last edited Aug 18, 2020
Getting to Mainland Greece
Location Map of Mainland Greece
Mainland Greece
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By Land
Whether by car, bus, or train, access to this part of the country is easy. There are also no issues traveling to or from neighboring countries such as Albania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Turkey.
By Sea
Ferries
From/to Italy:
With Patras (Peloponnese), Igoumenitsa is the main entry point for ferries arriving from Italy. In fact, this is where most tourists traveling by vehicle from Western Europe disembark, preferring to take a ferry from Italy rather than crossing the Balkans. The port of Igoumenitsa is connected to Ancona (Anek/Superfast + Minoan), Bari (Anek/Superfast + Ventouris), Brindisi (Grimaldi), Trieste (Minoan), and Venice (Anek/Superfast).
From/to the islands:
As expected, ferry traffic is densest between the mainland and its islands. With Athens/Piraeus, Rafina, and Lavrio, the Greek capital has three departure ports for the islands. Piraeus has always offered the most options.
Elsewhere, on the northern coast, the ports of Thessaloniki and especially Kavala provide departures to several islands in the northern Aegean (Chios, Ikaria, Lesbos, Limnos, Samos...). To the east, Volos and Agios Konstantinos serve the nearby Sporades.
Cargo
Cruises
Sailboats
By Air
With Thessaloniki and especially Athens, mainland Greece has two of the country’s three main airports (along with Heraklion). So, there’s no difficulty arriving directly by plane, including off-season, which is not the case for the vast majority of Greek Islands.