Greek ferries

James

99% of the time you can just show up and buy a ticket on the spot. Generally from a booth near the boat or a ticket agency nearby. In Piraeus there are dozens of agencies. You need to leave a little time as government regulations now mean the ticket seller has to record your name. This is for safety reasons, so they can check boats aren't overloaded.

The only time turning up isn't a good idea is on particularly busy days. Trying to get back from the islands on Easter Monday can be murder, for example, and so can traveling around Christmas.

Generally though yous should be fine.

Cheers
Alan

Much depends on when you are planning to travel, where you are at the time and which company's ferry you choose. Any time between early-July and the end of August would be a good time to pre-book your tickets, especially if you prefer the highspeed ferries over the "regular" ones. The highspeeds such as the Hellenic Seaways FlyingCats are faster and in high demand. For the rest of this month the ticket offices will be extremely crowded with people lining up to either pick up the tickets they've pre-ordered or hoping to buy one at the last minute, so be sure you are there at least an hour before departure. Athens/Piraeus port ticket offices will be crazy-busy, so if you're in Athens before your ferry departure look around for a ticket office there instead. The islands have ticket offices at the port, and in the main villages you can find travel agencies who are authorized to sell tickets. Using these agents will eliminate a lot of last-minute stress and hassle. Also, when you first arrive in Greece, if you come by plane, you can go to the travel desk of Amphitrion Holidays in the Main Hall and buy your tickets then and there. If you feel you need to prebook you can go to www.gtp.gr to look up the ferry schedules and use the link there to go to the www.danae.gr booking website. For an extra fee danae.gr will set it up so you can pick your tickets up at one of several locations including Amphitrion Holidays.

The highspeed ferries are seldom full before or after July-August, and the slower, regular car/passenger ferries such as those in the Blue Star fleet are very large and you will almost always be able to book no matter when.

Have a great time!

Thanks for the responses.
Where exactly is the airport in relation to athens and Piraes? I saw one of the ferries to santorini leaves at 7:30 am and not sure how long it will take to get there.

The airport is about 1-1.5 hours from Piraeus by airport express bus (#96) depending on the time of day. So early in the morning you will get there quickly. It leaves the airport every half-hour or so, 24/7, and costs 3.2 euro for the trip.

I forgot to mention earlier that Amphitrion Holidays at the airport is open 24/7 so you can buy your tickets before you get to the port and save yourselves some hassle and anxiety.

My wife and I have spent hours trying to find the high speed ferry or Flying Cat to Santorini in late september/early october but with no luck.Does that mean they don't run that time of year?

The ferry schedule websites such as www.gtp.gr and www.openseas.gr have not put out the schedules yet for dates beyond September 7, including schedules for ferries from Athens/Piraeus to Santorini. Those will be available soon. It's not necessary for you to book these ferries in advance in September and October, they won't be full then. But to save time and hassle don't buy them at the port, buy them at the airport when you first arrive as I suggested earlier.

Is there any disadvantage to buying the tickets early? When going on trips like these I like the feeling of having everything booked so I don't worry about the 1% chance of it selling out. Especially after making reservations at hotels where I stand to lose a lot of money if I don't make it there for the night. The guidebooks say to just pick them up over there, but my control freak nature is not letting me be comfortable with that suggestion. I guess buying the ferry tickets locks in one's itinerary to certain date, but my hotel reservations have done that already so there doesn't seem like there's much for me to lose. Thanks for all of the great information.

No, there's no real disadvantage to buying your tickets early if your itinerary is set in stone, but it really depends on when you plan to go and the type of ferry you intend to use. Highspeed ferries are smaller and faster so they would be the first to sell out during High Season, late-June through the end of August, but after the end of August it won't be a problem to book them on short notice. The larger and slower car ferries are almost never full, and again that would only happen rarely in July and August. For example, the Blue Star "Paros", which makes the run between Piraeus/Athens and Santorini holds over 1400 passengers and 250 vehicles.