Greece-Practical Information

Here is a quick guide to all the key practical things you need to know if you are visiting Greece.

How many days to plan for Greece

One of the first question that comes in mind while planning a trip to any country is "How many days in enough?". Well the answer is not easy. It really depends on what are your tastes, are you alone or with family/children etc. etc. !!! In this Blog I will share my experience and we travelled as a family with 2 kids (13 and 8 yrs old). 
Assuming its your first trip to Greece, I will suggest you can read this blog to make a base itinerary and do modifications based on your interests.
Most popular TOURIST cities/islands in Greece are Athens, Santorini Island and Mykonos Island. There are many other islands and I will suggest you to study other blogs in case you plan to go to there.
In order to cover these 3 cities, 7-8 days are enough but you can always increase the duration as per your specific itinerary.

Arriving in Greece and overview of itinerary

We arrived in Athens and went to Santorini Island followed by Mykonos Island.

Day1-Athens (arrived in flight)
Day2-Santorini (Ferry from Athens to Santorini)
Day3-Santorini
Day4-Mykonos (Ferry from Santorini to Mykonos)
Day5-Mykonos

Day6-Mykonos

Day7-Athens (Ferry from Mykonos to Athens)

Day8-Athens

Practical information on ferries

Ferries is the most convenient way to commute between Athens, Santorini and Mykonos islands. You can purchase tickets online (quite a few websites like www.go-ferry.com). 

"Remember, you need to get a physical ticket from the departure gate of the ferry counter before boarding the ferry."

Other options are to go to the ferry gate (check the times in advance) and purchase it directly from there. Majority of the times, you will get a ticket as these ferries even in the peak season of Jun do not run at their full capacity. Alternatively you can get it booked via travel agent in your country and most of the times, they get the tickets delivered to your hotels. We got the tickets booked via our travel agent.

Ferry ticket between Athens and Santorini

Remember there are 3 ports in Athens, Piraeus being the biggest port and majority of the ferries ply from this port. Make sure you are aware of the port name and Gate number before reaching Athens port for ferry. Ferries ply to Thira port of Santorini.

Try to book big Ferries (I believe rates vary only a little) that can carry vehicles. These are very stable ferries even in rough sea. You can feel sea sickness in case of smaller ferries.

Rates of the ferries vary both by route and ferry company. Our overall experience with Sea Jet ferry company was good.

How to commute within cities and between ports and hotels

In Athens if you want to take a cab best way is to install and app named BEAT. This is UBER of Athens, with reasonable rates and reliable service. Other way is to just wave your hand to stop a cab.
We took a BEAT cab while commuting from Airport to Hotel and even from hotel to reach Piraeus port. If you reach Plaka market, most of the Athens key tourist attractions are to be covered on foot.

Santorini (FIRA) Bus Time Table

In Santorini you will not find many cabs, so best way is to pre book your transfer from Port to Hotel via hotel. It will cost ~€40 one way for 4 people and it may or may not be a shared cab. Santorini (Fira town) has a very regular bus services that starts from city centre and go to most of the famous sea beaches and even to Oia Town bus centre. Timetable is available in most hotels, so you can prepared your journey well in advance. You can check the timetable and price list on website  https://www.ktel-santorini.gr/. One way price varies from €1.80 to €2.50 depending on the route. Frequency of the bus also depends on the bus route but is every 30 minutes between  popular routes. Most of the buses start early morning 7:00 AM and runs till late in the night till 2:00 AM.
You can even opt for bike (~ €20/day) and car (~ €50/day) rentals which can only be obtained with a valid International license. 

Mykonos is not very different from Santorini when it comes to cabs and buses. the only difference we found was the buses were not as punctual as in Santorini. 
Similar to Santorini we booked the cab from Port to Hotel (€12.00 per person) and Hotel to Port (€8.00). I felt with luggage and kids, this is the most convenient way to reach hotel both in Santorini and Mykonos.

Bus Route Mykonos (Red line)

Bus tickets in Mykonos

All buses go either from Old Port or Fabrika bus station. Old Port and Fabrika bus stations are 15-20 minutes walking. These are the 2 ends of the Mykonos old Town. You need to cross old town to walk between these 2 points. Every time you need to go to a specific beach, you need to either go to Old Port or Fabrika bus stop. 
Other ways to travel are by taking a car/bike rentals same as in Santorini. Here also you can opt for a car or bike rentals. 
Please note that from Ports to city centres in Santorini and Mykonos normally takes 20-30 minutes are the max but in case of your return to ports, please give enough buffer as at times there can be a huge rush in Santorini of the incoming ferry and the hilly roads to the port are very narrow. This can easily add up to 30 minutes of additional commute time

Currency, card or cash

Most of the shops take card but small souvenir in Plaka (Athens) will only be interested in taking cash. Similarly, taxi in Santorini were taking cash. Buses also take cash (primarily due to the small amount of ticket cost). Unlike other European cities, I felt the need to cash more in Greece, so please make sure you have enough cash. Alternatively there are plenty of ATM's to withdraw cash, though my personal experience of withdrawing cash from International travel card was not good, where I ended up paying a approximately 10% of the transaction amount as fee (which was a bit abnormal).

Shopping tips

We realised that the best place to buy souvenir is Plaka market in Athens. Though the Town centre in Santorini (Thea) and Old Town in Mykonos are also flooded with all kinds of souvenirs, I felt Plaka in Athens had the most variety and most competitive prices. 
Greece is famous for many things and among other souvenirs, Olives and Ouzo (Greece national drink). Ouzo is widely consumed in Greece.
Another drink that i picked from the airport was Skinos. It is a white Greek spirit made from resins that are harvested on Chios island.

How many days are enough?

Number of days is very subjective as it depends on a lot of factors like your interests, places you would like to visit, activities you would like to do and most important your agility. Still I will try to give you a generic idea on how to plan number of days per city/island.
While planning the number of days in Greece it is advisable to check the ferry timings as most of the time, ferries will start in the morning 7:00 AM to 10:00 AM and takes 4-5 hours depending on the type of ferry and the destination. So effectively you are only left with half a day.
Athens is mostly walking in and around Plaka (unless you want to go to sea shores) and 2 full days is the bare minimum you should plan. 
Again 2 full days in Santorini is enough but if you plan to stay 1 night in Oia town and another in Thea, you can consider doing 2.5 days.
As far as Mykonos is concerned, it is full of beaches. Though full island can be covered in an hours drive, but if you wish to go to 2-3 beaches you should plan a 3 day stay, as you should visit Old town two times in your stay. 

Places to visit-Athens

You will find many blogs giving much better information on the places to visit (one of my favourites is https://www.earthtrekkers.com, but here is a quick recap of the places we went and this is totally based on our choices.