London and Athens are two of Europe’s most beautiful cities, filled with culture and sights to see. Unfortunately, the distance between them is not exactly small. And since Greece is a very popular vacation destination among Brits, we’ve decided to put together a guide to traveling between the two superb capitals.

Quick summary

If you are on a tight schedule, our advice is to book your flight well in advance (or look for deals) in order to benefit from the cheap fares. Otherwise, if you have a lot of time on your hands and a rather high budget, you can plan to travel by train or ferry. However, it gets boring quite soon, especially if you are not used to long train ride. But you can plan short city breaks along the way and that’s when the train journey gets interesting.

Flights from Athens (airport code: ATH) to London

Various airlines fly from Athens to London Heathrow and London Gatwick. Aegean, British Airways, bmi and EasyJet are just some of the airlines offering direct flights between the two cities. Outside the high season expect to pay from €70 one way on Aegean. It’s a 4 hour flight. During the high season, expect to pay from €75 one way on EasyJet. Return flights in July 2012 start at €200 per person.

Also, all these airlines offer promotional fares quite often, so make sure to keep your eyes on their sales and don’t forget to follow them on Twitter or Facebook.

Trains from Athens to London

Update:

During the tourist season, you can take a train from Thessaloniki to Bucharest (Romania), and then connect through Budapest all the way to London.

Getting from Athens to London by train is not an adventure for those who mind spending a lot of time traveling. There are three possible routes between the two cities.

The shortest route takes almost 26 hours (according to DB BAHN ) and you have to make quite a lot of stops along the way. More precisely in: Eboli, Roma, Milan, Chiasso, Bellinzona, Basel and then you’ll get to Paris Est. From here you need to get to Paris Nord to get on the Eurostar train to London.

There’s another possible route via Eboli, Salerno, Parma, Milan, Zurich and Paris Est. Then, of course, get to Paris Nord to hop on the Eurostar for the last leg of the trip. The total travel time is 26 ½ hours.

The longest route takes almost 29 hours and you’ll be changing trains in: Battipaglia, Milan, Basel before you get to Paris Est. Then you need to travel to Paris Nord and take the Eurostar to get to London.

Or you can create your own itinerary via Munich, Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest and Thessaloniki but you’ll be traveling for about 3 days. This is the busiest train route in Europe during summer. You can buy a train pass to save money and it also allows for short city breaks.

Ferries from Athens to London

It is possible to travel by ferry from Athens to London. However, you need two days and a lot of patience.

Step 1: Athens to Patras (Patra) by train

There are daily connections between Athens and Patras. Trains depart from Larissa Station and you cannot book tickets online.

Step 2: Patras (Patra) to Ancona by ferry

Patras is connected to Italy by two ferry routes: one serving Ancona and one Venice. It takes 21 hours to get to Ancona and the cheapest ticket (deck) costs € 52.00/person/one way.

Step 3: Ancona to London via Pesaro Milan, Dijon and Lille

Yes, you need to change trains 4 times before you get to London and the entire journey takes little over 17 ½ hours.

Alternatively you can get on a ferry from Patras to Venice (32 hours, €54/person/one way deck ticket) and then get on a train in Venice. You’ll be making only two stops along the way (Dijon and Lille) before you get to London and the total travel time is 15 ½ hours.

It is possible to book the ferry tickets online here .

Buses from Athens to London

Since there are no direct buses to connect the two cities, you can create your own itinerary.

Step 1: Athens to Thessaloniki

You can travel from Athens to Thessaloniki by plane, train, bus or ferry. The bus ride takes 6 ½ hours and costs about €35 per person.

>>read more about Getting from Athens to Thessaloniki

Step 2: Thessaloniki to Bucharest (Romania)

There are direct buses linking Thessaloniki to Bucharest and the journey takes about 12 hours. During summer there are quite a lot of weekly departures available

Step 3: Bucharest to London by train

The shortest route is via Budapest, Linz, Frankfurt, Köln, Aachen, Liège-Guillemins, Bruxelles-Midi then you need to transfer to Bruxelles-Midi Est and get on the Eurostar to London. This route takes almost 39 hours.

Of course, you can plan your own route via Budapest, Vienna and Munich. As mentioned above, this is one of the busiest European train routes during summer.

Driving from Athens to London

You can rent a car in Athens and travel all the way to London. Since both countries are in the European Union there shouldn’t be a problem to rent a car from one country and drop it off in another , but do make sure to rental company you chose allows that.

Regardless of which route you take, you’ll be faced with using a ferry and a car transport, which means you have to pay a fee to take the car on them. Also, the route is about 3000 km , which means you need to plan plenty of stops along the way. Consider a stop in Brindisi for a night (as you’ll use the Igoumenitsa – Brindisi ferry crossing), then you can stay a night in Bologna, followed by a night in Turin, before stopping in Geneva. Make another stop on the road to Paris and also stay a night in France’s capital.

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Note: The article was first published on March 30th, 2010 and has been republished in January 2012.

Photos by Cristina Puscas and may not be used without permission.