Guide to Getting Around Athens
Today, I'm in Athens, Greece. Now, let's figure out how we can get around in this city.
Getting to the city you want to visit is often the easy part. Once you're there, you have to know how to get to all the places you want to be. You've got to be able to get food and you've got to get back to your accommodations.
And in Athens, this isn't always so straightforward. So, let's talk about subways and cabs and busses and ferries, and what to do when there's a random strike that's definitely not on the itinerary.
Get Ready to Walk
Welcome to Athens. The city is almost 3,000 years old and it's doing its best to keep up with the modern world but in Athens, the modern world has a way of fading away. You're walking in the shadow of monuments that are thousands of tears old, in a land that was already a massive empire 1,000 years before Socrates and Homer were born. This was an ancient land when they walked here, on the same streets where you will walk when you're in Athens.
And walking is exactly what you will be doing a lot of. Athens has a pretty decent metro system, a subway, but this really only covers the main areas of the city. When you're going to big attractions, the subway is highly reliable and very affordable.
And the rest of the time, when you need to go anywhere else, like the airport, you will have the opposite experience. Public buses in Athens are not reliable and you likely will see very few of them while you're here. When you can't walk or ride the subway, you will be in a cab. And here's where things can get dicey.
Riding iin Cabs With Greeks
People will tell you that the language barrier in Greece is no big deal, since most people speak English anyway. And that is not altogether true. Many people do speak English to some degree, but at least half the people you encounter will not be on the level of conversational English.
This can even happen with cab drivers. You will be pointing at maps on your phone and doing a lot of gesturing and sometimes, the cab driver will have no clue where you are going. They may need you to give them directions. And when you're not familiar with the city and there is a language barrier, this can be a whole problem.
I literally got dropped off in the middle of a neighborhood at one point and had to walk 20 minutes in the street in beach shoes.
And that was far from my worst cab experience in Athens. There was also an incident when I was sincerely worried about my life and another where I got scammed. Allow me to elaborate.
I went straight to Athens from London and if you read my most recent blogs about London, you know I got sick there. I was still sick in Greece and towards the end of the trip, I had recovered mostly from this but I had a cough still. And you would have thought that I was a carrier of the Black Plague, okay? I had a woman in the metro station give me the dirtiest look I have ever seen and then move away from me like I was the Grim Reaper itself.
Then, I coughed twice in a cab and this man straight up lost his mind over it. He started driving like he was in a full-on police chase. It was truly unsafe and I was extremely uncomfortable and then I had to hand this man my money after he could have easily killed me.
It was off the chart. I do not know if Greece had a particularly bad experience with Covid or what, but try to keep it low key if you are sick in Athens, because I felt like Typhoid Mary up in this town.
The point I'm getting at is, don't expert professionalism or English or even a very good knowledge of the city from your cab drivers.
They also are not exactly super super keen on Americans. There's nothing I can do to help you there, it's just so you know you will get some comments and some questions. And with me and the way I sound, they didn't even really ask if I'm American. They just knew. And it happened a lot where comments were made and it was not awesome. And it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better, if it gets better.
The Land Where Democracy Was Born
Also. Greece, and Athens in particular, is the cradle of Democracy. Okay, this is literally where that style of government was born. They fought against monarchies and emperors and overlords to maintain that democracy, which is awesome in many ways. And the people of Athens let their voices be heard. So what this means for you is, there is a better than average chance that while you are in Athens, some group of workers is going to go on strike.
Collective bargaining is alive and well here. And when I was in Athens, all the cab drivers went on strike. The very day that I needed to get out of the city all the way to Piraeus, which is where the dock is located. I had a ferry ticket to get out to the Island of Crete and taking a cab is pretty much the only way to get there. So, this was a huge problem.
And what happened was, I ended up way, way overpaying for a cab ride because essentially this guy took advantage of me and the situation and drove me off the books, without the meter running. And then, he just charged me whatever he wanted to charge me, which was about three times what the normal rate would have been.
Getting Around in Athens
So, getting around Athens can be a whole adventure in and of itself. This is why I want you to arrange a car service to take you from the airport to your accommodations. Get another one to take you back to the airport at the end of your trip.
Have a map of the metro system, and have a backup plan just in case. And bring about 100 extra dollars in Euros, because that's what they use. Keep that on you safely and hidden, because you may end up paying for an expensive ride.
Only take a ride from a cab that is clearly marked or from a driver you have hired through a service. Sadly, there are many scammers in Greece. In fact, my next blog is specifically about the various scams you may encounter and what to do with that and one of the common scams is fake cabs. So only choose one that is marked, that has a meter inside of it, and make sure you get a confirmation of the price of the ride before you get in the car.
And About That Ferry...
Speaking of the Port of Piraeus and the ferry. This is another mode of transport you are likely to use in Athens if you plan to visit any of the Greek islands. Santorini, Mykonos, Crete, these are popular destinations and these are accessible only by boat or by plane.
And if you’re a budget traveler like I am, the ferry is going to look like the better option. I'm going to explain why it actually isn’t. Taking a plane is more expensive, but it’s also much quicker. Also, riding the ferry kind of stinks. Let me break this down.
So at the port, none of the signs are in English. They’re all in Greek, which I do not speak and certainly do not read. The employees there that I tried to speak to did not speak English.
When I finally got to the ferry after a harrowing experience trying to get a cab during a cab strike, I had to get on a bus to get to the right area of the dock. The bus was extremely crowded. The announcements were all in Greek and I didn’t know at all if I was in the right place. I ended up running across this like paved area, back and forth to a boat carting luggage the whole time, sick as a dog, and it was a whole thing.
And then, I got on the ferry. Now, here’s the deal with the ferry. It is an overnight ferry because it takes several hours to sail out to Crete and they don’t care if you get a room or not. You can lay up on the deck, lay out on the floor, and people do it. You’ll find people all spread out everywhere. I even saw people with dogs. So there’s luggage and people everywhere. Now, I paid a little more to have a cabin, which is what a room on a boat is called, and I paid even more to have a room with a bathroom. Because that’s an upgrade.
And this was an incredibly uncomfortable and cramped, tiny room. I was not able to control the temperature in the room, which was set to freezing and the bedding and all that was very uncomfortable.
Spend a little more money and save a lot more time and just take a plane. This is definitely a change I would make if go back to Greece.
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