Travel in mainland Greece
 

What would be the best way to travel from Athens to Delphi, Meteora and Ioannina? Essentially heading west through the mainland and eventually heading down to catch a ferry to Corfu?

Car.

Car. But, driving in Athens is pretty bad. Traffic is horrible and parking is beyond horrible. Cars park nose to tail, halfway on sidewalks, the wrong way on one way streets, etc. I would not want to drive or park in Athens. We hired a driver for one overnight trip and one long day trip and it was worth every penny of the cost not to have to deal with renting, driving and parking a car.

You'll love Greece, though. My all time favorite place.

We visited these places last September/October. We drove from Preveza but considered doing the trip from Athens - much of your route would be similar, Athens to Delphi looked a reasonable drive. You don't need to drive in Athens city centre, car hire from the airport would avoid the centre completely. Here is my trip report, which might give you some ideas.

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...nd-lefkada.cfm

Thank you all for your recommendations. Plans have changed a little bit. We now have plans to do just a day trip to Delphi from Athens.

Challiman, you said that hiring a driver was worth every penny. Can you recommend one that would drive us from Athens to Delphi and back in the same day?

Additional recommendations for a day trip to Delphi welcome.

What a shame to miss Meteora.

I read somewhere (on this board, I believe) of an Athen's rental agency who drives your rental car to the outskirts of the city for you!

I can never understand why so many people have such a dread of driving in Athens.

You certainly don't want or need a car while staying there but driving in or out is not the death defying act it's so often made out to be.
Look at it this way... if driving in Athens is so horrible why don't millions of Athenians swear off their cars? ;^)

Another poster has mentioned an agency who will drive you to the edge of town... that would be Swift.

But there's no reason you can't so it yourself.
Get a rental somewhere along or near Syngrou Avenue or Queen Amalias. Budget, Avis and likely others have offices along there. You then drive straight down a huge wide boulevard toward Piraeus. Take the fork in the road for Piraeus then the sign right for Lamia.

You're now on a multilane highway that will take you out of town. Dead simple. You can continue and take the National Road which I find a boring route. Instead, head toward Corinth and take the E962 north from Elefsina. It's a wonderful and scenic drive. Return back to Athens by the National Road.

Driving in Athens is not hard... just plan your route in advance and you'll have no problem.

Rob

I will try to find the name of our driver. We were there in March 2006 I think. My traveling friend found him online, made all the arrangements, but she always referred to him as PAUL THE TAXI DRIVER, and sure enough, we rode all over in a Yellow Taxi! I will contact my friend to see if she has his actual name and email address and get back to you ASAP.

I stand by my opinion that driving in Athens is awful. I lived in LA for years and Athens was FAR, FAR worse. And parking seemed almost impossible. Others have had a different experience but I can just report what we experienced.

I'll get back to you as soon as I can get the information.

And I stand by mine... I agree having a car while IN Athens is not a good idea but driving OUT of Athens is not a problem.

Rob

http://www.greektaxi.gr
http://www.greecebytaxi.com
http://www.athenstaxi.org
https://www.athensbytaxi.com
https://www.athensminibus.com

I corresponded with Paul yesterday and he says you can reach him through any of these. I told him I would recommend him to someone on Fodor's. He is a very nice man and very considerate, polite, and patient with all the questions we asked.

Thank you very for the information!