This is the normal way to start your visit to the mountain by taking the early boat in Ouranoupolis. Here our party of 2011 entering the boot to Dafni at appr. 6.30 hours in the morning.
The price is EUR 7.30 for a one way ticket on the Agia Anna to Dafni.
You have also the opportunity to take a boat taxi. It is quick but you will pay more.
If you take a taxi you decide yourself when to enter the Holy Mountain as this group of fathers did. Our group prefers to take the Agia Anna where you can sit on deck and take the time to watch the monasteries pass by.
But if the Agia Anna is full (no more tickets!) as we experienced at the end of our pilgrimage on our way back to Ouranoupolis we had to take the taxi boat at Dafni harbour. The reason that the Agia Anna was crowded and overbooked was due to the fact that another regular ferry (Panteleimonos) was not sailing at that time (october 2011).
So there we sat in a water taxi after all. We split the costs (Dafni- Ouranoupolis EUR 150) and in no time we were back in the ‘normal’ world.
hv