Budgeting for Greece Trip

Time to look into the purse, bank balance, and credit card whether you will be visiting this year or next? Have a look, Greece dream may get fulfilled this year :)

Greece is considered as one luxurious honeymoon destination in India and people prefer to spend lavishly given the occasion. In our case, it was the Greek experience that mattered. We tried our best to find a normal routine logistical arrangement.

If I look at the overall break up, I believe the following sections will help you plan better:

1. Transport (Reaching Greece and within Greece)

2. Stay (Hotel, Airbnb)

Transport: Plan Book Travel Repeat

The most important factor for transportation is your travel dates, Greece hits its peak season during summers (Mar – June) and if you want a less crowded yet enjoyable time, prefer late August – Early September. Start with Skyscanner and you will find suitable flights and prices for your travel from your country to Greece

Internal flights are best booked through Skyscanner, our preference was to consider air travel over ferries but that is again a personal choice.

For island hopping in the second and third leg, we leveraged letsferry.com for our bookings. There are multiple sites and we found comparative pricing and suitable timing from the site.

We booked a month in advance and the following was the cost breakup:

• New Delhi – Athens (Air): This was our round trip and we paid INR 77,828 ~ EUR 1,000

• Athens – Mykonos (Air): Volotea flight thoughtfully booked for late-night travel INR 14,200 ~ EUR 182

• Mykonos – Folegandros (Sea): Seajets ferry and we shelled INR 7650 ~ EUR 98

• Folegandros – Santorini (Sea): Again, Seajets ferry and cost same as above INR 7650~ EUR 98

• Santorini – Athens (Air): As for the final stint we went ahead with the flight and paid INR 17500~ EUR 224

One challenge with sea travel is, ferry routes are dynamic and keep on changing till the time you board. So even if your reservation clearly states it is going to take xx hours for your journey, it can be less than that time or more than the stipulated time by a factor of 4 or 5. We were informed Mykonos to Folegandros is a 4-hour journey however it took us 8 hours as the route was modified (for a seasick person like me, it was one horrible journey but I persevered somehow)

Overall, we spent INR 125000 or EUR 1602 for two in major transportation

Logistically, the most important thing today as you land on foreign soil is communication so as soon as you are in Greece and moving out of Airport, get yourself a local sim card. Vodafone services are very good, and we were happy with the connectivity we got. We paid around EUR 20 and got ourselves a data pack with some local call options. The data pack was enough to survive our trip without using social sites extensively.

For your intra-island or Athens transportation need, some of the renting companies like Avis or local operators accept Indian driving licenses as is. However, if you want to be doubly sure, you can get International Driver Permit from your RTO. So, we got ourselves a comfy Fiat Panda on EUR 50 approx. with insurance and paid EUR 15 approx. on fuel for a single day. Rental charges are similar when you are hiring a car on an island. Another option is you can go for public transportation which is frequent, economical, and comfortable (40-seater Volvo buses) and the catch is, they operate on a fixed route and are time-bound. We did not find any challenge on public transport on islands as the frequency was good and the schedule is available on charts at common places throughout. Volvo charges a max of 10 EUR and on an average 5 EUR per person.

Stay: What happens in Greece, stays in Greece

Hands down our first and last priority were to book through Airbnb, and we found some great and some good options throughout. Of course, Mykonos, Santorini hotels would have been a jewel in stay but that was not our priority after we checked how exorbitantly they charge. It was a payoff we were willing to ignore.

Athens: We preferred to stay near the historic landmarks in Athens which had good public transportation connectivity and circled down to Thissio / Thiseio as it was at a walkable distance from Acropolis and metro both. We found this lovely apartment which was very cozy and had a great neighborhood. We paid INR 6300 ~ EUR 80 for a two-night stay

Mykonos: It was a hard find and little compromise booking as everything we looked for was very pricey and after much deliberation, we decided to stay a little far from all the action and in compensation we got access to private beach (YaaaY!!). Comparatively, it was the most expensive stay on the Greece trip. We locked onto this property, it was secluded and required public transport hopping or you can leverage a car on rent for travel. We paid INR 13100 ~ EUR 168 for a two-night stay.

Folegandros: The beauty of this secluded small island is you don’t have to spend time on secondary research. We decided to stay near the main hub of the town which is well connected throughout the island. Our Airbnb host at this place was very cordial and ensured we had a good stay. We had to shell out INR 8100 ~ EUR 103 for a two-night stay.

Santorini: In terms of compromise, we settled for very little here, though the property was extraordinary however it was very far off from the main events/attractions, we were walking 2 Kms one way to reach the bus stand and 2 bus stops away from the main market. As we were staying only for a night, we were very picky in terms of what to see and what to skip. This place charged us INR 5000 ~ 64 EUR for a night. It was a boutique hotel, but it was good.

So overall we spent INR 32,500 or EUR 415 on accommodation.

Overall, 80% of the spend was INR 161,000 or EUR 2080 for our six days itinerary.

Ball is in your court whether Greece will see you there or not.

By the way, to read more about Greece, you can go through this links from the site:

• Greece : Mesmerizing land of Aegean Sun

• Dine and Wine in Greece