Traveling to GREECE in 2024? You NEED To Watch This Video!

calimana my friends my name is Pierce and this is my channel Tales from the road thanks so much for stopping by as you of course clicked on this video we're going to be talking about the beautiful Mediterranean nation of Greece today this is an amazing country one of the tourist highlights of the world and a country that has so much history and so much cultural value to explore today I'm going to tell you everything you need to know before you go in order to have an absolutely authentic unique and beautiful time in a country I love so much so let's get into the content come along foreign so before we get into the Practical information I like to give you guys General context about the country that you're visiting so let's start with a country overview starting with the geography I like to break Greece up into three main regions the first region is the northern region which is the southern tip of the Balkan Peninsula this is connected to of course Albania Northern Macedonia and Bulgaria so you get influences from those countries as well as being home to Athens which is the biggest city in Greece home to the Acropolis and it holds nearly half of all of Greece's population so it's a very important ancient and modern Center for Greece the second part is the peloponnese peninsula which I like to call the little bottom hand of Greece this peninsula is home to many ancient city-states such as Corinth and Sparta to large Greek ruins such as napplio which has one of the largest coliseums in the world and is more Rural and mountainous than the northern part of Greece so it's a place where you can experience a little bit more of the let's say the normal everyday life of the average Greek person and the last region being the Island region starting with Crete's one of the most historic and significant islands in the chain as well as many other islands that many tourists like to visit such as Santorini and Mykonos many of these people connect to these islands via ferry from the mainland so getting there is not too complicated or you can find directly your choice historically speaking Greece is very interesting I like to split it up into four main historical eras the first historical period being ancient Greece the time of rival city-states of Athens of Sparta of amphitheaters and columns and temples as well as Greek mythology Zeus Hera and the like this time really reinforces the modern day interpretation of Greek identity and is very important for the national sort of feeling of the country the second period is the Roman Empire times in which the Greece was basically absorbed into the Eastern Roman Empire for nearly a thousand years this is significant because this is the time where Greek mythology kind of fell out of favor for Orthodox Christianity which is now Greece's largest religion after the fall of the Roman Empire Greece was absorbed into the Ottoman Empire for nearly 400 years this is sort of a dark mark on Greek cultural heritage as the Ottomans were very against Greek identity and Greek nationalism and was the inspiration for the great modern Greek state that exists today this also has a lot of ethnic and political turmoil especially with modern day Turkey as Greeks and turfs still have a lot of political issues during this time period you can see the ottomanization of Greece as much of the food and culture from the Ottoman Empire spilled over into Greece and if you travel to Turkey and to Greece you can see a lot of similarities in the modern States today the last part is the modern state of Greece which was first a kingdom and then a democracy the country today is now a staple country that people visit when they come to Europe as well as one of the original member nation states of the European Union it's part of the ever-changing Continental identity of Europe and one of the most famous and vital countries for historic precedent in the region so now you guys know a little bit about Greece let's get into the Practical side so you have an awesome and authentic trip in an otherwise very touristy country [Music] so let's start off with visas if you're an American you get 90 days in Greece the one thing to remember is that Greece is in the Schengen Zone which is the free movement Zone amongst European Union Schengen countries so if you spend 45 days in Germany that means you only have 45 days to spend in Greece this makes it kind of hard to travel around Europe so you need to you know count your days depending on how long a trip you want to take if you're going directly to Greece and leaving Greece and you're only going for a couple weeks just show up with an American passport and you're in money Greece uses the Euro which is almost one-to-one with the United States dollar right now it's very easy to get money to withdraw money via ATMs and they have large National Banks that are backed by the European Union so withdrawing it's changing is all very easy I would recommend once you get into Greece especially in the airports don't exchange your money in the airports and don't use the ATMs there see if you can exchange Euros before you come because the rates and airports are always very bad and because this is a touristy country sometimes they really uh they really take advantage of tourists in this sort of sense so always come prepared with money and then if you need to go to an ATM in country that totally fine just don't do it at the airport internet and SIM card the internet in Greece of course as it is part of the European Union and a modern European country is quite good um getting a SIM card is also quite easy there are many policies that you can get from either Vodafone or cosmota or one of the other local providers of SIM cards I found that their plans were very strange and you needed to update them every 15 to 20 days as opposed to having a month plan it totally depends what's available at the time but I found you could get a good amount of internet for a pretty reasonable amount of money the other thing is that if you're staying in Athens some of the buildings are quite old so some of the buildings don't have fiber optic cables for internet connection so be aware that the internet in some houses in uh in Athens is up to U.S speed but in other houses with no Fiber Optic Cables the internet can sometimes be quite bad so depends on you but modern European country internet is pretty good transportation Greece is a big country it doesn't look so big on the map but it definitely takes some time to get around and it's quite mountainous so sometimes driving times can be a bit long they have domestic flights and you can fly to major airports like Thessaloniki in the north Athens in the center and of course you can get to the islands they each some of them have their their own airports such as Crete the biggest one being Heritage layout getting between Greek cities is pretty easy each place has a bus station buses aren't too expensive and they go all over the country just be sure to check the bus schedule because sometimes the bus schedules are written only in the Greek alphabet which is obviously unreadable unless you have learned ancient Greek in high school or something sometimes they have things online you can check or make sure to go to the bus station in advance that's also quite helpful um getting to the islands from Mainland Greece once you're already there is normally quite easy from Athens specifically you can take many different ferries to many of the larger islands and then once you're on a larger Island then you can go to a smaller Island from there as they're all interconnected by the fairies be aware that there are high season and low season travel sort of prices and this also goes for museums and archaeological sites as well so I'm pretty sure if you go between March and November that's the high season and then obviously during the winter the colder months into the low season so ferries during the high season are quite expensive as well as for example if you visit the Acropolis in Athens something like ten dollars more expensive than it would be if you visited during the low season I found the breed buses to run on time taxis to not be particularly sketchy and getting around the country to be quite easy in general safety I thought safety and scams in Greece were pretty reasonable I think in any major city in Europe you have to be aware of pickpockets you have to be aware of simple scams where sometimes people put things in front of you and you actually step accidentally step on it and have to pay them or sort of awkward tour scams where sometimes they'll give you a rose and then you have to pay for the rows that you took even though you don't want it these are all very common in any major city in Europe so it's just something to be aware of as far as the majority of the country goes I would say Athens is the city that you have to be the most careful in because they might have the most unsavory types of people people looking to steal from tourists people looking to overcharge tourists so make sure where you walk around during the city at night because there are a reasonable amount of drug addicts that do live in certain parts of the streets in Athens just as meant any other major city in the world as well as restaurants that really like overcharging tourists or charging tourists extra fees that they didn't know what I always say is instead of eating in the city center sometimes walk a little bit outside the city center you'll get a better deal you'll get a more authentic experience and you won't have to deal with feeling that you've been overcharged for something or getting food that you didn't order and being put in that weird position with a foreign person who doesn't speak English very well they like to put foreigners in this uncomfortable situation because you'll normally just pay your way out of it so getting around Greece with regards to the language actually isn't so bad obviously Greek people speak Greek and that's the main language of the country because it's so touristy they have English almost everywhere as well as French German Spanish Russian and Chinese or Japanese because of the amount of tourists they do get the one problem is if you go to more rural Greece it might be helpful to learn how to read the Greek letters or at least half of them so you can kind of understand what you're looking at because in the smaller cities they don't speak English that well and they don't necessarily transliterate the uh like let's say a restaurant menu from the Greek language into uh into English and to other languages as well this is really an issue because of the alphabet if you're just left with Greek the chance that you'll be able to read it is very low as I said earlier Greek people are very friendly and when you use their local language to greet them they feel like you've taken a little a little step to get to know the country and with so many tourists that does go a long way so here are a couple helpful phrases that you can use on your next trip to Greece so to say good day or good morning you say kalimera Kali mana and to say good evening you say Kali Spano College it's very nice to say thank you another important word you say f hottesto as Heidi's though if you learn those two phrases at least people can feel like you tried and that's what's important when you travel now let's talk great food because I'm a big foodie I will share with you some of my favorite dishes and some things you definitely need to try on your time increase I think most people when they think of Greek food they think of spanakopita which is that spinach cake with the phyllo top or something like musaka which is an eggplant dish with meat with a nice bechamel sauce you can certainly find those all over grease but Greek food is very diverse and there's so much more besides the average dishes that you can find in any Greek Cafe in the United States some of my favorite foods that you can find in Greece include some desserts like lukumatis or Porter Calico Pita the first being sort of a shortbread cookie covered in powdered sugar very very good with a nice strong Greek coffee the second being a orange cake with orange syrup it's very like luscious and absolutely delicious if you can get your hands on a piece that's fantastic my favorite dish in Greece might have been something called baithakia by dakia is a roasted lamb chops that you can get with nice lemons some potatoes and a nice Greek salad easily one of the best things maybe in the world for me you can see that baidakia grills they have a big fire in the middle and then they they put sort of sticks over the top with the lamb racks on the side so they get this nice crispy grilled flavor real Flames real fire really about as good as it gets Greece has a very mixed food culture also because it's really in the start of where the Silk Road kind of went into Europe as well as being part of the Ottoman Empire the Roman Empire and being a seafaring country for thousands of years lots of influence from lots of places all around the world and finally to end this video I'm going to give you my top five places you should visit on your next trip to Greece number one go to the island of Crete Crete is an amazing place it's so unique it is very touristy but it still retains that sort of authentic feeling that I thought it definitely wouldn't have it's got a beautiful cities like hania and Tim now and one of the oldest ruined sights from ancient humans in the entire planet it's a spot it's a gem you gotta go number two you've got to go on some sort of fairy trip in Greece taking a ferry cruising through the Mediterranean is simply spectacular the blue skies the blue sea the amazing sites the great beaches it's something you've got to do number three is you need to spend some time in Athens Athens is of course a major European city but it retains Greece's new found modern identity it's interesting to see how Greek people are interpreting their old culture and building new culture at the same time it's the best place to meet young Greek people to go out to party to experience some of Reese's best restaurants and to find hidden gems amongst a city of so much action number four would be going to the peloponnese the peloponnese is known for its beautiful mountain roads its beautiful old cities and it's epic Greek ruins I would of course recommend any Greek ruins in Greece but some absolutely excellent ones are naturally which is in the northeastern part of the peloponnese Corinth the old uh the old city state there's some really nice and epic ruins and in the South you'll find lots of ruins near the city of Sparta number five would be meeting some Greek people this is kind of a funny one on my list but it really makes the experience especially in a country that is overall very touristy on a trip to Greece you'll probably hear more German Spanish French Italian and English then you'll probably hear Greek and maybe the only Greek people you'll meet are in restaurants that you dine at try to set a little time away to meet some Greek people maybe see if you can get invited to someone's house for some food that's always a good way to go or just talk to people on the streets so you can understand a little bit more about the country from their eyes as opposed to from a tour guide so that's been my everything you need to know before you go to Greece I hope you guys enjoyed the video if you have any questions make sure to comment below and make sure to of course like And subscribe thank you guys so much for watching and we'll see you in the next one [Music] thank you

Channel: Tales From The Road

Views: 77,033

Keywords: tales from the road, travel vlogger 2022, american travel youtuber, food vlogger, travel vlogs in 4k, greece, travel to greece, is greece safe, greece 2022, what to do i greece, what to see in greece, what to eat in greece, should i visit greece, info about greece, athens greece, what cities should i visit in greece, is greece cheap

Id: 99oXpmgAtxk

Length: 13min 57sec (837 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 05 2022