Although our agency specializes in Turkey, many of our tours are also combined: they can take you to neighboring Greece, a country with which it has surprising points in common. Therefore, if you want to explore this different and attractive route, here we tell you three ways to get to Athens from Turkey, which you can put into practice with some of the tours in our catalog.
By plane: Athens Airport – Eleftherios Venizelos
The fastest and most common way to travel from Turkey to Greece is by plane. More specifically, the Istanbul-Athens route, with numerous daily direct flights. This is because they are the two major cities of both countries and, moreover, two of the world’s great tourist destinations.
The most common route is from Istanbul Airport to Athens – Eleftherios Venizelos, but there may also be availability from Istanbul Sabiha Gokçen and even from other Turkish airports, such as Izmir Adnan – Menderes, the third largest city in Turkey and the most important on the Aegean coast.
When our combined tours include this flight midway through the program, we usually plan that day as a transition, for a smooth country change with free time at origin or destination, depending on the schedule.
By cruise: Lavrio port
One of the star products in our catalog is the Greek Islands cruise, which often has its starting point in Kusadasi, a city on the Turkish Aegean coast. From there, the route can take you through the most emblematic islands such as Rhodes, Patmos, Santorini or Mykonos. And it’s between these two islands where we often insert a quick getaway to the Greek capital.
In that case, the cruise ship docks at the port of Lavrio, located about 60 km south of Athens. And from there, we arrange a transfer to reach the city in a journey of approximately one hour, where our clients spend a few hours until mid-morning. After that, they return to the cruise ship and continue through the Aegean Sea.
With this option, the visiting time in Athens is limited, which makes it difficult to visit its main historical sites in depth, as it must be taken into account that the getaway is conceived as a “plus” to the island cruise, the real attraction of the package. However, it is at least an excursion sufficient to make brief contact with this city that requires several days to know it thoroughly.
By ferry: Piraeus port
Another option that some of our tours leave open is the ferry. Given that a large part of Greece consists of thousands of islands and islets in the Aegean Sea, its ferry network is very extensive and varied. And the capital, Athens, also benefits from this. Specifically, from the port of Piraeus, the historical port of the city which is located just 10 km from the urban center.
In the aforementioned tours in our catalog, we usually use this option for trips from Athens to the islands, mainly Mykonos. However, it can also be a feasible option as a gateway to Athens from this or other Aegean islands. The transfer usually takes about 20 minutes, if traffic conditions are favorable, which is an advantage for including this service at any time of the day.
In summary, three ways to reach a city full of history that adds value to any tour, especially those that include guided visits to the city, the Acropolis, and the New Museum. So if you want to take advantage of your trip to Turkey to make a “getaway” to the Greek capital, contact us and we’ll see the best way to insert this experience into your package.
