Find job in Greece

Many people especially the young students try to obtain a job while traveling. It is very easy to do so but you will not be able to do it in advance. Most seasonal employers on the islands will not commit in advance. They would like to see you and make sure that you will be there when they need you. Don’t worry about finding a job because the work is always more than the help available. Every restaurant, bar, coffee shop is willing to hire new faces. Just be prepare if you want to save money you will be able to do that but the work is usually more than eight hours per day more like 10-12 and there is not day off from the beginning of the summer till the end (6 months). Many employers will offer you food and place to stay and because you will be working hard for many hours every day you will be able to save your salary.

If you do come and you need work only to socialize and make some small amount of money for expenses you can negotiate with the employers for a half time working day. For young person working in a Greek island for a few hours per day can make your holiday very rewarding because you will meet many people and learn the culture and the language without any hustle. So my advice to you is: book your holiday, see how long you can stay, and while here go around the island (anyone) and ask the locals for job. Know exactly how many hours you would like to work and don’t worry I haven’t see a person leaving from here because he hasn’t got a job.

Living & Working in Greece: Your Guide to a Successful Short or Long-Term Stay (How to)

Few traveling tips for Greece

Tips for traveling

• Try not to do so much on holiday. Yes is it possible to do island hoping and visit few islands for a week but put is mind the joys of Greece is the laid back life style.
• Try to travel light. You can get away with very little. Greece is very informal country, especially in the summer.
• Get a hold of a travel guide, for example Fromer or Lonely Planet. (link a travel guide for sale)
• Determine how much time you have in total.
• Determine what you are interested in, ie., beaches, architecture, art, ruins, mountains, etc
• Having a cell phone that works in Greece makes this sort of thing much more manageable, by the way. If you're going to be in Greece traveling independently, I recommend buying a pay-as-you-go Greek phone or a SIM card if your phone is unlocked. This gives you an easy Greek number for Greeks to contact you on, and can help you get those last-second directions or corrections easily.
• The earlier you book your flight the more inexpensive seats will be available. Very good offers usually on January and February
• ATM's are everywhere. Use your credit card to get money but for restaurants and shops it is better to use cash. In fact when you buy from a shop ask if there is a difference in price if you pay in cash instead of with your credit cards.
• A pre-arranged taxi transfer from the airport usually costs twice as much as a regular street taxi.
• If you need medicine feel free to ask the pharmacist all the questions you have about that medicine because in Greece all the prescriptions that comes with that medicine are in Greek language.
Check this book it may be useful to you.
A Foxy Old Woman's Guide to Traveling Alone: Around Town and Around the World

Economic Crisis in the tourist sector in Greece

People will still take their holiday/vacation but will look to spend less by staying closer to home or going to a lower economy country, such as our neighbors, Turkey or Bulgaria. Greek news points 70 % down fall on the tourist flow (at the beginning of the summer) this year but the truth is that I see same tourist flow as the previous year. Maybe Santorini is a fortunate island and have his regular visitors. Of course Brits are not happy with the downfall of the British pound as it is almost the same as Euro 1 Euro to 1,11 Pound. But they still love Greece and Thanks God they are still here. English people are still our main tourists. French, German and Italian comes only for two months in a busy season. American do not travel as they used to. As you know Greece is a tourist country and most of the native wait only on tourism to survive. Here people work six months per year and the other six months they wait the summer to start. So if you are planning to come to Greece don’t worry you are not alone you will still find friends here.

Best time to travel to Greece

The best time to travel to the Greek Islands is end of May beginning of June and September to mid October. In May and June the water it’s still not so hot but the island are quite the service stuff is not tired yet from the crowd so you can have a very peaceful holiday.

Me personally prefer September. Water is still warm, crowd is less and full services are still in operation. Weather is perfect not so hot like in August and not cold like in October in day time bearable hot and in the night cool. I wish it could stay like that the whole season. Most of the taverns and restaurant have a person outside in the door that welcome people but it is not like host. Here we call it “kamaki” which it’s not so good word but it is used for the job that persons does. Basically they are trying to pull passing people in by advertizing the menu or offering some free wine with the diner or just trying to get friendly with you so you choose this place for dinning. This is not legal job but it is done everywhere. Sometime it is very annoying but no place could work without kamaki. The restaurants and taverns are so close to each other and they offer similar food so it is very difficult to choose where you will be dining and usually the kamaki is the face that you remember from the place and then comes the service and the food.

Nightly percent of the service stuff in the restaurants and hotels are not Greeks. All those people are seasonal workers that go to their countries during the winter or Athens. Very few of them stay in the Islands during the winter period working mainly constructions. You will be wonder or how many people with different nationalities could work in one restaurant and they all find a common ground for six months , seven days per week 10 to 12 hours per day. English is universal language and if you speak it you won’t have any problem communicating. Of course many of the service stuff speak more than one language so don’t be wonder when the waiter/waitress speaks with you English with next table customer Italian and give the order in Greek and still hasn’t spoken his/her native tong.

About Beaches they range from pebbles to fine sand so having beach shoes with you could be useful. I will cover Beaches in my next blog entry. They are many different type of Beaches and each Island have his own distinguish look.

Come to Patras Carnival

The Patras Carnival, is the largest event of its kind in Greece and one of the biggest in Europe. It is 160 years old. The events begin on 17th of January and last up to Clean Monday. The carnival of Patras includes balls, parades, hunting of hidden treasure, kids’ carnival etc. Its characteristics are spontaneity, improvisation, inspiration and volunteerism. It is a lot of fun.

Greek Wines

Let’s start with Resina. What the local people said about this wine is that you either love it or hate it there is no middle with it. As a wine it is not very expensive and while in Greece it is good to try it. Resins are used for the preparation of this wine and it is store in a pine barrels.

Now a day’s Resina is offered mainly to tourists. Greek people drink Ouzo, Raki (Tsipouro) and red or white wine mostly. Some taverns offered their own wine which doesn’t damage the Greek wine reputation in either way.
Greek wines today share the same high quality like some of the best wines of the world. Getting popularity: the Asirtiko, the Roditis, the Moscofilero, the Agiorgitiko.

Island of Santorini produce many different wines from very dry to very sweet. While here try the “Santorini” wine from Boutary winery which is fresh, dry white one. Another great taste wine is Niktery from Santo Winery, which is barrel aged white wine, Mavratiro-barrel aged dark red, sweet wine and Caldera – red dry. There is another sweet red wine that taste like a sherry called Visanto.

Santorini have 13 Wineries which are promoting high quality wines.
• Gavalas Vineyard
• Gaia Wines
• Santo Wines
• Canava Roussos
• Argyros Estate
• Kasteli Wines
• Domaine Sigalas
• Antoniou Winery
• Volcan Wines
• Boutari Winery
• Hatzidakis Winery
• Santorini Winery

The wines are made naturally withought any chemicals. Many factors affect the production of the wine such as volcanic soil.

You can do a tour so you will see how the wine is made. All local travel agency can offer you a winery tour. It is basically a Smart busses that will take you with one ticket all over the island. You can get out of the bus and take it again when you are ready. You will be able to taste 6-7 different wines and have a portion of chesses looking at the Caldera 300 meters above the water.

If you decided to taste the house wine in the taverns you may find your favorite wine as well. Usually prices are very low for Santorinian wines but don’t think that the quality is low as well.

You can check this book and become an expert:
Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea: Why the Greeks Matter (Hinges of History)"

Non-touristic spots in Greece

If you are looking for a small, non-touristic spot somewhere to relax and enjoy for a few weeks you can visit Paros and Naxos. It’s very easy to get to those islands as ferries run frequently and the tickets are very cheap. They are closed to many other island so if you don’t like one you can always move easily to another. You can rent car or moped and explore the islands. Paros is much smaller than Naxos but they are very similar. Santorini is different more touristic but still you can fine some places where you can relax and enjoy. Next to Santorini hour and half away is a island called Anafy. This one it’s not very popular and has hand full of people. If you decided to go there you will have the beach for yourself. On territory the island is larger than Santorini and you can get there for maximum 10 Euro with a ferryboat from Santorinan port. You can go in the morning and come back in the next day to Santorini. Another quite island is located close to Naxos. It is very small and it’s called Koufonissi. For few days there you will get to know everyone on the island. Try to go there June or September if you go there in August you will see only Greek people and it will be very noisy and hectic.

I will mention just few others small islands that I love:



• Alonissos -Sporades Island. Green and fertile, perfect for walking and nature-loving people. You can go to this island by flying to Skiathos, followed by a 75-min. ferry transfer.



• Paxos -Ionian Island. Here you can enjoy old architecture, wild flowers, wooden landscape and white pebble cover. You can go to this island by flying to Corfu, followed by a ferry transfer.




• Ithaca - home of Odyssey and visitors can discover the legendary places mentioned in Homer’s The Odyssey. It is a great place for people interested in history and archaeology. Many ancient monasteries. You can get to this island by flying to Kafalonia, followed by a ferry transfer.