Independent travel - Istanbul to Athens

[rpv2sail]

Has anyone done independent travel from Istanbul to Athens? I'm taking an Azamara Holy Land cruise May 03 '10 which departs from Athens. I would like to include a precruise visit to Istanbul. It looks like the flight is only about 1 1/2 hours yet when combine as part of my round trip from the US the cost comes to almost $600. I would appreciate your suggestions. Thanks,

[RHefley228]

It's very easy to do it by train. There's an overnight train with sleeping cars that goes from Istanbul to Thessaloniki, where you change to the train for Athens. It's been several years since I last did this, but I found it quite enjoyable. I first did it in 1972, and back then it was like being beaten with lumber. Try the Rail Europe website.

[CintiPam]

I believe that I read about two months ago on the Athens forum of tripadvisor (which I visit daily) that Olympic Air had just begun direct flights between Athens and Istanbul. You may wish to check out their website.

[MfromAMS]

Has anyone done independent travel from Istanbul to Athens? I'm taking an Azamara Holy Land cruise May 03 '10 which departs from Athens. I would like to include a precruise visit to Istanbul. It looks like the flight is only about 1 1/2 hours yet when combine as part of my round trip from the US the cost comes to almost $600. I would appreciate your suggestions. Thanks,

 

Aegean Airlines has been running specials between Athens and Istanbul. I've been getting regular emails promoting the flight. Too early to book a May flight, but the flights through the end of the year are 70-100 euro one-way Istanbul-Athens. The flight is a little over one hour.

 

We have flown Aegean within Greece and they are a very nice airline.

[ab0si]

As you have already found out, it's an easy non-stop flight. There might be some low cost airlines that fly into/out of SAW rather than IST. I suggest you forget about these. SAW is quite aways from Istanbul on the Asian side.

 

If prices were close, I'd suggest Turkish Airline, with Aegean in second place. I do my best to avoid Olympic.

 

I haven't taken the over-night train in years. Unless you are a train freak, I'd suggest simply flying.

[RHefley228]

If the overnight train interests you, the fare is 85Euro for one person, 97Euro (48.5 each) for two. Here's the website: http://www.turkeytravelplanner.com/trans/Train/dostluk_filia.html There's also a day train and bus service, both of which are slightly cheaper, but they're much much slower.

[Hlitner]

If you have the time you might want to check some cruise data bases and see if there is a convenient cruise ship running between the two ports. We once had your same issue and were able to grab a short 5 day cruise (on the old Marco Polo) from Athens to Istanbul (I assume there are also come cruises going the other way).

 

Hank