All the Things You Should Know Before Traveling to Greece!! || Greece Travel

you've booked that dream trip to greece and i'm gonna tell you all the things that you need to know before you get here athens is more than the acropolis a lot of people i know who come to greece come and go straight to a greek island and i do not blame them in the least um but a lot of those people come to athens they stay for one day they go to the acropolis and that's all they see there's so much more in this city there are so many museums to go and visit and there are lots of little ruins located all around the city some of them are more well-known than others and some are just sitting there and unless you explore and walk around you're never going to find them but it's worth spending a couple of days in athens either at the beginning or the end of your trip just to see all these wonderful ancient sites the other thing you should know is that greece is on its own time much like the caribbean it's grease time it doesn't mean that people are necessarily like chronically late or things don't necessarily run on time but nothing is rushed here so at a restaurant you may ask for your check and 30 minutes will go by before they bring it to you and it's not that they've forgotten it's not because they don't care they just aren't in a rush for you to leave and that's actually one of the great things about being here is everything is sort of relaxed and laid back so if you're a person that that's going to bother you should just be aware of it before you get here one of those things that sometimes might annoy you is that strikes do happen sometimes they are fairy strikes sometimes they are public transportation strikes and obviously if you're traveling and you're on a schedule that could affect you so one is just be aware that it could happen usually they're announced in advance so you can make some changes to your plans but one of the things i recommend is that you do not book your ferry ticket back to athens and you're a plane flight home on the same day so let's say your flight leaves on saturday i would recommend you leave the island on friday so that way if there is a ferry strike you are more likely to be able to a change your plans and leave either earlier or get some alternative transportation if you're on an island that has an airport it's a possibility that you might be able to fly however sometimes those book up quickly if a strike is announced the other thing you should be aware of is that tipping in grease is more common than in some european countries it's not a large tipping thing but a tip is somewhat expected in a sit-down restaurant usually you would tip about 10 of the check so it's not a huge amount and it's really only for places in which you're served in like if you go to a coffee shop and you get a take away coffee or even if you sit down a tip is not necessarily expected obviously any tip is greatly appreciated most greeks don't make a lot of money so any extra euros you can afford to throw your way is appreciated um if you're in a larger group and you're not really sure i've done it a couple of ways i've had it be where each person leaves one or two euros a piece or you take the total and you kind of round up to the next dollar so let's say your check was 27 euros you would then leave 30 euros whatever you think is fair is probably going to be okay no one's going to come running after you if you don't leave a tip because it's just not their nature but just so you know the other thing about the restaurants that you should know is while they're you're waiting for that check to come is they are likely to bring you a complimentary uzo and or watermelon or some kind of fruit after your meal this is common especially on the islands where they're used to like being super hospitable to tourists and it is complimentary you're not going to see it appear on your bill later some restaurants will come by and ask you if you want it they will not be offended if you say no they might offer you something else but it's good to know like that you can say no particularly if you don't drink alcohol if they don't ask and they don't and they bring it to you anyway don't feel obligated to drink it like it's just a thing like that they're offering um obviously they don't expect you to drink it if you don't drink alcohol i don't personally like uzo sometimes they'll say oh do you like a rocky and i'm like all right well i'll take it i don't drink it usually the watermelon is usually excellent so unless you just hate melon eat it it's really good you have major plans you're coming to santorini because it's this beautiful place with these stunning views of this volcanic caldera and i don't blame you it's one of the most interesting looking places i've ever seen however it's extremely crowded everybody comes to greece to go to santorini at least once a lot of those people in recent years have come on cruise ships now that's anywhere from 2500 to 4 000 people on a very small island and sometimes there are multiple cruise ships a day so the island gets pretty overwhelmed pretty quickly particularly at sunset in the town of eo which is where everyone goes to watch the famous santorini sunset i will tell you that i actually got stuck walking back to my hotel in foot traffic i was literally just standing behind a bunch of people waiting to keep walking and that was sort of when i lost it i don't handle crowds well i don't like crowds which is kind of amazing considering i used to live in new york city uh santorini is like the times square of greece so there are a couple of things you can do to avoid this come in the off season come in may or june late september early october the weather is still fabulous and santorini will be less crowded uh the other idea is that if you want to watch the sunset in santorini do it somewhere other than ia or do it once there and then go watch it somewhere else on the other nights that you're there but that being said there are 200 inhabited islands in greece you don't need to go to santorini there are so many to explore and all of them are different all of them are beautiful i actually have a blog post on five alternatives to santorini i will link down in the description box so you can go and explore some of those other inhabited islands the other option is to visit the mainland i had not done a lot of this until last summer and there are so many beautiful villages and towns to go visit some of them are still on the sea so you're still going to have the opportunity to go swimming in the aegean it's a fabulous experience even if you're going swimming in the ionian it's a fabulous experience the other thing is there's some amazing cities and towns in the northern part of the mainland of greece one is meteora they have beautiful monasteries on the tops of these rocky cliffs that you can actually go up and visit so one of the questions i get asked a lot is is greece expensive to go on vacation yes if you're going to santorini and mykonos is my answer because they know that people want to go there so they know that people are going to pay a premium to visit so the prices have gone up santorini is expensive in terms of hotels food depending on where you go can be expensive it can be managed santorini is definitely more doable on a budget than mykonos mykonos has just totally taken advantage of this demand and mykonos is a very different experience i haven't been it's a very much a party place it's very much to be seen kind of place so the prices even for just eating out have become astronomical a couple of years ago i was looking at going while i was living in nexus to just go and see what it was like i thought well okay i'll stay in this hostel because that's all i could really afford and it was 50 no 50 euros a night i decided that i wasn't going to pay 50 euros a night for a hostel room when i it was one of those hostels where there were like 100 beds in each room as well so it had been a four bed hostel room i would have said sure i'll go for it but you can get a hotel room on many islands for you know 50 euros or less a night depending on how like basic you want to be so just keep that in mind when it comes to the cost everything you should be aware of about greece is that there's still a culture of smoking here um it's gotten better in the last couple of years people don't really smoke inside anymore it's not allowed now on some of these smaller islands there isn't enough like i don't know police to go around and stop people or restaurants that care but more and more restaurants are realizing that people don't like it so they don't allow it either so if the restaurant doesn't allow it it's pretty easy to handle one of the ways you can tell is whether or not there is an ashtray on the table that's still really common here to see an ashtray on the table it is still allowed outside at restaurants so it's just something to be aware of that if you have problems with smoking you know breathing or if it really bothers you you just need to be paying attention to who you're sitting next to and if it becomes a problem see if you can move or just try to finish your meal quickly and leave because there probably isn't a whole lot you can do but so it's just something you want to be aware of if smoking bothers you so back to the positive one of the best things i can recommend if you're coming on a trip to greece and you're not really sure where you want to go go on a sailing trip it's a great way to see a lot of grease in a short period of time as i mentioned before the first time i came here in 2016 was on a two-week sailing trip around the islands we started in athens and we ended in athens and i believe i saw 12 islands i have since gone sailing again and that's how i saw a lot of the mainland last summer i highly recommend it it's a good way to see a lot of the grease in that short period of time and they're all different options you can go on a seven day a 10 night a 14 night if you're not sure if you have sea legs or not you can go on a day sale on one of the islands in santorini a great way to see the sunset is to go on a sunset sale the other common question i get asked about coming to greece is when to visit now if you're like me and you'd like to avoid the crowds come in either may and june or september and october they are less crowded and most of the europeans have gone home for the summer by the time september comes around because most europeans take their vacation in august and most people who are in school or have kids are in school are gone as well the only thing about coming in may and june is the water is not quite as warm yet because it hasn't had all summer to warm up and depending on the kind of winter we have the water can be quite chilly still in may and june if you're coming in the summer in july and august it's going to be hot and it's going to be crowded so the other thing about coming no matter what time of the year it is is that in some islands and on some beaches you're going to see some nudity the first time i saw it i was kind of surprised because i don't know i just wasn't expecting it in greece because i think of greece as being a little bit more conservative in that manner compared to the rest of europe so um it's not super common there usually aren't entirely nude beaches that i've seen if it's a concern because maybe you have young kids or you just don't want to see it ask your hotel and they should be able to tell you where those beaches are and some places it's just in a section of the beach so you'll quickly figure out where that is one of the other things that you should be prepared for is that cash is still king here in greece meaning that places are a lot happier if you use cash particularly at restaurants they may ask you to pay cash legally they're supposed to have a credit card machine so you can push your luck and ask them however they may claim that it doesn't work so just be prepared that that might be the case is that sometimes places will give you a discount if you pay with cash uh particularly in a place where it's expensive um and it's not so much that they won't take your credit card because obviously if it's a place that's things are expensive in they know that people don't just walk around with lots of money but then they can avoid the credit card transaction fee i'm not suggesting that you try this but some places might actually give you a discount if you pay cash i think this is becoming less and less common though uh so i wouldn't walk in and like immediately offer it just kind of use your negotiating skills and see what can happen this will not work at a restaurant the other thing is if a place where the prices are like on tags they're probably not going to offer you a discount um they might though like when you go to checkout and they may say are you paying with cash or credit card and if you say cash they might say oh i can give you 10 off so sometimes it'll just be like a thank you for purchasing from me kind of thing and the very last thing that i mentioned and i've left it to the last because usually when i tell people this they tend to get a little bit weird you can't put toilet paper in the toilet here in greece um people will say that you can in athens but unless you're living in a newer apartment building or a really nice hotel that's probably not going to be the case it's mainly because the pipes aren't big enough and they've never upgraded the buildings are really old that's the case in my apartment usually you'll know because there'll be a sign asking you please don't put the toilet paper in the toilet in the bathroom usually it's above the toilet don't freak out greeks are very used to this like there's a bin beside the toilet for you to put your toilet paper in and the cleaning people are totally used to it so like don't let that thing freak you out about coming to greece and it's part of the reason i've left this to the end so for those of you who have travel degrees is there anything that i've missed that you think should be included on this list or maybe something i haven't experienced before if so leave me a comment below or if you have questions about any of this also leave me a comment below and if you're new here and you like this video please consider subscribing thanks for watching guys and i'll see you in the next video

Channel: A Girl and Her Passport

Views: 58,936

Keywords: Travel, Expat, Digital nomad, Solo travel, Female travel, Greece, Athens, Expat life, how to travel, traveling to greece, greece travel, things to know before traveling to greece, greek islands, santorini greece, santorini, athens, athens greece, greece travel tips, travel to greece, tips for traveling to greece, things you should know before traveling to greece, what to expect in greece, greece travel guide, travel greece, travel tips

Id: 3eJJ3TrwYoc

Length: 15min 48sec (948 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 31 2021