Naxos tourist guide on how to get to Athens en route to Naxos by plane, car, train and bus with a brief guide to Athens.

You have one of two choices of times of travel, both of which are time consuming and quite tiring. The first and possibly the better option, is to take the very last flight of the day, usually between 10pm and 11pm. This lands you in Athens about 4am. Kill some time in the airport, eating, snoozing (see airport for a quiet place to sit) and then get the bus at about 6am to Piraeus. The other is to get a daytime flight and spend a night in Athens and get the metro down to the port early the next morning. It is possible to try and juggle times so that you can get the evening catamaran or ferry but, of course, prepare to be flexible - it may come as a surprise, but planes quite often do not run to schedule. So you need to allow something like three hours between putative landing times and the time of the ferry/high speed. This applies in spades to flying from Athens to Naxos. You have to pre-book your Naxos flight, both because it is cheaper that way and because there are a very limited number of seats - see Olympic Airways, below.

Virgin Atlantic/Virgin-Express: virgin-express.com/destinations/athens. As far as I can see - and sites you have to fight with are not among my favourites - Virgin no longer flies direct to Athens from the UK.

British Airways: www.britishairways.com. Look out for special offers. If traveling from the South East, most flights go from Heathrow. We have a tip about booking in for Heathrow which makes life a lot easier. However, as we don't want our lives made more difficult, being selfish, we're not publishing it here but will give you the information if you E-mail us. It's nothing Earth-shaking, just a simple option. BA have recently introduced flexible fares, you book single tickets rather than return so can choose between favoured times of flight or cheapness and you can have as long or short a stay as you want. (NB: this excellent service seems to come and go - at the moment it's gone).

Olympic Airways: We advise trying www.allsun.co.uk (11 Conduit Street, London, W1R 0LP, 020 7399 1560, info@allsun.co.uk) for a company that deals with cut price Olympic tickets. You can arrange a flight to Athens and an onward domestic flight to Naxos. For example, we were offered such flights (Gatwick to Naxos) for £174 including taxes, departing at the end of May, returning mid June in 2001. When ringing Allsun, they will initially quote the full scheduled fare - ask for any special offers, discounts.

Cronus: Operates its own flights to Athens and its own domestic flights to some of the islands. See below.

Aegean Airlines: www.aegeanair.gr/aegeanen/schedule/. This was formed as a merger between Aegean and Cronus Airlines. It is possible to fly to Santorini which would cut the ferry time by about four hours and would have the bonus of being able to have a brief stay there which is all you really need.

Unfortunately, not really feasible and would be prohibitively expensive. Eurostar to Paris; TGV to Rome; local express to Brindisi; ferry to Greece; train to Athens; ferry to Naxos? I don't think so. See below for Brindisi.

Might appeal to born-again hippies looking for a right-on adventure, man. Sorry, I have not even investigated whether or not the Magic Bus (or its descendants) still runs. Only recommended for the (fool) hardy. Wasn't that cheap when I last looked it up. There is a rumour it still does exist, try: Athens tel(01)363-4045 and London tel:499-3775. It stops at Thessaloniki, Prague, Germany, and Amsterdam.

We have not included a detailed guide to Athens as there are many good ones on the net - see that recommended below.

Map of Central Athens - click to enlarge

Metro Map - click to enlarge.

The stops you are most likely to be interested in are: Syntagma for the centre of Athens and the posher bits such as the Grand Bretagne, Zonars (now either defunct, alas, or undergoing major refurbishment - it won't be the same) and the royal palace for the Evzones; Monastiraki for Plaka, the Flea market and trains to Piraeus; Omonia for buses; Panepistamio another central part and Akropoli for obvious reasons.

Buses are frequent to everywhere and taxis are plentiful and quite cheap but fairly difficult to get at popular times. However, central Athens is a small area and walking is by far the best way to get about.

When you are ready to leave for the islands, we recommend getting the metro to Piraeus - by far the easiest way. Monasteraki is the central station, at the bottom of the Plaka, near the flea market. You can also get the Metro at Syntagma but that entails changing at Monasteraki with lots of stairs, etc. to negotiate. You can also get a tram all the way to Piraeus but it takes forever. For the rich or nervous, you could try and get a taxi - check the price first and, remember, extra can be charged for each item of luggage and the number of passengers. Also, the practice of picking up other passengers still exists and it won't make it any cheaper for you.

For information on Athens try the excellent and exhaustive site - www.athensguide.com - (although they do give the location of The Eden in its old house. However, it's easy to find from there, just continue along Lissiou Street to number 12 www.edenvegetarian.gr .)

An hotel we've used often is the Attalos in Athine Street, www.greecetravel.com/attalos , with an excellent roof garden overlooking the Acropolis. The Grand Bretagne in Syntagma looks rather pleasant and we can recommend having morning coffee there. After an indulgent and expensive stay there, we can also say it's not at all bad and might make a relaxing and pampered antidote to roughing it on the islands, ferries and metros. Another good place for coffee is the famous café, Zonars, just around the corner from Syntagma, in Stadiou Street. If you can't get in the Attalos be wary of trying nearby hotels in Athine as lots of them rent rooms by the hour.

Brindisi, Italy is the port where most ferries travel between Italy and Greece. During peak tourist season, from June-August, several ferries leave daily with a stop in Corfu (9-10 hours) and arrive at Patras, Greece (20 hours). If you desire to disembark in Corfu you must have the booking agent stamp your ticket with "Stopover," there is no extra charge and you can re-board any ferry you choose. A 30% discount is available with the Eurail Pass. Call Adriatica tel(0831)23-825 for Brindisi ferry schedules. Train service to Brindisi is generally set up in order to facilitate a well-recommended quick departure from this seedy port town. Make sure to coordinate your train arrival from Rome, Venice, or Florence with the ferry schedule in order to minimize your waiting time. You can easily step foot off the train and on-board a ferry to Greece in less than an hour. Do so.

Ferry service to Greece is also available from Venice, Italy. Call Adriatica tel(041)781-6111 for these schedules. Minoan Lines tel:53-696 offers ferry service from Ancona, Italy. These ferries also stop in Corfu on the way to Patras. There is a train that then takes you from Patras to Athens which is slow (6 hours) and crowded. The buses are quicker and more pleasant. The optimum way to get to Athens is to get a small group together and hire a taxi from Patras to Athens. It’s fast (2 hours) and will cost you about the same as the train if you have 4-5 people. Bargain with one of the enterprising taxi drivers (pamper yourself and pick an air-conditioned Mercedes) who will be waiting at the port, sipping coffee, and smoking cigarettes."