Greece

Greece

Introduction

I have holidayed in Greece on many occasions, on packages and latterly with Sunsail.

Currency

Greece now use the Euro (EUR). Yahoo converts EUR:GBP here..., and the Currency Converter by OANDA.com, the Currency Site. is also available - 1.24 EUR:1 GBP 22 May '08

Return to Ithica

I am returning in 2009. The flight is early, which means that we need to get there before the first train from Guildford. Sleeping in airport lounges is no longer my idea of fun, I have opened a London Gatwick snip to register my links.

I need to go shopping for some stuff.

Sailing in the Ionian

I sailed in the Ionian with Sunsail. They run several routes/flotilla's from their base in Vounaki, in NW Greece. I traveled with them in the second week of June and it was beginning to get a bit busy. I wouldn't want to go later in the season, when its also a lot hotter. 16th June 2008

I travelled to Gatwick by train, which was a pain in the neck on the way home as we were very late.

Preveza (PVK) airport is small and similar to many of the Greek airports. Don't take pictures. It has a cafe on both sides of security, but its very expensive, and a tax free shop, if you need it. Otherwise take water, food and books on the return journey; charter flights are often delayed, and were in my case. 16th June 200

Sunsail publish an itinerary map on the web, and I sailed for a week on an Odyssey 32, on the Kalamos flotilla route. This was rigged as a cruiser which was easy to use with our light handed crew. It also had a car power socket aka cigarette lighter socket which I used to re-charge my phone. It has continental power sockets, but we had no shore power lines and so could not use them. It had a cd/radio machine.

I will buy and take a parallel ruler and chart-plotter next time. They lent us a copy of Ionian by Rod Heikell, which we used as our almanac, I may get a copy of this to plan my next holiday.

Vodafone's coverage was excellent throughout.

I have tried to emulate the route on google maps, but Google seem to be missing maps of large parts of Greece. Lefkas seems to have been updated. May 2009

I have bought the Rough Guides, 4th edition, June 2006

I used an ATM in Paleros, which is just north of Sunsail's Vounaki base. 2006~~

Sunsail run flotillas in the Aegan including the Milinia Flotilla, which includes a stop at Skiathos, and the Cyclades 43 I saw at Vounaki looked pretty swish.

Danny is returning to the Ionian in May 2009 and on the way out will fly to Corfu, stay overnight in Corfu and then catch a ferry to Lefkas. While researching my 2009 trip, I discovered that Igoumenitsa is the important entry port from Italy, so maybe another time. NB There are ferries from Venice.

Island Hopping

An article from Fodors suggesting an Aegan route using the "Flying Dolphins".

General Facts

Here are some web sites with general facts about the place.

• http://www.visitgreece.gr/

• http://www.foi.org.uk/
• http://www.ionian-islands.com/