Shipping unaccompanied luggage Anendyk / NEN Share and discuss the many routes and paths in the mountains, along the coast, and on the plains of Sfakia. Post your walk description, add photos, and discuss safety. Use information at your own risk.

[Joan P]

I intend to walk the E4 trail from Paleochora to Chora Sfakion and I would like to send the gross of my luggage by boat from every village to the next one. Is it possible to ship unaccompanied luggage through Anendyk or NEN boats? If so, how does it work? Can you hand i it over and collect it at every local office? Thanks in advance.

[rambler]

I am not sure about this, but I think what happens is you /someone you know has to put luggage abooard & then same at other end, I don't think the ticket booth will put on/collect goods. I have not been on NEN ferries so that may possibly be different ????
Dave

[jan]

I'm pretty sure that rambler is correct. Twentyfirst century safety concerns apart, the port infrastructure just isn't suited to accepting and managing unaccompanied luggage belonging to individuals, specially those not known to them.

Accommodation owners hosting parties of walkers may offer a (paid for) service of delivering luggage to a boat to be collected by the next host at the destination - the Neos Omalos hotel certainly does this for pre-booked parties staying on the Omalos plateau overnight and walking down the Samaria Gorge to Ag Roumeli. If you're booking acommodation on your trek you could ask your host if that service is available, but I wouldn't bank on it.

Jan

[owl]

Hi,

Organised walking groups use the ferries to move their clients baggage between various destinations (Paleochora, Sougia, Agia Roumeli, Loutro, Sfakia). When you leave the hotel/pension the owner will attach a label with the name of the destination hotel. The hotel owner will then transport the baggage to the ferry and the destination hotel will collect the bags from the ferry. When you arrive at the hotel the bags will be in the foyer or in your room. This is very common practice - although I'm not entirely sure how it works - maybe the hotels ring each other up to tell them to collect some bags - bush telegraph.

As a solo traveller I have arranged for my bags to be moved in exactly the same way - through the hotel owner. Obviously this is dependent on you having a booking at a hotel in the destination resort.

On one occasion I walked from Agia Roumeli to Sougia over two days. When I arrived in Sougia I phoned the hotel owner in Agia Roumelli (Stellios at Pachnes - super hotel) and he put my bag on the evening ferry to Sougia. I met the ferry in Sougia and retrieved my bag directly from the ferry.

So I think you can do what you are asking - but it might be useful to have a hotel booked at the destination.

Hope this helps.

Regards

John

[Erno]

The official procedure is this:

With accommodations booked:

* You need to have booked a hotel at the place of departure AND arrival
* These 2 hotels provide the ferry boarding / retrieval service for free
* You need to label all luggage yourself before departure
* You need to phone the owner of the next hotel, to communicate the exact ferry departure time, shortly before you leave the hotel, to be sure they are waiting for the right ferry (or ask the hotel owner you leave from to phone, if you leave the hotel very early morning)
* The hotel owner will bring your luggage to the ferry, after you have left, and will check it in for safekeeping
* The receiving hotel owner will collect your luggage from the ferry, and put it in the hotel lounge, or your room(s), at the communicated time, waiting for your arrival

Without accommodations booked:

* You bring the luggage yourself onto the ferry
* The ferry company is not responsible for damage or loss of luggage within the boat, if they are not given for safekeeping and have not been issued with a relevant receipt
* Your luggage will be disembarked on the destination pier, and will be unattended
* You have to collect your own luggage there, once you have arrived

[Joan P]

Thank you all for your tips!

[Joan P]

Thanks again to all of you!

Now I am trying to get the NEN timetables for the month of may, but it seems they don't have a website. Do you know how to contact them?

[Erno]

NEN does have a website: https://nenkritis.gr/