How to get to island in Greece if there are no ferries?
As far as ferries went on strike, it seemed almost impossible to get to the island. Almost.
So we started to study the map. Poros island (there is also Paros, with "a" - these are two different islands) lays very close to the mainland. The hotel owner from Panorama hotel at Poros said us, that actually local ferries between island and mainland are not on strike. This port is in Galatas, 160 km from Athens. The other type of public transport which wasn't not on strike were regional buses (KTEL). The buses to Galatas go not very often, we found one at 16.30. The main bus station in Athens in KTEL Kifisou, where you can find buses even to Zakynthos!
We walked from our hotel to Kifisou station which was something around 6 km - there was no public transport in Athens, and that was the perfect occasion to see more city. We walked trough Omonia square district - nothing really bad, but also not attractive, rather gloomy, dirty, homeless people sleeping or asking for money... and then just some industrial places with its emptiness and being unfriendly to pedestrians.
The main web site for the buses for our direction (Poros, but also Napflio, Argos, Isthmos etc.) is www.ktelargolida.gr - with actual timetable and possibility to buy ticket online. Bus system in Greece is rather special. The bus station, KTEL Kifisou, is large and there are a lot of buses departing from there. You even have platforms with names of main destinations. But do not try to buy ticket in the main building. For each destination there is a small cash desk just near the platform, and it doesn't looks much as a cashdesk. It is almost an empty room with desk inside, and some A4 printed timetable on the window. But people insde are very nice and helpful, even though not always speaking good English. Each of the destination has it's own website, which is very confusing. To check prices and timetables for selected destination you have to write in google e.g. KTEL Zakhyntos..
To Galatas the bus for 2,5 hours, and the route is really amazing! At some point it goes through mountains and breathtaking sea views. I thought about this trip as something exhausting, but it wasn't at all. For seeing things it's much better than ferry, especially all these flying cats and dolphins - where you sit inside, and see almost nothing.) Buses are cheaper comapring to ferries. Ferry was 25 euros (flying dolphin) and bus was 16, 60 euros, and if you buy return ticket it is 21 euro. The flying dolphin (or cat) do the trip much faster - 1 hour from Athens. There is also slow and big ferry where you can walk outside, catch the sea wind and enjoy the views, but it goes only once a day (it's also cheaper than others - 13 euros). But at the time we were travelling the ferries were still on 4 days strike.
After coming to Galatas, really small town, we took the ferry to the Poros island which took few minutes and costed us 1 euro. This is how town looked from the ferry:
As far as ferries went on strike, it seemed almost impossible to get to the island. Almost.
So we started to study the map. Poros island (there is also Paros, with "a" - these are two different islands) lays very close to the mainland. The hotel owner from Panorama hotel at Poros said us, that actually local ferries between island and mainland are not on strike. This port is in Galatas, 160 km from Athens. The other type of public transport which wasn't not on strike were regional buses (KTEL). The buses to Galatas go not very often, we found one at 16.30. The main bus station in Athens in KTEL Kifisou, where you can find buses even to Zakynthos!
We walked from our hotel to Kifisou station which was something around 6 km - there was no public transport in Athens, and that was the perfect occasion to see more city. We walked trough Omonia square district - nothing really bad, but also not attractive, rather gloomy, dirty, homeless people sleeping or asking for money... and then just some industrial places with its emptiness and being unfriendly to pedestrians.
The main web site for the buses for our direction (Poros, but also Napflio, Argos, Isthmos etc.) is www.ktelargolida.gr - with actual timetable and possibility to buy ticket online. Bus system in Greece is rather special. The bus station, KTEL Kifisou, is large and there are a lot of buses departing from there. You even have platforms with names of main destinations. But do not try to buy ticket in the main building. For each destination there is a small cash desk just near the platform, and it doesn't looks much as a cashdesk. It is almost an empty room with desk inside, and some A4 printed timetable on the window. But people insde are very nice and helpful, even though not always speaking good English. Each of the destination has it's own website, which is very confusing. To check prices and timetables for selected destination you have to write in google e.g. KTEL Zakhyntos..
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| Galatas |
To Galatas the bus for 2,5 hours, and the route is really amazing! At some point it goes through mountains and breathtaking sea views. I thought about this trip as something exhausting, but it wasn't at all. For seeing things it's much better than ferry, especially all these flying cats and dolphins - where you sit inside, and see almost nothing.) Buses are cheaper comapring to ferries. Ferry was 25 euros (flying dolphin) and bus was 16, 60 euros, and if you buy return ticket it is 21 euro. The flying dolphin (or cat) do the trip much faster - 1 hour from Athens. There is also slow and big ferry where you can walk outside, catch the sea wind and enjoy the views, but it goes only once a day (it's also cheaper than others - 13 euros). But at the time we were travelling the ferries were still on 4 days strike.
After coming to Galatas, really small town, we took the ferry to the Poros island which took few minutes and costed us 1 euro. This is how town looked from the ferry:
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| Poros town |
Read more posts on this blog about the trip to Greece:
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