My famiiy of five adults, all vaccinated, have a trip all booked and planned to Athens and Naxos in late August. We are getting concerned that we might have to cancel, but we really don't want to. We're not concerned about illness, but about picking up enough virus to fail the test required to return to the United States. The EU has all of the southern Greek Islands as dark red(very bad) but the Greek map by island shows Naxos as being much better than the others, and a lighter color. I'm wondering if anyone has been to Naxos recently and can tell me what the situation is there now with Covid?
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Hello -- We are leaving for Greece and the islands on the 17th. We had a similar dilemma and were concerned about the wildfires. We were able to exchange emails with family living in Athens, friends sailing around Poros, and a friend who lives on Crete. Regarding the virus, they have pretty good vaccination rates in general, masking is mandatory and enforced for everyone, but cases are definitely rising. Two of our party are physicians & they're okay with it (but we will be out on the islands and sailing mostly). Originally we were planning to stay in Athens for a few days, then Nafplio, then sail. We decided to bypass Athens, so we are now going to be in Crete and Santorini prior to sailing. In Athens it's hot and smoky. We heard that a number of sites closed in the afternoons, but learned that this is not uncommon when it gets really hot -- they don't want tourists dropping in the heat. You can seen english language version of Greek newspaper at ekathimerini.com
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Austin, TX, United States
56 posts
Hi! I’ve been in Greece for a week now, Athens and now Naxos. I can’t speak to you catching enough of the virus to test positive as I’m not a scientist and don’t know how all that works. But… I had the Pfizer vaccine, and can tell you my current experience. Athens was crowded but I think less so than expected. We got our days started by 8am (usually) to avoid crowds, wore our masks despite others not and did not go out to party at the bars later than 10pm. We had an apartment in Athens and a pansion in Naxos.
I’m glad we chose to go but it was a tough and personal decision to take the risk.
Tips- in Naxos, choose sunrise over sunset for the pic at Apollo’s arch. If the Meltemi’s are blowing choose a protected beach, if they’re not, take advantage of the beach day because when they are it’s miserable.
If you want any tips on restaurants please DM me :)