How Will We Get to Greece?

There are a lot of options to getting to Greece but you first have to decide when you want to go and for how long. Once you know when and how long, then you can figure out how to get there.

The main considerations are how much you want to spend and how easily do you want to get there. If this is a romantic journey, in one way or another then you probably want to get there as quickly and as comfortable as possible. My recommendation is a nonstop flight from the US to Athens. There are four airlines that offer this(Olympic from NY, Continental from Newark, NJ, USAir from Philadelphia and Delta from NY and Atlanta). There are many more airlines that you can fly that have connections through Europe, but I've tried both and the direct flights from the US are by far the most comfortable(unless you're coming a city in the US that doesn't have a decent connection to any of those flights). The US direct flights are great because you leave the East Coast of the US in the late afternoon and arrive in Greece the following morning, ready to go. If you connect through Europe you arrive in Europe the morning after departing from the US, have to make a connection which would entail waiting for 1 to 3 or more hours and then flying another 2-4 hours arriving in Athens in the afternoon, exhausted and unable to do anything but sleep. The return flights are also better as they usually leave in the late morning/early afternoon so you can wake up and have a leisurely breakfast and then head to the airport(or do a little shopping if you have an afternoon flight). Many of the European carriers have flights departing from 3am to 8am. When you add getting to the airport two hours early to the mix, you'll have a pretty rough last night in Greece! Arriving in Greece on a comfortable/convenient flight can make a world of difference on how you start your holiday!

If money is an issue and you want to do it less expensively then you may have to deal with the inconvenience of less than ideal connections and/or arrival/departure times. British Air has had some pretty good rates, but their scheduling leaves much to be desired from many US cities(8-12 hour layovers in London and a connect with a flight that arrives in Athens at 230am). If you have a short holiday then you may want to bite the bullet and take the least expensive flight. On the other hand you can also arrange stopovers(if the airline allows it) and spend a day or two in another country on your way to Greece.

There are also a series of low cost airlines in Europe that can cut the cost of travel. We found flights on EasyJet from Milan to Athens in September for 30 euro( http://agreatfare.com/CaseStudy-Milan-EasyJet.htm ). Along with our RDU-Milan and then ATH-RDU we ended up spending $750 per person including taxes...

There are many different ways to find an inexpensive way to Greece. I've listed a lot of the strategies at AGreatFare.com Instead of my running through them all here, just visit the web site and it will give you an idea of what is possible and how to go about looking for low fares or creative ways to travel to Greece(and Europe).