Hello Everyone
We are traveling to Greece in June, landing in Athens on 2nd and hoping to travel on to Aegina. As there appears to be plenty of ferries available, are we safe enough to buy tickets when we arrive in Piraeus, or should we book in advance?

We are staying in Marathonas - so if anyone has any recommendations we would love to hear about them.

Thanks
Terry

Its a weekend -- so jillions of Athenians will be jamming the ferries and in fact flooding the island, because it's their closest getaway. I hope in fact that you arrive by mid-morning to get a jump on them... and I would advise booking ahead if you can. They usually hve a booth by the ship where you can pick up tickets... but you had better email to enquire. Also, how are you getting from Airport to Pireaus? There's a KTEL x 93? that leaves airport bout every 40 minutes, but takes more than an hour. Unlike the X95 from Airport to Central athens, I think x93 makes many stops IN piraeus. A taxi will be much faster but will cost over €45 -- if you decide to goo this route, you might contact a car-service lilke Welcome Pickups or City Cab (not a taxi company), and find out the est. cost... with them, you pay via credit card, no uncertainty, drive fluent in English etc.

We took the metro to Piraeus because it was fastest in peak hour and runs fairly frequently.

The problem with booking ferry tickets in advance is that you can never be certain about what time you will arrive in Piraeus after a flight so I would therefore book on arrival. There is a booking agent near the station exit and some at the actual port. Maybe you could book online after your flight lands but I’ve never done that so not certain.

There is a good bakery near the Piraeus metro should you have time for coffee and a snack.

Thanks everyone! I think I'll take your advice about a taxi from the airport - it will save on hassle. The day we're travelling is a Monday so we'll take our chances with ferry tickets. I'll check out that bakery in Piraeus too!

Usually you don't need to book the tickets in advance. There are numerous ferries a day, and you should be able to get your tcikets even on the same day.
However, on crowded holidays and sometimes during peak season (july, or august) all boat tickets to Aegina might be sold. So try getting yours few days in advance at least.

Yes, there are plenty of daily ferries to Aegina, but they can often sell out, especially in June when there are lots of day trippers heading over from Athens. To be on the safe side, I’d recommend booking your tickets in advance to secure the crossing time that works best for you.

Glad to see that you've already obtained lodgings -- so maybe you can dodge some of the "AThens Army" but I do agree, book ahead -- and try to get one of the con ventional "open deck" ferries, instead of the hydrofoils... they may take a bout 15 minutes more, but so much pleasanter to be out on deck rather than cooped inside, no views.

Hello
Thank you everyone for your advice. We have returned from Greece and had a wonderful time in Aegina. Just to fill you in with a small trip report, we booked an airport transfer with Welcome Pickups from Athens to Piraeus, but we decided not to book ferry tickets until we got there. This proved to be the right decision - our flight sat on the runway in Dublin for 3 hours and 30 minutes before takeoff (thanks Aer Lingus - you were hopeless). Welcome were excellent at monitoring our flight and making sure that a driver was at the airport for us in spite of the delay. Our driver took us to the ferry and there was one leaving shortly, so within 20 minutes we had purchased tickets and were on our way. I absolutely love ferry journeys in Greece and was very happy that we were travelling on a conventional ferry and not a hydrofoil. Because it was a Monday evening there were hardly any passengers on board and it was a very relaxing journey after a very trying flight.

In Aegina town we picked up a taxi to Marathonas and our accommodation - https://njvplusk.com/ - which was absolutely delightful - we would stay again in a heartbeat. Marathonas has a couple of nice beaches, a handful of tavernas, a good supermarket and is on the main bus route from Aegina town to Parikia. We were looking for somewhere laid back and quiet, and we found it. Perfect!

Because we have never had a trip to Greece that was NOT interrupted by a ferry strike, we decided to leave Aegina a day early and overnight in Athens before heading back to Dublin. Again, because we were travelling on the Sunday of a bank holiday weekend, we had the ferry pretty much to ourselves on the return journey. We organised a Welcome Pickup to bring us from Piraeus to our hotel, and booked him for the following morning for the airport trip. Our overnight accommodation in Athens was here - https://divaniacropolishotel.com/ . Very nice (very popular with Americans) but we decided to forego breakfast (€32 per person - WHAT???) and did make the mistake of buying drinks in the bar (€22 for a beer and a glass of rosé - and I thought Dublin was expensive!). In Athens we had lunch and breakfast in Il Greco, near the hotel - excellent set menu and delicious orange juice for breakfast. Highly recommended. We also had very good pizzas in Meno Male, also near the hotel. The Acropolis Museum nearby stays open until 8pm so we had a lovely evening stroll around the exhibits (no charge for children if you are from an EU country).

We did hit Aegina in a sweet spot - just before the Whit Bank Holiday Weekend - so the island was quieter than usual. If we had been travelling a week later we would have been really in trouble with the absolute hordes of people visiting from Athens - when we were waiting for the ferry off the island we just could not believe the sheer numbers disembarking on the Sunday morning. As it was we had a wonderfully relaxing trip - just the thing after the long winter!

SO glad everything worked out well .. and you wre just early enough to escape crowds -- tho I don't think they would have been so fearsome mid-week. Thanks so much for the the lodgings tip ... I've often suggested Marathonas beach but only went there by day, so didn't have a hotel recommend. .. I'll tuck it in my Aegina folder. Hope the sun is shining for you, back in Dublin!