Athens to Santorini: Ferry vs Flight (Times, Prices & Which to Book)

Fly if your time on Santorini is short; sail if the journey is part of the holiday. The Athens to Santorini ferry takes roughly four to five and a half hours on a high-speed boat and from about six hours on a conventional ship, against under an hour in the air, so door to door from central Athens you are weighing about three hours by plane against six to ten by sea. The prices overlap more than most people expect. On 26 September 2026 the airlines’ own sites were selling autumn seats from €49 one way, and the high-speed boat from Rafina started at €65.

This page is for first-time visitors working out how to get from Athens to Santorini, including anyone landing at Athens airport who wants to head straight on. The one caveat that matters: sailings change with the season and with the day’s wind, so treat every time here as a planning figure and confirm your own sailing on the operator’s site before you build a trip around it. For the other islands and the ports that serve them, start with our hub on getting from Athens to the islands. Details checked 26 September 2026 against Blue Star Ferries, Seajets, Golden Star Ferries, Fast Ferries, SKY express, Aegean, OASA and Athens International Airport.

At a glance	Flight	High-speed ferry	Conventional ferry
Cost, one way	From €49 (SKY express) or €50 (Aegean) on autumn 2026 dates	From €65 out of Rafina (Golden Star); Seajets: check your date	From €20 on Blue Star’s limited Super Economy seats
Time on board	Under an hour	About 4 to 5.5 hours	From 6 hours 6 minutes; 8 or more with extra calls
Door to door from Syntagma (our estimate)	About 3 to 3.5 hours	About 6 to 7.5 hours	About 8 to 10 hours
Getting to the start	Metro Line 3 (€9) or X95 bus (€5.50) to the airport	Metro to Piraeus (€1.20), or the KTEL bus to Rafina	Metro Line 1 or 3 to Piraeus (€1.20)
Book ahead?	Yes for July, August and holiday weekends	Yes in summer, and check the boat runs on your date	Yes if you want the cheap seats, which are limited
Best time	November to March, or any tight schedule	June, September and October, in daylight	Any season, with a spare day in hand

What’s changed in 2026?

Most of what goes wrong on this trip comes from advice that was right a few years ago. Reset these four things before you book.

• Headline crossing times are best cases. Blue Star quotes Piraeus to Santorini “from 6 hours 6 minutes”, yet its Blue Star 1 left Piraeus at 17:30 on 30 July 2026 and reached Santorini at 02:00, after calls at Paros and Naxos. The arrival time on the sailing you book is the only number that counts.
• The airport metro runs straight to Piraeus. Line 3 (blue) trains go from the airport to Piraeus station in about an hour, by the airport’s own estimate. Guides that tell you to change at Monastiraki are out of date.
• The €1.20 ticket doesn’t cover the airport. A one-way airport metro ticket costs €9 (reduced €4.50). The 90-minute €1.20 ticket gets you to Piraeus but isn’t valid on the airport lines.
• Summer isn’t storm-proof. Blue Star posted bad-weather itinerary changes for 28 July to 2 August and 9 to 11 August 2026, on top of its winter and spring notices.

One headline that doesn’t apply to you: the per-person fee Greece has charged at Santorini since 21 July 2025, €20 from June to September, is for cruise passengers. Ferry and air passengers don’t pay it.

Athens to Santorini ferry or flight: which should you book?

Price rarely settles this one. Your days on the island do. A flight turns the trip into a morning errand; a ferry turns it into the day’s main event, and on a high-speed boat in calm weather it’s a good one, with the Cyclades sliding past and the caldera walls rising either side as you come in. On a slow boat in a stiff wind, landing at 02:00, it is a very long day.

Fly if you have three nights or fewer on the island, you’re travelling between November and March, you’re prone to seasickness or you’re connecting from an international flight at Athens airport. That last case is the clearest win: you never leave the terminal, and you skip an hour on the metro to Piraeus.

Take the high-speed ferry if you want the sea approach without giving a whole day to it, you’re staying near Line 1 or Line 3 anyway, and your dates have a little slack in case the wind gets up.

Take the conventional ferry if the budget matters more than the hours, you’re travelling with small children or heavy luggage, or you hold an ISIC student card. Blue Star carries under-5s free in Economy on a zero-fare ticket, charges half for children aged 5 to 10 and takes 50% off for ISIC holders, which changes a family’s sums quickly. You can also walk about and get some air on deck, which no flight allows.

Island hopping? Then the ferry usually wins by default, because the boats link the islands to each other directly. From Santorini, Blue Star alone connects on to Heraklion, Anafi, Ios, Naxos, Paros and Sitia. Our 7-day Athens and islands itinerary shows how the legs fit into a week.

A day trip? Don’t. Even the fastest boats need around 8 hours for the round trip, and flying there and back in a day buys you a few hours in Fira’s summer crowds for the price of two fares. Give the island two nights at the very least.

Verdict: for most first-timers, sail there and fly back. The ferry gives you the arrival by sea that Santorini’s views are built around, and the flight home protects your international connection from a cancelled sailing.

How long does the trip really take, door to door?

Time on board is the number everyone quotes and the one that matters least. What decides your day is the whole chain: getting out of the centre, the margin you leave before departure, the crossing, then getting from the arrival point to your bed. Here it is from Syntagma, with our own planning margins marked as such.

Step	Flight	High-speed ferry	Conventional ferry
Centre to departure point	Metro Line 3 or the X95 bus: allow about an hour	Line 3 to Piraeus in about 20 minutes, plus the walk to your gate	Same as high-speed
Margin before departure (our advice)	At least an hour	45 minutes	45 minutes
Time on board	Under an hour	About 4 to 5.5 hours	From 6 hours 6 minutes; 8 or more with extra calls
Arrival to Fira	Short transfer from the airport	Transfer up the cliff road from Athinios	Same as high-speed
Door to door (our estimate)	About 3 to 3.5 hours	About 6 to 7.5 hours	About 8 to 10 hours

The flight column assumes you set off from the city. If you’re already at the airport after an international arrival, strike out the first hour and flying looks better still. The ferry columns assume Piraeus, where the geography is kind: Line 3 runs from Syntagma to Piraeus in about 20 minutes, and the station’s Port/Akti Kallimasioti exit is signed for Gate E6, one of the two gates Blue Star uses for Santorini. Other companies berth further along the waterfront, and a free port bus links the gates.

The tight case is landing at Athens airport with a boat to catch the same day. Line 3 takes about 60 minutes from the airport to Piraeus, and the X96 Airport Express bus about 90 minutes for €5.50, before you’ve found the right quay; Piraeus is about 45 km from the terminal. Leave generous slack, and read our guide to getting from Athens airport to Piraeus port before you pick a sailing.

Plan it: for an early boat, sleep somewhere on Line 1 or Line 3 so Piraeus is one train away; be at the port 45 minutes before departure; and choose a sailing that reaches Athinios in daylight.

Flying from Athens to Santorini: airlines, fares and bags

Two airlines fly the route nonstop and sell it on their own websites: Aegean, which now markets Olympic Air under the Aegean brand, and SKY express. Both were pricing autumn seats in a narrow band. On 26 September 2026 SKY express’s route page showed one-way Economy fares from €49 for every month from September to December 2026, and from €64 for January and February 2027. Its day-by-day chart for 26 September to 25 October ran from €49 to €75, and the two dearest days, 27 September and 25 October, were both Sundays. Aegean’s page, two days earlier, showed from €50 on most October dates.

Treat those as snapshots, not promises. Both airlines say their displayed fares were collected within the previous 48 hours, and they move daily. They are also bare fares. SKY express sells extra checked baggage of 15, 23 or 32 kilos as add-ons, so price the ticket you’d actually buy, suitcase included, before comparing it with a ferry.

Getting to Athens airport from the centre is straightforward. Metro Line 3 runs there from Syntagma on a €9 one-way airport ticket. The X95 Airport Express bus from Syntagma runs around the clock, costs €5.50 and takes about 60 minutes, traffic permitting. Taxis between the airport and the city centre charge a fixed flat fare. At the other end, Santorini’s airport sits on the island’s flatter east side, a short transfer from Fira.

Plan it: book on the airline’s own site, settle the checked-bag question when you book, and be at the terminal at least an hour before departure in summer.

Verdict: the better default in winter and on any trip where a day matters. It loses its edge only if the hours saved in the air vanish into queues at both ends, and a sea day you enjoy beats a morning in departures.

Which Athens port do Santorini ferries leave from?

Usually Piraeus, the big port about 10 km southwest of central Athens and a city in its own right. On some dates there’s also a high-speed boat from Rafina, on the east coast.

Piraeus: the default

Most sailings, all year. Blue Star, Seajets and Fast Ferries all run their Santorini boats from Piraeus. Blue Star’s leave from Gates E6 and E7, handy for the metro; other companies use other quays, so check the gate on your ticket rather than following the crowd. If you have hours to kill before an evening boat, In Town Check In, in the Agios Dionysios passenger terminal at Gate E3, stores luggage. Our Piraeus port guide covers the gates and the walk from the station in detail.

Rafina: the option on the airport side

5 hours 30 minutes, from €65. Golden Star Ferries lists Rafina to Santorini on its Superexpress high-speed boat at 5 hours 30 minutes, from €65, and the return at 5 hours 25 minutes. Check that your date is on Golden Star’s route page before you plan around it. The pull is location. Rafina sits on the airport side of Athens, and KTEL Attikis runs a direct bus from the airport’s Arrivals level, between Exits 2 and 3, to the port; its 2025 timetable listed nine departures a day from the airport, the first at 04:35. From the centre, Rafina means a KTEL bus from the Pedion Areos bus station rather than a quick metro ride, and our guide to Rafina port has those buses and their timetable caveats.

Verdict: Piraeus, unless you’re landing at Athens airport and heading straight for a summer morning boat, when Rafina spares you the 45 km trek across Attica to Piraeus.

Which ferry companies sail to Santorini, and how long do they take?

Four companies matter from Athens. Their websites’ headline times are the quickest sailings of the season, so use them to choose a company, then use the timetable to choose a boat.

Blue Star Ferries: the steady conventional ship

From 6 hours 6 minutes, Piraeus Gates E6 and E7. Blue Star is the route’s backbone: large conventional ferries with open decks, lounges, VIP seats and cabins, sailing all year. Its quoted time is the fastest routing. A sailing with more calls takes longer, like the 30 July 2026 departure that left Piraeus at 17:30, called at Paros and Naxos and reached Santorini at 02:00. Winter is thinner and stranger: in January 2026 Blue Star’s Piraeus line was calling at Santorini at hours such as 23:10 and 03:05, as part of a long run on to Anafi, Karpathos, Rhodes and Heraklion.

Verdict: the pick for families, budgets and anyone who wants room to move. Choose a morning departure where one runs on your date, because the evening boats land in the small hours. And don’t treat an evening sailing as a free night’s accommodation: a 02:00 arrival is the worst of both.

Seajets: the fast boat from Piraeus

About 4 hours at best, by the company’s own figure. Seajets runs large high-speed craft around the Cyclades, and its site says they cut Piraeus to Santorini to about 4 hours, against about 9 on a standard ferry. Read that as the best case. The day’s route decides how many islands the boat calls at first, and every call costs time. A fast catamaran also moves more in a swell than a big ship, which matters if you’re prone to seasickness and the meltemi, the dry north wind of high summer, is blowing. Check this autumn’s timetable and fares on Seajets’ own site and price your date there.

Golden Star Ferries: the Rafina option

5 hours 30 minutes from Rafina, from €65. Golden Star lists the Rafina to Santorini run on its Superexpress, one of five ships in its fleet, and sells e-tickets with web check-in. It suits travellers staying on the east side of Attica, or anyone flying in and sailing the same morning. Check that it sails on your date before you plan around it.

Fast Ferries: the long way round

Three or four sailings a week until 31 October 2026. Fast Ferries’ Piraeus line, on the FB Dionysios Solomos, works down the western Cyclades through Serifos, Sifnos, Milos, Kimolos, Folegandros, Sikinos and Ios before reaching Thira. It sails three or four times a week until 28 June and again from 31 August to 31 October 2026, and six times a week in between. That makes it a fine island-hopping line and the wrong boat if Santorini is the point: seven islands come first.

How much does the ferry cost compared with flying?

The cheapest seats to Santorini are on a slow boat, and after those the gap between the plane and a fast boat is narrower than most people assume. These are the from-fares the operators’ own pages showed in late September 2026.

Option	From, one way	Where the price came from	The catch
SKY express flight	€49 (September to December 2026); €64 (January and February 2027)	SKY express route page, 26 September 2026	Fares move daily; extra checked bags are add-ons
Aegean flight	€50 (most October 2026 dates)	Aegean route page, 24 September 2026	Fares move daily
Golden Star Superexpress from Rafina	€65	Golden Star route page, 26 September 2026	Check it runs on your date; Rafina is out east
Blue Star Super Economy from Piraeus	€20	Blue Star offers page, 24 September 2026	Limited seats; no cancellations or changes; not sold online
Blue Star Special Economy from Piraeus	20% off Economy	Blue Star offers page, 24 September 2026	Limited seats; can be cancelled, made open-date or moved
Seajets from Piraeus	Not quoted here	Not readable for this check	Price your exact date on its site

We couldn’t read Blue Star’s standard Economy fare for a given sailing, so we don’t quote one. Price it on Blue Star’s site for your date and remember the discounts: under-5s travel free in Economy, children aged 5 to 10 pay half, and ISIC card holders get 50% off. The €20 Super Economy seats can’t be booked through the online system, so they mean a call to an agency or a port office.

Then add the journey to the start line, which quietly favours the ferry. Two people flying on €49 fares, each with a €9 airport metro ticket, spend €116 before any checked bag. Two people on €20 Super Economy seats who take the metro to Piraeus on the €1.20 ticket spend €42.40. Those seats are limited, so treat that as the floor rather than the norm, but the arithmetic explains why backpackers still sail.

What pushes prices up: summer weekends, school and Greek holiday dates, booking late, a faster boat and a better class. What brings them down: a midweek date, an early booking and the slow ship.

When is the ferry the wrong choice?

Weather is the ferry’s weak point, and it isn’t only a winter problem. Blue Star, whose big ships cope with rough seas better than small fast craft, posted bad-weather itinerary changes for eight separate periods in 2026 by mid-August. Here’s how that record falls across the year, with our pick for each season.

Months	Blue Star weather notices in 2026	Our pick
November to March	10 January to 8 February (three notices), then 24 March to 1 April	Fly: fewer sailings, and some land in the small hours
April and May	1 to 7 April and 1 to 9 May	Ferry, with a spare day before any flight
June	None listed	Ferry, ideally a daytime high-speed boat
July and August	28 July to 2 August and 9 to 11 August, in meltemi season	Ferry if your dates can move; fly if they can’t
September and October	None listed by late September	Ferry, though some lines run less often than in summer

A quiet month on that list is not a promise, just a better bet. The second weak point is the clock. An evening boat from Piraeus can put you on the quay at Athinios at 02:00, as that 30 July sailing did. If the only boat on your date lands in the small hours, book a transfer before you sail and warn your hotel; don’t count on a queue of taxis at that hour.

The third is your stomach. If you get seasick, avoid the catamarans on windy days and take the big ship, or fly.

Verdict: never book the ferry back to Athens on the same day as your flight home. Sailings are cancelled or rerouted for wind at short notice, so spend your last night in Athens, or fly the return leg.

Where do you arrive in Santorini?

Ferries from Athens dock at Athinios, a working port at the foot of the caldera cliff south of Fira. It isn’t Fira’s old port below the town, which handles cruise-ship tenders and caldera boats. Coaches, taxis, hire cars and pre-booked transfers all leave Athinios on the same hairpin road up the cliff, so things move slowly for a while after a big ferry docks, and a transfer booked in advance is the calm way out. Flights land at JTR on the east side, a short run from Fira: the one part of the trip where the plane is simply easier.

How do you book and board the ferry?

Book on the operator’s own site, where the timetable for your date is the real one and any weather change comes straight from the source. The sequence for a first-timer:

1. Check the date: open the timetable on Blue Star’s, Seajets’, Golden Star’s or Fast Ferries’ site and note the arrival time as well as the departure.
2. Choose the class: Economy is the default on the big ships, while VIP seats and cabins cost more and earn their price on a long evening run. If your dates are fixed and cheap matters most, ask about the Super Economy seats; if you want flexibility, look at Special Economy.
3. Check in online: Blue Star’s web check-in opens 48 hours before departure and closes 2 hours before; if you’d rather have paper, collect it from a port agent at least 2 hours before sailing. Golden Star and Fast Ferries offer online check-in too.
4. Get to the port early: take Line 1 or Line 3 to Piraeus, leave by the Port/Akti Kallimasioti/Gate E6 exit and find your gate, which for Blue Star’s Santorini ships is E6 or E7. Aim to be there 45 minutes before departure.
5. Board with ID: show your e-ticket with your passport or ID card, leave big cases where the crew directs you and keep medicines and valuables with you.

Santorini is one leg of a bigger trip for most people. Our Athens onward travel hub covers the other islands and ports, and the Athens to Greek islands ferry guide explains how the whole network fits together.

Athens to Santorini FAQ

Is it better to take the ferry or fly from Athens to Santorini?

Fly if you’re short of time, travelling between November and March, prone to seasickness or connecting from an international flight at Athens airport. Take the ferry if you have a flexible day and want the arrival through the caldera. For most first-timers the best mix is to sail there and fly back, so a cancelled sailing can’t wreck the flight home.

How long is the ferry from Athens to Santorini?

From Piraeus, Seajets’ high-speed boats take about 4 hours at best by the company’s own figure, and Blue Star’s conventional ships from 6 hours 6 minutes, with sailings that make extra calls running to 8 hours or more. From Rafina, Golden Star’s Superexpress lists 5 hours 30 minutes. Always check the arrival time on your specific sailing.

How much is the ferry from Athens to Santorini?

It depends on the boat and the date. Blue Star sells a limited number of €20 Super Economy seats from Piraeus that can’t be booked online, and Golden Star’s high-speed boat from Rafina starts at €65. Check Seajets and Blue Star’s standard fares on the operators’ own sites and compare them with flights, which started at €49 one way for autumn 2026.

What is the ferry port in Santorini called?

Athinios. It’s the island’s main ferry port, a quay at the foot of the caldera cliff south of Fira, and it’s where boats from Piraeus and Rafina dock. Don’t confuse it with Fira’s old port below the town, which serves cruise-ship tenders and small caldera boats. Timetables may list the island as Thira, its official name.

How do I get from Santorini’s ferry port to Fira?

By coach, taxi, hire car or pre-booked transfer, all of which climb the same hairpin road from Athinios up the cliff. The quay and the road are busy for a while after a big ferry docks, so a transfer booked in advance is the least stressful option, and the only sensible one if your boat arrives in the small hours.

Do ferries run from Athens to Santorini in winter?

Yes, but fewer, and at odder hours. In January 2026 Blue Star’s Piraeus line was calling at Santorini at times such as 23:10 and 03:05, and bad weather forced itinerary changes through much of January and February. With fewer boats to fall back on, flying is usually the better choice between November and March.

How long is the ferry from Santorini back to Athens?

Much the same as the outward trip. Golden Star lists Santorini to Rafina at 5 hours 25 minutes, and sailings to Piraeus take from about 4 hours on Seajets’ fastest boats to 6 hours or more on Blue Star. Leave at least a night in Athens before an international flight, because wind can cancel a sailing at short notice.

Should I book the Santorini ferry in advance?

For July, August and Greek holiday weekends, yes: the cheapest seats and the best-timed sailings go first. Out of season you can book once your dates are fixed, but think about flexibility if the forecast looks windy. Blue Star’s Special Economy tickets can be cancelled or moved under its policy; its €20 Super Economy seats can’t.

Related Athens Guides

• Piraeus Port Guide: the gates, the metro exits and the layout of the port most Santorini boats use.
• Athens Airport to Piraeus Port: metro, X96 bus or taxi when you’re flying in and sailing the same day.
• Athens to the Greek Islands by Ferry: how the wider ferry network works beyond Santorini.
• 7-Day Athens and Greek Islands Itinerary: a week that pairs the city with island legs.

Sources and How We Checked

We checked every detail on 26 September 2026 against the official sources below and compiled this page from them rather than from other travel lists; no first-hand visit is claimed.

• Blue Star Ferries: Santorini route and Piraeus gates, Super Economy offer, Special Economy offer, Cyclades discounts, online booking and web check-in and bad-weather itinerary notice, August 2026
• Seajets: Santorini destination page
• Golden Star Ferries: routes, times and fares from Rafina
• Fast Ferries: routes and 2026 schedules
• SKY express: Athens to Santorini flights and fares
• Aegean: Athens to Santorini flights and fares
• OASA: ticket prices and Airport Express bus lines
• Athens International Airport: public transport to and from the airport

Athens Tourism Guide is an independent publication. We are not affiliated with the Hellenic Ministry of Culture, OASA, the Greek National Tourism Organisation or any business named here, and no business paid to be included.

Photo Credits

• Ferry crossing Santorini's caldera: photo by dronepicr, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
• Ferry leaving Piraeus harbour: photo by Mustang Joe, via Wikimedia Commons (CC0)
• Ferries at Rafina port: photo by Holger Uwe Schmitt, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
• Blue Star ferry heading into Naxos: photo by Manfred Werner (Tsui), via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
• Seajets Olympic Champion Jet: photo by AleWi, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)
• The quay at Athinios port, Santorini: photo by Moonik, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
• Blue Star Delos in Santorini's caldera (featured image): photo by Tomisti, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)