Budget Travel Destination – Greece

If you want to travel within a budget, avoid everything touristic. Vacations can be extremely expensive or affordable depends how you budget your expenses. It’s also better for your peace of mind, since many tourists think they are world-travellers and experts on international people and relations if they spend two weeks in a 5-star hotel or a resort. Living abroad is more eye-opening than touristing around many places for a week with people from your country.

Local friends are the best way to explore a new city or a country. If you don’t have local friends, try expat websites and other sites that organise international events and get-togethers. I would avoid Tinder and other dating apps as a first method of finding new friends in a new country because those people are not looking for friends and sightseeing buddies. Hah. It’s good to have local knowledge to find the best spots to eat local cuisine and not get ripped off in tourist traps (for example, Mykonos is famous for this).  

This was my first trip to Greece and I really loved it. Flowers, orange trees and cats everywhere. People were generally friendly, but many of them were stressed out from tourists (again a good reason to avoid areas packed with tourists).  Athens has a super international vibe that reminded me of NYC a bit. Be careful with thieves though! Little street brats robbed 20€ from me when I tried to purchase a metro ticket. They cancelled the transaction from the machine and took the 20€ bill while the other kid distracted me. So be careful when you travel alone!

So here’s what I spent on my ten days trip from Tallinn to Athens to Corfu and back from Corfu to Athens and Tallinn:

1. Flights. Tallinn-Athens-Tallinn, Aegean Airlines, 378,72€.
2. Airbnb in Athens for eleven nights, 562,61€.  
3. Airport taxi in Athens, 38€.
4. Taxi app Beat within Athens downtown area, 7-11€ per trip.
5. Metro ticket for 5 days, 8€ x 2, 16€ in total.
6. Robbery, 20€ lost to street brats at Kati Patisia metro station! 
7. Acropolis + 6 other sights, 5-day ticket, 30€.
8. Ice coffee with vegan milk, 2,40€. 
9. Lunch salad in Athens, 5,50- 6€.
10. Sweet crepe in Athens, 3,50- 5€.
11. Water bottle, 0,5l, 0,50€.
12. Simple hair cut in Athens, 10€.
13. Manicure with gel polish in Athens, 18€.
14. Pedicure with gel polish in Athens, 22€.
15. Dentist teeth cleaning in Athens, 70€. 
16. Aegean Airlines Corfu travel package included flights Athens-Corfu-Athens and three nights in a 3-star hotel for 329€.  
17. Driving from Athens to Corfu. Find a local friend with a car so you don’t need to hire a car. Three full tanks of gas for four days 450€, road tolls 25€ to go there and 40€ while coming back.   
18. Ferry from Igoumenitsa port to Corfu with Kerkyra Seaways, 5,60€ per person and car 22,50€ one way, in total (with discount), 63,70€.
19. Fresh seabass in Corfu, 15€ per person.
20. Agios Stefanos Beach sunbeds with bottled water, two Kumquade soft drinks and two coffees, 21€.

Fashion in Greece is always cute and comfortable. Corfu people can be very posh and snobbish, but if you go out of Corfu Town, you can relax in your cheap but stylish summer clothes and chill on your well deserved vacation after working hard for the whole year! In the pictures below, I’m wearing a 7€ summer hat from Flying Tiger in Tallinn and 100% cotton white top (13,95€) and long skirt (16,95€) from Celestino in Athens. The familiar yellow dress from my previous blog post is from MOHITO Tallinn on sale for 6€. Sunglasses are by MISSONI for 140€ on sale from Tallinn.

It was a 100 percent alcohol-free vacation for me. Had a quick visit to the ER a month before my trip, so my doctor advised to avoid alcohol until my health is back to normal. No problem, since Greece, especially Corfu, had AMAZINGLY delicious alcohol-free options! Below is a picture of local orange-coloured Corfiot drink made from Kumquade fruit by Mavromatis Kumquat Distillery. The fresh fish was also delicious since through my local friends, found an authentic Greek restaurant up in the hills of Corfu. They made this plate specially for me. On our drive back from Corfu to Athens, we stopped at a gas station and found this pretty water bottle! Turns out it’s healthy too, MastiH₂O water with Mastiha resin has healing and digestive effects.

All in all, my trip was fun, exciting and full of surprises. I recommend Greece and visiting the islands to everyone, because regardless of your budget, there’s something for everyone. Safe travels! (Youtube vlog)