At last – the ferry times for Santorini to Crete and Crete to Santorini

Starting April 9th 2009 – the high speed catamaran service

Crete (Heraklion port) > Santorini > Ios > Paros >Mykonos.

09.45 In the morning depart Heraklion port Crete – arrive 11.25 Santorini

17.45 (5.45 PM) In the afternoon depart Santorini – arrive in Crete at Heraklion port at 19.25 (7.25 PM).

Prices remain the same as last year

This information will soon appear in Schedule form at
www.CreteTravel.com/ferries

Online ticketing at www.hellenicseaways.gr

Ferry Schedules have started to be updated (from 12 March 2009) and will continue to be added to over the next week – including sailings to Santorini, Crete and Athens (Pireas/Piraeus).

Santorini >
http://www.cretetravel.com/To_and_from_Crete/Ferries_Crete_Santorini.htm

Crete – still updating, ongoing as new schedules are compiled, announced and confirmed >
http://www.cretetravel.com/To_and_from_Crete/Ferries_Crete.htm

Plain sailing !

As usual ferry (and catamaran) schedules between Crete and Santorini have been announced laughably late – but here they are in summary, at long last.

Service commencing 18 April 2008 – Catamaran high speed service between Crete and Santorini on Hellenic Seaways
- Depart Heraklion 0945 mornings *
- Depart Santorini 1745 (5.45PM) afternoons *
Sailing time is just under two hours.
* NOTE: No sailings “Every Other Wednesday” ( Go figure ! ! )

Commencing “Beginning of May” – Sea Jets – similar (but not yet firm) schedule to above…slightly earlier for both departure times “likely”.

Full schedules – Soon – at>
http://cretetravel.com/To_and_from_Crete/Ferries_Crete_Santorini.htm

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Where to stay when you do get to Santorini?
SuperbGreece.com has all the answers for you – and glorious they are.

For over 4 days 40 degree-plus temperatures (asburdly high for June) have caused discomfort and increased health and fire danger throughout Greece, mainland and islands.

Thankfully this heatwave is over.

So if island-hopping is something you always dreamed of….a few days on one Greek island, several on another and then – after a week or some weeks hopping on and off ferries, a chance to review notes and pics, videos and sound files and compare island characterisics, rythms and style…..the updated information here will inspire and help you > http://www.cretetravel.com/To_and_from_Crete/Ferries_Crete_Santorini.htm (see the bottom of the page ! )

From this winter, airport duties, fees to land at Heraklion and Chania airports in Crete, have been cut in half – yes, reduced by 50 percent. That’s huge.

So Richard, Michael, Stelios & Michael – when you gonna’ fly ?

What I mean is – a great time has arrived for year round scheduled, low fare flights from the UK and other European hubs…to Crete, Greece’s largest island.

Crete also boasts a large number of foreign home owners, and students flying to and from the UK, a great appetite to offer traditional hospitality to guests in the winter and an appetite amongst would-be visitors to visit in the “quiet season” when Crete offers a meandering, calm and own-it-all, un-crowded feel.

So my friend Mr Branson and competing acquaintances Mr Bishop, Mr Haji-Ioannou and Mr O’Leary when you gonna fly…

We invite Virgin, BMI, easyJet, Ryanair to add service to Crete. Need our help? Just ask and we will do our best.

Thanks for listening and have a prosperous summer.

Greece: Ferries are the norm, a romantic and practical mode of transport.

So many have been asking, when will the schedules be published for the high speed ferries – the catamarans – between Crete and Santorini ?

They are now – at last you can plan your trip.

Santorini – Crete Schedules: http://www.cretetravel.com/To_and_from_Crete/Ferries_Crete_Santorini.htm

Enjoy the 2 hour trip ! And enjoy both islands.

WINE
Today ( June 22 ) and tomorrow, many will sip wine and taste many varieties at the Rethymna Beach Hotel along Rethymno’s golden stretch of sand.

A wine festival will part the buckets and spades and make way for a tranquil drink or two.

FERRIES
Meanwhile we wait for – or rather some who wish to visit Greece – wait for many of the ferry routes\’ schedules to be confirmed for September.

They will be (published) one day – but as is the rule when you combine our ferry companies with a shipping and tourism bureaucracy which seems to live in (wish they did) another world…..the country that so many in the world wish to visit cannot seem to manage (so far) to help them plan a trip to the magical Greek islands unless they plan (Greek-style) one day ahead…and no more than that!

Apart from http://www.CreteTravel.com/ferries you can always look at ferries.gr or gtp.gr for as much information as is currently available…

But we know everything is improving in Greece, everything and we insist that this continues. You will never stop a good thing!

We await the mass exodus of the “public sector people” to the aforementioned other world – then boy oh boy, will we see a country!

Kalimera Ellada!

They are models, depictions, sculptures, and fun images.
The “Cow Parade” comes to Athens. A moving feast of an “art” event, first created by Walter Knapp in Zurich. Now after several cities have been exposed to sponsored sculptures, figures and representations of….cows, Athens is not be left out.

From May 8 major squares, the airport and some metro stations will cow-down to cows and this whimsical festival will have everyone in a very dairy mood….

On the Shipping News Front: Shipping owners have finally had enough. Understandably so. Even though we hate strikes. This time shipping companies are to keep their ships tied at port on May 16 in protest at the slow liberalization, to allow free competition on ferry routes within and to/from Greece.

The criticism of slowness and a lack of liberalization (encouragement of free enterprise) can be levelled fairly and squarely at all areas of Greek government, yes – even the current supposedly/allegedly enterprise-friendly government.

We can only hope that this government is slowly (but clearly too slowly) extricating itself from the outdated practices of its discredited predecessors.

Meanwhile laugh at the cows while the ships are in port.

Crete to Santorini ( from Heraklion to Thira ( Santorini ) ) fast ferry, Catamaran, service by Hellenic Seaways will start this year on 14 April 2006.

Actual days and times are Yet To Be Confirmed !

( LAST YEAR the sailings were daily Excluding Wednesdays and departure from Heraklion was 9:15 in the morning, from Santorini departure was at 5:00 PM in the afternoon )

After a few days of ferry strikes in Greece – ferry services have re-commenced activity and we anticipate freshly stocked shelves in shops and supermarkets. The rumbling and discussions continue over pay or disputed terms of work…. Meanhwile farmers, growers and those in the perishable goods businesses and industries can return to business as usual, though many have suffered losses due to delayed or cancelled shipments.

After howling high winds on Thursday and at night into Friday, Crete is under a pall of suspended haze and dust particles (not as bad as it may sound as this is a regular phenomenon), creating a Pasoliniesque-style haze, with the sun fighting through. The result is a rather dazzling bright white, hint-of-pink-tinged sky. Storms in much more southern climes bring this haze north every so often…as an impudent interruption, a contrast to our normally clear air and pure skies.
The better part of this is that the southern winds delivering this strange modification of vistas, bring warm air, temperatures meandering in the teens and early twenties (Celsius of course ! ).