Ferry booking

While Ferryhopper is convenient for checking all ferry routes, it's best to book directly on the ferry company's website. No need to use a third-party service or stress about booking in advance; book a couple of days before your trip. Even better, buy your tickets from a ticket agency on the island.

I always buy my tickets 1-2 days before in local ticket shops as I go along. Very easy for refunds or ticket changes if there is a sudden ferry cancellation.

We will be there around the same time so I came here to get guidance on whether it was necessary to book ahead or can we wing it? We will be traveling from Athens to Naxos and then maybe considering a day trip to Paros or Mykonos. Hoping someone will comment on specifically on that first week of July time frame. Also, fast or slow?

MY, the best ferries (large, open-deck, and economy seats available) are the BLUE STAR ferries: The Santorini one leaves at 3:15 daily arrives Paros about 6:30 The Paros to Naxos one goes about 11:30 AM, arrives Naxos an hour later. These have 4 decks, carry over 250 vehicles on main deck (inclluding a number of 18-wheeler huge trucks). and passenger capacity ranges from about 1200 to 1800 people. Why in the world would one want to booik ticket online way ahead of time. I've taken these ferries every tme, on my 13 stays in Greece, and I never buy in advance, ... just stop the day before at a ticket agency. I've taken them in May & June & September, and usually Blue Star is no more than half-full.

I f you get an economy ticket for this very short trip, it's first-come, first-served for seating ... either out on deck, at tables in the many cafes on board, or in seats lined up along the corridors. If you want to put out €5 more, you get "reserved economy" seats ... these ar sometimes called "air seats" because they are inside seating in rows like an an airplane .. (but not the el cheapo Economy on planes... they are like businss-class... wide leanback seats, spacious legroom, footrests, and tray tables. ALSO --you can get a reserved-economy seat, BUT if you find an empty chair on deck yiou can stit there the whole time. It's just that, if you decide to go in to rlax & read, your nice leanback seat is there for you. If you buy at a ticket agency, you can request locations, such as SIDE compartment, near windows. If you make the mistake of ordering online ahead, you don't get to choose.

All the experienced travelers buy thess 1-2 days ahead, on the island .. IF you're taking a ferry inbound on SUNDAY in July or August, (when Greeks head back for jobs), Blue Star ferries may be full earlier.... so buy tickets 5-6 days ahead. But not online, 2 months ahead.

And to add to Janet's post:
The Blue Star ferry is going through the Caldera. So, you will have an great view of the houses on the cliffs from the outside decks. The highspeed ferries don't go through the Caldera and if you don't have a window seat you won't see nothing at all.
There are 3 ticket offices in Fira. All 3 are in the main street.

Thanks everyone!

With the ferryhopper app I remember on one of my ferries (pretty sure it was a SeaJets one) there was tracking info and updates in one place, so you could see if it was delayed or roughly where it was coming from, which was reassuring since those routes can get a bit chaotic in summer 😅so booking from them, I just kept checking there instead of searching on different company sites. Not super high-tech tracking like a map all the time, but enough to know if your ferry is on time or running late, which helped me plan getting to the port.

If you want to track your ferry install the MarineTraffic app.

JoLui- since we started visiting Greece in 2023 we’ve been using the ferry hopper app exclusively and have found it very convenient for many things like tracking our ferry before and during the trip. W asked each ferry operator what they prefer and they all said the same thing: it doesn’t matter because all that I needed is the qrcode or barcode of the ticket and they’re the same across all apps and companies.” In other words, they don’t care, as long as your ticket is valid. I’ve also used it on ferries in Italy, Spain, USA and it worked flawlessly in all places. Here in the USA the company I used it with didn’t even know such a thing existed before 2020

Jonrossjan, I know you can get tickets just as easily with Ferryhopper, but I still stick to my old ways from the early 90s when I started traveling by ferry in Greece long before you could book ferries online. So I always deal directly with the ferry companies or with a local agent on the island. I guess I'm just a bit old-fashioned since I carry this same approach into my day-to-day life, for example, I book a restaurant by calling the restaurant directly, without going through any reservation service, I do my own grocery shopping without using a third-party service, and of course, if accommodation has its own website, I don't use booking.com.

I am also "old school" like JoLui. Travelling around Greece since the late 80's I still don't use 3rd party ticket brokers but buy my tickets in the ticket offices as I go along.
1. I like to keep the small ticket offices up and running
2. I always like a chat with the people in those offices. They are a wealth of information regarding weather, cancellations and a lot of other (local) stuff.
3. It's so easy to arrange refunds or new tickets with a cancellation. They call you or send a text message, you hop in to the office and get your money back and then you get your new tickets according the available options. No hassle with mails back and forth to a 3rd party who, in some cases, needs to contact the ferry company to get the green light to refund you.

Some may laugh and call me old fashioned but I have never ever had a problem. Same with accommodation. Always booking directly and never through a 3rd party.
And now only 9 days till a 4 week stay on Naxos and Antiparos starts.

Have a fantastic trip Nicksy!