How to travel from Albania to Turkey via Greece. When looking for an alternative route back to Turkey and some hiking, I decided to travel from Berat, Albania, to Fethiye, Turkey, via the Greek Isles.
HOW I DID IT AND WHERE I HIKED
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- ON THE ROAD BERAT TO ATHENS
- FERRY TO THE GREEK ISLANDS
- PLANNING
- BUYING TICKETS
- THE ROUTE
- SAMOS TO KUSADASI
- KUSADASI, TURKEY
- VISA
- ONWARD TRANSPORT
- HIKING ON THE GREEK ISLANDS
- TRANSPORT TO THE TRAILS
- SIFNOS BUSES
- TINOS BUSES
- SIFNOS
- TINOS
- IOS
- SAMOS
- TRANSPORT TO THE TRAILS
- CAMPING/ACCOMMODATION
- WHAT DID I THINK
- EXPENSES
- RESOURCES
ON THE ROAD BERAT TO ATHENS
First step was to catch a bus from Berat to Athens €25.00. There were 2 departures a day; at 4:00am and 11:30am. At 4am a minibus came through central Berat, picking up passengers, then headed to Fier Bus Station. Where after a short wait we transferred to a larger coach that would take us to Athens.
The Albanian, Greek border.
We traveled down the highway towards the Kakavia, Ktismata – the Albanian and Greek border crossing – where we waited for quite sometime to cross. There was a long queue of buses going through immigration and custom formalities. Greek customs had us get out of the bus with our luggage which was individually inspected on tables. The bus drove away to be, I assume, inspected as well. Three hours later we were on our way. Not my longest border crossing by far. How to cross the Borders of Egypt and Sudan into Ethiopia
We arrived in Athens at 7pm, a journey of 14 hours, allowing for the 1 hour time difference between Albania and Greece, with Greece being 1 hour ahead.
Acropolis, Athens.
FERRY TO THE GREEK ISLANDS
PLANNING
When determining the direction you want to take in the time frame you have allowed to cross through the Greek Islands. You need to remember that you can be subjected to delays at any time during the passage through the islands, could be due to bad weather, breakdowns etc. Which in my case, I needed to be back in Istanbul to fly back home.
While staying in the Acropolis Hostel, Athens (dorm bed €10) I tried to work out the best route through the islands to Turkey, first using online tools Ferries.greeka.com , Hellenicseaways of which there are a number of.
Ferry arriving at Ios Port.
I wanted to do this to work out a time frame i.e. time I could allow for each island stay, but unfortunately you get to, island number 3, you then find out there is no connection with that particular ferry company to go further east. In the case of going via Crete and Rhodes, it’s down to 1 ferry per week between the two. So if bad weather comes through, as it did, you could be up for an expensive airfare or having to retrace you steps.
Passengers disembarking the ferry on Ios Island.
BUYING TICKETS
In the end I caught the metro down to Piraeus Port the night before departure and approached one of the many agents there to book the first three connections.
THE ROUTE
The route I finally chose was influenced by the expected bad weather coming through the islands.
Starting from Piraeus, Athens (The main ferry port)
- Sifnos €51, then to
- Ios €51 to
- Mykonos €41 then
- Transfer to Tinos Island €8.
- Tinos back to Mykonos €11, where I chose not to stay and instead caught a ferry to
- Samos Island €41 which stopped over at Ikaria Island along the way.
Tinos is where the bad weather finally turned up and the ferries were cancelled for 2 days due to high winds. And because of the weather there were many anxious tourists who ended up missing their flights home.
The Island of Tinos.
In hindsight purchasing the first segment to Sifnos would have been enough as you can easily book tickets from the booking agents on each island and can probably pick up cheaper fares. This of course will depend on which point of the tourist season you are in. Then if you are time-constrained pre-booking would be advisable.
Be aware that as the tourist season tapers off so do the ferry services. This is also another reason to allow more days than you need.
The ferries are large vehicle and passenger boats and in September 2018 the boats were not full.
SAMOS TO KUSADASI
There are two departure ports on the eastern end of Samos Island for Kusadasi, Vathy, and Pythagoreio.
Vathy ferries depart 5pm arriving in Kusadasi 6:30pm
The view of Vathy Harbour from Hotel Bonis on Samos Island.
The Pythagoreio ferry departs at 8am arriving in Kusadasi 9:30am.
Pythagoreio harbour, Samos
This may change at any time. In my case the ferries were cancelled for two days due to predicted bad weather.
I finally caught the ferry from Pythagoreio on a Monday, which required me to stay in Pythagoreio to be at the port by 7:30am the next morning. As I was staying in Vathy (Samos town), and it was a Sunday with no bus services, I walked the 12 kms, over the hill from Vathy to Pythagoreio and stayed at the Boulas Suites €25.
Ferry costs: Ferry €30 (Paid in ticket office), + Port fees €10 paid prior boarding.
KUSADASI, TURKEY
VISA
The ferry for Kusadasi, in the Pythagoreio harbour, Samos
On arrival in Kusadasi you will pass through immigration. Therefore make sure you have an e-visa evisa.gov.tr if you need one. I was travelling on a New Zealand passport, so did not need one; and received a stamp valid for 90 days.
ONWARD TRANSPORT
Arriving into Kusadasi Harbour, Turkey.
There is transport from Kusadasi Port to the Otagar (bus station) 2.5 lira if you are not planning to stay. The Dolmuses (mini buses) that pass the entrance to the Port will take you there. Dolmuses from the Otagar leave regularly, either to Aydin 10 lira or Selcuk from there to a multitude of destinations around Turkey.
HIKING ON THE GREEK ISLANDS
There are plenty of opportunities to hike on a number of islands. Some have well-organized hiking trails with gpx downloads and or paper maps available.
The article below covers hiking trails on many of the islands. Greeknewsagenda/Hiking-Greek-Islands-explore-off-the-beaten-track-treasures
The islands are very dry especially by the end of summer. so you need to carry enough water for any of the hikes that you go on. After walking some of the trails, wild camping would be difficult due to the amount of water you would need to carry, as there is very little if anything available between villages.
On the trail along the coast of Sifnos.
TRANSPORT TO THE TRAILS
Each island has a public bus service that can be used to get you to the head of the trails that may be further from your accommodation location.
SIFNOS BUSES
Looking down from one of the trails at Kamares Bay Sifnos.
TINOS BUSES
www.isternia.net/en/tourism/transportation/local-buses-timetables.
I hiked on Sifnos and Tinos, both had enjoyable, scenic trails that could be extended easily to a full day hike. I found that the information on the net for Ios and Samos was sadly lacking.
One of the villages along the trail on Tinos.
SIFNOS
SIFNOS has a network of trails that are easy to follow without a guide. Maps can be picked up at the tourist info center near the port or Sifnostrails.com downloadable GPX available which you may need to convert to kml.
One of Sifnos’s rocky trails.
TINOS
TINOS is the same. Tinostrails Downloadable trail GPX available.
A trail on Tinos.
IOS
IOS. Found very little information so far.
On a trail around the coast on Ios.
SAMOS
SAMOS: hiking guide can be purchased at the bookshop on the water front in Vathy for €17.
I could not find any useful GPX files for Samos on the net. Visit.Samos/things/hiking. And with no bus services on Sunday, makes it a little difficult to get to the head of some of the trails. The other options is expensive taxi rides or join a walking tour.
CAMPING/ACCOMMODATION
If you have been traveling on a tight budget through the Balkans and Caucasus, you will find Greece is considerably more expensive, and as wild camping is illegal, few campsites available and practically no hostels on the route I took, I would recommend that you travel with at least one other person to share hotel costs which may be between €20-30.00 per night. Hiking Trails in the Balkans Hiking Trails in the Caucasus Mountains
Elbow room only at the Purple Pig Campsite, Ios.
Eating out in restaurants can be quite expensive, so the alternative is heading to the supermarkets.
I camped on Sifnos at Makis Camp Ground €8, Makiscamping and on Ios island at the Purple Pig €7, Purplepigstars. As I was self-sufficient i could cook my own food. A big savings.
Tinos Afrodite Hotel €20 with breakfast, and Samos Hotel Bonis €30 with breakfast Booking.com islands (No known official camping sites) Although I was grateful for that, as on Tinos there were 60km winds coming through which would have destroyed the tent.
WHAT DID I THINK
It was a route that required more planning than I liked and I do prefer to be more spontaneous on longer trips. But overall the hiking on Sifnos and Tinos was worth the effort.
Crossing through the Greek Islands was on my to do list, but I did find it very touristy, as can be expected, hence the higher costs.
I would certainly like to hear from other backpackers as to how they did it.
Below is an expenses breakdown for the 15 days it took to travel from Berat, Albania to Kusadasi, Turkey.
EXPENSES
| ACCOMADATION | €223 | Camping €7-8, Hostel Athens €10, Hotels €20-30. |
| FOOD | €172 | Mainly Supermarkets |
| TRANSPORT | €290 | Ferrys €8 – 51. Depends on type, company and distance. |
| OTHER | €6 | Mobile sim card in Athens. |
| TOTAL | € 692 |
Next stop Fethiye, Turkey. Also for keen hikers the start of the western end of the Lycian Way hike to the city of Antalya 500kms to the east. Check my blog out on how my friend and I did it in 2018. How we Hiked the Lycian Way
View of Fethiye from the Castle.
RESOURCES
- ACCOMODATION
- HIKING
- TRANSPORT
- VISA
- TRAVEL INSURANCE
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