Greece welcomes with strike
We came to Athens during the strike. It seems, strikes in Greece are normal thing. So before your trip check if there is no strike is planned. We found out about strike just several hours before the flight, and it seemed like a trouble. In that case strike meant that nor public transport nor ferries are working. As far as our travel plans involved islands, it seemed there is no sense to go. But we decided to go anyway and to find some way out.
How to get from Athens airport to Athens
We arrived to Athens late in the night. There was a long line of yellow cabs and accordingly the line of people taking the cabs. Usually, in the night still there are regular buses, like X95 (to the city center, Syntagma square), X96 (to the Piraeus Port), X93 to the bus station (KTEL Kifisou) and some other X-buses. But not that day (all buses are on strike!) The taxi has it's stable price - 38 euros for day (from 5:00 till 00:00), and 54 euros for the night (from 00:00 till 5:00). This fee covers city center - there is a map hanging near the taxi stop and indicates the region in Athens this fee covers. We shared our costs with some other traveler as I guess many people did this day.
Athens shortly - hotels and districts.
To find good inexpensive hotel in Athens turned to be real challenge. There are plenty of hotels near Omonia square, but if you start to read comments on Booking.com, you quickly find out that the main attraction is that "the nearest prostitute is only two steps from the hotel" and "it's better not to walk alone in the late evening". There are also optimistic voices but you don't want spoil your Athens experience with such things. We visited this district during the day - it was ok, but didn't seemed really welcoming.
We have chosen Zappion Hotel. It was nice and is located not far from Syntagma square. If you're looking for the nice district to live take this hotel as starting point on map - everything near this place would be a good choice. There are calm narrow streets, many of them are pedestrian. There was no problem walking in the late night, and it was walking distance to all important places like stadium, Acropolis, National park (closed for the strike), Plaka district. There was beautiful smell of trees in blossom (it was May), that's why Athens felt very special.
We came to Athens during the strike. It seems, strikes in Greece are normal thing. So before your trip check if there is no strike is planned. We found out about strike just several hours before the flight, and it seemed like a trouble. In that case strike meant that nor public transport nor ferries are working. As far as our travel plans involved islands, it seemed there is no sense to go. But we decided to go anyway and to find some way out.How to get from Athens airport to Athens
We arrived to Athens late in the night. There was a long line of yellow cabs and accordingly the line of people taking the cabs. Usually, in the night still there are regular buses, like X95 (to the city center, Syntagma square), X96 (to the Piraeus Port), X93 to the bus station (KTEL Kifisou) and some other X-buses. But not that day (all buses are on strike!) The taxi has it's stable price - 38 euros for day (from 5:00 till 00:00), and 54 euros for the night (from 00:00 till 5:00). This fee covers city center - there is a map hanging near the taxi stop and indicates the region in Athens this fee covers. We shared our costs with some other traveler as I guess many people did this day.
Athens shortly - hotels and districts.
To find good inexpensive hotel in Athens turned to be real challenge. There are plenty of hotels near Omonia square, but if you start to read comments on Booking.com, you quickly find out that the main attraction is that "the nearest prostitute is only two steps from the hotel" and "it's better not to walk alone in the late evening". There are also optimistic voices but you don't want spoil your Athens experience with such things. We visited this district during the day - it was ok, but didn't seemed really welcoming.
We have chosen Zappion Hotel. It was nice and is located not far from Syntagma square. If you're looking for the nice district to live take this hotel as starting point on map - everything near this place would be a good choice. There are calm narrow streets, many of them are pedestrian. There was no problem walking in the late night, and it was walking distance to all important places like stadium, Acropolis, National park (closed for the strike), Plaka district. There was beautiful smell of trees in blossom (it was May), that's why Athens felt very special.
Cancelation experience with Booking.com.
We had to unbook our hotel at Agistri island, which everybody told us was "very small but beautiful with some Carribean look". "Unbook" meant that first I talked to the hotel and they said they are going to take reservation fee (which was the price for the whole stay). They also told, it possible to get to the island by water-taxi - the cost was 30 euros per person (uff, to much when the ferry costs 10 euros). Then my husband talked to them. They realized we are not going to cancel booking on site (not coming either) which meant for them that booking.com will take some fee anyway. They wanted us to click "Cancel" on booking.com site, but then they take reservation fee. Complicated. Finally we called Booking.com and they resolved the situation. They talked to us, then to owner. They said everything is ok, you will not be charged and booking.com canceled the reservation by themselves.
Below some photoes from Athens:
We had to unbook our hotel at Agistri island, which everybody told us was "very small but beautiful with some Carribean look". "Unbook" meant that first I talked to the hotel and they said they are going to take reservation fee (which was the price for the whole stay). They also told, it possible to get to the island by water-taxi - the cost was 30 euros per person (uff, to much when the ferry costs 10 euros). Then my husband talked to them. They realized we are not going to cancel booking on site (not coming either) which meant for them that booking.com will take some fee anyway. They wanted us to click "Cancel" on booking.com site, but then they take reservation fee. Complicated. Finally we called Booking.com and they resolved the situation. They talked to us, then to owner. They said everything is ok, you will not be charged and booking.com canceled the reservation by themselves.
Read more posts on this blog about the trip to Greece:
Brak komentarzy:
Prześlij komentarz