We recently got back from Greece. We’ll do a series of posts about it. There’s just too much there to do in one post. Today, I want to give you a brief overview and let you in on some things you will need to know and line up before you go to Greece. I’ll also cover some things you might want to know about it when you are there.
Greece is a beautiful country of ancient ruins, mountains, and beaches! We landed in Athens and went to the acropolis. You could definitely tell you weren’t in a US city. Athens was quite European and had some great ruins, but I think it was the least favorite place for both of us.
From there we visited ruins. Some of them were thousands of years old and some of them were hundreds of years old. We saw amazing scenery and mountains. We saw blue water and beaches. We also met very accomodating people and ate delicious food.
We will do several posts about Greece to show you what we saw and to help you plan your own trip to Greece.
What to do before you go.
We decided to go to Greece because we got a good deal on plane tickets. I had signed up for emails from Scott’s Cheap Deals. They alert you about good deals on plane tickets throughout the world. It’s a great service and is well worth your time to google and sign up with them. We got round-trip tickets for $462 each. I also booked a car through Enterprise. I did a lot of research online to figure out what we wanted to see. I then went on bookings.com and arranged for lodging each night.
You definitely will need an up-to-date passport to travel out of the country. When I read our contract to rent a car, it said an International Driving Permit was required to rent the car. I went to the local AAA office and got one for $20 and about 20 minutes. No one ever asked to see it though.
Greece is not expensive, except for gasoline. I figure our gas cost around $6 or $7 a gallon, after doing all of the conversions. Luckily, our car was very small and only held about 7 gallons of gas.
Most of the nights I had booked were around $50 a night and we had quite nice accommodations for that price. Many of our rooms had a little balcony.
All things Covid
In our world today we have to deal with Covid-19 everywhere. Greece does not require vaccination to enter the country, but you do have to have a negative test taken within 48 hours. It can be a rapid test. We went to the health department and got it for free the morning before we left.
You will also need to fill out a Passenger Locator Form for Greece. You can download the form and then you get a QR code to print or put on your phone. This is so they can find you if you test positive for Covid.
While in the country, you should have a mask with you. Some people will be wearing them, others will not. It was our experience that some proprietors would wear them at restaurants and hotels and others didn’t. We never had a private business tell us we had to wear one. However, this was different at museums and public areas. We could only get in a museum with a mask and either proof of vaccination or a negative Covid test within 48 hours.
We were not allowed to take a ferry to Zakynthos because we did not have a negative Covid test. And of course, we had to have a negative Covid test to come back to the US. Luckily, there was a place in the airport that would get us a test quickly and for 20 Euro.
Things to know when you are there
When we first got off the plane, we found a place to change money on the way out of the airport. We got 400 Euro. You will need money for incidentals and there are a lot of toll roads in Greece. After that, we found a booth that had sim cards and plans for my phone. I have an unlocked phone. If you don’t know that your phone is unlocked, it would pay to get one before you go. You will need this for GPS, calling your hotel, calling friends, and finding out what is in the area.
One thing to know about Greece is that you are not supposed to put toilet paper in the toilet. They usually have a little trash can near the toilet that you open with your foot to put your toilet paper in. They say the pipes are not meant to handle paper. You’ll also need an electrical adapter if you want to charge your phone or computer. Their outlets are different than ours. I had one I took along, but you can probably buy one cheap while you’re there.
You won’t need to learn Greek to tour Greece. Most people speak some English and all of the signs have English translations. Greeks are very friendly, but they take all of their aggression out on the road. The posted speed signs are actually just suggestions as well as solid double lines on the highway. If you’re not doing at least twice the posted speed, straddle the line on the right because two-lane roads can quickly become four-lane roads, even when they are still marked as two-lane roads.
Something I’ve never seen before are mountain roads that are fast and relatively straight. Some of the newer roads are like that because they literally go right through the mountains. We went through tunnels that were over a mile long. Some of the road was more tunnel than not.
Greece is very safe country to visit. Crime is low and the people are very helpful. We found that most people want to give you extra for your money rather than try to take advantage of you.
All in all, the biggest mistake we made was not allowing enough time to see Greece. We were there for six days and only saw the highlights. You could spend a month there and still not see all of it. I would spend more time at the places we did see and see a lot of things we didn’t have time for. We definitely plan on going back!
We will use the next several posts to show you more pics and describe what we saw!
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