Arriving by train

Most international trains do not make it to Athens. There are daily international trains from Sofia, Bucharest, Istanbul and Belgrade to Thessaloniki, where you have to change to the intercity train to the capital. This takes 4-5 hours and is very comfortable reliable and frequent (refer to our Getting around pages).
However, a sleeping car coming from Sofia is attached to the night train from Thessaloniki to Athens, so if you are the romantic type and in no rush, you can actually make the Sofia-Athens international rail journey.