Reports from “normal” tourists suggest that non-Greek cash cards work fine for drawing any normal cash amounts from the banks, and non-Greek credit cards continue to work as normal. This is of course contrary to the hysterical media reports (UK, etc).
Presumably that is because if you draw € cash there with say a UK debit card, Greece gets the equivalent amount of foreign currency from the UK so they are happy. And similarly if you pay for something with a UK credit card. And if you are based in € land then Greece gets the real Euros.
There must still be a risk that the Greek bank might run out of the physical € notes, but presumably there aren’t enough tourists around to make that a problem. Perhaps the highest density of Greeks is in Athens (etc) whereas a lot of tourists go the the islands…?
Also Greece can print €10 and €20 notes.
If I was flying there now I would, just in case, bring with me enough € in cash to get by and to buy at least enough avgas to fly out of there to another country which sells avgas, but that’s not really a problem.
I am going to fly to Greece next week insha’allah. I have zero doubt that it will be fine. Peter wrote:
If I was flying there now I would, just in case, bring with me enough € in cash to get by and to buy at least enough avgas to fly out of there to another country which sells avgas, but that’s not really a problem.
It is my firm belief that one should not be a panic-monger and therefore I will intentionally
1) fly to Greece (instead of the “safe” Cyprus)
2) not bring unusual amounts of cash
3) not bunker avgas
BTW: The uncertainty about Greece is coming to an end with a new memorandum (almost) agreed. The difference is that this time there is no opposition anymore accusing the government of selling out the nation’s interests and promising milk and honey as the alternative.
achimha wrote:
BTW: The uncertainty about Greece is coming to an end with a new memorandum (almost) agreed. The difference is that this time there is no opposition anymore accusing the government of selling out the nation’s interests and promising milk and honey as the alternative.
Well said and indeed there is no issue with visiting Greece this period unless you think you will not want to use credit/debit cards and for some reason need instantly to get hold of lots of thousands of Euros in cash drawn from a bank.
Actually due to scare-mongering by news outlets many from abroad have canceled vacations and availability has gone up big time in most of the popular destinations with excellent deals available.
Lots of work and austerity measures in the days, weeks and months to come for Greeks with the new memorandum agreement just in the early morning hours of today from Europe but to the visitor these things will not make any difference, only improve things progressively.
An interesting (promo) article on the subject from last week
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jul/07/help-greece-go-on-holiday-cheap-beautiful
A good time for a EuroGA fly-in to Greece?
You think I am kidding! 
“The people are even more welcoming, more hospitable and more grateful than ever. The reaction to difficulty has been a broader smile, a wider embrace.”
Does that include ATC and GA? Will they have changed their toon when asked if there is parking or tie down availability at one of the nearly deserted out island airports?
Hoping that attitude toward GA has changed.
C210_Flyer if visiting Greece relies on these issues (related to the car parking lot staff as someone very well mentioned in another thread) I suggest anyone with such worries not to visit this country for years to come. :-)
Quality Service by (some minority of) public servants to the light GA pilot is the last of their priority right now.
Handlers on the other hand do their best to serve light GA and most of the time they are efficient.
The phrase you quoted above relates to everyday people “in town” and is indeed true.
My experience of Greek airports has been really positive on every of my many visits there. I would not bother going there otherwise… life is too short.
Yeah, you get paperwork, but you just need to allow at least an hour between getting out of the taxi and getting to your plane… just in case.
The super thing about Greece is that all (relevant) personnel speak English, so it is never hard to sort out difficulties, find out what is going on, etc. Approach them with a smile and you get one back. Try doing that at many places in Spain and Italy – they may smile but they may as well be on Mars when it comes to exchanging, ahem, “information”.
I am looking forward to September
I have been to Corfu 2 yrs ago and had a very pleasant experience. Im just relaying info that others have had on other islands. Hope what they experienced changes, so that I will try out those out of the way places. No need reinventing the wheel. Like trip advisor I listen for other peoples feedback.
Hi,
I’m just back from Greece, and it was a real pleasure. I landed in Corfu, Megara and Sitia. Three very different airports but each time very nice people.
Corfu was busy (I ve been 2 times, way and way back) of course refueling is sometime difficult. But opposite of other airports. It s true, they have a lot of traffic regarding airport size. Last time I request to take off on time because of weather (I’m VFR only) everything was organize perfectly (Goldair).
Megara was great, two time also, but I was with Petakas, so all doors were open !
Sitia was my funniest handling memories, a funny lady from skyserve even help us to load and unload the plane in a very good atmosphere. They build a brand new terminal (really oversized, futur will say).
My few greek words help, sure, but they have a word “philoxenia” easy to understand, we should invented in French (and use it) !
Crisis ? No doubt but ! But a very professional country for tourism. Everybody speak English, and help you to spent good time. It was true also for accommodations.
Black money and lake of use of credit card was one of the key bad point in the past. I know Greece since a long time and I see all the effort. Sometimes the credit card machine still doen t woks well :-) but better and better.
My advice : to help them : go, enjoy the see and eat gyros and souvlaki !
But if they could develop a bit more AVGAS distribution on different airfield, it would become the best aria to fly !
PPG
