Living in Greece as a Digital Nomad
After spending summer 2020 in Barcelona (Spain) with my girlfriend, we decided to move to Greece for the end of the year. We were expecting to go to Bali at first, but we couldnāt go there due to coronavirus. So we stayed in Europe, in the only country with a great temperature during fall.
We started with 2 weeks of travelling, going from Athens, to Mykonos, Paros, Naxos, Santorini, and finally Crete, our final destination.
We didnāt work in the islands, it was just holidays, and I donāt think it would have been easy to work: wifi is not that great in the islands, and all those places are designed for tourists.
Our holidays in Athens & the Greek Islands
Athens
We landed in Athens end of September 2020, and we stayed a few days there. We visited as much as we could, and enjoyed our first bites of Greek food.
In only three days we were able to visit most of Athens historical sites such as the famous Acropolis, the ancient agora, the temple of Hephaestus and many more. Mostly everything is at a walking distance from the city center.
We were amazed how cheap the prices are in Athens, and how good is the food. It seemed very authentic and very local to us, even more when we compared to the Island that are very touristy.
Mykonos
After our discovery of the capital we took the ferry to Mykonos.
Mykonos is a very beautiful Island, it looks like the typical greek island clichĆ©. The city center is a maze of narrow white streets, small gift shop and restaurants on the edge of the water. On the south coast of the Island youāll find most of the beautiful beaches and their famous beach club (Cavo Paradision, Super Paradise Beach Club, Scorpiosā¦).
The only downfall is that prices are really expensive, itās probably the most expensive greek island with Santorini, and it looks a little bit too touristy.
With Covid 19, we didnāt see the nightlife as most of the clubs were empty, but at least we had the beaches for ourselves!
Paros
From Mykonos we went to Paros, a calmer island known to be great for couples: and it was!
We had an amazing time here: itās really calm, cosy, and with nice restaurants. The main activity is to wander in the white streets covered with pink bougainvillea of Paros city and Naoussa (in the north of the island). While in Naoussa we went to Moraitis Winery to taste some good wine and discover their fabrication.
We spent an afternoon in Antiparos, a really small island 10 minutes away from Paros with hidden beach and warm water.
Naxos
After visiting Paros we headed to Naxos.
Naxos is a great island for hiking, their is a lot of trek trails between all the mountains villages and the main attraction : Zeus Mount, the highest points of the Cyclades.
Itās a nice hike to go to the top where we enjoyed a beautiful view of all the greeks Islands.
In the city center, the beautiful Apollo Temple is a magical place to catch the sunset.
Santorini
Last but not least : Santorini. We had high expectations when we arrived in Santorini, and we had a really great stay.
We stayed in Oia at the top of the island with an amazing Caldera view, and with Covid, it was really quite and just for us !
A walking path (2 hours one way) allow to join the two main city Fira to Oia on one of the most beautiful hike with a permanent view on the sea and the caldera.
We went on a daily catamaran trip, where we had a barbecue, went swimming with the fishes and enjoyed an amazing sunset from the water.
At the end of this trip, we went to Chania, Crete, to stay a month there while working.
Life in Chania, Crete
Rent
We found a small house on AirBnb in the center of Chania. We paid 10.95ā¬/night/person.
The house was ok: well located, with enough space to live, but it was a bit old & wifi was not amazing (10Mb/s).
Thankfully, there was a brand new coworking space just the street next to it. It was great for days when we needed a great wifi.
Coworking space
The coworking space is Workhub Chania, and it was great.
Pros:
- The wifi was fast (optic fibre)
- There was phone booth for calls
- You could plug your laptop in Ethernet for even faster speeds
- Nice & helpful owner
Cons:
- The price was a little bit high compared to the cost of life in Greece (67ā¬/week & 265ā¬/month), so I only went there when I needed good internet.
Food
Chania is a touristic city with lots of restaurant in front of the sea. We tried many of them during our stay, and loved the quality of the food.
Prices were average for Europe: not expensive but not cheap either.
Fun & visits
Crete is full of nice places to visit, and you have beaches & mountain, at the same place.
We went to Elafonissi (in mid-October), and we enjoyed it like it was the middle of summer.
We went hiking in the Samarias Gorge, a 14km hike in the Mountain.
Life in Athens, Greece
After spending one month in Crete, we decided to move to Athens for 1.5 month before going back to France for Christmas.
Rent
We found a nice 2 bedrooms suite in a hotel that we shared with another digital nomad couple, the price was just amazing: 200ā¬/month/person = 6,66ā¬ per night in a 4 star all furnished hotel !!
Coworking space
The hotel Wi-Fi was ok, but not good enough to be 4 working on it all day.
We found a brand having several coworking spaces in the center of Athens, and we had quite a mixed experience with it.
Pro:
- Value for money was good. The price was 110ā¬/month.
- One of their location was in the center in a beautiful building. It was a really great place to work.
- In one of the location, the staff was nice.
Cons:
- In the closest location to our place, the staff was not friendly and not helpful at all.
- In the closest location to our place, their was one phone booth for the whole coworking space. Of course it was always busy!
- They didnāt tell us that the coworking space business model was a subscription, and that we had to cancel the subscription 30 days before leaving. As we were staying like 40 days there, it means that we should have cancelled our subscription right when we arrived. They never told us of course, and they tried to charge us an extra month (despite us being back in France), and were really rude by email.
I just think itās the kind of shady company that donāt care and donāt respect their users. Their only goal is to make short-term money, without caring about our experience and our need. Why would I pay one more month if Iām not even in the country anymore?
Food
We loved the food and all the local restaurants when we went to Athens in September, but this time everything was closed due to Covid lockdown. We still ordered food online with Wolt (Uber Eats in Greece), and enjoyed cheap Athens prices!
Final words
We loved our stay in Greece. Itās one of the only country in Europe thatās still hot in fall/beginning of winter, so if you want to escape winter while staying in Europe, itās definitely a great place to be!
Food is good, Wine is good, rent is affordable, and there are so many great things to do.
With coronavirus, we enjoyed empty touristic places. It was great, but sometimes a little sad to see those places empty. Iām sure Greece is even better when bars are full and people are out !
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