[Music]
well hello my lovely youtube
family welcome back to my channel and i
cannot believe
that today's video is going to be my
last video
for the time being about grease it has
been an
absolutely magical month uh with the
time that i got to spend there
i feel like i got to see so much even
though there's still
a lot left to see but to close off this
chapter for the time being
i thought that i would do a style of
video that i've done for other countries
where i give you guys five things you
need to know
before you go to greece so let's just
jump straight into it
starting with number one which in these
times is the most important thing you
can do
which is to check the entry requirements
with covid still going on it's
incredibly important to have the most
up-to-date information about whether
you're actually even allowed
in the country if you have to have a
test
done before you enter the country uh if
you need to
fill out a personal locator form there's
a whole bunch of different
things that could be required of you
before you are able to
enter the country you want to visit so
with greece specifically
i will float the entry sort of rules
right here
on the screen so you guys can uh check
which countries are currently allowed in
without testing
but basically everything else was pretty
straightforward
the only other thing that i think has
really changed that uh
some countries including greece is doing
is having people
fill out an online form called a
personal
locator form a plf at least 48
hours before your departure
usually your airline should let you know
about it about four or five days in
advance
but if they don't i will also link the
site
where you do that and basically you just
have to put in the details of where you
will be staying
for the first 14 days of your stay the
addresses the number that you can be
reached at or your email
and outside of those entry requirements
as far as covered rules go
i think it's standard to everywhere else
in the world where obviously you have to
wear a mask when you're on the plane
when you're in the airport on any public
transit
in any indoor spaces social distancing
is obviously an
order washing your hands i hope these
are basic
things that everybody knows eight months
in now however
long we are in it's the same you know
standard uh coveted precautions as
in most countries but of course those
entry rules are the main things that you
want to make sure you understand and be
prepared for before you go
now the second thing to know is to
choose the best
time to go to greece so i knew what i
was getting myself
into by going to greece in august
one of their hottest months of the year
and let me tell you
it was hot basically the whole time i
was there the weather ranged from
plus 35 to plus 42.
it was very difficult to be outdoors
between the hours of
noon and 4 o'clock july and august are
also greece's
high season because of course it's
summer vacation
it's the months that a lot of people get
off so you will find
that the prices will be substantially
more
in those months i genuinely think that
the best times to go would actually
be in may and june where it's still
quite warm out you can still uh go to
the islands and have a really nice beach
vacation or
i think the start of september would
also be a really good time because it is
still
quite hot but it's cooling off if you
are someone who wants to go to greece
and doesn't really care so much about
the beach
part of the vacation i think you'd
actually be better to go
in october and november if you wanted to
go for more of the historical sort of
sites or to just
have the towns a little bit quieter more
to yourself
and you'd also find that the prices are
significantly lower
uh than they are during the summer and
my third tip for you
before you go to greece is to learn some
of the local language
calimera
my greek is by no means perfect but it's
getting there
so in saying that i would really like to
thank
rosetta stone for sponsoring today's
video
some of you guys may remember that i
partnered with rosetta stone
before i left on this trip so it has
been absolutely amazing to have access
to
all of their language learning programs
so of course i've been focusing on greek
and to be able to just do it from my
phone whenever i had time
and i think that locals uh whenever
travelers are coming to their country
really appreciate when they are putting
in that
effort to at least learn you know some
words
to at the very least to say thank you
but even more impressive
if you can actually say a few things or
understand
what is being said to you it makes
travel a whole lot
easier and the main thing i want to say
about doing rosetta stone
is that it really teaches you the
language
in that unique immersion sort of way
that they're known for
where it's like you're learning a new
language for the very first time
[Music]
yes i found that my mind was kind of
like
putting two and two together because
some of the words or phrases i had
heard before and somehow i felt
i was understanding more without exactly
understanding you know word per word
what things meant
so in partnering with rosetta stone i do
of course have some amazing discounts
for
you guys and the only way that they can
be accessed
is through the link in my description
you will have a discount on all of their
monthly plans
but the main thing that i wanted to
share with you guys is their amazing
lifetime plan because it gives you
unlimited access
for life to all of their language
learning programs
and it's currently on sale for a hundred
and ninety nine dollars
so if you're interested in checking out
any of their plans i'm going to put a
link
in the description and i would love to
know if any of you guys have actually
ever used rosetta stone before what your
experience was
what language did you learn and if you
haven't
tried it yet which language would you
like to learn the most
and now the fourth thing that i would
like you to know before you go to greece
is to watch out for atm scams
so this is something that i had to learn
the hard way
and at first i thought it was just the
way it is
because a lot of the main banks had it
as well it wasn't just one particular
company who was doing this
though i will say the worst atms in all
of greece and i think they're in europe
as well
is euronet the blue and yellow machines
just don't use those those have the
worst possible exchange rate
i would recommend going to an official
bank like alpha bank for example that
was the one that i used
but basically what happens is that when
you put in your debit card
to take out money it will have a screen
that will show you the conversion rate
from
you know 100 euros to your currency
whatever it is it will show you
how much money in your currency this
amount of euros will cost so let's say
for example i wanted to take out
a hundred euros i think the conversion
that i was getting
was like 175 canadian dollars 180.
so when i saw that i was like what the
hell because
if you actually go on google and do
eurotic had
you will get something that is much
closer to 160. so obviously i'm aware
that banks have
slight markups but that kind of
conversion was like
10 to 15 to 20 more
so the way to bypass this whole
situation that i actually learned from
gabriel traveler i saw this in one of
his videos
after the fact that i already probably
lost 30 or 40 dollars
in these freaking conversions because
they don't actually tell you
that there's an alternative way to skip
all this so what you actually have to do
when that conversion rate comes up is to
decline it
and after you decline it what will come
up
is a question asking if you are okay to
accept
your bank's conversion rate but that
there's no way for them to know what it
will be
exactly so that's just their sneaky way
of making it look like
their choice is the surefire bet even
though they're taking more of your money
uh every single time that i declined the
conversion and use my banks rate
i was getting a much better rate and
last but not least
the fifth thing that i would like you to
know before you go to greece
is how to book your fairy tickets so i
really wanted to include this point
because it was probably the topic that i
researched
the most before going to greece i don't
have a lot of friends who have done
a lot of fairy rides in greece so i
didn't have anybody to really call on
personal experience
so let me share with you what i have
learned so to begin with
there are three ways that you can book
your ferry tickets
number one through the ferry companies
themselves
number two from a travel agent and
number three
my personal favorite how i booked all of
my fairy tickets and price
compared is fairyhopper.com so not to
burst your bubble
but if you are thinking of doing a greek
island hopping sort of trip
please keep in mind that it's not always
super
easy to get a greek fairy from all the
little random islands that you might
want to go to
at completely convenient times on
certain days
you really have to plan your route ahead
of time and see
which islands make the most sense uh at
what time and from which
place so grab yourself a map of the
greek islands and
get fairyhopper.com open and just kind
of see
what is the easiest way for you to get
in between
each island another important thing to
note if you are
booking online is that only some ferry
companies with certain routes
have e-tickets where you just show your
ticket you know as you board uh
the ferry others actually require you to
have
paper tickets xante fairies for example
the last ferry i took
required you to have paper tickets so i
ended up booking
from a travel agent that time just to
get them
you know as as i ordered them but if you
ordered online you would just then have
to go down to the pier
and pick up your tickets so it's a bit
of an extra step so just be aware of
that and
make sure you have your tickets well
before you board your ferry
and speaking of boarding the actual
ferry especially in these coveted times
you really want to make sure you're
there with a plenty of time
in athens because it's such a large
harbor and the cruise ship that i was
taking was
so big they actually started boarding
two
hours ahead of time so if you're leaving
from athens i would say be there at
least an hour and a half
ahead of time their harbor is also
incredibly
confusing at least it was to me i got
completely lost uh but if you're going
from any of the other island harbors
like santorini or hania it's incredibly
straightforward they're very small in
comparison
but still maybe try and be there at
least
45 minutes or so ahead of time another
thing to make sure you have before you
board the actual ferry
is to make sure you have a health
declaration filled out
usually you can get those from the ferry
offices which can be found
uh right in the harbor but sometimes
they might be a little ways
away um from the actual boarding place
so when you're getting on the boat you
basically just have to give them
your passport your ticket and your
health declaration form
and yeah i think i think that is it i
think that is
actually all the points that i wanted to
share with you guys
in today's video i hope you enjoyed it i
hope you found it helpful
and of course a very big thank you once
again to rosetta
stone for sponsoring today's video i'm
gonna put a link in the description for
a discount on all of their monthly plans
their incredible lifetime plan for only
199 dollars
so if you guys are interested make sure
you check it out
let me know what you think and let's
keep learning languages
on this trip so thank you guys so much
for tuning in
i can't believe this is the end of
greece for now
i will definitely be back i had such an
amazing time
but next we are moving on to bulgaria
so some incredible adventures to come
from there as well
make sure you stay tuned subscribe if
you already haven't
and as always i hope you guys are having
an amazing day
keep being your own kind of beautiful
and i will see you soon
bye guys
[Music]
you