barcelona to crete on the surface 🚆 🗺

So how to get from Barcelona to Crete on the surface? A combo of ferries and trains would do it!

First step would be the Grimaldi connection to Civitavecchia - the harbor city of Roma. It leaves at 19:00 and arrives 21 hours later at 16:00. The night can then be spent in the eternal city.

The options for getting from Italy to Greece are various but for this purpose Bari and/or Brindisi would be good starting points. The ferry from Brindisi to Igoumenitsa leaves at 13:00 so that is not possible to get to the next day. The night ferry from Bari to Patras looks more promising. Leaving at 19:30 and arriving at 13:30 the next day. (Hmm now we are three nights in already…)

The next and last boat is from Piraeus to Heraklion. To get from Patras to Pireus involves a train and a bus and takes some 3 hours arriving at least before 19:00 in the evening. That is good since the night ferry to Crete leaves at 21:00 - plenty of time!

All in all some 4 nights to get from Barcelona to Heraklion on the surface. 3 of those on a boat! Sounds like an adventure to me.

written by fredrik at 2022-05-14