so you want to travel greece you want to swim around in the blue house water you want to eat some guy rose well guess what kind of an expert of the area and it’s actually pronounced today i’m going to be sharing with you the 20 things that i learned while traveling through the cyclades the series of islands as well as the mainland of greece from road tripping from all the way in athens to meteora and then even into the countryside where not even the locals go i got to know the country reasonably well as a traveler and the things i’ll share with you are the things i wish i could have found on youtube before arriving things that will help you save time and save money these are mostly going to be focused on the cyclades the series of islands that makes greece so famous from santorini mykonos milos taros crete etc so with that out of the way we have 20 things to get through let’s get started with the best time to go the first thing you need to know about greece is that there’s an on season and an off season the off season is basically the cold months where nobody quite goes and travels unless you’re from greece i’m not saying don’t go i’m just saying don’t expect to lay by the beach it’s going to be cold the on season or the hot season is basically may all the way through to september and in august it’s so hot that even the greeks go on vacation because they can’t handle the heat you can expect the weather to be anywhere from like 26 to 35 degrees and sometimes even hotter now because everybody travels grease in the summer it’s also the reason why it gets expensive so if you’re a budget conscious traveler one of the cool things you could try especially if you love wearing a nice jacket then go and experience grease in the shoulder season which is going to be like november to april it’s going to be chilly 9 to 15 degrees but it’s going to save you a lot of money one thing to know is that if you’re in the islands a lot of businesses tend to shut down and only run during the summer months the next point is how do you get around when you’re here in the greek islands well there’s three main ways there’s renting a car renting a scooter or renting an atv now the reason i say there’s three is because if you rely on taxis you’re gonna go broke it’s so expensive on uber i saw 35 euros to go five minutes so if you’re going from place to place really getting to know the islands like you should you’re gonna spend more money on your transportation than you will on your hotel and hotels are already expensive enough as for public transportation forget about it i’ve seen a few big buses but i would not want to rely on them to get around because they’re only going to take you to the most touristy and traveled places and here on this channel we’re about getting lost we’re about getting to know the real side of these islands and of this country so the only solution is have your own vehicle the next up are the foods you must try moussaka shrimp saganaki of course the meze platters like zatziki and hummus souvlaki it’s like a stuffed eggplant bugatta one of the most amazing desserts if you’re in milos we loved the orange cake and of course one of the blessings greece has brought to the world a freddo espresso which is literally just a cold coffee but it has a nice hit to it greeks are on island time if you want to have everything on time go to stuttgart but hey if you want blue ass water and you don’t mind waiting for it then go to greece because everybody has a bit of a laid back mindset during the midday sun during the summer there’s what’s known as a siesta where sometimes businesses will close people will be moving especially slowly your food will come out slow your ferry is probably going to be late but just know if you go with the flow you’re going to have an amazing time so i’ve told you how busy it gets during the summer months and with millions of people visiting at one time it can definitely help to book things in advance your fairies your rental cars your airbnb however you choose to do it these things can book up and actually there was a time where we were supposed to leave milos to take a ferry to santorini and we actually got stranded in milos for an extra day which turned out to be awesome but that’s because the ferry was oversold and they had no seats left so yeah doing things last minute will either mean you’re missing out on opportunities or you’re paying a lot more for them tipping it’s something we do in canada and america and assume the rest of the world does but truthfully that’s not the case and greece is not one of those places where tipping is actually part of the culture as a good rule of thumb as a traveler no matter where you go i always like to leave at least five ten percent but unless you’re in a high-end business it’s not really expected for the last eight years now i’ve been traveling around this but with it has come one really challenging part and that is what it’s done to my body this right here is ag1 with 75 vitamins minerals and ingredients from whole source foods this is going to bring me a lot of the nutrition that i lack in my day to day for the next few days i’m gonna take this right before breakfast oh no i’m the furthest thing from a chef but luckily i can follow instructions [Music] [Applause] [Music] seven days later and here we are i’ve been absolutely loving ag-one now with any health product it’s always hard to differentiate what’s causing what but one thing i will say is these last few days i’ve been feeling a lot of energy i’ve been feeling awesome overall and if there’s anything that i’ve really enjoyed the most it’s just knowing with confidence that i’m now getting the greens my diet often if not always is lacking i’ll have to see what 30 days does for me because it’s definitely a part of my daily routine now now if you use the link down below to buy your first purchase of ag-one you’ll also be getting a one-year supply of immune supporting vitamin d as well as five travel packs so go check it out now i’m gonna share with you some average cost so that you know what to budget for this trip this can easily become one of those destinations where you overspend it gets very expensive very fast on average a meal whether it be lunch or dinner is going to run you around 20 to 35 euros per person yes i did find a couple times where i could get away with anything around 10 to 12 euros but usually that was quite exceptional and it was usually on the more fast food end of side of things the price of car atv or scooter rentals has already been shared but what price you should definitely count in is getting from island to island to go about an hour and a half from milos to santorini cost me around 85 euros per person flying would have been much more and actually involved flying back to athens athens to santorini so it’s not exactly streamlined which is why a lot of people actually will go and opt in to taking fairies to go from athens to mykonos also cost me about 80 euros per person but hey this is the high season and maybe during other times or maybe if i’d booked well in advance it would have been a lot cheaper to get myself a sim card with about six gigabytes of data cost me around 25 euros and if you’re planning to do any shopping maybe just don’t i don’t think it’s worth it air france lost my luggage so i didn’t have much choice when i arrived in mykonos which was probably the worst place to do the shopping a silly dress shirt that didn’t even survive one wash cycle cost me 140 euros better to shop before you arrive and one expense that you just can’t forget about is actually going to be fueled if you’re renting a car you’re easily going to be spending 20 to 30 just in gas alone per day the gas on the islands and the whole world right now is incredibly expensive the next thing you should know is actually how to find out the ferry routes there’s two apps there’s ferry hopper and ferry scanner both of these websites will scan all the different companies that operate doing these travel routes but what i actually recommend is not using them after using the scanner website i actually took the information and went directly to the ferry company’s website which in this case was cj and i saved about 20 euros per person booking it directly plus it also means i was able to reschedule things and i highly doubt i would have had that same privilege if i had done it on the scanner websites it’s kind of become a rule of thumb and travel now don’t use third parties for all my digital nomad friends out there take some time off it’s not the right time to work anymore once you arrive here the internet blows look i really love my time in greece but sadly for me the way the internet is right now i just couldn’t see myself spending more than two weeks even in athens the internet kept on failing me i couldn’t keep up with my team remotely but if i was just posting my photos on instagram sure it would be fine but even with local wi-fi not being reliable or fast these sim cards were actually just as bad there was a lot of dead spots all the way through the country especially in the islands trigger warning mykonos and santorini are not the real greece locals kept telling me this i didn’t quite understand it until i went especially in santorini it is inescapable to have moments where you feel like a tourist in a gift shop if you’re walking through you’re basically walking through a giant shopping center one of the most beautiful in the world no doubt but nonetheless it definitely loses a bit of its authenticity when you realize that behind the view is 100 people trying to sell you stuff now don’t get me wrong these kingpin destinations of the greek cyclades have their own claims to fame santorini probably one of the most stunning places on our planet mykonos one of the greatest places to party but with that it’s super important to know what do you want from this trip for me i love getting to know how the locals live i love getting lost and that leads me to my next point which is to embrace the lesser known sides of greece now there’s certain countries in this world where getting lost going off the beaten path might seem a little bit intimidating you’re not quite sure what it’s going to be like are the locals going to speak your language is it safe and for greece the answer is yes you’re going to have an amazing time even if you rent a car and go into the middle of nowhere the people are sweet the food continues to be delicious even outside of the touristy areas it’s just part of the greek culture and the crazy thing about greece is that even their hidden gems are more beautiful than most countries postcards like this place here this beach is not very mainstream for international travelers and yet we’ve never heard of it for any other country this would be front page but this is greece they have dozens if not hundreds of places that rival this beauty all that to say don’t be afraid to go out there and truly experience the real grease the next step is to have cash on you yeah definitely your credit card will go a long way but this is a country that has actually gone through recessions through moments where the country almost went bankrupt and you have to imagine that people are a little bit untrusting of the money they can’t hold so keep some euros on you and just know that a lot of small businesses will definitely prefer it if not only exclusively accept cash and that kind of leads me to my next point the currency is the euro if you didn’t know okay this one’s very very important because it could totally change your trips experience and that is that you should have an international driver’s license you see ruby went to greece about four or five years ago and when she went she didn’t have an international driver’s license and so her american drivers wouldn’t be accepted she ended up having to take taxis everywhere which costed hundreds of dollars now today they were telling us that they’ve actually started accepting international driver’s license from america but a whole lot of other countries are not accepted and you’re gonna cost yourself so much money you’re gonna be in shock and you’re probably not gonna be able to travel for the next two decades if you don’t get this in order so make sure you don’t arrive in santorini mykonos or wherever your travels take you only to realize you can’t even rent a vehicle with that said my driver’s license was accepted in one place and actually not accepted in another so maybe you could hunt around and try to find a spot but that’s also not how you want to spend your trip so international driver’s license will actually cover you for travel across the world at least most destinations so could be a worthwhile investment as in all countries you visit it never hurts to know a few words from the local language and that’s why i’m here a qualified greek instructor today i’m going to teach you hello which is yasu thank you f haristo please paracalo gyro apparently yiro now this is a big tip bring a mask if you’re leaving your home country it’s a good time to order one to your house but there were so many of these beautiful beaches with the clearest of water and all i could think was i wish i could see beneath it but instead i ended up buying some really bad ones over in the islands that cost me way more than they should have and although i was just talking about a dive mask but now let’s talk about the other one currently the situation is very lax actually most people don’t wear it doesn’t seem like you need to wear it really anywhere so that’s the situation by the time you travel it might even be completely a thing of the past now if you’ve not taken a single point that i’ve said so far here’s the one that you should really listen to if you want to get the best out of these busy greek destinations whether it be sarakanico in milos whether it be ia in santorini if you go during midday or especially during sunset this is what you might be getting i don’t know about you but that’s the last thing i want when i spend thousands of dollars to come all the way here but luckily there’s a very easy solution unless you went out the night before and that is to get up for sunrise i was shocked seeing how busy it was for sunset i thought that at least a quarter or a fifth of these people would get up early but turns out there was like 12 people who were willing to wake up early to get the best out of this island so sunrise is going to be the time to shoot to explore and to enjoy a very real serene moment with some of the most breathtaking views on this planet the next thing you should know is this is the outlet they use it’s like the double circle one now how long should you stay in greece well that’s something that depends on your budget and of course what you want to see but to really get a feel for the greek islands i would say you probably want to experience at least two maybe three of them and with that i wouldn’t recommend doing less than three nights per island for my limited time in athens it seemed like a pretty cool city that i actually would have loved to spend a bit more time in and of course my road trip was unforgettable but it depends what you want from your trip what i’ll say is that 10 to 14 days is gonna set you up with an extremely memorable trip here in greece and it’s gonna send you home with a lot less in your wallet and lastly number 20 this should be your next euro destination my goal here has been in this video to equip you with everything that you might need to know the pros and the cons but while i’m here to serve up even the harsh realities please don’t misinterpret that because i absolutely loved my time here in greece it’s a country that’s yes expensive yes it comes with some challenges as a digital nomad but it is so unworldly stunning there’s nothing else quite like it the food is so delicious i am two weeks later still thinking about the food i was eating and i only just scratched the surface of what these islands have to offer milos in particular for me was a gem and i know that someday i’ll be going back hopefully taking my parents now if you want to take your planning one step further i’ve got my entire greek playlist linked down below and while this video was very informational i have a much more fun way of showing it to you so that you can actually visualize the beaches the viewpoints and all the amazing things you should see in milos santorini mykonos and on our incredible road trip through the mainland so definitely go check that out and guys my name is christian this is the lost leblanc channel and hit that subscribe button if you want to see more because there’s a ton more to come let’s get lost again in the next one

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