Getting There · Athens (Piraeus)
One airport serves a Piraeus cruise: Athens International. It’s about 31.0 road miles from the Terminal A street point by our routing, and Metro Line 3 runs there to Piraeus in about an hour for €9. Below are the metro, the X96 bus, the metered taxi, the cruise lines’ transfers and a check on your landing time.
Put in your landing and the ship’s departure. We’ll hold them against Holland America’s cut-off and our own margin.
Athens International is the airport. Our routing, from the airport’s reference point, gives about 31.0 road miles (49.8 km) and 47 minutes to the Terminal A street point on Akti Miaouli, and 31.4 miles to B and C’s — no traffic, and street points rather than the buildings.
Holland America’s figure is shorter, 20 miles (32 km) and about 60 minutes, depending on traffic, and it doesn’t say how it measured. We quote our road figure because it follows the motorway a car actually drives. For timing, budget Holland America’s hour, not our free-flow minutes.
With bags, the choice is the metro and a short taxi, the X96 bus, a metered taxi all the way, or your line’s transfer. The airport’s fixed taxi fares stop at central Athens.
Booking.com lists airport taxis you can book ahead. Check the pickup point, the price and the cancellation terms before you book.
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Athens International sits at Spata, about 20 km east of central Athens, per Wikipedia. Holland America gives Akti Miaouli 10 as the address for all three cruise terminals: Gate E11 for Terminal A, E12 for B and C. Gates E1 to E10 serve the ferries, so follow the cruise gate on your documents.
Fares and dates are on Booking.com. Land the day before, not the morning you sail.
Booking.com links are affiliate links: Seabound Journeys may earn a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you. It doesn’t change what we recommend. Affiliate disclosure.
The metro and bus rows are per person and stop at Piraeus — add a short taxi to your gate. The taxi row is per car, and it’s an estimate, because the meter runs.
| Metro Line 3, one-way airport ticket | — |
| X96 express bus | — |
| Taxi, Holland America’s estimate (metered) | — |
| 3-day tourist ticket, airport both ways | — |
One way, in euros, as OASA and Holland America printed them on October 3, 2026; OASA prints no effective date. A metro return is €16 (about US$18). The taxi tariff itself didn’t change in September 2026, per To Vima, and a ticket reseller lists a €1.30 (about US$1) surcharge for pick-ups at Piraeus port. Holland America’s tour (from US$134) and Viator’s private transfers (from US$43.58 a person, run by Keytours) are priced in dollars, so they aren’t in the table.
Viator lists Athens private transfers, Piraeus port included, from about US$26, as its category page showed them.
Holland America’s cut-off is the only published one: land before 10 am for its airport tour. The other row is our own margin, not a line’s rule. Put in your scheduled landing and the sailing time from your cruise documents.
What counts is the check-in time in your boarding documents; none of the pages we read publishes a general check-in window for Piraeus.
We ranked sixteen hotels for a Piraeus cruise, seven of them in Piraeus itself, about 0.4 to 1.4 road miles from Terminal A’s street point by our routing. Send your sail date and flight, and we’ll match the hotel night to your landing.
Princess advises a flight no earlier than 5 hours after the ship arrives in Athens, and taxis wait outside the cruise terminals, per MSC. Put in your flight and when you expect to be off, and this lays out the ride and the wait.
Partner links (transfers, rental cars) may earn Seabound Journeys a commission at no extra cost to you. They don't change the plan, which is built only from what each company publishes.
Line 3 reached Piraeus in October 2022. Its trains now run from the airport through Piraeus to Dimotiko Theatro, one stop further, in about 63 minutes end to end, per STASY; the airport says about 60 minutes to Piraeus. Airport trains run every 36 minutes.
At Piraeus, Line 1 (the green line) and the suburban railway share the station. Our routing gives about 1.1 miles by road from the station to Terminal A’s street point and 1.6 to B and C’s. Holland America calls Terminal A about 15 minutes on foot from the metro and the others about 30 — a short taxi with luggage, not a stroll.
There’s a free internal bus from the metro, at Gate E5, but go-ferry.com says it runs only to ferry gates E1 to E3. OLP runs its own free shuttle among the passenger terminals and the ships, without a published route or timetable.
From May to October the X80 runs between the cruise terminal on Akti Xaveriou and Syntagma, every 35 to 40 minutes, per MSC — handy for a day in Athens, not for the airport.
Holland America says there’s no luggage storage at the pier; a 2022 Cruise Critic article mentioned lockers in Terminal A. Bounce lists 13 spots in Piraeus from €1.95 (about US$2) a day.
For the terminals and the lines, see our Athens (Piraeus) cruise guide.
A hotel night buys back the whole of sail morning. From a transatlantic flight that matters: you land tired, and a delayed bag or a long taxi queue can eat the margin.
Piraeus City Hotel books a car to the cruise terminal for €8–10 (about US$9–11), and the Savoy calls the cruise docks walking distance. If you land late, the Sofitel is a 2-minute walk from the airport terminal.
Our top six, with the drive from Athens airport to each, by our routing. All sixteen are on the hotels page.
What each of our sixteen says about getting from the airport to its door. If the night before is the celebration, our splurge picks run from Syntagma to the beaches at Vouliagmeni.
All sixteen, with what each says about the airport, are in the ride table on the hotels page.
Athens International (ATH), Eleftherios Venizelos — the only commercial airport for Athens. Our routing puts it about 31.0 road miles (49.8 km) and 47 minutes from the Terminal A street point with no traffic; Holland America says 20 miles (32 km) and about 60 minutes, depending on traffic, without saying how it measured. We give the road figure because it's the route a car drives, and we'd plan on the hour.
Take Line 3, the blue line, which runs from the airport through Piraeus to Dimotiko Theatro, one stop further. It's about an hour to Piraeus, per the airport, and airport trains run every 36 minutes, the first at 06:10 and the last at 23:34. From Sunday to Thursday, until further notice, night works mean the last train that runs through to Piraeus leaves the airport at 21:10, per STASY; later ones stop at Syntagma. A one-way airport ticket is €9 and a return €16, per OASA. From Piraeus station our routing gives about 1.1 miles by road to Terminal A's street point and 1.6 to B and C, so take a taxi for the last stretch.
No. The airport's fixed fares, €50 from 5 am to midnight and €65 (about US$75) from midnight to 5 am since a September 2026 rise, cover the airport and the city-centre inner ring only. To Piraeus the meter runs; Holland America estimates €60.
About 90 minutes, per OASA, around the clock, for €5.50. OASA names its end the Port of Piraeus, with a link to metro Line 1, and athensguide.com puts it at Karaiskaki Square on the ferry side, so expect a short taxi to Gate E11 or E12.
Yes, through licensed taxi drivers, per the airport — the flat fares apply, and pick-up is opposite Exit 4. Freenow, which calls itself Greece's number one taxi app, also operates. The taxi rank is at Exit 3 of Arrivals.
Piraeus has three cruise terminals: A (Miaoulis), entered through Gate E11, and B (Themistocles) and C (Alkimos), both through Gate E12, per MSC. Holland America lists Akti Miaouli 10, 185 38 for all three. No line publishes a fixed terminal; MSC says terminal assignments may vary, so your documents name yours. Gates E1 to E10 are ferry gates.
Holland America sells an Athens and Acropolis tour with an airport pick-up and transfer to the ship, from US$134 a person, for flights landing before 10 am. Viking includes transfers when you buy air through Viking. We found no public airport-to-ship price for Celebrity, Royal Caribbean, MSC, Princess, Costa or Celestyal.
Holland America says there's no luggage storage at the pier; a 2022 Cruise Critic article mentioned lockers in Terminal A, so the two disagree — don't count on it. Bounce lists 13 luggage spots in Piraeus from €1.95 a day.
Princess advises a flight no earlier than 5 hours after the ship's arrival in Athens. Norwegian sells a late checkout with a transfer to the airport, US$89 an adult and US$79 a child. Taxis wait outside the cruise terminals, per MSC.
It's €20 (about US$20) and includes one trip to the airport and one back, per OASA, plus the city's buses and metro for three days. A single airport metro ticket is €9, so it pays off if you're spending a couple of days in Athens before or after.
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