Getting Around Greece
Getting around Greece means choosing between ferry and domestic flight for island-hopping: a high-speed ferry between Santorini and Mykonos takes 2–3 hours from about $50–80, while flying via Athens takes under an hour but usually costs more and eats a travel day. Athens's metro reaches the airport directly (Line 3, about 40 minutes, a flat €10 fare). Crete genuinely needs a rental car; most other islands don't.
Getting to Greece
Athens International Airport (ATH) is the main gateway, with Thessaloniki (SKG) as a secondary entry point for northern Greece. Flight time runs 2–4 hours from most of Europe and 9–11 hours from the US East Coast (commonly nonstop in summer, with a connection in the off-season from some cities). Round-trip fares from a major hub start around $350–900. The metro's Line 3 runs directly from the airport to central Athens in about 40 minutes for a flat €10 (about $11) fare — a taxi covers the same route in 30–45 minutes for a fixed €38–40 fare (about $41–43) during the day, more at night.
Getting around: the real options
The Greek islands make this genuinely different from a typical mainland European trip — a lot of your 'transport' decisions are really ferry-versus-flight decisions, not train-versus-bus.
- Ferries — the backbone of island-hopping: Blue Star Ferries, SeaJets, and Hellenic Seaways run both high-speed (faster, pricier, can cancel in high wind) and conventional (slower, cheaper, more stable) routes. Santorini–Mykonos runs about 2–3 hours by high-speed ferry, $50–80.
- Domestic flights — Aegean Airlines, Olympic Air, and Sky Express connect Athens to the islands fast (Athens–Santorini in about 45 minutes, $60–150 one-way) — worth it for longer hops or when a ferry would eat a whole travel day, though it's usually pricier than the boat.
- Buses — KTEL is the national intercity bus network on the mainland, reliable and cheap for routes like Athens–Meteora (about 4.5–5 hours); on the islands themselves, local bus service is thinner and often the weakest link for reaching remote beaches.
- Car rental / driving — driving is on the right; a rental car ($30–50/day) is close to essential on Crete, which is large and mountainous enough that buses can't realistically cover Balos, Vai, or the mountain villages on your own schedule. On smaller islands like Santorini or Mykonos, an ATV or small rental car helps reach beaches beyond walking distance, though parking and narrow village roads can be a hassle.
Getting around inside cities
Athens's metro is clean, cheap, and covers the historic center and the airport directly. On the islands, taxis are often in short supply relative to demand — Mykonos in particular has a well-known taxi shortage, with a limited number of licensed cars island-wide, so book time-sensitive transfers in advance rather than counting on hailing one. For ride-hailing, Beat (a Greek-founded app, now part of the FreeNow/Cabify family) is the dominant option in Athens and Thessaloniki; Uber operates in Athens too, but through licensed taxi partners rather than private drivers, so it works more like a taxi-hailing app than the classic Uber model.
| Route/option | Typical cost | Typical time |
|---|---|---|
| Athens Airport to city center (metro) | $11 | 40 min |
| Athens Airport to city center (taxi, fixed day fare) | $41–43 | 30–45 min |
| Santorini to Mykonos (high-speed ferry) | $50–80 | 2–3 hrs |
Book time-sensitive island transfers — an early flight, a dinner reservation — well in advance on Mykonos and other high-demand islands, since the local taxi supply is genuinely limited and doesn't flex with tourist season the way you'd expect.
Common transport mistakes
Assuming a ferry and a flight take roughly the same total time — factor in getting to the port or airport, check-in, and the actual crossing before deciding; a 'faster' flight can lose its edge once you add transfer time on both ends. The second mistake: skipping a rental car on Crete specifically, where the island's size and mountain villages make a car far more valuable than on most other Greek islands. Third: assuming you can flag a taxi easily in Mykonos at the last minute — pre-book anything time-sensitive.