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Taking a Ferry from Greece to Italy: Which One Should You Take?

When you're travelling on a tight budget (or, in my case, broke as hell) and trying to make a fairly short journey, you don't want to spend €200 on a flight. Especially when the flight is from Athens to Rome because it's only a couple of hours. If you're hoping to travel in Roma you want to savour what money you have and use it to make it rain in Pizzarias or the Trevi Fountain. You don't want to spend a couple of hours cramped, thousands of miles in the air on an economy flight when you could be stretching your legs, enjoying the scenery on a spacious, sea-level ferry.

If you're interested in this idea then I highly recommend reading my first post on this here


Wouldn't you rather do something exciting and entertaining that will turn into an excellent story that you can tell your friends and family when you get home? If this seems utterly bonkers to you (and that's because it most likely is) you should go back and read my initial post on this subject for the low down on how much we saved, your route options and onward/pre ferry travel.


Well then, I take it you too are considering the ferry to Italy as a viable option to save those gelato and museum admission funds and I am here for you.


LET'S GET STARTED!

Your main 2 options for the ferry company you will sail with from Greece to Italy or vis-versa are Grimaldi and Anek Lines. Even if you've decided on your ferry of choice already I still highly advise reading on becuase I doubt anyone has done as much research into this as I have for reasons which will become clear 😅 😅 I've also included a full review of the one my friends and I took at the end of this post.


We initially jumped at the idea of booking with Grimaldi because of the savings it would give us. €200 plane ticket? Thank you, next. €30 ferry?



--- DISCLAIMER: I want to just but in here and say that I am not trying to knock Grimaldi, I have never sailed with them and when we docked in Bari, Grimaldi docked right alongside us so they obviously made it in one piece. ---


The reason I feel the need to interrupt this post to say that is because there are A LOT of negative reviews online about several different crossings run by Grimaldi...some of which (my favourites) will be included in this post 😜 😜 🙊 🙊 I can't tell you why my friends and I found the prospect of doing this journey with Grimaldi increasingly amusing because really we should have been increasingly terrified. Somehow though, as the reviews we were reading became worse and worse the more we rolled around laughing. Whether this was to mask our anxiety or out of disbelief is difficult to say. In all honesty, it was probably because we were so surprised by how trashy we were, that after reading possibly the worst reviews on the internet we were still going because we cheap af 😂 😂



Grimaldi Lines


Don't be fooled by the Princess Diaries reference, this is in no way endorsed by Julie Andrews or Anne Hathaway and is not at all connected to the mythical kingdom of Genovia (sorry). Now that I've disappointed you all, allow Grimaldi online reviews to do same and slap those crazy thoughts of stealing a bargain from your mind.


According to these reviewers, this seems to be the ferry equivalent of what Mia's hair did to Paulo's brush, or what Mia did to bitchy Mand Moore's top with her icecream or what douche bag popular guy does to Mia's heart or what Mia's best friend Lily does to their friendship bracelet, needless to say, it's broken, dirty and messed up.

Trust Pilot: 360 reviews and 83% of them are bad 🙈 🙈 You can scroll through 3 pages of negative reviews for a mega-dose of Schadenfreude but I've compiled some of my favourites for you below.


I omitted some of the irrelevant ramblings along with references to the nationalities of the people mentioned as they possessed hateful undertones. I left in all typos though because that just fuels the experience in my opinion 😂 😂


"I am unable to write the review I would like to as Grimaldi Line is not worthy of my time. All I can say is DO NOT TRAVEL WITH GRIMALDI LINE under any circumstances. You will regret it !!!!"
This was the dirtiest ferry ever. No paper in the disgusting toilets. Don’t look at the floor, any floor. In the restaurant they don’t clean up the serving area, god knows what the kitchen is like. The seats are ‘tired’ and no- one bothers to enforce the non smoking ban. It’s not good enough to say you get what you pay for. We didn’t know. We would pay more for cleanliness.
the toilets they stunk very unhygienic mo toilet roll blood stains on the floor and sanitary towels over flowing disgusting
All the bad things you have heard are all true. Ship was filthy. People sleeping everwhere. Food was expensive and foul. The worst 10 hour ferry crossing. Avoid.
"The ferry was due in a 23.00hrs. It arrived at 02.30hrs. The foot passengers, were allowed to board even though vehicles were still be unloaded. After finally loading at around 03.30hrs and having [reserved a] seat we found that every stairway, seat, spare piece of floor was littered by the foot passengers who had bedded down for the night....And, as for the toilets, you simply don't want to know. Think of disgusting, triple it and you won't be anywhere near!! . . The food was absolutely disgusting and overpriced, made a UK motorway services look like posh restaurant. Reception staff non existent most of the time and when there rude and unhelpful. Mens WC both broken and filthy, women a filthy disgrace and part broken. The chaos trying to get to the car to alight was just dangerous, no one to direct people or traffic. A revolting experience in every possible way."
Boat was dirty, old. Ordes of people were camping everywhere, under the stairs, along the corridors, on every single couch, sofa or chair in the communal areas. kids were running around and beating each other, screaming day and night. the public toilet's wall had drawings made of feces on them, the smell was revolting... it felt like been on a refugies boat.

Okay, there's no way to verify the truth of any of these. People are prone to exaggeration and I'm willing to bet a lot of these people just went in with unrealistic expectations and NO experience on Mediterranean ferries. Upon reflection, I would happily book a trip with Grimaldi just to see if I could squash some of their bad press.


Anyway, if you can believe it, even after reading all of these reviews and far, far more we were still going to book with Grimaldi mostly for the experience if nothing else until we saw this review:


They are not follow any requlation ISM there is the risk of serious fire as it happens in the past with many deads abd FINALLY SOMEBODY HAS TO DO SOMETHING. Authorities of Italy or Spain ( Port police are suck) Grimaldy seems to control them as well. If you tried anything most propably they will not accept you on board again and if you don't another choice you are fu@@d.AVOID GRIMALDY LINES. IT IS A SERIOUS WARNING. YOU LIFE AND YOUR PROPERTY WORTHS MORE THAN THIS.

Now it should be said that this post contained hateful and discriminative remarks (as seems to be a theme in this comment board) and, even if he did have his truck damaged by a crew member and had to pay for the repairs himself, I don't think that excuses the comments he made. HOWEVER, his mention of "many deads abd" gave my anxiety something quite serious to obsess over. I took to Google for some further elaboration, preferably with facts especially those which had been spell checked. However, I found nothing.


I did come across a review somewhere that I haven't been able to track down again, it said that with people sleeping all over the floor, in front of exits etc packed in like chickens in a factory farm, it would make evacuation in an emergency absolutely impossible. This is what freaked us out the most. We were pretty prepared to rough it for almost 20 hours in unspeakable conditions for a cheap ticket but the possibility of death? That's a step too far.


Ultimately, this led us to book with Anek Lines for €62 (with a €10 upgrade for a reserved seat but more on that later) rather than the €30 Grimaldi would have cost us -- this is of course not including the potential added surcharge of our lives.


I think it only fair to include some of the good reviews for Grimaldi as well here's my personal favourite:


I really don't understand why people complain. My husband and I are still so high. Just wow. Amazing. Like really amazing. We took the Grimaldi cruise at Brindisi to go to Patras. We strongly recommend that you buy two bottles (or three) of Prosecco and mortadella, ham, cheese, bread, some dried tomatoes (yummy). That's what we did, and we do not regret it. You will be strongly desired by the rest of the passengers who have only bought a boring sandwich. Then, just enjoy being happy sitting on the deck. The view is breathtaking. Perfect for a mission of seduction or even a one night-stand. Most amazing part of it : you can see DOLPHINS if you're lucky enough. Also, the captain of the boat was extremely nice, he let my husband take a photo with him. We enjoyed the breakdance spectacle on deck, organized by the cabin crew. We slept near people we didn't even know, which is rare in this world of individualistic capitalism where the working class are exploited and forced to live an alienated life of reclusion. Thank you Grimaldi, we will never forget.

Yep. 🤣 🤣 🤣 There actually are some less weird good reviews of Grimaldi as well, if you're interested, read on.


To all prior reviewers: Why do you all expect Grimaldi Lines to be some kind of luxurious cruise ship on its way to Acapulco?? They are just a "simple" Italian ferry line and they should be rated accordingly... Their services are basic, but they offer you a fair deal considering their prices. But don't worry all you posh people out there, we also suffered from some horrible Grimaldi services: - The front deck was a little wet - It was cloudy and extremely windy - We didn't see any whales - There were a lot of obese people aboard - We had a delay of exactly 4 minutes - We lost 50 euros in the casino - We couldn't pay by BitCoins - One staff member called us "prego" Shame on you Grimaldi! CU next time :-) Love from Amsterdam

Pro Tip: "Prego" is Italian for "You're Welcome" 😜 😜


I read so many horrible reviews for this ferry line! It was not my choice to go on it but it was part of a student tour so I was stuck and very fearful. My experience was 180 degrees different than all the negative reviews. First, the bad: due to reasons I am not sure about, we left 5 hours late. This was tough as that meant boarding at 3 am and leaving at 5 am. Otherwise, all was well. My cabin was clean and comfortable. The shower water was hot and good. The food was not fabulous, but it was decent and not overly expensive. There was a gelato shop, a crepe shop and a bar for in between snacks. The bar even made fresh squeezed orange juice right in front of me--delicious! The boarding and disembarking were as efficient as they could be. I would have no qualms about taking this ferry again if the need arose. Now, I will say it was March so possibly due to lack of crowds I had a better experience than one might later in the year but I don't know.

Brindisi to Igoumenitsa 2nd Aug 2018 Ships name was Corfu. After reading all the reviews we were absolutely dreading the trip. 2 adults a 10yr old and a dog. Worst case scenario was to expect the worst and anything else would be a bonus. What a great suprise, we must have picked a good day! Got the the port. Found out we had to check in first and get tickets. Check in opens about 09.30 for the 13:00 sailing. Then you hang around in the carpark. Bar is open for drinks etc and a small garden area to sit outside. Boarding security guys really helpful and explained when you would be allowed to start queuing to board. This is approx 11am. Excellent area for dogs penned off with crates if needed. So ... the ship was clean.. one restaraunt and one bar at our end also toilets. Ship was packed but everyone managed to get a seat. The truck drivers appeared to have their own area. To be honest the staff were very pleasant and helpful. The journey was long but smooth. We took packed lunch and drinks. Overall we were soo happy it wasnt like the reviews it made our day!! Would we do it again? Yes! P.S.. we found out the reason some sailing times are changed is due to the flights coming and going at the airport close by. If the airlines are delayed or early the ferries have to wait until the airspace is clear as they fly so low and close. Hope that helps answer a few Qs.

Doesn't sound so bad now does it? Frankly, never having travelled with them all I can do is share what I've found but if any of you have, PLEASE tell me how it was! So many people go into these new, foreign experiences in different cultures with unfounded expectations. So I'd like to know from someone who went without expectations, if it's as bad as it's been written off to be or if it's just an average, affordable ferry company.


Anek Lines

Moving swiftly on, remember that on Trust Pilot Grimaldi had 360 reviews and 83% were the lowest possible ranking. Well, on Trip Advisor Anek has 367 reviews 169 of which are the lowest possible ranking so according to this percentage calculator that's about 46% of their reviews 🤓 🤓 🤓. There's an obvious improvement there! I would have used Anek's Trust Pilot as I did with Grimaldi but they only had 1 review.


Fair is fair Anek, it's your turn to be roasted:


HORRIFIC - staff at Ancona were very rude and unhelpful and were shouting at customers ! Ferry packed and no seats available, 3 hour delay for no reason and then took hours to board and mass scramble to get to/from cars. Lifts were then locked by staff and had to walk down 4 x stairs with children, luggage and dogs with about 1,000 other people Food not edible and everything was dirty. THE MOST STRESSFUL JOURNEY OF MY LIFE - AVOID AT ALL COSTS

3rd rate but very expensive cooking - coffee (bad) and orange juice (watered down) Euro 5. V poor wifi - OK for e mails, lousy for a film (60 m will also cost you Euro 5). Pretty rude staff. Fine to avoid the roads but a memorably poor experience.

We went from Patra to Bari. The staff was very rude and they hardly speak English. The toilets was without paper and soap. They were really filthy 5 minutes after the ship department which means no one ever bother to clean it. It was also ridiculously expensive if someone wants to eat or drink. Even water. Bring your own food with you.

I went from Santorini to Karpathos. Disgusting boats that smell and are about as old as the titanic. Running over 2 hours late and didn't even keep passengers up to date to say "hey we are running late sorry." Would not recommend unless you like being disappointment. For the extra 40 euro I will be flying next time. Worst experience.

These kinds of reviews really get on my nerves because they come from people who have never caught a Greek ferry before and they come in with no experience and all these expectations forgetting that 1. This is a public ferry NOT A CRUISE SHIP and 2. whatever they are comparing it to (whether that's prompt, English-speaking service back home or other ferries they've caught in different countries) is an unfair comparison. I say this because different countries have different cultural approaches, experiences yada, yada, yada that make comparing this experience like comparing apples and pears; two very similar but essentially different things.


If you are planning a trip to Greece and will be taking a ferry then please watch this space as I will be posting What To Expect on a Greek Ferry very soon. I'll address all of the issues that these reviewers had such as, food, delays, the language barrier, rude staff - the whole kit and kaboodle and then some. I really cannot beg you enough to inform yourself because if people just knew what to expect then they wouldn't be so disappointed and these companies wouldn't suffer from half as many bad reviews.


The only complaint from the above reviews that I will write about here because I don't cover it in the aforementioned post, is...


Cabin Accommodation

This is a big complaint from travellers with both Grimaldi and Anek Lines. People complain that they are small, smelly, soiled -- you name it someone's probably written a bad review about it.


The reason I don't cover this in What To Expect on a Greek Ferry is that I have no experience with it. I can't really claim to understand or attempt to explain it in the way that I can with the others. I've always slept on ferry seats and don’t see the point in spending so much money for a bed.


I took the liberty of going onto Anek's website and looking at the prices of the cabins to be sure I'm giving you the right info. The room options you have are either, buying a single bed in a shared room (which I cannot find a price for, so if you know please tell me!), a gender-exclusive room or booking a whole cabin which seems to range from over €200 to almost €400!


If I paid all that much money for a cabin and it was gross I'd be pissed too so I get it.


In my opinion, it's not worth the risk of disappointment, pay a little extra for an Airseat (comfy, reserved, inside ones) and sleep on that. Bring an eye mask and ear plugs/earphones whatever and wrap your bag up in a jumper or something comfy to use as a pillow. On our boat, it was so empty, maybe because it was an overnight one but there were rows completely free with one person stretched out sleeping soundly so it really wasn't so bad! The armrests could be pushed up and the seat could go back a little bit (like 2 centimetres but every little bit counts right? 😜).

In all likelihood, the state of your cabin accommodation and your experience with staff will depend entirely upon the boat and company you travel with. I'm sorry to not be able to address this more thoroughly but my advice is, save money and book a reserved seat and don't lose your marbles if someone is sitting/sleeping in it when you get there just sit somewhere else. That's just how Greece works. The seat number is a formality, please just keep up the good vibes and sit in one of the many other available seats it literally does not matter where you sit.


The worst reviews people could come up with for Anek lines were that it was late, the food was expensive and that people were sleeping in the seats that the commenters had reserved, which...I mean...my genuine reaction was: Welcome to Greek Ferries, that's all pretty standard.

There was nothing about safety concerns though! So, RESULT! We had made a decision.


We paid extra (I think about €1) for reserved seats inside the ship. For the record, I never would bother doing this on any other Greek ferry, I think it's a complete waste of time and money as people will sit all over the shop anyway BUT we did reserve seats this time because we knew the air seats (internal comfy ones) were limited and we wanted to do what little we could to guarantee a comfortable 16-hour journey. We also got there an hour before departure and were the first ones on board BOO YAH! Punctuality pays! We got first dibs of which seats we wanted and sat right by one of the 4 plug sockets in the room (one in each corner), I set up my Macbook and it was smooth sailing with pre-downloaded movies and all the Spanikopita and Greek chips we could fit into our backpacks.


My Findings of Anek Lines Superfast II


The Toilets The toilets were clean, tidy and well stocked with 2 rolls of toilet paper in each cubicle when I inspected them just after boarding. When I went again later in the night they had literally just been cleaned by a friendly and polite staff member. They were just as tidy and well maintained the next morning before we docked in Bari as well.


But don't just take my word for it, see for yourselves:


The Paid for Reserved Seating

We were in the reserved seating room which was quite spacious. As I said there was only 4 charging outlets, one in each corner but if you have a portable charger for your phone and especially if you have a fully charged kindle/iPad/laptop/book/knitting/Rubix Cube I really don't think you'll need one as you'll most likely spend most of the crossing asleep.


There were 2 TVs in this area one front and centre and the other was on a partition wall about halfway down, among the seats so that those in the back could watch it as well. It was showing mostly Greek soaps which are very entertaining to watch even if you don't have a clue what they're saying however these stayed on throughout the night and I found the noise irritating so if you are sensitive to noise while you're trying to sleep including but not limited to LOUD AF snoring randoms (OH MY GOD!) I HIGHLY recommend earphones, earplugs, whatever you have to block that ish out.


Some of the Grimaldi Lines reviews mentioned having to sleep with bright artificial lighting blaring throughout the night so I was prepped with my eye mask but I didn't even really need it as the inside lights were dimmed very low around 10 pm.


Here's some insider footage for you:


The Staff

We found the staff just lovely, I asked one of them how to say "you're welcome" in Italian and he didn't know but he asked his colleague for me andthat's how I know that "Prego" means "You're welcome 😊 😊


The Food

The price of the food in their restaurant area was pretty much the standard for ferry food in Greece maybe a bit more but they were also offering proper food which is hard to come by on short crossing ferries in the Cyclades. It's normally burgers and pastries on those ones so I can understand why you would charge a bit more for an actual nutritious meal. We were prepared with our own snacks though so I didn't try any of the food and can't really speak to its quality.


The Safety Standards

Ooooh yeah saved the big one for last. Yes, there were people sleeping on blow-up mattresses underneath staircases and in stairwells but I didn't see any emergency exits being blocked. As it was reviews of Grimaldi, painting the claustrophobic image

of a floor completely littered with human tripping hazards that literally convinced us to pay more and book with Anek, we were happy to find that in the event of an emergency we could have evacuated quickly and easily. We only noticed the floor dwellers when we went exploring early the next morning so I don't know how the staff approached this during the night if they had been asked to move etc, but in my experience, people sleep everywhere in Greek ferries and staff are normally heaps chill with it.


I also just want to add that during my snooze time in the reserved seating area I was basically seat number one, so I had a window seat on the far side of the room, right in the front row so easily accessed by everyone else and I had my Macbook open and playing movies while I slept. Before you berate me for being a crazy ding dong let me explain, I was lying down across 2 seats, facing into my chair. My Macbook was leaning against the cushion of the seat, so it was wedged between my chair and me. I was also kind of hugging it so if anyone so much as nudged it I would have been gripping and swearing like a mad person. Also, I was using my handbag as a pillow (pro tip) and I had the strap looped around my arm a couple of times for extra safety. --- AAANYWAY the reason for this long-winded description of my sleeping position is because I slept this way and didn't have anything stolen from me. I just think it's worth mentioning because you're in a public place with your valuables on full display and you might be nervous about getting your Macbook out and now you know that it is possible to use it and not lose it. Of course there's always an element of risk involved with displaying your valuables in public areas but I just thought I'd note that.


Overall 10/10 the most pleasant ferry trip I never expected to have. Would happily travel with them again without a second thought. I will say that our trip was from Patras to Brindisi and perhaps this leg of the trip is managed differently to the corresponding one when the ship returns to Patras but I honestly have no idea why there are so many negative reviews.


I hope this post has helped you decide which company you'd like to book with or at least given you some great sources of info to help inform your decision! You've got a great little rundown of the best and worst reviews here at your fingertips and without the hours of stress searching it took me and my friends to find them.


Best of luck on your travels, definitely make regular updates and tag @adventuresofhanhan in your insta stories if this helped you because I'd love to see how your experience differs from mine!


Lots of love,

Han Han xx




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