Country Information

Country Code: . The best way to call home is from a call centre or internet café âEuro“ public telephones are scarce and those that exist tend be on noisy street corners.

Roaming agreements exist with most international mobile phone companies. Coverage is excellent on the mainland and islands, but occasionally disappears when out at sea.

Internet cafes are available in the main cities, including Athens, Thessaloniki and the islands of Crete, Kos, Mykonos and Rhodes. More and more hotels and cafes are gradually offering free Wi-Fi too.

A free press operates in Greece, although material deemed offensive to the president or religious beliefs can lead to the prosecution of editors and publishers. It was only in the late 1980s that the virtual monopoly of state-run broadcasters came to an end, with the introduction of new commercial TV services. Peak-time TV schedules are dominated by news, domestically made variety programmes, comedies and game shows.

The country hosts about 1,700 private radio and TV stations, many of which are unlicensed, since broadcasting in Greece is relatively unregulated by European standards. An attempt made in 2001 to regulate the FM dial in Athens resulted in a political row. There are numerous daily newspapers in Athens including Eleftherotypia, Kathimerini and Ta Nea; Athens News is published weekly in English. Foreign-language newspapers are available in all the main tourist destinations, though on the more remote islands they may be a day out of date.

All letters, postcards, newspapers and periodicals will automatically be sent by airmail. Airmail to the rest of Europe takes five days; six to North America; seven to Australia.

In Athens, the main post office on Syntagma Square is open Mon-Fri 0730-2000, Sat 0730-1400 and Sun 0900-1330. Most smaller offices work Mon-Fri 0730-1400 only.