Greek Isles Cruise

[clo]

1 minute ago, Hlitner said:

continues to be a mystery (to me).

Amen, brother.

 

The ferries were great. And of course being there after the ships leave is a huge bonus.

[jsn55]

25 minutes ago, Hlitner said:

There are over 1000 (some say 6000) Greek Islands of which large cruise ships only visit fewer than a dozen.  Most of the islands are reachable by an excellent ferry system (many of these ferries are like small cruise ships) and some can be reached via air.  Cruisers will say how much they like the Greek Islands, but they continue to limit themselves to a small group (Corfu, Crete, Mykonos, Santorini and Rhodes).  We also enjoy Naxos, Paros, Paxos, and many others.  Many cruisers use Piraeus as their embarkation/debarkation port, and that particular port is also the embarkation place of many of the ferries.  Why folks do not take advantage of being in Piraeus, and expand their travels to some of the other islands, continues to be a mystery (to me).

 

Hank

Well, probably because we didn't know.  Thanks for this, Hank!

[Hlitner]

2 minutes ago, jsn55 said:

Well, probably because we didn't know.  Thanks for this, Hank!

LOL fair enough.  So I will give you an actual example (we did this about 2 years ago).  We disembarked our cruise in Pireaus around 9am and grabbed a taxi to the other side of the port (less than 10 minute ride) to the ferry area located across the street from the PIreaus Train station.  We walked over to a nearby coffee cafe (inside the ferry area) where we relaxed with coffee.  Around 11 am we walked (rolling our own luggage) over to our large ferry where we checked-in (we had pre-purchased tickets online).  We boarded the ferry (somewhat of a hassle rolling our luggage up the ramp) and put our luggage in the large racks near the entrance (we bring along a cable-lock device for such an event).  It was than upstairs to the passenger deck where there are plenty of comfy seats.  

 

That particular ferry was about a 5 hour ride since we had chosen to go to Naxos (for a few days).  Once on Naxos we picked-up our reserved rental car and drove to our nearby hotel :).  A few days later we took another much shorter ferry over to Paxos for a few days.  Bottom line to this kind of travel is folks do need to be able to handle their own luggage (you will seldom find any help) and have some "travel sense" to handle DIY travel.  For larger islands such as Santorini, Crete, Rhodes, etc. one can go out to the Athens airport and fly to those islands if they do not want to deal with the ferry hassles.

 

Hank

[ontheweb]

57 minutes ago, jsn55 said:

Well, probably because we didn't know.  Thanks for this, Hank!

I will second that. Though not staying in Athens or it being an overnight, there was so much to see in Athens.

[clo]

4 hours ago, Hlitner said:

LOL fair enough.  So I will give you an actual example (we did this about 2 years ago).  We disembarked our cruise in Pireaus around 9am and grabbed a taxi to the other side of the port (less than 10 minute ride) to the ferry area located across the street from the PIreaus Train station.  We walked over to a nearby coffee cafe (inside the ferry area) where we relaxed with coffee.  Around 11 am we walked (rolling our own luggage) over to our large ferry where we checked-in (we had pre-purchased tickets online).  We boarded the ferry (somewhat of a hassle rolling our luggage up the ramp) and put our luggage in the large racks near the entrance (we bring along a cable-lock device for such an event).  It was than upstairs to the passenger deck where there are plenty of comfy seats.  

 

That particular ferry was about a 5 hour ride since we had chosen to go to Naxos (for a few days).  Once on Naxos we picked-up our reserved rental car and drove to our nearby hotel :).  A few days later we took another much shorter ferry over to Paxos for a few days.  Bottom line to this kind of travel is folks do need to be able to handle their own luggage (you will seldom find any help) and have some "travel sense" to handle DIY travel.  For larger islands such as Santorini, Crete, Rhodes, etc. one can go out to the Athens airport and fly to those islands if they do not want to deal with the ferry hassles.

 

Hank

We did airbnbs and loved the food we were able to cook. In addition I really don't like to greet the world without having had a cup of coffee. We were off the beaten path which we loved. Talking to the locals who appreciated that WE appreciated the difference. And ate lots of THIS!