International Travel
Travelling to Athens, Greece in 2021 is only slightly more tedious then travelling prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. Greece requires a health affidavit that needs to be completed 48hrs prior to travel that will generate a QR code upon completion.
Upon arrival to airport, you will have to check in first with your airline and show your proof of vaccination/recovery or negative COVID-19 test and show your health affidavit QR code as well as your passport prior to receiving your ticket. Some individual who passed security checks via emailed tickets who skip this step were called up to the Gate for screening prior to getting on to the plane.
Upon arrival to Athens, Greece, immigration was fairly smooth. For the last time you will show your QR Code, your negative COVID test/proof of vaccination/recovery and passport prior to splitting into EU versus other immigration lines.
Athens International Airport is in the outskirts of Athens. Lines of taxis are outside offering a flat rate of 35 euros during normal hours or 54 euros during peak time to most of downtown Athens. Some of the drivers will try to hustle you for more, so please confirm the price prior to putting your luggage into their trunk. Uber is another options and will save you some euros as you have to pay via the app. Train is probably the cheapest option though it will cost you about an 1hr and 30 min rather then the 30 minutes it takes for you to get to downtown Athens.
COVID precautions
Staff in restaurants and bars in Greece are highly compliant w/proper mask wearing. The majority of locals do also wear masks in public. Tourist are much less likely to do though, though there is some comfort that the tourist are either vaccinated/had a negative COVID-19 test or had recovered from COVID.
Restaurants are affordable with most food running between 5-10 euros. Most of the Greek restaurants I visits were extremely generous and friendly. Many offered on-the-house kerasma “treats” after meals. They ranged from items such as sweet wines or Greek yogurt with honey to Nutella cake. Even if you are not ordering something, many restaurants/bars were extremely generous and brought out water and chatted without expecting you to order anything.
Seafood tends to run a bit more expensive at 10 euro + and is a treat in Greece. However, it is important to note what is fresh and not fresh. While shrimp and octopus are native to the Mediterranean sea, they are often not fresh. Many hosts will tell
In Santorini, many smaller restaurants often have family members who are are also in the fishing industry and they will bring out the seafood for you to pick and choose.
