Athens and Greece – getting from place to place

Getting Around

Travelling around Greece is straightforward. On this, my second solo trip, I flew to Athens overnight with Air Baltic (on time, efficient) from Edinburgh; walked and took the metro in the capital; and then went to Thessaloniki, Komotini in the north, and the village of Proskinites by bus to see my friends’ new born baby. There I either walked or was driven in the jeep. I returned to Thessaloníki the same way, and then flew to Paris with Transavia for 39 euros.

Travel around Athens

Crossing the road: Wherever you are, beware the motorised scooters – either being driven wildly with one or more people on them, or abandoned in the middle of pavements.

Like everywhere else in Europe, look left before crossing the road!

The Athens Metro

Metros are clean, cool in temperature, crowded at rush hour as anywhere in Europe, efficient, regular and all stations are announced in English as well as Greek. Ticket machines are quite easy to use and you can choose to view the screen in English. Tickets cost 2.70 euros for 2 tickets and go down in price if you buy more. You can use one anywhere within 90 minutes, which I didn’t realise and so wasted a second one on a bus connection. Make sure you register your ticket on the machine both in and out of the metro, and in (but not out) on the buses.

Trains, buses and travel out of Athens

I took the Athens to Thessaloniki train, even though there is a lot of bad press to be found on the internet about trains in Greece. The service was clean and smooth (“better than the UK, like Italy” said my neighbour!) You can book online via the OSE website.

Bus travel

For the rest of Greece, the bus is better, but finding information and booking by website is hard work if you don’t read Greek. The main page of the main Greek bus company website (ktelmacedonia.gr) comes up in English on my phone, but the list of places does not and anyway, even looking up the Greek spelling for the places didn’t mean that they appeared on the list although they do have buses which go there! On my laptop, the website was impossible for me to operate. If you are stuck, you could try asking a friendly waitress as they usually speak great English and can often be really helpful making calls for you.

I have discovered this since writing the above : Bus tickets pagebus website KTEL Macedonia – new e tickets available. I am leaving both sets of information so that you have 2 options. Please leave a comment if you find the best way and that will help others. Thank you.

You can also buy ferry tickets, and transport or store luggage through KTEL Macedonia (as above).

The police boarded the Komotini – Thessaloniki bus, looked at random people’s passports, and took 3 men off this morning who had no papers.

Which bus station?

It is therefore best to book at the bus station (KTEL has 2 bus stations in Athens: Kifissos and Liossion. Note that when it asks you which one you want to leave from, it also includes ‘Pireus, Athens’ which is actually half an hour away by car so you don’t want that unless you happen to be staying near there). Alternatively you can ring up: I got a very nice man on the phone who spoke manageable English and he took my name and gave me the information and advice I needed. ( When I got there a few days later and went to buy the ticket, he introduced himself to me saying it was he who I had spoken to – what service!) There is a 25 per cent discount in advance which is hard if you are making spontaneous decisions.

Other

There is no bla bla car (online car sharing in France, Spain etc) here in Greece. There are regular tolls along the motorways – between 3-13 euros depending on the distance. See below for other people’s blogs about travelling in Greece.

Bus Athens to Thessaloniki 39 euros one way, 59 euros return (note that the English translation says ‘refund’ instead of ‘return’!

23 euros bus Komotini to Thessaloniki (6 hours)

2 euros X1 bus Thessaloniki (dome) Macedonia bus station to airport. Every half hour. Buy ticket from kiosk by bus stop.Very crowded. 40 – 60 minutes.

1.50 euros bus Proskinites to Komotini

Here is a good Athens Guide https://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-guides/greece-travel-tips/#getaround