clausar

mokolea
As for recommending hotels, can you give us some more information?
Where in Crete do you want to stay and for how many days?
Will you fly to Crete via Athens? Have you included Athens in your plans?
What is your budget, as prices on Mykonos and especially on Santorini can vary from 50 - 1000 Euro per night?

mokolea

I love it Clausar! you're so right LOL
In Crete Elounda for 4 nights. 4 nights Santorini and 4 nights Mykonos. We will not be spending much time in Athens. Our budget isn't too strict but I don't want to spend $1000 a night. $400, $500 is okay or less of course. I can splurge a little this trip. It's so gorgeous here in Hawaii today I am questioning why I would want to go to another island. Of course I'm kidding

rushngal

my husband and I arrive in Athens on 17th June. I cant believe our bad luck for arriving on that day We leave for crete on the 19th June to spend 6 days there. We leave crete on the 25th june for a connecting flight to athens to Frankfurt, Germany. I am partially disabled and am scared that there will be no taxis to get us to the airports. The only form of public transport i could take is a bus. I am glad i read about taking euro in cash and we are hiring a car, so hope we will be able to get gas. Do hotels help you out with getting to the airports at all?

And the 17th June is a sunday. Do they have elections on a sunday??

clausar

Yes the 17th of June elections will take place in Greece, why is that bad luck and what has this to do with tourists? There will be thousands of tourists in Greece during mid June and I can assure nothing at all will happen to them. Elections Sunday is always a very quiet day in Greeece , especially this one when all Greeks will hold their breath to see the results. Strikes always happen with a reason, to put a government under pressure.... No strikes will take place during this time , as the elected new government will simply be too new!!!!!

bilboburgler

rushngal

Yes much of Europe has elections on Sundays and many countries have mandatory voting.

Don't worry, at the end of the day Greeks are a sensible and kind people who decided to turn a blind eye to the stupid things the politicians were doing in their name. They want tourists to come back so solutions will be found for the practicalities.

Over printing or stamping may make no sense but it has been used in various countries in the last 50 years until the proper paper turns up.
I think DelaRue will be running those presses now.

bilboburgler

The other date to watch out for is 31st May when Ireland votes in their referendum on the fiscal contract. Should be a whole load of ripples from those pebbles.

rushngal

Biloburgler and clausar, you have made me feel a lot better about arriving in greece on election day. Thank you very much

nygvic

We were in Athens on the 7th of May, the Monday after the last elections. The Acropolis, National Archeological Museum and most tourist spots were crowded and vibrant. Restaurants in the Plaka were full and business was going on as normal. Nary a peep of protesters about in Syntagma Square. I dont see the fear in visiting. Athens felt very safe to us.

opp

We too are arriving in Athens on June 17. While the news is intimidating we are looking at the situation as something positive. Maybe naively so, but there is no choice. Just like when the Berlin Wall fell in '89, maybe June 17 will be a watershed day - the day that the Greeks can start to extricate themselves from the problems created by . . what??the banks??too much debt??the euro?? After, hopefully Europe can move forward with more confidence in its economy. June 17 may be another historic milestone for Greece.

rushngal

Opp, yes maybe we will be in Athens on an important day and hopefully it will be a happy day. We do have to think positive. My husband has lots of greek friends who say that the greeks have learnt from the last demonstrations that tourists stay away if things like that happen and they need the tourists to survive. How long are you in Athens? We are staying in the Hotel Plaka which appears to be a very popular hotel as another poster here is staying there also.

Patricia_Murillo

We will arrive in Athens on June 8 and we'll come back to the US on June 21. I was planning to bring plastic and US dollars in cash, but after reading the comments that you guys --who know a lot more than me about Greece-- put here, I am wondering: Should I buy Euros in advance, instead of bringing US dollars? Thanks for your light on this.

Jackie

I have the same question. We will be arriving in Athens on June 23rd. I'm thinking it would be wise to buy some euros before we get there.

At this point, I'm not counting on plastic and have written to hotels to see if they will take US dollars.

Heimdall

Those of you bringing loads of cash to Greece, please be very careful on the Athens metro. Tourists with a wallet full of cash must be a pickpocket's dream.

Heimdall

In an earlier post I suggested that even if Greece leaves the Eurozone it may continue to use the euro for a time. Now a story on CNN lists that as a real possibility:
http://edition.cnn.com/video/?hpt=hp...w-currency.cnn

daveesl

This is a really interesting thread and one that those in the know are making some very reasonable and realistic comments.

This will be interesting to see how this plays out over the coming months and years. To me the entire concept of the Euro was baffling from the start. How do you maintain value on a single currency linked to multiple individual economies? The problems that have arisen in Greece and other countries prove this out.

It is kind of like if you and your neighbor were required to pool resources to jointly pay for stuff. He would be 25, debt up to his eyeballs and you are 60 and no debt. You each have your own, individual economies which have essentially nothing to do with the other. And yet, here you are being forced to pay into a single fund. I think this will be an amazing study in economics and policy and if it works out of this crisis, this may be adopted by numerous groups of countries. If it doesn't, it will be a case study for hundreds of years to come.

dave

Patricia_Murillo

Does anybody know if US dollars are welcome in Greece?

Heimdall

"Does anybody know if US dollars are welcome in Greece?"

Yes, you can exchange them for euros at banks and forex bureaux.

Patricia_Murillo

Thanks, I asked because of the current situation, otherwise I would just bring my US dollars and get euros there, as I did in prior trips to Europe. According to a recent CNN article, it may not be possible to get euros from banks or currency exchange places during the next few weeks/months. Banks might close their doors an accounts might be frozen.

daveesl

To the flip side on the comments (and good comments they are) on the Greeks doing an immediate repudiation of the EU and the Euro, my only real thought in this is...has anybody ever seen a government ever do anything quickly? Forget economics, I'm talking about anything. Not saying that being forewarned is being forearmed, just I would find it an amazing move of efficiency to have an election and within even a few days major economic changes happen.

dave

Heimdall

Patricia, if you are holding cash in any hard currency, you have nothing to worry about. There are too many alarmist stories going around right now, but in times of crisis the dollar is seen as a safe haven, and I'm sure you would have no problem exchanging them for euros. Normally when I arrive in Greece I have only the euros left over from my last trip, and head straight for the ATM at the airport.

With the present situation I think I would carry a little more cash than usual. I really don't like carrying around a lot of cash, as I had to do during a trip to Rwanda, where at the time, there were no ATMs and few restaurants or hotels taking credit cards. Wearing a money belt all the time got very uncomfortable after a few days.