Basics - The Rough Guide to Greece - page 23

FLIGHT AGENTS
Charter Flight Centre UK T 0208/714 0010, W charterlights
.co.uk. Booking for a huge range of charter flights from the UK and
Ireland.
Flight Centre W lightcentre.com. Low-cost air fares worldwide
from their local websites, plus rail passes and more.
North South Travel UK T 01245/608291, W northsouthtravel
.co.uk. Friendly, competitive flight agency, offering discounted fares
worldwide. Profits are used to support projects in the developing world,
especially the promotion of sustainable tourism.
Skyscanner W skyscanner.net. Comprehensive flight search site that
includes charter and budget airlines.
STA Travel UK T 0871/2300 040, US T 1-800/781-4040,
Australia T 134 782, New Zealand T 0800/474 400,
South Africa T 0861/781 781, W statravel.com. Worldwide
specialists in independent travel; also student IDs, travel insurance,
car rental, rail passes, and more. Good discounts for students and
under-26s.
Trailfinders UK T 0845/054 6060, Ireland T 021/464 8800,
Australia T 1300/780 212, W trailfinders.com. One of the
best-informed and most e cient agents for independent travellers.
Travel CUTS Canada T 1-800/667-2887, US T 1-800/592-2887,
W travelcuts.com. Popular, long-established student-travel
organization, with good worldwide offers; not only for students.

- and that remains unaffected. The journey takes
two-and-a-half days at least and will almost
always work out more expensive than flying. It
also takes a fair bit of planning, since there's no
through train and tickets have to be bought from
several separate operators. However, you do have
the chance to stop over on the way, while with
an InterRail (for European residents only; W inter
railnet.com) or Eurail (for all others; W eurail.com)
pass you can take in Greece as part of a wider rail
trip around Europe. Booking well in advance
(essential in summer) and going for the cheapest
seats on each leg, you can theoretically buy
individual tickets for less than £150 each way, not
including the incidental expenses along the way.
Using rail passes will cost you more, but give far
more flexibility. For full details, check out the Man
in Seat 61 website ( W seat61.com).

Car and ferry
Driving to Greece can be a pleasant proposition if
you have plenty of time to dawdle along the way.
It's only worth considering if you do want to
explore en route, though, or are going to stay for an
extended period. The most popular route is again
down through France and Italy to catch one of the
Adriatic ferries (see box below); this is much the
best way to get to western and southern Greece,
the Ionian islands, and to Athens and most of the
islands except those in the northeast Aegean. The
far longer alternative through Eastern Europe
(Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria) is fraught with
visa problems, and only makes sense if you want to
explore northern Greece on the way.

Trains
As a result of the economic crisis, all international
and some domestic Greek rail routes have been
suspended . However, that doesn't necessarily
mean that you can't travel to Greece by train; the
most practical route from Britain was always in
any event to cross France and Italy before
embarking on the ferry from Bari or Brindisi to
Pátra (Patras) - with connecting buses to Athens

ITALY GREECE FERRIES
Sailing from Italy to Greece , you've a choice of four ports; ferries run year-round, but services
are reduced December to April. The shortest routes and most frequent ferries link Bari and
Brindisi with Corfu, Igoumenítsa (the port of the western Greek mainland) and Pátra (at the
northwest tip of the Peloponnese). Ferries also sail from Ancona and Venice to Pátra via
Igoumenítsa/Corfu. These longer routes are more expensive, but the extra cost closely
matches what you'll pay in Italian motorway tolls and fuel to get further south. On most ferries
you can stop over in Corfu for no extra charge. For direct access to Athens and the Aegean
islands head for Pátra, from where you can cut across country to Pireás.
The following companies operate ferries: schedule and booking details for all of them are
also available at W openseas.gr and W viamare.com.
Agoudimos W agoudimos-lines.com. Bari and Brindisi to Corfu
and Igoumenítsa.
ANEK W anek.gr. Ancona and Venice to Corfu, Igoumenítsa and
Pátra.
Endeavor Lines W endeavor-lines.com. Brindisi to Corfu,
Igoumenítsa and Pátra.

Minoan Lines W minoan.gr. Ancona and Venice to Corfu,
Igoumenítsa and Pátra.
Superfast Ferries W superfast.com. Ancona and Bari to Corfu,
Igoumenítsa and Pátra.
Ventouris Ferries W ventouris.gr. Bari and Brindisi to Corfu,
Igoumenítsa, Kefaloniá and Zákynthos.