"ATH" Eleftherios Venizelous
- Athens Greece New Airport

Athens New Airport: Eleftherios Venizelous (EV)

Cool Map of Athens? oasa.gr/index.asp?asp=sitemap.asp
..pdf map of Athens bus, tram and everything routes?

Airport Telephone: 210-353-0000, 27 KM/18Miles from Athens. In addition to 45 minute or so Athens metro & Airport Train, there are three public bus routes that serve the airport to Greater Athens and Piraeus. Routes E95 and E96 are 24 hour routes and E95 runs from 5am-11:30pm.

About Route Durations (Maps Loading Below)

Don't be fooled, these transfer durations depend on the current traffic too - allow extra time particularly in peak season: June & July but not in August since Athens is empty in August but the rest of Greece is packed. (August and Greek Easter are both excellent times to get to know a much more sedate Athens - Athens hotels are usually cheaper then too)

E94 will take you to the Metro stop of Ethniki Amina (National Defense) where you may connect to other metro stops. It takes about 1/2 hour to reach the metro and the buses leave every 15 minutes. Duration:Quickest!! Syntagma (Constitution Sq.) and Phaliron station also have direct links with Ethniki Amina Station.

Bus Cost: 3Eu, ticket good for 24 hrs on all other forms of Athens public transportation. You must validate your ticket at boarding time.

E95 goes from the airport to Syntagma Sq. and leaves every 10 to 30 minutes depending on the time of day. Duration: 1hr

E96 goes from the airport to Piraeus Port and leaves every 20 to 60 minutes depending on the time of day. Duration: 1 hr

The Port of Rafina is attainable thru the Rafina-Airport Bus-Rafina for 3EU. Summers mostly.

Only a few years ago Athens' airport was fondly known to all as Hellinikon and was very conveniently located at the sea shore. Consequently a taxi was a only a ten minute ride and cost only few hundred drachmae. Taxi costs went way up after the airport moved out to Spata where it is now! Count on at least 25 eu for a public taxi.

Originally whomever it is who passes for urban planners in Athens practically made a mantra out the airport being located in Markopoulo. Then just as we got used to it they changed their minds and called it Spata instead. Doesn't matter really as they both border the airport.

Spata is easier to remember but if they wanted to have a name that was easy to remember why did they pick Eleftherious Venizelous as a airport name? 'ATH' to make it more palatable.

If driving in Athens proper or even Piraeus you will notice eventually that they have all these totally out of context signs for the airport in the oddest places. Signs that go 1000 other places before they even come close to the airport. Its confusing. Athens is the worst but Greece can be annoying like that too especially if you are driving and looking for something for the 1st time.

It chronically like this because Greece is stagnating civically.You wont believe it but Greece wont recognize foreign university degrees, like say in urban planning from Harvard, but send thousands abroad every year to study - then they don't listen to them or let them work for the government. The best Greek University is ranked 450th in the world too - still you don't need to go to University just to set up some proper signs do you? You assume we visitors know things we dont!

My ATH Airport Experience

I flew Virgin Atlantic from London's' Gatwick to Athens' new EV airport the other day for the 1st time. Only a 3 hour 45 minute flight. EV is located in Spata, Attica. Its airport code is ATH.

On approach, brilliant sun and clear air combined to give me spectacular views of the closer inshore islands of the Saronic Gulf ( Salamis, site of the historic naval action against the ancient Persians, Aegina, Poros, etc.) and their surrounding sparkling blue Aegean waters.

While landside, betwixt the low and barren slopes of Hymettos and Pendeli, I beheld Athens, the sprawling concrete capital of Greece (4,500,000 inhabitants) and beyond it the plains, mountains and beaches of bountiful Attica with its many vineyards and sandy beaches. Then, after a wide bank, below and rising fast, lay Spata and the runway. You can see its rectangular form in the NASA photo below. http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/sseop

The new airport is humongous and possesses miles of corridors which lay between me and the baggage claim area. Since I had red-eyed from Boston the night before, and slept only 40 winks en route, I took advantage of baggage carts & moving walkways as much as possible. Athens' baggage carts cost 1.5 euro each and their little automated dispensers only accept crisp bills, not the dog-eared ones I had with me.

The carts themselves are only half the dimensions of the standard... go figure. They also have those useless bar brakes which contribute to your carpal tunnel syndrome as you must hold them in order to push the cart. This must be for safety reasons? Hello?The terminal is flatter than the Mojave desert and my cart aint rolling anywhere unless I push it there. Sky caps? No way!

Boston's' airport authority at Logan charges you $2 to rent a lousy cart. Gatwick's' are free as the British are very welcoming and extremely civilized provided you don't want to work/move there and except when watching football matches. This may prove useful to you if you have to change airports in London. Something to avoid if at all possible!!!!

My overweight baggage spewed forth with only one small rip in it and I cleared customs like a Arabian potentate disdaining to demand restitution for the rip or to declare my cache of weapons grade enriched plutonium. SECURITY?

Since I had only paid $10 for this oversized duffle in San Francisco's Mission district I prematurely chortled with glee. The last 3 times I have flown, my soft baggage has ripped or torn in at least one spot probably due to my excess weight.

I know I recommend to you guys to travel light and pack less than what you think you need but you don't live here and I do. Don't forget you have to lug that stuff around in some surprising places in Athens on miniscule and bumpy, obstacle strewn sidewalks, up ferry boats gangways, and over cobble stoned streets, etc.

Anyway, since the plane wasn't full they let me slide on the over weight charges and treated my new guitar with kid gloves. Like that Virgin Atlantic!

If your baggage is damaged at any airport inform the personnel there at the claim area immediately. There is usually a little office close by. Keep those baggage stubs they clip to your ticket too and your store receipt wont hurt either.

I proceeded to get a cab at the taxi stand where after an interminable wait in line I encountered the 1st Malakas (jerk) I met since leaving Greece 2 months before. He was my Taxi Driver, and didn't like the fact that I spoke Greek and knew where I wanted to go. The Greek irony was not lost on me. Here I had traveled over 20,000 kilometers or 12,000 miles, embarked on at least 5 planes meeting only courteous and kind people, to be welcomed back to Greece by this buffoon.

If I had only know that this over stuffed donkey was awaiting me I would have had Paul the Honest Greek Taxi driver (Mercedes a/c taxi) or one of his associates there to pick me up. Next time!!!

It being afternoon, I anticipated long traffic jams in the sweltering heat before arriving in beautiful central Exarhia Square. I was gratified by the 4 lane highway which whisked me to the outskirts of Athens in 20 minutes where began the 'teloporia'(suffering) of another 30 minutes of 2 lane road in heavy city traffic to reach home.

Other times, in heavier traffic, it can take over an hour to reach the center. Slow buses are available into Athens every 25 minutes 6:00 am - 7:50 PM. Piraeus every 20 minutes 5:00 am - 7:00 PM. and to both destinations, somewhat less frequently through the night hours. I recommend the Metro to reach the center if on a budget.

The New Athens Eleftherious Venizelous Airport built by the Germans, paid for by the Europeans, run by the Greeks and used by the world.  Couldn't they have chosen an easier name though? I mean just this one time?

Once in central Athens you will no doubt soon encounter one of Athens major Streets re-named after old E. V.,  which, even the Athenians themselves, call by its real name University Street or in Greek Panepestimiou street instead. Its one of the three major streets that connect Athens 2 most important squares Omonia and Sin dag ma. Syntagma means Constitution Square, not coincidentally, the heart of the Greek Nation State.

Mr. Venizelous was shrewd character and did a lot of good and bad for Greece depending on who you talk to. He was Greece's answer to Atta Turk or was it the other way around? Oddly enough Kemal A. Turk was born in Thessaloniki, part of modern Greece! Nothing is named after Kemal in Greece that's for sure! Also see

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