I need some help. I'm planning a trip to Santorini in May of 2017. Getting to Athens is easy and I've found the hotel I want to use, but getting out to Santorini seems like reinventing the wheel! I'd like to take either the ferry (fast or overnight) from Rafina since it appears to be closer to the Athens airport or fly with a connecting flight out of Athens. I've been doing some research to no avail. Can you get to Santorini on certain days only? Any ideas, hints, tips? Desperately seeking answers....
Ken Williams, MD
Savannah GA USA
Posted by
Eastern Iowa, USA
7552 posts
Ferry schedules and most airline schedules are not yet available, so you might not be able to get exact information. You can do some looking for September of this year, the schedules will be close, and I think you will find that you can get to Santorini every day of the week. Just me, but my preference would be to fly if you are planning no stops between Athens and Santorini.
Posted by
Camarillo, California
3122 posts
I don't know where you're looking, but there are flights and ferries every day between the mainland and Santorini.
Schedules for next May won't be available until sometime after the first of the year.
Ferries: www.gtp.gr
Flights: http://tinyurl.com/jzk5g3q
Posted by
203 posts
You can get a ferry to Santorini practically every day even in the dead of winter so it will not be a problem in May. To get an idea what you can get and from where (Piraeus vs Rafina), check current timetables. In May they will roughly be the same. If you are going in early May (low season), check dates after 15 September. Be aware that in low season the fast ferries are likely to be small catamarans (Flyingcat, Seajet1 and Seajet2). In bad weather conditions, if they are not cancelled altogether, they are hell.
https://www.gtp.gr/RoutesForm.asp
http://www.openseas.gr/en/index.html
Posted by
California 🦋
5212 posts
Ken,
Do you plan to visit Athens before heading to Santorini, or do you plan to get to Santorini the same day you arrive at the Athens airport?
We enjoyed the Blue Star ferry from Pireas ( Piraeus), but we were not in a rush. We took a picnic lunch, & got all our food at the big central market in Pireas the day before we took the ferry.
The best part about the ferry ride was when we were approaching this amazing island! The turquoise Aegian sea is spectacular too!
The ferry took about 8 hours, so if you want to get there faster, I'd suggest you fly! ;-)
Have a wonderful trip!
Posted by
Orlando, FL
34 posts
We are also heading to Greece the last week of May/first of June for two weeks and are heading straight from ATH (overnight flight from US) to Santorini. I've been doing lots of research on how to get to Santorini and think it would be best to fly if you have limited time (for us two weeks but we are moving around a lot).
Flights are pretty easy to book and fairly inexpensive, but like everyone else said, the schedules won't be out until after January. I'm figuring for us it will cost about $100 one way, and they are frequent enough that we won't have to layover for endless hours at ATH. The flight time is a mere 45 minutes, so that sealed the deal for us.
We will be taking ferries from Santorini to Naxos and then to Mykonos before flying back to Athens to spend four days before going home.
Either way, do some sample searches for flights going on now to get an estimate of what you can expect.