Athens Airport Transfers

[Will Work for Tiramisu]

Gentle Board Readers,

We are disembarking from S Odyssey in Athens in mid September, and have a 12:30 pm international flight to catch at the main airport (ATH, Eleftherios).  Enough time, but not for delays; I think it is about an hour trip by car.  Do any of you have experience re: reliability of just hailing a taxi from the dock (2 peeps, 4 bags)?  Are taxi fares regulated, or are we likely to get "the scenic route"?  Or, any recommendations of prepaid transfer services?  Lastly, does Seabourn provide assistance onboard with making these sort of transfer arrangements?  Thanks for any info you can provide. 

[wdpmd]

WWfT,

 

The simplest way is Welcome pickups.  It can be prebooked and seems to be about the same price as a taxi.  We used them a few years back and they were fine - clean, punctual, very helpful drivers. 

 

I've also done it by metro.  We had the misfortune to arrive in mid taxi strike and had no other way to get to the port.  The metro was fine and easy to use.  Unfortunately, there is a significant walk from pireus metro stop to the cruise terminal.  The walk was interesting while dragging our baggage.

[Tillylovesseabourn]

Seconding welcome pick ups, used them many times and they are excellent.

[SKP946]

Seabourn have put on a bus direct to the Athens airport in the past. We found it an excellent service, we had a choice of 8 am and  9am buses. We had about 20 pax on a 50? seat bus.

It was less cost than a taxi for the two of us; we didn’t have to touch our suitcases, they were loaded in for us and there were a couple of staff waiting with trolleys when we arrived at Athens airport.

Check with the ship when you board.

Be wary of Welcome PIck-Ups, they were late for both our airport pick up in Barcelona and from the ship in Amsterdam, both in May.

We were off the ship at 0715, the driver arrived at 0750. ! (We had a 11.15 flight, we made it, even though there was a strike at the airport!)

Edited July 9, 2019 by SKP946

[frantic36]

4 hours ago, SKP946 said:

Seabourn have put on a bus direct to the Athens airport in the past. We found it an excellent service, we had a choice of 8 am and  9am buses. We had about 20 pax on a 50? seat bus.

It was less cost than a taxi for the two of us; we didn’t have to touch our suitcases, they were loaded in for us and there were a couple of staff waiting with trolleys when we arrived at Athens airport.

Check with the ship when you board.

Be wary of Welcome PIck-Ups, they were late for both our airport pick up in Barcelona and from the ship in Amsterdam, both in May.

We were off the ship at 0715, the driver arrived at 0750. ! (We had a 11.15 flight, we made it, even though there was a strike at the airport!)

 

SKP946 just to let you know the Seabourn transfers aren't always available as you describe. As of this time on Odyssey, the only transfer available for disembarkation on the 20th July is the one that includes a tour. Our friends are organising a transfer with their TA as the Seabourn transfer will get them to the airport too late for their flight. They frequently use the Seabourn transfer so they were surprised. Maybe this will change closer to the time but they aren't willing to wait.

 

SKP so sorry to hear of your bad experience with Welcome pick-up, we just used them for two transfers in Athens: Airport to hotel and hotel to port. As we have two large bags plus two carry-on bags they ensured that the car they sent was able to handle our baggage easily. Both drivers were prompt and friendly. With our airport pick-up our plane was almost an hour late and Michael was still waiting and very cheery.

 

Julie

 

 

[Tillylovesseabourn]

Skp, welcome pick ups athens have always been timely and excellent hosts and I have used them over a dozen times in Athens, i guess the ones in other parts of europe are only as good as who runs them,but nothing imho to be wary of in Athens. 

 

Also the total cost of the private transfer was around €50, and I haven't seen an SB transfer for much less than that for two, at a time of my preference.