Greece · Aegean · Piraeus & Flisvos Marina
Athens sends its day boats out of four different harbours, and the ferry gates at Piraeus are not one of them — the quay printed on your voucher decides how your morning starts.
Quick answer
Eleven well-reviewed boats leave Athens on a normal summer day, and the spread is wider than any other port on this site: $14 for a seat on the public Aegina ferry, $57 for a full day on Hydra with a swim stop, $110 to $157 for the three-island Saronic cruise that most people mean when they say boat trip from Athens, and $244 for a Mykonos day return that is mostly time at sea.
The thing to get right before anything else is the harbour. Scheduled ferries to Aegina, Agistri, Poros and Hydra leave Piraeus from gates E8 and E9. The group day cruisers do not: they load at Marina Zeas, at Flisvos in Palaio Faliro or at Alimos, which are separate marinas along the coast with their own tram stops and bus lines. Turning up at the ferry gates with a cruise ticket is the classic Athens mistake.
If all you want is to stand on Aegina, the ferry does it from about €9.50 one way and there are more than forty crossings a day in season. What it will not do is anchor off Moni for a swim, and no scheduled boat calls there at all. The arithmetic is below, route by route.
Compare
The five kinds of day out that leave Athens by water, each shown with the cheapest well-reviewed example on this page and the thing that actually decides between them. Prices, ratings and durations are the operators' own figures from the listings below, re-checked in September 2026.
| Type of day | Time out | Leaves from | From | What decides it | Book |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Saronic three-island cruise | 9 – 10 hours | Marina Zeas / Flisvos | $110 | Moni and Metopi, which no ferry serves | Details |
| Hydra day trip | 12 hours | Piraeus | $57 | A car-free island and a swim, for ferry money | Details |
| Riviera sunset sail | 3 – 5 hours | Alimos / Flisvos | $109 | Evening light, a swim, back for dinner | Details |
| Coast by road and water | 8 hours | Athens, by minibus | $110 | Sounion and Lake Vouliagmeni, no sailing | Details |
| Ferry seat, no guide | 75 minutes | Piraeus gate E8 | $14 | You build the day yourself | Details |
The boats
Every boat below is currently bookable and carries its operator's own rating and review count. Prices are per person; the Saronic cruises include lunch and drinks on board, the ferry ticket includes nothing but the crossing. Re-checked in September 2026.
4.9★ (2614 reviews) · 10 hours · from $154
4.7★ (2211 reviews) · 10 hours · from $157
4.5★ (2249 reviews) · 9 hours · from $110
4.7★ (1864 reviews) · 10 hours · from $143
4.6★ (817 reviews) · 75 minutes · from $14
4.6★ (459 reviews) · 12 hours · from $57
4.4★ (391 reviews) · 9 hours · from $115
4.7★ (296 reviews) · 1 day · from $244
4.9★ (190 reviews) · 8 hours · from $110
4.7★ (92 reviews) · 3 hours · from $115
4.8★ (58 reviews) · 5 hours · from $109
The piers
Athens is the port on this site where people most often reach the wrong quay: the ferries and the day cruisers use harbours several kilometres apart, and both are casually called Piraeus.
The Piraeus ferry gates are the ones on the port map. Hellenic Seaways' own Piraeus plan puts the Aero Highspeed catamarans for Aegina, Agistri, Poros, Hydra, Ermioni, Spetses and Porto Heli at gate E9; Choice Greece's gate guide lists E8 as the Argosaronikos berth, shared by Aero Highspeed, Flying Cat, Speed Cat and Saronic Ferries. Metro Line 1 ends at Piraeus station opposite the main entrance near gates E5 and E6, which puts E8 and E9 a few minutes away on foot and the Crete and Dodecanese gates at a distance you should not attempt with luggage. Gates get reassigned when the port is busy, and the electronic boards inside the terminal outrank the gate printed on a ticket bought weeks earlier.
Marina Zeas, Pasalimani locally, is a separate round harbour on the far side of the Piraeus peninsula, and it is where most big Saronic day cruisers load — the operator behind the best-known three-island cruise states an 08:00 daily departure from there, not from the ferry gates. It is about 2.6 km from the Line 1 terminus: fifteen minutes on foot, or bus 040, 049, 904 or 909. Arriving at the wrong harbour is not a five-minute correction.
Flisvos Marina in Palaio Faliro is the Riviera end of it. The marina's own access page puts the tram stop Trocadero outside the main entrance and buses 217, A1, B1 and B2 at Oulen; the X96 airport express stops at Flisvos too, which makes it the easiest marina to reach straight off a flight.
Alimos Marina, about 15 km from central Athens, is the country's biggest yacht base and the departure point for the half-day Riviera sails: tram stop Pikrodafni at the entrance, buses A1, B1, B2 and X96 at 1st Kalamaki. A single OASA ticket is €1.20 for ninety minutes and a day pass €4.10, so reaching any marina by public transport costs less than the coffee waiting there.
Two more Attica ports exist and neither sends day boats: Rafina, faster and cheaper to Mykonos because it faces east, and Lavrio, which serves Kea and Kythnos and sits two hours away on the Attica KTEL bus from Nomismatokopio metro.
| Harbour | What leaves from it | How you get there | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Piraeus gates E8 / E9 | Scheduled ferries and catamarans to Aegina, Agistri, Poros, Hydra, Spetses | Metro Line 1 or 3 to Piraeus, then a few minutes on foot | Gate assignments move in high season — read the boards, not the ticket |
| Marina Zeas (Pasalimani) | Most Saronic three-island day cruisers | 15-minute walk from Piraeus station, or bus 040 / 049 / 904 / 909 | A different harbour from the ferry gates, across the peninsula |
| Flisvos Marina, Palaio Faliro | Riviera sunset sails, some island cruisers | Tram to Trocadero, at the entrance; buses 217, A1, B1, B2; X96 from the airport | The only marina the airport express reaches directly |
| Alimos Marina | Half-day Riviera sails and catamaran charters | Tram to Pikrodafni; buses A1, B1, B2, X96 at 1st Kalamaki | 15 km from the centre — allow 40 minutes from Syntagma |
| Rafina and Lavrio | Cyclades ferries: Mykonos from Rafina, Kea and Kythnos from Lavrio | KTEL bus, up to two hours to Lavrio | Not day-boat harbours; useful only if you are island-hopping |
The arithmetic
Every island on the Saronic cruise itineraries except one has a scheduled boat to it, so the honest comparison here is unusually easy to do — and unusually revealing, because it goes different ways on different routes.
Aegina. Ferryhopper lists Piraeus–Aegina from about €9.00 on a conventional ferry and up to roughly €19.50 on a high-speed, with more than forty crossings a day in peak season — 30–40 minutes fast, 1h05–1h25 slow, all year. Two people cross and return for roughly €38 in season. The $14 listing on this page is that ferry — a scheduled seat sold ahead of time instead of at the kiosk, which is worth doing on an August morning when the queue at E8 is fifty deep. The cheapest guided three-island cruise is $110 a head. On the ferry you land in Aegina Town and the rest is yours: the bus to Agia Marina past the Temple of Aphaia is about €1.80 to €2.00 and 35 minutes, and the temple charges around €10 in the high season, €5 in winter, at the gate.
Moni and Metopi. This is where the arithmetic stops. Moni is an uninhabited reserve off Perdika with wild deer, peacocks and one beach bar, and no scheduled service at all — local caiques run the ten-minute hop from Perdika when they fill. Metopi is a bare islet with nothing and nobody. A cruise anchoring off both sells two stops that cannot be bought separately, which is the real justification for $154 against a €19 ferry ticket.
Hydra. Here the sum inverts. Ferryhopper puts Piraeus–Hydra from about €28 one way, up to twelve crossings a day, 1h05 to 2h20 depending on a Poros call, with Alpha Lines, Hellenic Seaways and Magic Sea Ferries on the route. A round trip is roughly €56 for the ticket alone — and the guided full-day Hydra trip here is $57, swim stop included. Booking the ferry yourself saves nothing worth having.
Poros sits between the two: from about €17 one way, 50 minutes to 1h05, up to six crossings a day with Hellenic Seaways, Saronic Ferries and Alpha Lines — the cheapest island to reach independently, and the one most often used as a stop rather than a destination.
Mykonos. The $244 day return buys the tickets, the transfers and someone else's planning. Piraeus–Mykonos high-speed starts around €53 and takes about 2h40; from Rafina it is about 2h15 from around €35.50, because Rafina faces east and cuts real distance off the crossing. A self-booked Piraeus round trip is therefore near €106. Either way, the honest description of the day is five to six hours at sea for a few hours ashore.
Prices
Three price bands, taken from the eleven listings on this page rather than from a market average — Athens has an unusually wide spread because a public ferry seat and a catered cruise are sold side by side.
The Aegina ferry ticket at $14 and the Hydra full day at $57: transport with a little structure around it, no buffet and no anchoring off an islet. They are also the best-value listings here, because each sits close to what the crossing costs anyway.
Everything catered sits here: the Riviera sails at $109 and $115, the Sounion road day at $110, and the Saronic cruises from $110 through $115 and $143 to $154 and $157. The dearer end buys a better boat and a proper buffet, not a different route — all five cover the same water.
The Mykonos day return is priced as a logistics product, not a cruise: two high-speed ferry legs and the hours in between. Book it only if Mykonos itself is the goal and you have no spare night.
The boats
Athens day boats come in four hulls, and the hull matters more here than the itinerary, because four of the five Saronic cruises cover the same three islands.
The distinction that costs money is buffet against no buffet. A Saronic cruise at $154 and one at $110 cover the same islands on much the same clock; the difference is the catering deck, the shade, and how many people share the rail as the boat swings into Aegina harbour.
| Boat | On this page from | Capacity feel | What it does best |
|---|---|---|---|
| Large day cruiser, shaded decks | $110 | Several hundred, buffet service | Ten hours in comfort with lunch, drinks and space to move |
| Scheduled ferry or catamaran | $14 | Public, fills in season | Getting there fast and cheap; nothing else |
| Sailing catamaran | $109 | Around a dozen | Quiet Riviera afternoons and long swim stops |
| Small motor yacht, sunset runs | $115 | Small group | Three hours at golden hour with a single swim |
| Minibus and a lake | $110 | Small group | The coast when the wind has closed the sea |
Season
Sea temperatures are the long-term monthly Saronic averages published by Climates to Travel; the sailing notes describe what the Athenian season does to departures rather than what the brochures say about it.
The wind that decides an Athens sailing day is the meltemi, the dry northerly that establishes over the Aegean around the middle of July and blows into late August, strengthening through the day. What matters here is that the Saronic Gulf is on the sheltered side of it: charter briefings routinely steer nervous crews to the Saronic over the Cyclades, because the gulf lies in the lee of Attica and the Peloponnese while the Cyclades channels funnel the same airflow into 20–30 knots. A day that cancels catamarans out of Mykonos often still sails out of Marina Zeas.
The shelter does not extend to the long crossings: the Mykonos day return runs straight into the water the meltemi does its worst in and is the listing here most often disrupted. Inside the gulf the small hulls go first — the Riviera catamaran and the sunset yacht feel a force 5 the big cruisers shrug off — and afternoon departures cancel far more often than morning ones. Take the early slot. When the sea does close, the Sounion and Lake Vouliagmeni day reaches the same coast by road.
| Month | Sea | Boats running | What it means on the water |
|---|---|---|---|
| April | 16 °C (61 °F) | Cruises start | Cheap, empty and cool — the swim stops are for the brave |
| May | 18 °C (64 °F) | Full timetable | Calm mornings, no crowds on Aegina, water still bracing |
| June | 21 °C (70 °F) | Everything | Longest days of the year and the sea finally warm enough |
| July | 24 °C (75 °F) | Everything, filling up | The meltemi establishes mid-month and builds every afternoon |
| August | 24 °C (75 °F) | Everything, sold out | Warmest water of the year, fullest boats, longest queues at E8 |
| September | 24 °C (75 °F) | Everything | The month to pick: warm sea, wind easing, boats no longer packed |
| October | 21 °C (70 °F) | Thinning out | Still swimmable; sunset sails move to mid-afternoon departures |
| November – March | 15 – 17 °C (59 – 63 °F) | Ferries only | The Saronic ferries run all year; the cruise fleet is laid up |
Extras
Athens collects very little at the quayside itself, but the sites these boats and buses deliver you to charge their own admission, and two of them are cash-at-the-gate operations.
| Item | Amount | Who collects it | When it applies |
|---|---|---|---|
| Temple of Poseidon, Cape Sounion | About €20 in the high season | The on-site ticket booth at the gate | The Sounion road day; there is no online ticket, and the site closes at sunset |
| Lake Vouliagmeni entry | €17 weekdays, €19 weekends and holidays | The lake's own gate | Any Riviera day that includes the lake; children 6–12 pay €14 or €17, under-fives free |
| Temple of Aphaia, Aegina | About €10 April to October, €5 in winter | The archaeological site's booth | Only if you leave the harbour on a self-guided Aegina day |
| Bus across Aegina | €1.80 – €2.00 one way | The island bus company at Aegina Town quay | Aegina Town to Agia Marina and the temple, about 35 minutes |
| Getting to the marina | €1.20 for 90 minutes, €4.10 for a day | OASA, on tram, bus and metro | Every Marina Zeas, Flisvos and Alimos departure |
| Airport transfers | €5.50 on the X96 bus, €9.00 on the metro | OASA and Attiko Metro | Arriving the same morning; X96 stops at both Piraeus and Flisvos |
On the water
The Piraeus ferry gates, Marina Zeas, Flisvos and Alimos are four separate harbours strung along fifteen kilometres of coast. The Saronic islands lie southwest of them; Sounion is the southern tip of Attica, reached by road.
Questions
Not from one place. Ferries and catamarans to Aegina, Agistri, Poros and Hydra use Piraeus gates E8 and E9, a short walk from the Line 1 terminus. The big Saronic day cruisers load at Marina Zeas across the peninsula — the best-known operator states an 08:00 departure from there. The Riviera sails leave from Flisvos or Alimos, both on the tram. Read the harbour name on your voucher before the time.
Comfortably: Aegina, Agistri, Poros and Hydra, all in the Saronic Gulf, 50 minutes to two hours from Piraeus. The cruises add Moni and Metopi, uninhabited islets no scheduled boat serves. Mykonos works as a long day return at five to six hours at sea. Santorini does not — roughly five hours each way by high-speed, up to eight on a conventional ferry.
It turns on whether you want Moni. The Piraeus–Aegina ferry runs from about €9.00 to €9.50 conventional and up to €19.50 high-speed, more than forty times a day in season, against $110 for the cheapest guided cruise. The ferry cannot anchor off Moni or Metopi, which have no scheduled service at all. Want Aegina Town? Take the boat at E8. Want the swim stops? Book the cruise.
An uninhabited protected islet off Perdika on Aegina's southwest shore, with wild deer, peacocks and a single beach bar above a rocky-then-sandy shore. It is why the Saronic cruises exist as a product: the only public way there is a ten-minute caique from Perdika that leaves when it fills. Water shoes help at the entry.
The cheapest listing on the page is the Aegina ferry ticket at $14 for a 75-minute crossing; booked ahead it saves the E8 queue in August, and the island bus to the Temple of Aphaia adds about €2 each way. The Hydra day at $57 is the other honest bargain — the return ferry alone runs near €56 at Ferryhopper's listed fares.
All of them are on the Athens Riviera rather than in the islands, because nothing in the Saronic can be reached and returned from in an afternoon. A three-hour sunset cruise with a swim stop runs from Flisvos or Alimos; the five-hour sail with a barbecue on board leaves from Alimos. Both are small boats, so both cancel first when the afternoon wind gets up.
Less often than in the Cyclades. It establishes around the middle of July and blows into late August, but the Saronic Gulf lies in the lee of Attica and the Peloponnese, which is why charter operators steer beginners there while the Cyclades channels funnel the same wind into 20–30 knots. Inside the gulf the small catamarans go first, and afternoons cancel far more often than mornings. The long Mykonos crossing is the most exposed listing here.
Yes — up to twelve crossings a day, 1h05 to 2h20 depending on a Poros call. The arrival surprises people: wheeled vehicles are banned island-wide under a decree dating from the 1950s, so no taxis, no buses and no scooters wait at the quay. Roughly five hundred donkeys and mules and a fleet of water taxis do the moving. The guided day at $57 adds a swim stop and a schedule built around that.
Operators cancel and refund, and most listings here also cancel free up to 24 hours ahead, so a forecast you dislike the night before costs nothing to act on. The land alternative in Athens is not a consolation prize: the Cape Sounion and Lake Vouliagmeni day at 4.9★ reaches the same coast by road. The temple gate charges about €20 in the high season and sells no ticket online, so bring cash or a card for the booth.
Nearby
Or browse every boat tour and day cruise by port.
The Cyclades island the long day return from Piraeus goes to — and a far better base for boats once you are there
Island hopping ▸ SantoriniGreeceFive hours south by high-speed: caldera sailings and hot-spring swims, not a day trip from Athens
Sunset & caldera sailing ▸ ParosGreeceThe Cyclades hub with the shortest sailings to the small islands, and calmer water than Mykonos in a meltemi
Island hopping ▸