Coaches · Athens
Greece’s intercity coach web runs on two ageing terminals — Kifissos for the Peloponnese and west, Liosion for the north — while a €100 million airport-style mega-terminal at Eleonas waits to replace both.
Terminal A at Kifissos, about 7 km west of the centre, serves the Peloponnese, western Greece, the north and the Ionian ferry connections (Patras, Kalamata, Nafplio, Ioannina, Thessaloniki). Terminal B at Liosion, 5 km north, serves central and northern Greece: Delphi, Meteora (Kalambaka), Volos, Larissa, Chalkida.
Both are reached by the X93 airport express (€6.50), city buses from Omonia and Piraeus, and the metro network at walking-plus-bus distance; luggage lockers run about €5 a day. The rule every traveller learns once: check which terminal before setting out.
Athens’ answer is the Eleonas intercity depot — an airport-style terminal budgeted above €100 million, designed for 40,000 passengers a day (about 15 million a year), with a direct connection to metro line 3 at Eleonas station, park-and-ride, taxi hubs and ticket desks for international routes. The project has cleared its environmental terms and is moving through delivery.
Until it opens, international coaches — FlixBus and Balkan operators to Sofia, Tirana, Bucharest and beyond — leave from Karaiskaki Square at Metaxourgio on metro line 2.
The two-terminal split is Athens’ least elegant transport inheritance, and Eleonas cannot come soon enough: a single metro-connected terminal will end the Kifissos-versus-Liosion roulette that costs first-timers an hour every summer. Until then, the KTEL coaches themselves are excellent — cheap, frequent, and often faster than the train to Thessaloniki. TIO’s advice: for Delphi and Meteora the coach is the correct choice; for the Peloponnese, compare against the Proastiakos before you commit.
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