What's the fastest way from Plaka to the Athens airport?
May 28th, 2005, 04:15 PM
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Just got back from Greece Wed. night and had 4 trips to or from the airport. We did 2 by Metro, which was cheap and easy, and we did 2 by taxi. This will be a little more info than you want since you just asked about getting TO the airport, but I thought maybe it would help someone else reading this post.
When we arrived at 11AM on a Wed., we rolled our baggage across the driving lanes to the covered area where you can get Metro and light rail tickets, bought a ticket for 2 from the airport for 10 Euros (or 6 Euros for a single), went down the escalators to the Metro which leaves every 30 min. (Wish I could tell you the times but I don't recall - however, a train was sitting there and left in about 5 min. I can tell you that the trains to the airport leave Monastiraki Sta. every half hour on :21 and :51.) The ride to Syntagma Sq. was about 40 min., where we changed to the #2 south-bound and rode 2 stops. (From there we made our way about a km to the hotel without benefit of sidewalks, but that's another story.) Metro is well-marked, easy to use, clean, and at least a couple of the stations (Syntagma and Akropoli) have interesting archeological finds - you may have seen pictures in Nat'l Geographic, among other places. My daughter, who arrived 2 years ago about the same time of day said it took them over an hour to get to their hotel and she wished the Metro had been running to the airport then.
On Sun. morning we flew to Santorini and because we didn't want to roll our bags on the non-existent sidewalks to the Metro, we considered taking a taxi to Syntagma. Hotel advised us that with a 7 Euro taxi fare to Syntagma and the 10 Euro fare on the Metro, we'd do just about as well taking a taxi since traffic is light Sun. AM. That fare cost us about 25 Euros and probably took about 30 min. Returning from the airport at about 11PM the next Sat. we also took a taxi because we weren't sure exactly where the hotel was and didn't want to be fumbling around at that time of night. The late night charge starts at 11PM, not 12PM as I had heard, according to the guy at the desk in the hotel, so although the trip was as quick as the previous one, the charge was 33 Euros.
Our flight home left at noon, so we had plenty of time to take the Metro and were 2 blocks from the Monastiraki Station. Again, a 40 min. trip. You do have to be sure you get on a train marked for the airport. There's only one train leaving from the airport, but heading to the airport there are more frequent trains that stop at Ethniki Amyna. There are signs on the front of the train (by then you'll probably have figured out "airport" in Greek) but most of the stations also have overhead signs in Greek and English telling how long till which train. I understand on weekdays it can take an hour or so to make the trip in traffic and will cost more by taxi than at night or on weekends. We went in that direction on a Fri. morning on a tour and getting out of Athens was horrendously slow.
So it depends on where you're staying, when you're arriving or leaving, how much luggage you have, and whether you want to save some money. If you're staying near Monastiraki Sq. you won't have to change trains; if you want to get on at Akropoli, you'll have to go one stop to Syntagma and change, so you'll have to allow extra time for that. The train will arrive at Syntagma only a minute or two later than it leaves Monastiraki. But it's certainly not hard - and my husband and I are in our 60s, only in moderate shape and took more luggage back than we went with, but we had no problem either way.
There is an airport bus that leaves from Syntagma and is cheaper than the Metro, I believe, but it will be slower.
When we arrived at 11AM on a Wed., we rolled our baggage across the driving lanes to the covered area where you can get Metro and light rail tickets, bought a ticket for 2 from the airport for 10 Euros (or 6 Euros for a single), went down the escalators to the Metro which leaves every 30 min. (Wish I could tell you the times but I don't recall - however, a train was sitting there and left in about 5 min. I can tell you that the trains to the airport leave Monastiraki Sta. every half hour on :21 and :51.) The ride to Syntagma Sq. was about 40 min., where we changed to the #2 south-bound and rode 2 stops. (From there we made our way about a km to the hotel without benefit of sidewalks, but that's another story.) Metro is well-marked, easy to use, clean, and at least a couple of the stations (Syntagma and Akropoli) have interesting archeological finds - you may have seen pictures in Nat'l Geographic, among other places. My daughter, who arrived 2 years ago about the same time of day said it took them over an hour to get to their hotel and she wished the Metro had been running to the airport then.
On Sun. morning we flew to Santorini and because we didn't want to roll our bags on the non-existent sidewalks to the Metro, we considered taking a taxi to Syntagma. Hotel advised us that with a 7 Euro taxi fare to Syntagma and the 10 Euro fare on the Metro, we'd do just about as well taking a taxi since traffic is light Sun. AM. That fare cost us about 25 Euros and probably took about 30 min. Returning from the airport at about 11PM the next Sat. we also took a taxi because we weren't sure exactly where the hotel was and didn't want to be fumbling around at that time of night. The late night charge starts at 11PM, not 12PM as I had heard, according to the guy at the desk in the hotel, so although the trip was as quick as the previous one, the charge was 33 Euros.
Our flight home left at noon, so we had plenty of time to take the Metro and were 2 blocks from the Monastiraki Station. Again, a 40 min. trip. You do have to be sure you get on a train marked for the airport. There's only one train leaving from the airport, but heading to the airport there are more frequent trains that stop at Ethniki Amyna. There are signs on the front of the train (by then you'll probably have figured out "airport" in Greek) but most of the stations also have overhead signs in Greek and English telling how long till which train. I understand on weekdays it can take an hour or so to make the trip in traffic and will cost more by taxi than at night or on weekends. We went in that direction on a Fri. morning on a tour and getting out of Athens was horrendously slow.
So it depends on where you're staying, when you're arriving or leaving, how much luggage you have, and whether you want to save some money. If you're staying near Monastiraki Sq. you won't have to change trains; if you want to get on at Akropoli, you'll have to go one stop to Syntagma and change, so you'll have to allow extra time for that. The train will arrive at Syntagma only a minute or two later than it leaves Monastiraki. But it's certainly not hard - and my husband and I are in our 60s, only in moderate shape and took more luggage back than we went with, but we had no problem either way.
There is an airport bus that leaves from Syntagma and is cheaper than the Metro, I believe, but it will be slower.
May 28th, 2005, 04:53 PM
#3
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Thanks for the info. Does the Metro run 24 hours/day?
Originally our flight to the islands was about 8:40 AM and we got an email from Aegean Air the other day saying the flight's been changed to 5:30 AM (ouch!)
Originally our flight to the islands was about 8:40 AM and we got an email from Aegean Air the other day saying the flight's been changed to 5:30 AM (ouch!)
May 28th, 2005, 07:53 PM
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Not sure about the hours but have a feeling it stops at midnight and maybe doesn't start again till 6AM. I have a somewhat confusing time table from 2004 that looks like airport trains don't start till too late for you. Website appears to be www.ametro.gr, so maybe you should check there to be sure.
Hey, this is your vacation. I don't know what island you're going to and how many flights a day there are, but I'd check the Aegean website and see if I could find a later flight. Then tell them you have a medical condition that prevents you from getting up that early and asked to be booked later.
Or just party most of the night, I guess, and don't bother going to bed.
Hey, this is your vacation. I don't know what island you're going to and how many flights a day there are, but I'd check the Aegean website and see if I could find a later flight. Then tell them you have a medical condition that prevents you from getting up that early and asked to be booked later.
Or just party most of the night, I guess, and don't bother going to bed.
