One of the Blue Star “Slow Ferries” in port
Traveling by ferry seems like a right of passage for visiting the Greek islands. Who hasn’t seen those beautiful landscapes dotted with white washed buildings and blue capped churches? Well, that view can only be seen from one vantage point…the water!
Similar to our 2017 trip, we chose ferries as our primary form of transportation from Athens to the Greek isles and then inter-island during our recent adventure. We slept on a different island three nights in a row and used ferries the entire time. As I was sitting on the boat from Mykonos to Paros, I couldn’t help but think “man, this process is really stress free”. Maybe it was my third Mythos (Greek lager) of the day talking, but I’m pretty sure it was the process I followed to plan and book our ferry logistics.
So what worked for us?
Stop along the way through the Greek Islands
Leverage third party sites: I start with a third party ferry search flight like “Lets Ferry”. It allows you to search dates for the timeframe you are traveling and then gives the travel times across multiple ferry companies (Yes, like air travel, there are multiple companies that compete in the Aegean Sea!). Once you find the date and time that works best, take note of the company and move to step two.
Navigate directly to ferry company site: This one is self explanatory, but once you find your ferry in step one, you want to go directly to the website of that company. This saves you the admin fee of the third party site (and who doesn’t like savings?!).
Select your seat: This one can be a bit situational.
Fast Ferries: On the “fast ferries” (generally any boat except Blue Star), there are two classes; economy and business. Honestly, business class isn’t all that special, but it generally comes with smaller crowds and a dedicated bar. If the extra cost is worth it to you, then by all means, splurge (we did during COVID and loved having almost NOBODY in our compartment and enjoyed a few Mythos).
Slow Ferries: The “slow ferries” are a different animal. In my mind, there are really four options; private room/compartment, business class, airline seats and economy class. Let me break them down in order of general cost (most expensive to least):
Private room/compartment: We actually did this on our first trip to the Greek islands because Kailah was pregnant. It allowed her a traditional private “cruise room” with beds to lie down in throughout the duration of our journey (Athens to Santorini is 7 hours on the slow ferry!). Since we had so many travelers, it wasn’t that expensive and we still had access to the business class restaurant/bar service.
Business class: We went this route on our recent trip as it cut down on the crowds (for COVID) and it gave a relaxing full service restaurant/bar for the duration of the journey. The seating isn’t as comfortable however, as it is mostly chairs around a table. However, if the cost is worth it to you, we recommend this option.
Airline seats: These seats are better than airplane seats as they provide a more reclined seating option for the longer duration ferries. If you are going to sleep on the trip and don’t want a compartment, this probably your best bet. They share the restaurants and bar with the economy seats.
Economy: These are the “plain jane” table seats with a shared restaurant and bar. Cheapest, but the ship is so large you’ll have plenty of space to get up and walk around.
Buy through the ferry company site: Once you choose your seat, continue and purchase your tickets directly through the ferry company site. One important note that we found useful was that most ferry companies have a pretty flexible cancellation policy, in case something happens (or you need to cancel due to a global pandemic).
Our business class seats aboard superjets
That’s it! I hope this simplifies the Greek ferry process and inspires you to book with confidence. Oh, and in case you are struggling to find out the name of the Athens port, its called “Piraeus”. Yep, this one took me forever to find too!
Keep maximizing those experiences!
Kyle