How to Retire Without Money
BEST PLACES TO RETIRE: GREECE (page 2)
ENTRY REQUIREMENTS. No visa is required of an American, only a passport. When you enter as a tourist you are given a stamp entitling you to remain for two months. Don't overstay this period or you'll be fined when you leave the country, even though you are one day over. I speak from experience.If you wish to remain for more than two months you must go to the local branch of the Alien Police Office where you will be given a six month permit to reside in Greece. If you stay beyond this, you must have the permit renewed. It sounds complicated, but isn't. It takes only a short time to complete this process. The Greeks are happy to have you in their country-spending your dollars.
When you enter the country you have to make out a currency declaration on which you list all the types of money you have on hand and their quantity. When you leave the country, they check to see that you aren't taking out more than you entered with. At least they are supposed to do this. I found that often the border officials didn't bother.
§ TRANSPORTATION. By air you can reach Athens, at this writing for $435.40 one way, tourist from New York. TWA makes the flight direct, taking about 24 hours. Other airlines flying in from the West are Air France, BEA, KLM, LAI, SAS, SABENA, and Swissair. The Hellenikon airport of Athens is one of the basic international airports, and from here flights head south for Egypt and Africa, north to Turkey and the Balkans, or east to Baghdad, India and beyond.
The former Greek National Airline has been taken over by the big shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, who seems to own half of Greece as well as half the world's tankers, and the name has been changed to Olympic Airways. I have flown this airline between Athens and Rhodes and between Rhodes and Beirut, Lebanon, but have never taken the longer hops which now run to Paris and London as well as other European centers. Frankly, I wasn't overimpressed.
By sea, there are various shipping lines that serve Greece. Basic fare from New York is $240 tourist class out of season and $270 in season. First class has a minimum of $415 out of season and $450 in season. This on the National Hellenic American Line ships such as the Queen Frederica. The Greek Line's Olympia also at this writing runs between New York and Piraeus and is particularly constructed with tourist travel in mind having 1150 tourist class berths and only 138 first class. The Italian Line runs the Saturnia and the Vulcania between New York and Piraeus and the Christoforo Colombo by the way of Naples, Italy. The American Export Lines have the Independence and the Constitution on the same run.
You can also reach Greece by sea from some points in Europe such as Malaga, Spain; Naples, Genoa and Venice, Italy; Marseilles, France. Or even take the inter-island boat between Brindisi, Italy and Corfu, the resort island on the west coast of Greece.
I've gone into such detail on air and sea approaches because, frankly, coming overland can be grim. The Simplon-Orient Express comes from London, going through France, Switzerland, Italy and Yugoslavia on its way. From London to Trieste she is rather swank but on the Yugoslavia border there is a change. I once was on the Simplon-Orient Express when it had only the locomotive, one restaurant car, one wagon-lits (Pullman) and one coach car which contained first, second and third class seats-all three. From Trieste to Athens is a long, hard, dirty train ride, one of the most miserable in Europe.
Trains in general are poor in Greece. I usually travel second class on European trains but in Greece I go first. Even that is no treat, particularly on the shorter runs. Buses are somewhat better but roads are so poor that these too are no treat.
Driving to Greece is absolutely not recommended. Greek roads are poor enough but Yugoslavia ones are unbelievably bad especially in the Eastern parts of the country. Best bet, probably, if you have your own car and want to take it to Greece would be to drive down to Brindisi, Italy, and ferry it over to Corfu.
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