Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Getting there
By far the easiest way to get to Greece is
to fly, and there are direct flights to a
variety of Greek destinations from all
major UK airports. Even if your starting
point is North America, Australia, New
Zealand or South Africa, the most cost-
effective way to Greece may well be to
get to London - or Amsterdam, Frankfurt
or another Northern European hub - and
pick up an onward flight from there.
Airfares
are highest in July, August and during
Easter week. But May, June and September are also
popular, and since far fewer flights operate through
the winter, bargains are rare at any time.
Overland
alternatives from the UK or Northern
Europe involve at least three days of nonstop
travel. If you want to take your time over the
journey, then
driving
or travelling
by
train
can be
enjoyable, although invariably more expensive
than flying. We've included only brief details of
these routes here.
When
buying flights
it always pays to shop
around and bear in mind that many websites don't
include charter or budget airlines in their results. Be
aware too that a
package deal
, with accommoda-
tion included, can sometimes be as cheap as, or
even cheaper than, a flight alone: there's no rule
that says you have to use your accommodation
every night, or even at all.
can fly you direct from Gatwick, Manchester or
Edinburgh to Athens for less than £50 each way,
but you'll have to move very fast to find fares this
cheap. Realistically their prices are little different
from those of the
scheduled
operators - British
Airways (
W
ba.com) and Aegean (
W
aegeanair
.com) have frequent flights to Athens from
Heathrow, Viking Hellas (
W
flyviking.gr) from
Manchester - and you can expect to pay £75-150
each way at most times of the year. From
Dublin
,
Aer Lingus (
W
aerlingus.com) have three direct
flights a week from April to September, with fares
starting at around €100 each way, though you
can easily pay twice that. Almost all airlines,
including charter operators, allow you to book
one-way tickets at no extra cost, so you can
fly into Athens with one, leave from an island
with another.
Regional flights
If your destination is not Athens, or you are flying
from a regional airport, there's a bewildering variety
of options, many of them involving
charter airlines
.
In practice these operate in much the same way as
budget operators, albeit with clunkier booking
systems and often less convenient flight times; most
of them fly only in the summer months, from May
to September. Regular scheduled flights include
British Airways from Gatwick to Thessaloníki; easyJet
from Gatwick to Thessaloníki, Corfu, Haniá (Chania,
Crete), Iráklion (Heraklion, Crete), Kos, Mýkonos,
Ródhos (Rhodes), Thíra (Santoríni) and Zákynthos,
from Liverpool to
Ródhos, and from Manchester
and Bristol to Iráklion and Corfu; Jet2 (
W
jet2.com)
from Manchester to
Iráklion, Kos and Ródhos, and
from East Midlands, Leeds and Newcastle to Iráklion
and Ródhos; and Ryanair (
W
ryanair.com) from
Stansted to Thessaloníki, Corfu and Ródhos and
Liverpool to Ródhos. In addition, charter operators
go from a variety of UK regional airports to all of
the above, plus
Kalamáta
,
Kavála
(for Thássos),
Vólos
(for Mount Pílio and the Sporades) and
Préveza (for Lefkádha)
on the Greek mainland, and
to the islands of
Kefaloniá
,
Skiáthos
,
Sámos
,
Lésvos
and
Límnos
. See the map on p.30 for Greek
regional airports. The main operators with whom you
can book direct are Monarch (
W
monarch.co.uk),
Thomas Cook (
W
flythomascook.com), Thomson
(
W
thomson.co.uk) and Torair (
W
flytorair.com); others
may be available indirectly, through travel agencies
or third-party websites.
Prices for regional flights are generally slightly
higher than London to Athens; it may cost less to
travel via Athens with a connecting flight.
Flights from the UK and Ireland
Unless you book far in advance, there are few
bargain
fares
to Greece. easyJet (
W
easyjet.com)
A BETTER KIND OF TRAVEL
At Rough Guides we are passionately
committed to travel. We feel that
travelling is the best way to understand
the world we live in and the people we
share it with - plus tourism has brought a
great deal of benefit to developing
economies around the world over the last
few decades. But the growth in tourism
has also damaged some places
irreparably, and climate change is
exacerbated by most forms of transport,
especially flying. All Rough Guides' trips
are carbon-offset, and every year we
donate money to a variety of charities
devoted to combating the effects of
climate change.
