It was one of those conversations between my husband and I to decide which destination we will head to for our coming vacation. Way too many places were on our minds but then I zeroed in on Greece as I wanted to go to Meteora this year. Yes, that single place made me decide where I wanted to head next and my husband had no say in it (typical us) :P.
My husband runs his own show while I work for a company which sums up the fact that we don’t get to take too many days off together. This is not a complaint but we always love to have what we don’t right? 🙂
Keeping all the constraints in mind, we planned to take at-least ten days off our work schedule. I scrolled through my office holidays list and found that Sep-Oct 2015 had two consecutive Fridays as holidays. Which means technically I can fly out on Thursday night as the first Friday is a holiday. My leave will begin that Monday through Thursday as 4 days off and Friday again is a holiday. Reporting back to work on Monday makes it only 4 days off in 10 – WIN WIN WIN WIN!! We froze the dates – Sep 24th to Oct 04th 2015 – set our flight alerts on possible websites for tracking cheap deals, best hotel prices, began creating our itinerary etc.
We make a good combination – I make the plans for sightseeing and a rough estimate of expenses etc and he figures out a way to reduce it as much as possible. By reducing, I mean air miles, best credit/debit cards to gain maximum travel benefit, brands (travel accessories) and their discounts, currency conversions etc which perfectly works as I hate numbers and anything to do with it while he the best at it.
Earning in Indian Rupees doesn’t allow extravagancy. Keeping in mind that we are heading to a country which spends in Euros, we had to start saving early – like 8 months in advance. You read that right, 8 months of planning, saving etc.
Complied below are some information which may help you in your plan.
Dates: 24th Sep – 04th Oct 2015
Ideal Months: March or September
Hotel Bookings: Booking.com
Airline (Using Air Miles): Etihad Airways
Travel Insurace: Bharati Axa Insurance – Schengen Platinum
Greece Train Tickets: www.tickets.trainose.gr
Greece Airport to City Bus: X95, X96
Athens: We used Airbnb(sign up if you haven’t already) and stayed with Nikolas (Ideal location and friendly host)
Meteora (For Budget Travellers): Hotel Tsikeli
Santorini (Ideal Location/ Budget Travellers): Hotel Villa Popi, and I recommend Hotel Leta, a nice property right next to it.
Mykonos (Amazing Property/Ideal Location): Olia Hotel
Pireaus (Average Location): Hotel Scorpios
Weather (Overall): 15-25 Degrees (Medium cold to Cold)
People: Most Friendly
Language: Can Survive with English
“Kalimera” is one word you need to know 🙂 It means Hello /Good Morning! Please check the itinerary here. Click Athens, Meteora to know how we spent our time in that respective cities. Have fun and don’t even have second thoughts about visiting Greece 🙂