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Greece Trip 2018

Posted by on

Hi All
I hope that you are well and having a good day.
We are planning our trip to Greece and cannot wait - very excited.

First Question:
We are landing at Athens Airport on a Saturday 15:00 (in June) and will be staying in Acropolis (Lotus Inn Hotel) for a couple of days.

  • What would be the best way to get to the Hotel from the Airport and what is price for the transport (+-)?

Second Question:
In Acropolis, I read that we can purchase 'A Special Package Ticket' from the Odysseus Culture Office which will give us access to most of the sites etc.
(Acropolis of Athens, Ancient Agora of Athens, Archaeological Museum of Kerameikos, Archaeological Site of Lykeion, Hadrian's Library, Kerameikos, Museum of the Ancient Agora, North slope of Acropolis, Olympieio, Roman Agora of Athens, South Slope of Acropolis) to be more specific.

  • *Would you recommend the above (as this seems to be the cheapest option to see most of the sites) or do you have another suggestion?

We do not really prefer a guided tour unless its a MUST.*

Third Question:
After a couple of days in Athens we will be going to Mykonos by ferry (ferry departs at 08:00 on the Tuesday).

  • *What is the best way to get from the Lotus Inn Hotel (Acropolis) to Rafina Port and what is cost +-?
  • What time would be the best to leave and how long before ferry departs do we need to be there?*

Fourth Question:

  • On the Islands - what would you suggest is the best way to get from the ports to our various hotels (public transport or asking hotel to arrange transfers)?

• Mykonos - Anna Maria Hotel
• Paros - Senia Hotel
• Santorini - Caldera Romantica

If you have any other tips or must-do's in any of our destinations (Acropolis, Mykonos, Paros or Santorini), please share.

Thanks all and looking forward to hearing from you.

Posted by
1388 posts

The Lotus Inn is very close to Monastiraki metro station so one option is a direct 40 minute metro ride from the airport. The alternative is a taxi for about 40 euros. It will probably be slower given traffic in the centre on a Saturday afternoon.

Is there a reason you want to go to Mykonos from Rafina? The simpler journey is via Piraeus which is 20 minutes from Monastiraki by metro. Rafina is 45 minutes by bus from Aeros Park, which is around 20 minutes from your hotel.

Alan

Posted by
22 posts

Hi Alan

Thank you for your reply.

Would you suggest the bus? Or just the train (because a taxi will take too long)?

The reason why we booked our tickets from Rafina is because they were cheaper (not thinking of the travel costs).
I will try and amend this to rather leave from Pireus.

Thanks again!

Posted by
1388 posts

Natasha

For the bus: it’s slightly cheaper, you see more of the city as you are coming in, many people find it more relaxing.
Against: it takes you to Syntagma, which is a ten minute walk from your hotel, and it also has to contend with traffic.

Both bus and metro are fine and it might depend on how much luggage you have. Syntagma is the heart off Athens so the walk to the hotel will be through Saturday afternoon shopping crowds in he heat.

I’d be surprised if Rafina tickets were cheaper once you’d factored in getting to Rafina.

Cheers
Alan

Posted by
22 posts

It seems that I am able to amend the ferry tickets from Rafina to Pireus (thanks for the tip) :-)
Any advise on the tours in Acropolis?

Posted by
2187 posts

A good website to look at is Matt Barretts Greece Guide. We were on the RS Greece tour and they purchase the packages ticket that is 30€. We didn't do all the sites, but since just the Acropolis ticket is 20€, it was worth it.

We took the metro into Athens from the airport and did fine. We did use our neck wallets, so we weren't worried about pickpockets. What I wasn't prepared for was that signs can be spelled so many different ways. Once I got over that, we had no problems finding our way around Athens. If the spelling looked about the same, it turned out to be correct. The Greek people were very kind and helpful when we needed directions or looked lost; most of them speak English.

Have a great trip.

Posted by
27122 posts

They told us in a modern-Greek class decades ago that Greeks are among the world's worst spellers. If you see a word written, you know how to pronounce it, but it doesn't work the other way. There are, for example, five different ways to render the "ee" sound.

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