Our Biggest Mistake We Made in Greece (plus a few other mistakes)

Let's be honest, the first time going on an international trip is bound to have some mistakes. Today, we are going to call them learning moments because we sure did learn what to do and what not to do again!

Hands down the biggest mistake we made when planning our trip to Greece was not getting an international phone plan on at least one of our phones. That means we were not able to call anyone without being charged astronomical prices, we couldn't use google maps to apple maps to get around and we had to have wi-fi to be able to look things up. Because of this, we had to pull up maps and take screenshots of them while we had wi-fi to know how to get where we needed to go, we had to google things at our hotel or Airbnb before we left or we had to walk around and find wi-fi wasting our time in Greece. While it didn't ruin our trip, it definitely made things harder than it had to be. It was one of those details we both overlooked while planning our trip and definitely won't be overlooked next time.

Another thing overlooked when planning our trip was how we were going to get from the airport to our hotel or Airbnb or vice versa. You would think we wouldn't overlook this and honestly, we planned how to get from the Athens airport to our Airbnb, but that was it! We were definitely more focused on what we wanted to do where. Shout out to our Airbnb host in Athens for having different ways for us to get to the city from the airport in their description because without that, I highly doubt we would have thought about it! (We actually loved this stay and our hosts were phenomenal. You can find their listing here.)

Not only did we not plan how to get to and from the airport, we didn't plan how to get anywhere. Luckily, in Athens, we were able to walk to most everything we wanted to do, so we never needed a taxi, but that was not the case in Zakynthos or Santorini. The Zakynthos airport was incredibly small, so we were the only flight landing at the time making it pretty easy to get a taxi. Taxis here were pretty cheap, about 15 Euros for the 15 minute drive to our Airbnb, but rentals on the other hand were SUPER expensive. Most rental companies required you to rent ATVs, cars or mopeds for at least 3 days and they were anywhere from 75-100+ Euros per day. We were only there for 2 days, so renting wasn't even an option from most places. Taxis were pretty easy to find on the island, so that was no issue. In Santorini, our hotel actually offered airport transfers for 25 Euros each way, but we forgot to respond to the email where they asked us what time we needed to be picked up from the airport. (oopsie!) We did end up renting a car for one day in Santorini. Taxis were pretty expensive, about 30 Euros for a 20 minute ride, while renting a car was only 45 euro per day. Make sure you have your international drivers permit if you want to rent a car! You can get this from your local AAA office. It was somewhere in the neighborhood of $20-$25 and worth every penny.

In Athens, we took the metro from the airport to the Plaka. Ask the person selling the

metro tickets which option is best for you price wise based on when you will need to come back to the airport and if you want to go anywhere else via metro. It was about a 45 minute ride, so not much faster than a taxi which is about 35 minutes, but definitely cheaper, Taxis have set rates in Athens. From 5:00 AM until midnight taxis are 38 Euros, but outside of those hours its 55 Euros. What we did not realize is the metro does not run 24 hours and we had to be at the airport at 5:45 AM. Our Airbnb host was actually able to set up a private transfer for us at 10:00 PM the night before. It was the same cost as a taxi and much more convenient.

Moral of the story: make sure you get an international phone plan, and figure out how you are getting around, not just what flights you are taking!