Greece lifts all Covid travel restrictions ahead of summer holidays

Greece will lift remaining Covid-related travel restrictions on May 1, the country’s health minister has confirmed – just in time for its summer tourist season.

On April 12, Thanos Plevris said that the pandemic conditions had stabilized and that they were able to “proceed with the suspension of the protective measures put in place from May 1st.”

This means that from this date Greece will no longer use vaccination certificates and recovery certificates for entry into the country – or certain places there.

The requirement to wear masks – in indoor public spaces and in outdoor places where it is difficult to maintain social distancing – will remain in place until June 1.

However, Mr Plevris stressed in a TV interview that these measures would be suspended until September 1 and would not be abolished. He said the new rules would be reviewed after the summer.

He encouraged the use of masks for locals during the country’s Easter celebrations.

For travelers, that means a near-smooth return to one of the most popular summer vacation spots in just over a week.

Holidaymakers will no longer be required to provide a pre-travel test, quarantine or proof of vaccination to enter the country, nor will they be required to show their Covid certificate to enter museums and other indoor venues.

From June 1st, they will no longer have to wear a mask indoors such as hotel lobbies and museums.

Greece had already shown signs of relaxing its rules for visitors, scrapping its passenger tracing form on March 15 and extending the validity of visitor vaccination cards to nine months on April 1.

Currently and until May 1st, all travelers entering Greece are still required to show: Proof of two jabs; Proof of recovery from Covid within the last 180 days; or a negative PCR test (within 72 hours) or antigen test (24 hours) for entry.

Once initial rules are relaxed, Greece will join a list of over a dozen countries including Ireland, Poland, Sweden, Iceland and Madeira that have all lifted Covid travel restrictions.