The top of this post is about our experience house sitting in Greece – If you are looking for house sitting opportunities in Greece please head to the bottom of this post!
Greece was the final destination on our European house-sitting road trip.
We had started off in the UK, here we purchased a camper van and drove/ house sat through France, Spain, Italy, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania to Greece.
We had both always wanted to live in Greece and it’s safe to say this was the most exciting leg of our trip.
We had 2 housesits locked in for Greece for 2 and a half months.
The first was in a small seaside town called Porto Rafti and the second was in Athens – right under the Parthenon.
We had a 3-week gap between these house-sitting assignments, so decided to take a few weeks off and visit the Greek Islands!
This is our first-hand experience while house sitting in Greece.
Head to the bottom of this post for how to find house-sitting jobs in Greece!
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Do You Want To House Sit in Greece?
To lock in our two house sitting assignments in Greece we used Trusted House Sitters.
If you want to join the same site you can get 30% off your membership by using the code; TRAVELHS, check out house sit in Greece here and use the code to get your 30% off!
The idea behind this post is to give you our experiences of house sitting in Greece. We hope that it inspires you to start a house-sitting adventure of your own!
There is a fair bit of competition for house-sitting assignments in Greece.
However, being one of the most touristy spots we have house sat in we were pleasantly surprised there was not too much competition for house sitting assignments in Greece.
Getting to Our House Sitting Job in Athens
We had purchased a camper van in the UK to drive to Greece.
We were starting to wonder what we would do with it once we got to Greece?
Would we drive it the whole way back to the UK? Sell it for scrap? Luck out and sell it to other foreign campers? Leave it at the airport?
However, on our way from our housesit in Montenegro to Greece, our camper van answered that question for us.
One very long story short (which I will write a post about one day) our camper van broke down while driving through Albania.
We ended up selling it to a local mechanic, spending a weekend in Albania, and then catching a bus from Korce, Albania to Athens (this is actually a really cool story which I will write about at some point).
Arriving to Our House Sit in Porto Rafti, Athens, Greece
Due to the bus, we arrived at our house sit a day late at around 2:30am – which was no problem with the homeowner as we had been in touch throughout our car and bus troubles.
The owners had arranged a friend to be meeting us at the home to introduce us to the cat, dogs and home.
It had been a very long and stressful 50 odd hours and we were knackered.
So we thanked the homeowners friend and hit the pillow….finally.
The next morning we woke to a glorious day.
We got up, made coffee, and headed upstairs to the balcony. We were greeted by an amazing view over the ocean and a local fishing harbor.
The homeowners knew that we loved food, which made them very excited.
As Greeks, they were very proud of their local food and had a huge list of foods, shops and even some local wine and honey for us to try.
The little town of Porto Rafti is an old fishing village about 45 mins out from Athens. It has some great local restaurants serving up local fish, several bakeries, a local market, and one of the best Gyros we have ever had!
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Sometimes Things Don’t Always Go To Plan
Sometimes homeowner’s plans change. This can sometimes mean trips extended or cut short.
On this house sitting assignment the homeowners trip was cut short by around 2 weeks. They advised us they would be coming home for a few days, however, would be leaving again on another trip and the dates would remain the same.
This had never happened to us before but were happy for the homeowners to come back while we were looking after their home.
They arrived home on a Saturday morning and we instantly got along with them. They said they were very sorry for the change of plans but it was out of their hands – and they would love to thank us for being ok with them coming home early with a traditional Sunday lunch.
We were excited!
We spent the rest of the afternoon with the homeowners chatting, learning about Greece, the local area and life in Greece.
Sunday morning rolled around and we woke around 8am to the sound of a busy kitchen.
The homeowner loved to cook and saw how excited we were about traditional Greek food, so she wanted to go all out for us!
We spent the whole morning in the kitchen with her learning how to prepare moussaka, stuffed tomatoes and capsicums, Greek salad and 2 desserts.
Once all the food was ready we headed off to the basement where they had a whole floor of their house dedicated to Sunday lunches. We were joined by many friends and family of the homeowners.
The husband was quick to pour us his homemade tsipouro, and get the fire started to cook the Greek lamb!
We spent the afternoon drinking and eating the amazing feast with our new Greek family.
We ate and drank well into the early hours of Monday morning.
The homeowners left a couple of days later and continued their planned trip. It was a blessing in disguise – we had the opportunity to hang out and experience true Greek culture and learn a lot about the local area
We thoroughly enjoy the rest of out stay in Porto Rafti and even got treated to a second round of Sunday lunch when the homeowners arrived back home again!
Our Greek House Sitting Holiday
We had a couple of weeks free between house-sitting assignments in Greece.
So we decided to head off the Greek islands.
We went to Karpathos Island. Karpathos island is a fairly small Greek island near the island of Crete.
We found a cool little homestay (which funnily enough was completely jam-packed full of cats) which was right on the beach and settled in for a few weeks or eating more Greek food, hanging out at the beach, and exploring the island.
House Sitting in Athens, Greece
Our ‘holiday’ came to an end very quickly. Before we knew it we were flying back to Athens to meet our next house sitting assignment.
This was another assignment we were very excited for, the house was located right at the base of the Parthenon.
It was located in a fairly touristy spot, however, was within walking distance of some really cool local neighborhoods.
While house-sitting in Porto Rafti we had visited Athens on a couple of occasions, so we had our bearings for the city already.
The homeowner was an American ex-pat who ran a Yoga studio – she would take yoga classes on her rooftop with an incredible view of the Parthenon in the background.
We were very excited to be having this rooftop for the next few weeks – the view was one of the best in the entire city!
We were looking after 2 ginger cats and 1 dog on this sit. The dog needed to be walked 2 times daily, which was great!
Athens is one of those places where you can walk around every day and find something new to marvel at!
We had a great time checking out the local parks, walkways and neighborhoods while walking her.
So if you are ready to do some pet sitting house exchange, check out the platforms below!
Author: Britt
Hiya! I am Britt is one of the Travelling House Sitters. I have cared for 25 dogs, 35 cats 1 turtle, and 1 rabbit over 40+ houses in 15 countries over 5 years.
I am is ready to teach you exactly how to become a house sitter! I want everyone to enjoy this incredible lifestyle as well!
You can read more about about Jay and I here!
Or connect with me on Facebook or in our house sitting community on Facebook
