Greece – Transportation Overview

Greece – Transportation Overview

In this video I’m going to provide you with a quick overview of some of the uh public and private transportation options uh that are available to you should you decide to visit Greece and especially if you’re considering doing a trip through the mainland I have an entire video dedicated to renting a car

Uh that will come after this video so I’m not going to go into too many details about that here um but nonetheless there are different options for you uh including bus trains fairies and so on and so forth and I thought it would be beneficial to at least tell you

A little bit about uh those options even if it’s you know justifying my recommendation that you don’t use them so that you have the full uh Gambit of information at your disposal to help you make you know decisions for yourself so first of all I’d like to talk about uh

Gree’s uh bus system uh it goes by the acronym Kel KT e and it is not good there isn’t a central website because in fact the Kel bus system is I think 27 different regional Bus systems that operate under the Kel label um there isn’t an integrated payment system uh

The schedules are difficult to find uh and my understanding is that once you leave like the large cities like Athens and thesaloniki and you have have to you know catch a bus from like a small village or town the schedule really is more of like a suggestion it’ll show up

And depart when it wants if it shows up and departs at all um so not the most reliable or trustworthy B busing system and the first hint that you will have that this Transportation mode is just really problematic is just going on to Google Maps and trying to map a trip with you

You know buses from let’s say Athens to I don’t know camata and you’ll see that there’s nothing that really you know pops up even though there is a bus system that actually does exist there um so yeah every region is its own company you have to go onto their individual

Website to figure out what their schedules are you know where they operate what cities they connect to I mean there isn’t even an interactive map to know what the regions are so it’s literally just like a list of regions which how are you supposed to know where they are geographically and what cities

Or main cities are within those regions and what they connect you to it it was I mean it was just a mess and like girl I mean for a lot of these Regional companies you have to actually call them by phone like what kind of attack and punishment is this especially for

Generation texting that you have to call them and ask them for their schedule or to ask them you know where they end up you know going so like this whole busing system is like really due for like a an overhaul like Greece needs like flick

Bus you know 20 years ago but it needs it like immediately and honestly like as as as as as as someone who has traveled like all over Europe like I’m honestly surprised that the European Union even allows such a broken system like this to operate within the European Union and

Girl Greece has been part of the European Union for a really long time from like the early 80s it was one of the first countries to join after you know the United Kingdom and and and England joined in like the early 70s like it has been part of the union for a

Really long time where is Germany and the Netherlands and Belgium to go to the Greek minister of I don’t know infrastructure or transportation and to tell them to get their act together because this this should not be operating the way that it does for a

Country that is part of you know um and I know this is a politically charged ter but you know a a collection of First World countries this did not give me first world country um and I say that because you know I’m I’m Greek so I’m

I’m being a little more liberal if you will with my with my critiques but honestly I almost actually wrote an email like a sternly worded email to you know whatever minister is responsible for for public transportation in Greece and the European Union you know elected counterpart to basically say

This this needs to be fixed this is not acceptable it just it isn’t and I was also really surprised because some of the other places where I was looking for information spoke somewhat highly about Kel and the bus system saying that it got you wherever you needed to go and

Some you know uh sources even said that it was easy to use I’m pretty well traveled and I’m also Greek so I was able to even read like the Greek website and I did not find it easy to use I thought I got so confused and I was so frustrated that I

Again I literally wanted to write like a sternly worded email I mean I didn’t because I just forgot and got lazy and as if it would make a difference um but yeah I I I mean it was really you know trying to make sense of that mess of a

System that you know really obviously you know compelled me to choose the car as the really the only option to actually make your way uh around you know the mainland um I will say that you know if you want to use the bus system it could

Work if you want to do like a day trip out of a main city like you know Athens to maybe Deli and back um T saloniki to cavala or or or maybe um you know somewhere the names are are escaping me right now um Eesa for

Instance if you will but beyond using it for like a a day trip I I really cannot come close to recommending that you rely on the bus system to get you around the country but Hey listen uh maybe I misunderstood everything and maybe it is actually easy to use and maybe I’m just

Really bad at all of this I’m bad at traveling and bad at planning I that’s a possibility maybe somehow I missed EV I missed what everyone else was talking about uh so by all means please jump on to Google and type in Kel and uh you

Know if you can figure it out great uh and if not at least you know you’re you’re having a a bit of a laugh the way that I did the train system in Greece largely operates on the eastern part of the country and it’s really only good for connecting you from Athens to

Thesaloniki with I think a stop in Lisa which is a a a pretty a midsize City if you will but pretty big for Greek standards um in between the two cities um besides that it doesn’t really get you anywhere else um you know I I don’t know what else I can

Really say about the train system other than you know using it to get you um you know to a main city somewhere on the Eastern Seaboard and then maybe um you know using the bus system uh as a a substitute to to to get you from a main

City to another destination um but I I don’t unlike the rest of Europe like you know Italy is easy to sort of make fun of because you know trenitalia always goes on strike but hey at least with Tran Italia you can get anywhere in Italy like any small town you can get

There by train and it’s not an issue unless again the whole system sort of shuts down because they decide to go on strike that is not the case in Greece so Greece really does have have some work that they need to do on their on their public infrastructure uh because the

Western part of Greece is just there’s no train system there and even in the eastern part unless you’re going to one or two of the main cities um you’re going to have to rely on the Kel bus system which you know good luck if if if

If you’re a bit of a gambler you know I guess it could work but even then that’s only really going to get you probably to some of the mainor small cities and that’s that’s about it and most of what you really want to see in Greece isn’t necessarily those cities it’s the area

Around the city the fairies are surprisingly reliable again I didn’t really use the fairy system I only used it once and that was to get me from uh Bas over to the mainland um when I wanted to do a day trip over to nabos and that’s because the Bridge cost € 14

One way 28 to do a few hours in a city that’s located on the mainland which I would have actually done um when I was leaving Bas uh to make my way to lefada but um I I’m overall I’m glad that I didn’t do it that way just because you

Know naos I actually spent like a significant amount of time there so I’m glad that I was able to spend you know a full day there rather than stopping over for just like a quick hour or or so but nonetheless um Greece is an island country and it does have at least from

What I understand from people that I know who have visited the island um that it is a really well- integrated you know system that is you know reliable and based on the prices that I sort of saw when I was doing some research when I was considering going to the islands it

Looked like it was relatively affordable I think from Athens to you know moso cini mikonos was around €70 and cini was about 90 or 100 which isn’t isn’t awful considering you know uh the plane costs around the same amount of money and you know you’re traveling pretty decent

Distance unfortunately I don’t have a lot to say about the fairies because again I didn’t really use them and the fairy that I used was really just like a 10-minute fery ride over like a very small River or or or straight it wasn’t like a ferry that you would take from a

Port to to to go to the islands I did an island hop so um not going to say much more about that planes are also an option again largely if you want to make your way around to the islands um you you can take planes um in Greece um but

Largely those trips are going to be from Athens to one of the bigger cities patras or uh um Falon Niki um a lot of cities do actually have airports but it seems like those airports are like very Regional and a lot of the planes that Land There are not from uh other places

In Greece Kalamata has a pretty big airport but my understanding is that L mat’s flights are not from other places in Greece uh and again if you kind of hop onto Google flights or even you know Google Maps or or aan Airlines you’ll see that um flying around Greece isn’t

Really an option if you want to see anything outside of like the major cities it might be easy to get there if you were outside of Greece but unless you’re planning on going to the islands um or just going from one main city to another planes aren’t really going to to

Get you there and again if you are planning on doing the islands it’s really up to you to decide if it’s easier to fly there with a plane or if you’d like uh to take a ferry both seem feasible both seem to be around the same

Price I guess it depends on the time of the departures as well as you know um the hassle you might experience at an airport or I guess even the household at at at at a port but I know that for most people who visit the islands they prefer

The fairies they find it to be easier faster more reliable and and less of a hassle um overall

A brief overview of buses, trains, ferries and planes in Greece.

Content Breakdown:

0:00 – Intro
0:53 – Bus/KTEL
02:43 – Dramatic Gay Critique of KTEL (https://ktelbus.com/en/)
06:40 – Train
08:28 – Ferry
10:22 – Plane