The Bottom Line on Greek Ferries - Right Here at the Top
Have lots of time and energy but not much money? Greek ferries are great, off-season or high-season. On a short trip or naturally short of patience? Avoid them if you can.
Best Guesstimate on Off-Season Delays:
What're your odds of a substantial delay (more than two hours) during the off-season? Based on news accounts, reader reports, and past experience and history over the last few years, my best guess is approximately 1 in 10. Again, this is for off-season Greek ferry travel - the high summer season will usually operate more smoothly. But in periods of rough weather, that number will rise.
Greek Ferry Advance Schedules
The availability of advance schedules for Greek ferries varies substantially, and a few companies may not commit until the end of March for the April-May period. You can usually plan that last year's schedules will more or less hold true, but you can't buy tickets for them in advance.
Weather
The weather in Greece is more variable in the spring and late fall months. In some years, bad winds kept many Greek ferries at the docks for several days.
Most of the unreliability is said to be weather-related rather than anything "wrong" with the Greek ferry companies themselves, so even the unreliability is, well, unreliable.
It's also possible for a company to cancel or delay a departure based on upcoming weather - as a sea-based economy Greece has a very good predictive system for that - and so you may be left fuming on a perfectly sunny dock with a calm sea, not knowing that things are different just over the horizon.
"Other Factors"
It's hard to prove, but some travelers (and many Greeks) insist that the weather has little to do with Greek ferry cancellations - if the operator doesn't have enough passengers to pay for the gas, the boat doesn't go.
Piraeus or Rafina?
Both of these ports serve Athens. Rafina is located about an hour outside of Athens by bus or taxi. Since eastbound boats leaving Rafina have skipped going around the Attica peninsula, these journeys are usually much shorter than ferries leaving Piraeus. Ferry Schedules
Schedules increase in reliability the closer you are in time and place to the dock. No online resource is absolutely complete and accurate. That said, one of the best is GTP's Island Hopping Schedule Finder. Be aware it has no near-match spelling capability, and if you happen to be spelling Piraeus Pireaus, it won't rescue you.
Have a Backup Plan
If you're in a situation where the ferries can't go for more than a day, available flights from the larger islands, even in smaller planes, look better and better. Weather usually doesn't affect flights; Greece doesn't generally have fog, and man of the airports are built in sheltered areas.
Flying is much more expensive that taking the ferry, and there is the usual hassles of dealing with an airport. Remember, flying out of Naxos or Crete does not require as much advance arrival time to allow for security searches since it is a domestic flight, not an international one. Plus, the airports are small and manageable. Both Olympic Airlines and Aegean Airways offer flights between some islands, with Olympic providing the widest selection... but thst may be changing in late 2009.
Don't Always Trust the Zippy Ferry Name
A ferry whose name seems to indicate greater speed may or may not be telling the truth. Check the schedules - don't fall for the name alone.
The Island Hopping Bible
Given the unpredictability of the ferries and their schedules, the best resource is Frewin Poffley's "Greek Island Hopping". The website is also very useful. His "Ferries to Avoid" list is must-reading before you book, and could be handy to stuff in your wallet. Most importantly, he covers the "usual" schedules in detail, allowing for some advance planning even if the exact information can't be confirmed until the schedules are decided on and posted.
Go on to the next page for seating tips and more ferry information.
