Athens, Greece – a place I’ve always been interested in visiting as a digital nomad. It’s cheap, people are friendly, but it’s a polluted, loud, and hot city.
We visited here in June/July of 2023 in an Airbnb and had a friend who owns a condo here. The Airbnb prices are somewhere in the $2k a month range.
I did some telemedicine work and some healthcare consulting and worked on my own projects while here in Athens as a digital nomad.
Housing
My fellow digital nomads find places to stay on Facebook or through VRBO and Airbnb.
The city center is more expensive, but since transportation is not that great, staying somewhere with a better walking score is worth it.
Long-term, it seems that you can get a place for 500 euros per month plus utilities. And you can buy a condo here for 50k-120k.
Internet
I use Orange as my service provider, and my girlfriend uses O2. Great reception and it’s either 10 euros per month month-to-month or 30 euros monthly by subscription.
Many cafes have free wifi though I suspect these days as a digital nomad in Athens, you’ll just pay for your own hotspot.
Working
I worked in an apartment with decent wifi and found a couple of cafes to work from. Most cafes let you work without any problems, and food and coffee are cheap.
I didn’t find any cafes I would have enjoyed working from, but I did spend enough time in Athens to know for sure.
There are many coworking spaces for digital nomads in Athens for less than 20 euros per day or 125 for 2 weeks.
Groceries
I enjoy cooking and don’t eat out too often, but there wasn’t much good quality produce here. We even stumbled on a farmer’s market, but everything seemed like they came from factory farms.
The olive oil was the most disappointing, and the store-bought hummus was the most impressive.
Food is cheap, both in restaurants and in groceries. Though I enjoyed eating out more in Spain than here.
Transportation
You can hail a cab anywhere, and there are buses, but it was hard to figure out how and where to take them.
Walking is quite uncomfortable with loud cars, a lot of air pollution, heat, and motorcycles all around.
The sidewalks leave a lot to be desired in their construction.
Entertainment
People hang out at cafes and head to the beach. Museums and of course lots of tourist attractions. I only did the cafe thing.
I saw some movie theaters and many cafes that have live music. As a digital nomad, I often like to experience the local scene, and fortunately, many cafes are near smaller parks where the locals hang out.
Culture
It didn’t seem like a big digital nomad scene here, and I would say there is a slightly older crowd. Still, I saw plenty of younger people hanging out at cafes.
Many immigrants, as you’d see with larger cities and plenty of spots with a big homeless meth-addicted population.
Weather
The weather was hot but not humid, and it felt polluted – I didn’t check air quality reports, though.