 My son and I travelled to Greece mid May 2012 to embark on our new chosen lifestyle, travel writing and development of these series of Greek Travel websites. We travelled with a view to capture the good and bad bits and then provide tips to fellow travellers by writing about these travels for inclusion in our associated websites. My thoughts were that this would be a simple process to determine simply how to get to Greece to start our adventure….more fool me!! There are a number of considerations when embarking on your trip and I thought it might be helpful to provide a view on our experiences …and then hopefully the happy final outcome of the implementation of our plans.
As a starter, consider the following when planning your trip:- Where are you going to start your holiday/travels
- Are you looking for a flight only or are you intending to book accomm
 odation in conjunction….this opens up charter type flights (Monarch, Thomson, Thomas Cook etc) but you will be limited to the dates of travel - Where do you intend to finish and return home from
- What other places do you wish to visit
- What are your timescales
- When do you wish to start
Once you have contemplated that little list then consider these:Money Saving Tip #11Postpone your booking (flights and accomomdation) and take advantage of HUGE last minute savings. Check out LastMinute.com to save a bucket load of cash! Flying to GreeceI compared different flight options and considered that they fell into certain "rough" categories as below: Budget  Charter Scheduled Greek Airlines I then attempted to make a generalised price comparison but finally conceded defeat because the variety was vast and the benefit to you as a reader would have been limited. Instead I have tried to give a general overview of each of these categories but must warn that many of the comments apply to more than one category. You will be well advised to consider that all airlines must charge somehow for certain aspects for example: If you are aware that all airlines will have to change airport tax for example then you just must look to see WHERE in the screen price this is taken account of. 
I decided to use the facility on the site and the results provided by Skyscanner.Were the results useful? Yes, very... but you should also check each of the results using an independent check. I used three different journeys as an exercise to determine the best and most cost effective way to get to Greece…with two of us travelling it also meant that any savings were doubled and so if you are a family of four or a Stag or Hen Do then these savings would be proportionally increased!! I looked at the following journey options in detail:
London Airports - Athens London Airports - Thessaloniki London Airports - Corfu S West Airports - All of the above Some of the results for these flights were simply extortionate so beware but at the same time do not get distressed. My eventual result was a flight from London Heathrow at a very reasonable time (11:30 am) to Athens for £ 152 for two one way including baggage, food and £2 donation to charity. This was a scheduled flight with Aegean Airways running every day twice a day and there was a similar flight into Thessaloniki.
 Before buying your ticket check out the reviews on the Airline to ensure they meet your expectations. (it is sometimes worthwhile paying a little more for a MUCH better service)Budget AirlinesThese airlines (Easyjet, Ryanair, BMI Baby, Jet2 etc) have various difficulties in searching for specific locations and timings - You need to check their destinations from your airport of choice
- You will find it really difficult to stipulate “ANY AIRPORT” in UK when searching so you will have no option but to make a series of searches.
- You need to consider the cost of airport taxes and additional baggage costs …. Annoyingly, many of these charges are not apparent until you try to book your flight and enter all your details…Skyscanner will simplify this process for you (not fully, but in the main).
- Most of the arrival airports will be slightly more remote than those for scheduled flights so the transfers may well cost extra
- Again; consider using one of these flights and then transiting onwards using a ferry or connecting flight.
- You need to consider the cost of the journey to the airports running the low cost airlines.
- No frills generally
Charter FlightsThese are normally operated by the main travel agents Thomson, Thomas Cook etc and these usually offer discounted holidays but can cater for flight only passengers. - If they fly to your destination then perhaps they are a good option
- Often the flights do not run out of the regular high season so you need to be aware.
- No frills generally
Scheduled flightsThese are the main carriers; BA, Lufthansa etc - These often only fly into the capital, Athens
- These are generally targeted at business users who will pay significantly more for the privilege.
- Some of these did offer non direct flights which will require you to transfer and take a connecting flight
- Transfers and connections may have their own issues and you do run the risk of missing the connecting flight….so beware….also the time between flight was between 3 – 20hrs wait….in an airport this can be pretty traumatic.
Greek AirlinesThese are specifically Aegean Air and Olympic Air - You will find that Olympus Air utilises Aegean Air planes so there is usually a price difference in favour of Aegean Air provided they both run the same route and at times to suit.
- Aegean Air runs twice daily into Athens and Thessaloniki
- VERY competitive pricing for Aegean.
- They cover taxes and hold baggage in their pricing.
With All of the airlines………….. ensure you read the small print and that you know the check in procedure. Flight Summary  Budget airlines have proven to be a decent option if you are flying into an airport that they support It should be considered that internal flights and ferries mean that you could use a budget airline in and then transit onwards using the comprehensive internal airline and ferry network of links. Check out Skyscanner banner on the website and the ferry timetable also on the website. Scheduled airlines from the UK operators tend to be very expensive apart from the Greek Airlines. Skyscanner definitely worked a treat and further check proved it to be as good or in many cases better than other comparison sites. We booked flights with Aegean Air and consider this to be as good an option as was available. Other Travel Options The whole exercise of sourcing and finally buying my flights required extensive searching and I had to rerun and recheck many different schedules and prices because I had not considered all of the points above!!! I hope that this brief article allows you to conduct you search much quicker than I did …. And hopefully benefit from some of the tips. Crazy as it seems my experience was made more difficult because I was actually more flexible than most people....WHY ? Because I had too many variables to consider and when you mix more than one variable with another variable you end up with a really large number of options to choose from ... and ALL of them will be attractive for one reason or another making the decision particularly difficult!!
 Cut down the variables and don't think "Budget" means "Cheapest" and it definitely does not necessarily mean "Best"
If you would like to share your thoughts or request any more information on this topic please do so by leaving a comment below. I will personally respond to every comment and love to hear from you all! Also, don't forget to subscribe to our RSS Feed to get future articles delivered straight to your inbox! Thank you :-)  STOP! Read and Save...Before you book your holiday we'd recommend checking out Thomson Holiday Deals for savings. Our last 3 trips abroad are listed below and show how much we saved each time... | Package Details | Original | Deal | Saving | 7 Nights All Incl. 5* Corfu - Sept '11
booked 7 days before departure. | £1310 | £484.70 | 63% | Flight, Transfers, Villa, Kos - June '11
booked 60 days in advance, online. | £995 | £547.25 | 47% | 10 days 4* Hotel, hire car - Feb '11
early booking (5 months in adv online) | £886 | £540.46 | 39% |
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Welcome to our website, I'm Paul and this is my father Gary. We decided to move to Greece in 2012 to live a more enjoyable life. This website will document our adventures... Enjoy!
