Trying to find a place to stay for three months in Europe that is relatively close to the beach and not too expensive is hard. Like they say: choose two! Europe, cheap or beach. When we found the apartment we’re in in Athens, we thought we made a pretty good deal: not too expensive and not too far from the beach, all that while being in Europe!
But now that we’ve been here for almost a couple of months, let’s see how much it costs to live in the capital of Greece! We heard a lot of people saying that they wouldn’t spend too much time in Athens as it’s not as interesting as the islands, after being here a while, the city definitely has a lot to offer. So please, don’t cross it off your list just yet!
Note that the currency exchange at the time was 1.12€ for $1US
Flights
Flying from Croatia wasn’t that expensive. We used EasyJet and didn’t have any problems with the airline. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any direct flights between Split and Athens, so we had to book two separate flights and have a stop-over in Milan. But, to be honest, it wasn’t such a bad thing as I got to hear some Italian again. It sounds so good, I just love it!
Our flights cost us $600 CAD from Split to Athens with EasyJet. Also, note that we had checked luggage, which added a good $50 CAD.
Getting to Athens
For the first time in forever, the city we landed in was the city we were going to stay in! No buses or train or shuttle. Just a metro to take us to our apartment. It’s relatively easy to find when you land, just follow the sign. And don’t be surprised when they charge you 8€ for the ride (or 14€ if you’re two people). I thought the metro was going to be CRAZY expensive and we would never take it until I realized it was a special price for the airport only. The ride takes around an hour to get downtown, so it’s normal that they would charge you a bit more.
You can also take a taxi, but it’ll definitely be a lot more expensive. I recommend the metro for everybody!
Rent
Our apartment in Athens is the best one we’ve had so far. It has two bedrooms (one with an office), a fully functional kitchen (with a dishwasher), and a living room. Nothing compared to the studio we were living in in Croatia. This is like a real apartment. The only thing is that it’s not in the best location, as we’re quite outside of the old city center. There’s no restaurant around except the occasional fast-food/gyros place. But, of course, we can always take the metro and be downtown in half an hour! That’s where all the fun happens.
But still, for digital nomads like us, having a great apartment is always a plus. Unlike tourists, we don’t have to leave it every day to go visit something as we spend most of our time working.
Our rent was 800€ ($900US) per month.
Food
If the price of our apartment was reasonable, we ended up spending a lot more on food than I planned to. Per month, we spend an average of 560€ ($630US). It might not seem that bad if you’re used to paying in USD or Euros, but Chris and I are Canadians and the Canadian Dollar has been plummeting since we left home (of course 🙁 ) I remember it being 1.30 CAD for 1 Euro. Well, now it’s almost 1.5 CAD for 1 Euro. So yeah, groceries wouldn’t be so bad if the Canadian dollar would stop losing value.
On top of that, we also spend around 150€ ($170US) in restaurants/going out every month, for an average of 700€ ($785US) on food every month.
Trips/Excursions
To be honest, we haven’t done a lot of exploring outside of Athens.
During our second week in the city, though, we visited almost everything that had to be visited in a day. You can read about it here. That day cost us around 95€ ($110US), considering that we ate in a restaurant for lunch and dinner.
We also checked out a beach an hour outside of Athens (go to the one at the end of the tram! Don’t get out until there’s no more stop, or you’ll regret it.) It was absolutely beautiful and we manage to spend only 45€ ($50US) for a day there, including the price of the tram, a snack and drinks at the beach, plus dinner there before coming back to our apartment. It’s a great day trip if you feel like relaxing.
So every month, we spend on average $1 500€ ($1 700US) on food and rent for two people. I don’t count plane tickets, transportation or any kind of touristic activity in that price. Only what comes back every month.
Random Numbers
- Green Grapes: 1.58€/kg ($1.77US)
- Mushroom (250g): 0.97€ ($1.08US)
- Tomato: 1.55€/kg ($1.73US)
- Green Pepper: 1.49€/kg ($1.66US)
- Banana: 1.48€/kg ($1.65US)
- Watermelon: 0.42€/kg ($0.47US)
- 6 Sausages: 5.50€ ($6.16US)
- Kebab: 7.29/kg ($8.16US)
- Chicken Breast: 6.95/kg ($7.78US)
- Chicken Nuggets: 5.42€ ($6.07US)
- Full Cooked Chicken: 6.14€/kg ($6.87US)
- FruitLite Juice (1L): 1.60€ ($1.79US)
- Water Bottle (1.5L): 0.23€ ($0.25US)
- Barilla Pasta Sauce (400g): 2.46€ ($2.75US)
- Spaghetti Barilla (500g): 1.05€ ($1.17US)
- Rice (500g): 1.09€ ($1.22US)
- Salt (400g): 0.50€ ($0.56US)
- Salted Butter: 2.82€ ($3.15US)
- Olive Oil (1L): 6.04€ ($6.76US)
- Flour (1kg): 1.15€ ($1.28US)
- Special K Kellogs (300g): 4.33€ ($4.84US)
- Bag of Sliced Bread: 2.04€ ($2.28US)
- Pita (820g): 1.25€ ($1.40US)
- 10 Eggs: 1.25€ ($1.40US)
- Sliced Smoked Ham: 13.32€/kg ($14.91US)
- Yogurt (3x200g): 2.80€ ($3.13US)
- Feta Cheese (400g): 4.96€ ($5.55US)
- Milk 1.5% (1.5L): 1.88€ ($2.10US)
- Ruffle Nature (120g): 1.31€ ($1.46US)
- Pringles (165g): 2.13€ ($2.38US)
- 6 Beers Fix Hellas (6×0.33L): 4.68€ ($5.24US)
- Don Luciano Spanish Wine: 2.18€ ($2.44US)
- Trivento Syrah Argentinian Wine: 6.45€ ($7.22US) (most wines are this price)
- Amethystos Rouge: 14.95€ ($16.74US)
- Smirnoff (700mL): 16.50€ ($18.48US)
- Captain Morgan Jamaican Rhum: 18.30€ ($20.49US)
- Ouzo (700mL): 9.68€ ($10.84US)
- 2 Dove Soap: 3.34€ ($3.74US)
- Crest Toothpaste: 1.84€ ($2.06US)
I hope this helps you plan your trip! If you have any questions or would like the info about anything, send me an email and I’ll be happy to help you!
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