Which is the best Greek island for a digital nomad?

Simon Calder answers your questions on working remotely around the world, planning future trips and travelling from a tier 3 location

For sheer good looks alone, Santorini is a great destination (Getty)

Q I have the good fortune to be a “digital nomad” working in tech, and therefore can base myself anywhere. After a couple of months in London, I am keen to find places which might be brighter and more relaxed over the next couple of months. I’ve decided to spend a week in Athens, but don’t know where to go after that. A Greek island would be great, but how do you choose? And after that, I’ve also heard that Turkey’s Mediterranean coast is lovely, and I am keen to visit Cappadocia in central Turkey. So, what do you recommend?

Name supplied

A “Working from Greece” sounds an ideal proposition for November and December, and Athens is the place to start. You will see the capital at its most tourist-free, and it will feel more relaxed than London. While masks are de rigueur on public transport and in shops, even late in the year a fair amount of time is spent outdoors – so you can settle down with your laptop at a cafe in the shadow of the Acropolis (the peak in the centre of the city) and feel inspired as well as lucky.

Next, if I were to choose a Greek island on sheer good looks it would be Santorini – where the abrasive plate tectonics of the eastern Mediterranean caused an eruption that left the sheer cliffs of the island as a spectacular natural testament to the restless earth.

The main town, Fira, comprises a mix of delicate white cottages on the crest of the volcanic caldera. It is laced with narrow lanes that resonate with church bells. However, I have been in Santorini in December and a lot of the visitor facilities and indulgences were shut down. So instead I suggest one of the bigger, busier islands: Crete or Rhodes.

Crete is the overall winner: from the lovely city of Chania in the west of the island, to the ruins of Knossos and the alluring Bay of Elounda, the biggest Greek island is rich in culture and good looks.

Yet Rhodes City is also a compelling draw. The capital of the fourth-biggest Greek island claims an astonishing repertoire of influences, from classical to Art Deco, and also has plenty of 21st-century pleasures. 

Q I’m considering a trip next year taking in Morocco, Dubai, Thailand, Australia and the US, then home. Are there good companies I should do this with?

Michael D

A With the clocks going back and increasing gloom in every sense, it’s natural that travellers are dreaming of future journeys. Those are fabulous locations (if I had to miss one out, it would be Dubai), and for any complex round-the-world trip it is well worth using a specialist agent. I have bought such trips through Travel Nation, Trailfinders and (sadly no longer in business) STA Travel. The first two are recommended, and it’s also worth talking to independent travel agents – perhaps in your high street.

I hope whoever you settle on, they will concur with my advice: don’t commit to anything until the picture for global travel is clearer. Most of the destinations you mention will not currently admit UK travellers, and Australia’s government has hinted that we may not be welcome until 2022. So start planning, but don’t start paying yet.

To focus on your planned itinerary, on the optimistic basis that locations will start opening up, my first thought is: make Morocco a separate trip. Although I have included Casablanca in a round-the-world journey, that was one involving South America; it is not easily combined with the standard Gulf/southeast Asia/Pacific/US routing.

Next, a good travel agent will steer you towards airline combinations that offer the best value. It may well be that by sacrificing one location, you can save hundreds of pounds. For example, in your planned trip it would (in normal times) be easy to combine either Dubai or Thailand with Australia, but insisting on all three could push up the cost.

Conversely, you may be able to include extra locations at little or no additional cost, such as one or more Pacific islands or a number of US cities.

Expert travel agents know all the wrinkles of this complicated business, and will prove much more valuable than what you might read online.

Q Can you provide any guidance on my ability to travel abroad if the town or city I live in is in tier 3? Mixed messages abound, and I’ve heard it said that people living in Greater Manchester can’t use Manchester airport.

Nigel P

A As with so many aspects of life during the coronavirus pandemic, the official guidance is ambivalent. Of course, whatever the local circumstances, no one should travel if they are experiencing any coronavirus symptoms, are sharing a household with somebody with symptoms, or have been told to self-isolate after being contacted by NHS Test and Trace.

Tier 3 is an area regarded as “very high risk” because of the rate of coronavirus infections. It includes Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Liverpool City Region and South Yorkshire. The government advises people “not to travel into or out of an area if it has been categorised as a very high alert level area”, except for four specific reasons: work, education, to access youth services or because of caring responsibilities. Holidays do not count.

Those in lower risk areas can travel through as part of a longer journey – whether on a journey such as London-Leeds that passes through South Yorkshire, or using an airport such as Manchester, Liverpool or Doncaster-Sheffield. As you say, that means people from outside tier 3 areas can cheerfully use Manchester airport, but those within Greater Manchester cannot use their local gateway.

The government’s intention is that people in a tier 3 area should stay there unless there are compelling reasons to leave. Yet some people will doubtless seize upon the fact that this is only advice – and point out it is potentially contradictory because of a passage in the official guidance for tier 3 areas that recommends studying prevailing restrictions abroad “when considering travelling internationally”.

On the principle that, in these difficult times, we should always err on the side of caution, I must advise you that the only holiday people in tier 3 areas should take is to “hotels and other guest accommodation within that area” – and even then, only with people in your household or support bubble.

Correction: In an earlier version of this article, Simon Calder said that the ferry link between Rhodes in Greece and the Turkish resort of Fethiye was still running. In fact, it has been suspended and is not set to resume until April 2021. Our apologies.

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