My cruise stops in Piraeus; is visiting Aegina too ambitious?

[craig01020]

Good morning.

 

Our October 2024 cruise is scheduled to stop in Piraeus from 6:00-17:00. Could we could take a morning ferry to Aegina and spent 4-5 hours before heading back to our ship? How far are the ferry docks from cruise docks and is this trip even realistic given our time constraints?

 

Thanks!

[MeHeartCruising]

I have no personal experience, but based on what I found using Internet searches, I don't see why you couldn't do this.  It looks like ferries only take 40 to 80 minutes to get there depending on the type of ferry you take.  So obviously, I'd target the fast ferry which takes 40 minutes.  I see a fast ferry at 6:30, but I doubt you'd make that one.  The next one is a slow ferry at 8:20, but there is another fast ferry at 8:30 which gets to Aegina faster -- at 9:10.  There are several afternoon return ferries you could pick from based on your comfort level for getting back to the ship.

 

I believe the ferries depart from an area of the port that would be about a 20-30 (or a little more) minute steady pace walk from Cruise Terminal A.   Depending on where your ship docks, you may need to take a shuttle bus from Terminal B or C to get to Terminal A.  You may be able to persuade a taxi to take you, but they generally want to go further distances.  There's probably a bus route as well, but I'm not up to speed on those.

 

The many ferries to the various islands leave from different dock areas in a section of the port.  I can't really tell where the Aegina ones depart from.  Hence the uncertainty on the timing.  But even if you walked from the cruise terminal, I think you'd have plenty of time to get to the most distant ferry dock by 8:30.

Edited April 7, 2023 by MeHeartCruising