Vienna to Greece - options in 2022?

[YellowBrick]

Does anyone have any suggestions for getting from Vienna to Athens? It's a trip I'm thinking of doing in the next few days.
https://www.seat61.com/Greece.htm basically concludes with taking the ferry from Italy (Bari or Venice) as the Belgrade train appears to be shut down.

Eurolines can do it for about €130 and 18 + 12 hrs on buses (changing in Sofia).
Any other options? I've tried googling around but information is sparse and usually outdated.

 

[JonasB]

The ferry from Italy is the easiest option in my opinion.

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

There ought to be a route via Budapest and Romania to Sofia and then on to Thessaloniki, but the one daily train hasn't run since covid started.
The train runs in Bulgaria but terminates before the Greek border.
Even when it ran through, passengers had to detrain and use the road border crossing before rejoining the train.

 

[jamesontheroad]

I’m planning this trip for February.

The Sofia - Thessaloniki train is suspended between Kulata (the last station in Bulgaria) and Strymonas / Σταθμός. It shows up in the Bulgarian timetable as "INT 361" even through it is no longer a true international train. Latest I've heard is that there is no more rail replacement bus across the border.

My route will be:

d. Bucureşti-N 10.55 (train 1095)
a. Ruse 13.45

d. Ruse 14.10 (train 463)
a. Sofia 20.10

Overnight in Sofia

d. Sofia 15:00
a. Kulata 19:05

Then it's a taxi or walk to the Bulgarian border post: about 1.5km like this. It's about another km or so to the Greek border facility.

There's a fairly grim looking casino-hotel right on the Bulgarian side of the border, but my intention is to get through that evening and take a taxi the 15km to Strymonas, where I think the hotel selection might be better. A 2019 Google Streetview of the Greek side of the border shows a small cab rank (with a phone number on the sign) right by the turn-through, so it should be possible to walk into Greece and get a taxi.

EDIT:

Then Strymonas to Thessaloniki and Athens the next day (which happens to be a Sunday... so check times)

d. Strymonas 08:10
a. Thessaloniki 10:26 (train 1631)

d. Thessaloniki 10:56
a. Athens 15:03 (train 55)

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I'd be interested to know how that journey goes when you do it.
My plan, such as it is, is to go the other way, Athens to Sofia.
Bucharest-Ruse-Sofia is a through train in the summer (normally).
In fact they used to run a through coach/couchette Bucharest-Sofia-Thessaloniki (long wait in Sofia) before covid.

 

[Austriantrain]

Does anyone have any suggestions for getting from Vienna to Athens? It's a trip I'm thinking of doing in the next few days.
https://www.seat61.com/Greece.htm basically concludes with taking the ferry from Italy (Bari or Venice) as the Belgrade train appears to be shut down.

Eurolines can do it for about €130 and 18 + 12 hrs on buses (changing in Sofia).
Any other options? I've tried googling around but information is sparse and usually outdated.

I know it’s not relevant for your travel dates, but if anyone else plans the same journey some other time: the Vienna - Rome NJ will divert to Ancona in summer 2023 (due to works on the Bologna - Rome line), so there will be connecting opportunities to the ferries to Greece.

 

[YellowBrick]

Interesting thoughts, thanks. I ended up taking a bus to Sofia from Vienna (a very unpleasant bus; no wifi, power, toilets (it was locked) and a sign that said "no eating/drinking" - on a 15hr bus trip).
Interesting thoughts, thanks all. I ended up taking a bus to Sofia from Vienna (a very unpleasant bus; no wifi, power, toilets (it was locked) and a sign that said "no eating/drinking" - on a 15hr bus trip. And of course two tedious border-checks too (in/out Serbia)).

I suppose the obvious question is: Why is it so hard to get from Bulgaria to Greece? They're both EU members and the EU ostensibly has the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-European_Transport_Network - specifically this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orient/East–Med_Corridor

(Now I have to decide how to get to Athens; bus all the way or just to Thessalonika?)

 

[LNW-GW Joint]

I suppose the obvious question is: Why is it so hard to get from Bulgaria to Greece? They're both EU members and the EU ostensibly has the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trans-European_Transport_Network - specifically this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orient/East–Med_Corridor
(Now I have to decide how to get to Athens; bus all the way or just to Thessalonika?)

Plenty of rail services Thessaloniki-Athens, some of it using new infrastructure (tunnels/deviations).
BG/GR is a sensitive border with refugee/illegal immigrant problems northbound.
This also affects the Thessaloniki-Skopje-Belgrade route.
As noted elsewhere, Bulgaria, like Romania, and unlike Croatia, has not succeeded in its bid to join the Schengen zone from 1 Jan 2023, so the GR/BG border requires extra border checks.

 

[Watershed]

There's a fairly grim looking casino-hotel right on the Bulgarian side of the border

It looks a bit tacky from the outside, and it's a not so pleasant 15 minute walk from Kulata station, but the rooms are actually quite nice and it seems to be reasonably priced. I certainly can't recommend the breakfast though!

Unfortunately either a taxi or coach is the only viable option to connect between the two networks. As I've said before, I didn't find any evidence of a rail replacement bus so it's either your own taxi or one of the commercial coach services (which I'm not convinced pick up/set down in Kulata).

 

[dutchflyer]

IT IS difficult for those only knowing/wanting about these iron monsters on rails.
The short sector Kulata-Strym can be bridged by-usually- the through bus Sofia-Thessaloniki. Which means long waits at both sides and possibly also long walks between busstops and trainstops. Really, for the existing demand a bus is more as enough. BG and GR never have shared much in common.
GR/when it still was OSE has decided to terminate several raillines-and that was thought of as eternal, so no need to organise rail-repl. bus. This also applies to the link GR-TR, which once also had a through train on to ISTanbul for some years. In general BUs (In GR KTEL-coöperative, organised on provincial base) and train do not or hardly coöperate there. Compete with one another is more the norm-or ignore.
It should also be common knowledge that taking a taxi over border will cost much more-in money and efforts-as staying on 1 side. Kulata is the bordertown on the BG side.
That demand for this link is minimal is likely also reflected in that even seat61 does not offer much advice-other as for the bridge the gaps sectors coming fro Beograd toward Sofia.