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Getting To Lavreotiki

Getting to Lavreotiki and any of the villages and settlements is pretty straightforward and there are several ways you can travel to the area, depending on where your journey begins.

One of the most convenient ways to travel is of course, in your own vehicle. There are many motivations for visiting Lavreotiki, including the splendid scenery, checking out the Temple of Poseidon, the ancient silver mines of Thoricus, the Sounion National Park, or to get on a ferry at Lavrio to a Greek Island destination.

Get To Lavreotiki With Personal Vehicle

The main highway through the area is a very well maintained road, unlike many other parts of Greece. From Athens and right on down into Lavreotiki including all the way to Lavrio, the roads are fairly flat and straight.

Most of the communities of the Municipality can be accessed from Hwy 89, which is also called Leof. Lavrio. GPS map apps including Google Maps and Sygic refer to the highway as Highway 89 (at least in the English Language version).

Personally, I prefer Sygic although there is nothing wrong with Google Maps.

Driving along Highway 89 is actually a pleasure if you've spent a lot of time on Athens roads, or even other "highways" in Greece. It's a continuance of the Toll Road Highway 6 or E94, which ends just south of the Airport road, #62.

Coming from anywhere in Athens, it's likely that getting to the Attica Road, head south to the Airport road, and continue on straight is the fastest way to arrive in the Municipality of Lavreotiki.

You could however, take a longer route along the Saronic Gulf coast, which will take you through Glyfada, Voula, Lagonisi, Anavyssos, and other nice places, and finally into Sounion where The Temple of Poseidon is located.

From Sounion, you can continue on the same road and reach Lavrio, where you will want perhaps spend some time browsing inside the charming shops, or grabbing a bite to eat, or choosing from the various coffee shops for a caffeinated beverage.

In Lavrio, you can hang out at the port and watch the ships and small watercraft come and go, or get on a ferry - destinations including Kea, Kavala in northern Greece, and quite a few other places, depending on the time of the year.

24 Hour Refueling Stations.

If you are traveling by car, via the Attika Road and then Hwy 89, you should be aware that there is only one 24 hour petrol/gas station, a Shell, located just south of Markopoulo. If you are heading south to Lavrio in the middle of the night, and running on empty, best to fill up there. You won't find anything else open until about 6 or 7AM.

The Shell station offers other convenience products including even a selection of wines and hard alcohol, but does not sell cigarettes. Other refilling stations do sell tobacco, but not all.

24 Hour Convenience Shops

Once you've past Markopoulo, you'll have to get to Lavrio to find a 24 hour convenience shop - which in Greece, are often kiosks. In Lavrio, it is the Port Kiosk that is open 24 hours, with a selection of soft drinks, tobacco, alcohol (wine, spirits, and beer), and most of the things one might expect to find in a small convenience store. It also has very friendly staff.

If you're there in the middle of the night, you may find Odile, a lovely French woman who speaks Greek and English, and is great to talk with. If you decide to purchase Jameson Irish Whiskey, she'll be delighted with your good taste in whiskey. Odile is also an expert on what is going on in Lavrio, and the best places to eat and visit, and is most willing to share her knowledge of the area. Odile has lived in the Lavrio area for quite some time.

Driving Difficulties

While driving to Lavreotiki itself is pretty straightforward, there can be a problem with directions to specific street addresses in the various settlements in the area. While places and streets in Keratea and Lavrio are well documented, some of the other communities are not - not even on Google Maps.

Many streets are officially "unnamed" and if someone has not taken the time to update Google Maps manually, you might not find the street you are looking for. My own street that I presently live on is a good example; the street name did not exist on Google Maps or Sygic. And while I did later add the name of the street to Google Maps, and the app accepted my contribution, it has no clue of the street addresses.

So, for visitors to locate the house, I need to also provide them with the "Google Plus Code" or the exact latitude and longitude. Even then, Google Maps might not provide the best driving directions.

The first time I drove to the property I am currently located at, I did have the longitude and latitude, but Google directed me with me a route that included a crazy road that most people never drive on as it's not paved and is more of a hiking trail.  Thankfully, I have a Tiguan that was easily able to handle the trail, but in a Mazda 3 for example, you might not be so lucky - especially at night.

But on another note, it's also kind of cool that no random people can find you on Google Maps, and dox your location. Google Maps has no images of my street or house.

But of course, that makes for providing driving directions a bit more difficult if a person is relying on Google Maps or other map apps.

It's one of the reasons I still prefer old fashioned paper maps with decent driving directions. Paper maps can provide a perspective that small screen GPS map apps cannot do as well, unless you zoom out, but then also lose detail.

Long before Google Maps and GPS applications, I drove through much of Canada, and wide areas of the USA, using paper maps. I seldom got lost, but have a pretty good sense of direction and ability to figure out where I might be in relation to what I am seeing and what is on the map.

I also have a pretty good sense of North, South, East, West and if really stuck, I can tell by the stars or where the sun is, generally what direction I'm looking at. I also know how to use a compass.  Learning these skills can be very helpful when the GPS app doesn't seem to be making sense, or is dead wrong as sometimes they are.

Navigating through Northern Ireland and The Republic when I was 6 years old with those "Ordinance Survey" (similar to a Topographical Map) and my mom was driving, back in 1970 really helped me, while later, I'd learn to use a map and compass, figure out some general night sky constellations, and spotting landmarks.

When you're off the main roads in Greece, it can be tricky at times, partly because there are mountains and roads that simply don't have a north south or east west direction like in North America. You might turn left on a road that appears to head east, but find it curves so much you're actually ending up going south-west in a totally different direction that you thought the road might take you.

This is not uncommon in most of Europe, but it is something North American drivers, when coming to Greece, should be aware of. It can be a little confusing when you think you passed a road you should have taken, then take the next one to perhaps get yourself back, but discover it's gone off in a direction you did not think it would.

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