STBCypriot

The health certificate will not fly (pun intended). It takes time to get the test results and so you'd need to be tested 7 days or more prior to your flight. Cyprus instituted this in March for citizens and permanent residents wanting to repatriate and no one could get a certificate in the UK. For the Cypriots and permanent residents stranded in the UK, Cyprus said that the certificate had to be issued by the NHS and the NHS doesn't issue any such certificate. Wasn't a well thought plan.

nk15

It will not work, unless they do testing on arrival, but it has to be quick, accurate, and they should cover the costs, so probably it won't work, plus they need a quarantine/ repatriation plan for the positives.

So the easy solution will be mutual agreements with certain countries only, and no tests (and they still need some quarantine/ repatriation plans for any symptomatic people). This will lead to a flare up of cases over the summer, unfortunately.

wco81

So what about hotels on the islands?

Hotel housekeeping staff going to be in full PPE to empty the special waste bins in bathrooms?

HumbleBee

According to a SKAI report, the first countries to send visitors to Greece are: Cyprus, Israel, China, Japan, Australia, Norway, Denmark, Austria, Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, Albania, Poland, Northern Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. , Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

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headingwest

It will be interesting to see how it works. I'm British but I live in Slovakia, so I have to cross the border into Austria (to fly) and then into Greece. Will I be able to travel even though I haven't been to the UK since 2018??

Romanianflyer

Same situation here, foreign national living in Romania. I'd just make sure to bring enough proof to satisfy any inquisitive immigration officer, such as a residence permit, proof of house ownership/rental contract, recent utilities bills on your name - you get the idea. That's what I am planning to do to prevent any possible conflict situation.

headingwest

Unfortunately, Slovak's 'residence permit' card is only in the Slovak language (which I never quite understood why). Great idea about the house ownership document/bills though.

KATERGOO

A Greek friend of mine told me yesterday that Athens Airport would be open from June 15th. Countries would be put in 3 categories : green, yellow and red. They would do random tests to travelers, a very limited number for people coming from the green zone, about 20 per flight for people coming from the yellow zone, and many tests for visitors coming from the red zone. Any confirmation that it would be the new procedure ? Thanks !

Alex_Golovkov

have any of you guys been to Greece recently? Is it a good time to go?

KATERGOO

Yes, end of May, June is perfect ! Weather is great but temperature are not so high !

KLouis

Well, temps were in the high30s/low 40s last week... At any rate, concerning the "list" good old William (Shakespear) got it correctly: Much ado about nothing! Let's wait and see what they decide and then discuss it:
- The Ministry of Tourisms denies that there is, presently, a list of countries.
- a PCR test takes just a few hours so that one can get results rather fast (if needed). My experience: we've run, literally, thousands of PCR reactions in my lab during the last 20 years or so, for completely different purposes, though.
- I don't think that citizenship will play a role, if anything it will be the country of residence. At least, this has been the behaviour of the... virus.
- In conclusion, don't immediately believe what news services say in Greece (I won't elaborate).

nk15

The only sure thing is that there will be a second wave coming in the summer...The worst part is all the direct flights from hot spots to regional airports, like BA's LHR-KLX and other direct island flights. A disaster waiting to happen, especially with how atrocious irresponsible BA has been, with no masks required for passengers or crew.

And will they do random tests at regional airports? I doubt it...

KATERGOO

Brits will face a 14 days quarantine when coming back from abroad ... so I think there will be a very limited number of British tourists anywhere in Europe this year. Let's keep our fingers crossed that there will be no second wave, people behaving in a responsible way.

nk15

If you do go, I suggest you go early, in June, while things are still good. July-August will be more expensive, hot, and likely peak second wave. And if things start getting bad they may shut it down, too. They said so, things will be re-examined every 15 days.

KATERGOO

My flight is booked on June 20th. Hopefully, we can get to Athens on that day ... providing Aegean does not cancel the flight a 3rd time and that we meet entry requirements (ie citizenship)