The Art of the Greek Ferry: A Field Guide to Slow Travel

The large ferries that operate on the trunk routes of the Greek network—Piraeus to Heraklion, Piraeus to Rhodes, the Cyclades loop—are essentially floating hotels that happen to move. They have restaurants, bars, a disco that operates from midnight, airline-style seats, and private cabins with port-holes. They also have, crucially, the open deck, which is where experienced travellers go and stay.

The open deck of a Greek ferry at two in the morning, somewhere south of Syros with the Milky Way visible and the sea making small noises against the hull, is one of the great experiences available to the modern traveller. Bring a sleeping bag in shoulder season. Find a protected corner behind a funnel. Sleep under the stars. You will arrive at your destination having genuinely travelled, rather than merely transported.

The small island ferries—the caïques and the water taxis that operate between proximate islands—operate on a different logic entirely. Schedules exist as suggestions. The boat leaves when the captain judges it correct to leave. If the wind comes up and the sea builds, the service cancels without ceremony or refund. This is not incompetence. It is a reasonable acknowledgement of the fact that the Aegean is not a motorway.

The correct ferry strategy for any Greek island trip: book the big overnight ferries in advance in high season; leave all small inter-island connections to arrive, ask locally, and see. The best days in Greece are the days where the ferry didn't come and you had to spend one more night on an island you'd planned to leave. Accept this philosophically. Greece is teaching you something.