Suggestions for Day Trips please...

[stuartmoss]

Hi Folks,

A group of around 6-10 of us (all middleish aged blokes) will be visiting ONE of the following cities for a long weekend in January 2024: Alicante, Athens or Tirana, and I'm looking for suggestions for day trips by public transport, no more than a 90 minute journey to get us out of the city and somewhere more rural or a chilled out old town, over to you lot....

Thanks!

 

[Alfonso]

If you're in athens the one hour boat ride to the island of angina is lovely in summer, but everything might be shut in January. Need to ask someone more knowledge than I. If you do go take the saronic car ferries with a bar, cafe, inside and outside space etc, about 10 euro single, not the flying dolphin enclosed catamaran things

 

[stuartmoss]

Thanks Alfonso, I'd never even thought about ferries!

 

[Sir Felix Pole]

From Alicante you can take the tram to Benidorm (no need to linger here!) and then the tram-train to Dénia. The latter line is highly scenic and is now open again after extensive works. Dénia is dominated by a large Moorish castle.

 

[peterblue]

There isn't much within 90 minutes of Tirana itself. If you're in Tirana though, I would highly recommend the Dajti Ekspres cable car (https://dajtiekspres.com/) over some mountains. It's very scenic.

Corinth is a nice town within about 60 minutes of Athens. It's slightly more relaxed and worth a wander around.

 

[dutchflyer]

Tirana/ALB has no trains left-or the one supposedly remaining is so unreliable and downtrodden, even blokes would better avoid it. BUSes in ALB are mostly vans/minibuses running as Turk dolmush=when full, so unregulated. The wait for it to go might be longer as the trip itself.
Alacant now also has an AVE=hi-speed link, but then you go to Madrid-a bit costly and far away.
There is also an hourly RENFE local=cercanias trainservice to Murcia and onward, the cork country and fairly interesting as city.
Valencia also has links-both train, regional and faster long-dist and buses, you could combine for going out and comeback. As a city and what it has to offer I found Vlc much better as Alacant.

 

[Alfonso]

Thanks Alfonso, I'd never even thought about ferries!

Just noticed it's written "angina" instead of "aegina". As well as the ferry there's the bus, train or tram from Central Athens to piraeus port.

 

[Class800]

If you're in athens the one hour boat ride to the island of angina is lovely in summer, but everything might be shut in January. Need to ask someone more knowledge than I. If you do go take the saronic car ferries with a bar, cafe, inside and outside space etc, about 10 euro single, not the flying dolphin enclosed catamaran things

Might not be an ideal destination for a group of ageing men!

 

[stuartmoss]

Great stuff! Thanks everyone!