The main volume of European tourists travelling to Greece by car, uses the modern ferry boats, recently built, doing routes between Greece and Italy.
The established Patras - Igoumenitsa - Corfu - Brindisi or Bari or Ancona line, has already been operating for almost thirty years, uniting Greece to Central Europe and the Scandinavian countries. It acts as a "bridge" from which every year several millions people pass, while in the last years the line has been enriched with departures for Venice and Trieste. At the same time, new ships possessing all modern facilities, attaining higher speeds and with convenient arrival and departure times.
In order to best serve the growing demand for mobile home transport, shipping companies have put to sea vessels with specially formulated areas for campers and caravans.
The ships have cabins of different classes, from outside cabins with shower and W.C. to internal economy cabins, offering every opportunity for comfortable accommodations. The services usually provided on board are air conditioning, bar, restaurants, wear shops, satellite communications (telex, fax), video games and gambling (slot machines, casino, card rooms), pools, self-service, disco, movie theatre, baby-land, escalators, camping on board etc.
Upon the application of the Schengen Agreement in our country, the passenger ships and ferry boats making regular routes from Italy to Greece and the other way round (without visiting ports of third non-Schengen countries), are included in the category of ships doing domestic routes.
Consequently, the passengers of such ships, whose exclusive destination or origin are ports found on the soil of Schengen contracting party, will not be subject to passport control.
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