Domestic Flights
Olympic Airways and its subsidiary Olympic Aviation ( www.olympic-airways.gr ) at present operate most of the domestic flights within Greece. They cover a fairly wide network of islands and larger mainland towns, though most routes are to and from Athens or Thessaloniki. Airline operation has been officially deregulated in Greece since 1993, but the only private airlines to have successfully challenged the state-run carrier are the recently merged Aegean-Cronus Airlines ( www.aegeanair.com and/or www.cronus.gr ), and newcomer Axon. Aegean-Cronus has cherry-picked the high-volume, high-profit routes between Crete (Hania and Iraklio), Thira, Mytilini, Rhodes, Corfu Kavala, Ioannina, Athens and Thessaloniki; Axon, newly appeared in 2001, currently links Athens or Thessaloniki with Samos, Mykonos, Santorini, Rhodes and Crete (Hania and Iraklio), though their Embraer jets are the sleekest and fastest things going domestically. Tickets for all three airlines are most easily obtained from travel agents (their own high-street outlets are thin on the ground). Axon and Aegean-Cronus often undercut Olympic price-wise, and surpass it service-wise, though flight frequencies tend to be sparse. This, of course, could change drastically if financially troubled Olympic goes under, as is perennially threatened, and a successor state carrier offers inevitably reduced service. For the moment, Olympic schedules can be picked up at their offices abroad or through their branch offices and representatives in Greece, which are maintained in almost every town or island of any size; English-language schedules are published twice yearly (April and Oct). Cronus-Aegean has historically produced two booklets per year, in spring and late autumn. Fares for flights to and between the islands, including the domestic airport tax of about ?10, work out around three to four times the cost of a ferry journey, but on certain inter-island hauls that are poorly served by boat (Rhodes-Kastellorizo or Karpathos-Kassos, for example), you should consider this time well bought. Island flights are often full in peak season; if they're an essential part of your plans, it is worth trying to make a reservation at least a week to ten days in advance. If a flight you've set your heart on is full, waiting lists exist - and are worth signing on to at the airport check-in counter; experience has shown that there are almost always one or two no-shows or cancellations. Domestic air tickets are nonrefundable, but you can change your flight, space permitting, without penalty as late as a couple of hours before your original departure. Incidentally, the only surviving Olympic-run shuttle buses between the main town and the airport are on Kos, Limnos and Kastellorizo; others have long since been axed as a cost-cutting exercise. In several instances (Athens, Thessaloniki, Ioannina, Hios, Rhodes), municipally run services have picked up the slack, but otherwise you're at the mercy of the taxi-drivers who congregate outside the arrivals gate. Like ferries, flights are subject to cancellation in bad weather, since many services are on small, 50- or 68-seat ATR turbo-prop planes, or even tinier Dornier 18-seaters, none of which will fly in strong winds or (depending on the destination airport) after dark. Despite these uncertainties, a flight on a Dornier puddle-jumper is a highly recommended experience. You can watch the crew, who are often on first-name terms with passengers, flicking switches in the cockpit; virtually every seat has a view, and you fly low enough to pick out every island feature - you might even select beaches in advance. Size restrictions also mean that the 15-kilo baggage weight limit can be fairly strictly enforced, especially on the Dorniers; if, however, you've just arrived from overseas or purchased your ticket outside Greece, you are allowed the 20-23-kilo standard international limit. All services operated on the domestic network are non-smoking .
Kavourotrypes beach.kostas says "An excellent,fantastic,superb beach in Sithonia peninsula of Chalkidiki.Its about half an hour trip from Porto Coufo by car.Its a mixed beach,for ordinary peolple and for nudists!Try a visit there." Tour Greece On Line (Video + Stills)David Mundstock says "My film "I Follow Apollo” presents the highlights of Greece, including Athens, Olympia, Meteora, Sparta, the Byzantine Empire, and a cruise to the islands of Mykonos, Santorini, Crete, & Rhodes, plus Ephesus in Turkey.
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To watch the videos or view the stills, please ask a search engine for: Intrepid Berkeley Explorer" tramadoltramadol says "tramadol" ultramultram says "ultram"
Your Tip for Greece
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