece from where you can bus via Delphi to Athens - easy in five days. The boat stops at places like Dubrovnik and islands like Hvar, of Marco Polo fame i believe. Boat is cheap - not a cruise ship.

It's several years since Jadrolinija, or any other ferry company, ran from Croatia to Greece. The only way from Croatia to Greece by ferry is via Italy.
PalenQ, why not do a lttle bit of research before posting suggestions for itineraries?

Thank you all for the advice. I was trying to avoid the longer ferries such as Minoan if at all possible since my daughter will be embarking in Athens 9/5 on the Scholar Ship and will be on there (with a number of ports of call) until the end of Dec when she disembarks in Hong Kong.

We were thinking of spending the first leg all in London and then the last week in Greece, but I thought it might be fun to travel around on the way to Greece.