Island Hopper

Athens → Mykonos → Paros → Santorini

The one everyone does, and it works because the ferries are frequent and all three have airports. Fly home from Santorini rather than doubling back.

Athens → Naxos → Koufonisia → Amorgos → Santorini

Same start and finish, entirely different trip. The Small Cyclades in the middle are the quietest islands within easy reach of the famous ones.

Athens → Milos → Sifnos → Serifos

The western Cyclades line. Volcanic beaches on Milos, the best food in the Cyclades on Sifnos, and a short final hop back to Piraeus.

Rhodes → Symi → Kos → Kalymnos → Patmos

A clean south to north chain. Fly into Rhodes, out of Kos, or continue to Patmos and take the overnight ferry back to Piraeus.

Corfu → Paxi → Lefkada → Kefalonia

Greener and gentler than the Aegean. Lefkada is joined to the mainland by a bridge, so a hire car works well on this one.

Piraeus → Hydra → Spetses → Poros

No flights required and the longest crossing is under two hours. Hydra bans cars entirely, everything moves by donkey or on foot.

High speed catamaran

Roughly half the journey time, roughly double the fare. Enclosed cabin, airline style seating, no outside deck. First to be cancelled when the wind gets up, and a rougher ride in swell. Most carry cars, but the smallest do not.

Conventional ferry

Slower, cheaper, far more pleasant. Open decks, proper seating, cabins on overnight sailings. Handles bad weather much better. If your schedule allows it, this is the one to take.

Aegean Airlines

The national carrier, widest network, code shares with Olympic Air.

Olympic Air

Domestic specialist, reaches the smaller island airports.

Sky Express

26 island destinations, including several island to island routes that skip Athens.

Driving licences and permits

Each row above is that government's own advice to its own drivers. Australia's embassy in Athens dates the recognition of Australian licences to Greek law 4850, article 25, paragraph 3, published 5 November 2021. Canada tells travellers a valid Canadian licence is enough. The US State Department says Greek law wants a valid US licence, and that insurers may want a permit alongside it. None of that binds the rental desk: agencies set their own rules and routinely refuse the rental without one, so a permit is still the cheap way to end an argument at the counter. A permit is issued at home, never in Greece. The US State Department notes a postal route you can apply through from abroad, but says it is likely to take days or weeks, so it will not rescue a booking made this week. Checked 3 September 2026 against UK Foreign Office travel advice, the Australian Embassy in Athens, the Government of Canada and the US State Department.

What actually goes wrong

Unsealed roads. Many rental agreements exclude damage on dirt tracks, and on plenty of islands the last stretch to the good beach is exactly that. Read the clause before you turn off the tarmac.

Fuel. Small islands may have one or two stations, near the main town, shut on Sunday and in the evening. Fill up when you pass one rather than when you need one.

Parking. In August the main town is the hard part of the day, not the driving. Park on the edge and walk in.

Sunday and siesta. Village shops and some fuel stops close through the early afternoon and much of Sunday. Plan the long drive around it.

When to book

• July to August: book 3 to 6 weeks ahead. Santorini and Mykonos sailings sell out, and so do the cars.
• High speed, peak season: 2 to 4 weeks ahead.
• Conventional ferries, shoulder season: often fine to book a day or two before.
• Winter: sailings drop sharply and some routes stop entirely. Check before committing to anything.

Season by season

• April to May: green, quiet, cheap. Some routes not yet running.
• June & September: the sweet spot, full timetables, warm sea, fewer crowds.
• July to August: everything runs, everything is full, and the meltemi is at its strongest.
• October: lovely early on, but timetables thin out fast after mid month.

At the port

• Arrive 60 to 90 minutes early. Blue Star's own embarkation rule is to report at the embarkation area at least one hour before departure, and it gives the same one hour to passengers travelling by car.
• Piraeus is big, and the gate follows the vessel rather than the island. Blue Star and Hellenic Seaways both publish Santorini sailings from gate E1, on Blue Star Chios, and from E6 and E7, on Blue Star 1, Blue Star Naxos and Blue Star Delos, where E6 is passengers only and E7 takes passengers and vehicles. E9 is their Saronic Gulf high speed gate, for Aegina, Agistri, Poros, Hydra, Ermioni, Spetses and Porto Heli. Check the boards on the day.
• The Saronic Gulf gate is published as both E8 and E9, and which one is right depends on who you sail with. Both operators' Piraeus port maps put the Aero Highspeed 1 to 5 vessels at E9, and both also list E8 among the port entrance gates. Hellenic Seaways' own Poros page says instead that the departure takes place from Gate E8, while pointing you at that same port map. Saronic Ferries, a different company on the same crossing, publishes E8 for all its Poros routes. Take the gate off your own ticket rather than off any guide, and check the boards.
• Piraeus is about 25 minutes by metro from Monastiraki in central Athens; the airport is 45 km away.
• Metro Line 3 reaches Piraeus from the airport with no change, 61 minutes on the metro operator's own timetable, and the airport branch runs every 36 minutes every day of the week.
• Last trains matter more than journey times. The last airport train out of Piraeus leaves at 22:55, and the last train out of the airport at 23:34, which runs through to Piraeus at 00:35. Both times are off the metro operator's own first and last train departures table for Line 3.
• On a works night those last trains do not run. The same operator has rail replacement works on the Eleonas to Monastiraki section from Wednesday 16 September 2026, and from Sunday to Thursday the last airport train is 21:06 out of Dimotiko Theatro and 21:10 out of the airport. After 21:40 airport trains start from Syntagma and arriving airport trains stop at Syntagma, the last one leaving the airport at 23:34 and going no further than Syntagma. Check the operator on the day before you count on a late sailing connection.
• Rafina and Lavrio are closer to the airport than Piraeus and often quicker for the northern Cyclades.

Fares and discounts

• Deck or economy seating is the cheapest fare and fine for short daytime hops.
• Cabins are worth it on any overnight crossing.
• Up to 50% off for children aged 5 to 10, students at Greek public universities, and travellers with disabilities plus a companion. On Blue Star's own table the disability rate is written for a disability over 80% evidenced by a Greek certification document, so a card issued elsewhere may not be accepted.
• Island residents are not an operator discount, and this page used to say they were. Blue Star's table above carries no island resident rate at all. The help is a state scheme, the Transport Equivalent, and on the government's own gov.gr page it lets beneficiary permanent residents of the islands quote a Unique Islander Number when the ticket is issued, so they can be paid back the difference in the cost of transport. It is money returned to residents rather than a fare a visitor can ask for at the counter.
• You do not have to be a Greek student. An ISIC card earns the same 50%, and it covers foreign universities and private schools, though not school pupils. Show it when the ticket is issued and again at boarding.
• Infants and children up to 4 travel free, in economy. The same operator charges them 50% for a cabin or a numbered seat, so the free fare and the overnight cabin above do not combine.
• Discounts are not cumulative, only the largest one applies, and if you cannot produce the supporting document the fare difference is collected.
• Vehicles cost roughly two to three times a foot passenger fare.

Luggage and pets

• No check in for luggage, you carry it on and leave it in the racks by the door.
• Allowances are generous and loosely enforced, typically around 50 kg per person. The figure sits in Blue Star's conditions of travel as an entitlement, and it reads 50 kilos or one cubic metre, so a light bulky load can reach the limit before the weight does.
• Pets travel on most routes, usually free if declared at booking. Small pets in a carrier can stay with you; larger dogs use onboard kennels.
• Declaring the pet is the law, not a courtesy. Under Law 4830/2021 the animal must be named on the reservation to get its zero fare ticket, and tickets for animals cannot be issued on board, so an undeclared dog cannot be sorted out at the gate. Five pets per booking is the ceiling.
• High speed vessels are the exception. Blue Star's companion animals page allows pets on them only in a small carrier up to 10 kg, so a large dog is safer on a conventional ship. Its general conditions page also names kennels on high speed vessels, so confirm with the operator when you book. Pets are kept out of cabins other than the designated pet cabins, and out of bars, restaurants and indoor public areas.
• Carry pet health documents.

If a sailing is cancelled

• You can normally move to another departure of equal value, or request a full refund from the operator. It is a right, not a favour. EU Regulation 1177/2010 puts the choice in your hands once a sailing is cancelled or leaves more than 90 minutes late: rerouting to your destination under comparable conditions at no extra cost, or the ticket price back, paid within seven days.
• Wind changes what you are owed, but not that refund. Where the carrier shows the cancellation came from weather endangering the safe operation of the ship, the delay compensation and the accommodation fall away. The choice between rerouting and your money back does not.
• Delay compensation, where it does apply, is 25% of the fare for a late arrival, rising to 50% if the delay exceeds double the threshold. The thresholds begin at one hour on a crossing scheduled to take up to four hours.
• Cancelling your own ticket is a different matter. That runs on the operator's own scale, not on the regulation. Blue Star's high season terms are free up to 14 days before departure, 75% back up to 7 days, and 50% from there until departure.
• Check the operator's alerts page before travelling on a windy day.
• Strikes happen, usually with a few days' notice.
• This is exactly why the buffer day before your flight home matters.

Compare everything

• FerryhopperReal time schedules, clean interface, mobile tickets, no hidden fees. Its own published figures are over 1,700 destinations in 63 countries and 360 ferry companies
• FerryscannerReal time comparison across 900+ destinations, 6,000+ routes and 350+ ferry companies, its own published figures
• Direct FerriesWidest international coverage, useful for Italy and Turkey links. Its Greece page lists 49 ferry companies and up to 7,672 sailings a week

Main operators

• Blue Star FerriesLarge conventional ships, the Cyclades and Dodecanese backbone. Its own destination list also covers the North Aegean, the Saronic Gulf and Crete
• SeajetsThe high speed fleet, fastest crossings in the Cyclades. Its route schedule also carries Crete, the Sporades, Thessaly and Evia, and Kythera to Kissamos
• Hellenic SeawaysSaronic Gulf, including the Piraeus to Hydra crossing, plus the Cyclades, the Dodecanese and the North Aegean
• Golden Star FerriesRafina routes to the northern Cyclades, and onward sailings to Paros, Naxos, Ios and Santorini

Also worth knowing

• Fast FerriesConventional vessels, competitive fares to Santorini and the central Cyclades. Also the western Cyclades, and Lemnos, Samothrace and Agios Efstratios out of Alexandroupoli
• Minoan Lines & ANEKThe big Crete routes from Piraeus. Minoan calls at Heraklion, ANEK at Chania, Heraklion and Sitia, and both also serve Milos
• Aegean Sea LinesWestern Cyclades, Milos, Sifnos, Serifos, Kimolos
• Saronic FerriesAegina, Agistri, Methana and Poros, the four destinations it sails from Piraeus