Moving to Athens as a remote worker: the first two weeks

Athens has quietly become one of the better cities in Europe to work from. The weather holds most of the year, the coffee is serious, the internet is quick, and the cost of a month here undercuts almost every western capital. But a soft landing is less about the city and more about the order you do things in during the first fortnight. Get the sequence right and you are working by day three, settled by the end of week two.

This is the list we give remote workers who book a month with us. None of it is hard. It just goes better in order.

Week one: get working

The first job is the connection, because everything else can wait and your job cannot. A furnished apartment with fast Wi-Fi and a desk means you can be online the hour you arrive, which is the main reason to book one over a room. Test the connection on day one; if anything is off, tell your host immediately rather than three days into a bad week.

Then a local SIM. The providers here sell generous prepaid data plans over the counter with a passport, and a local number quietly makes every later appointment easier, from a delivery to a bank.

• Confirm the Wi-Fi speed on arrival, and where in the apartment it is strongest.
• Buy a prepaid SIM with data in the first day or two.
• Find your nearest cafe with plugs and tolerance for a long sitter. You will need a change of scene.
• Learn your street: the bakery, the laundry, the late shop, the metro entrance.

You are not on holiday and not quite a local. The first fortnight is for closing that gap.

The tax number, if you are staying a while

If your stay stretches into months, or you want a longer lease later, a Greek tax number is the key that unlocks most local admin. It is a bureaucratic errand rather than a hard one. This is general guidance, not tax advice, so check your own situation with a professional, especially on where you owe tax while working remotely. Mark it as a week-two job, not a day-one panic. [placeholder: confirm current AFM process before publishing]

Week two: choose your ground

By the second week you will have opinions about where you want to be, which is the right time to have them. If you booked central to find your feet, you might now want the calm of the north or the sea to the south. Our neighbourhood guide walks through who each area suits; the short version is that remote workers tend to split between the central buzz of Kolonaki and Pagrati and the quieter, cheaper north around Marousi.

Connection first. Coffee second. Neighbourhood once you know the city.

The beauty of a monthly stay is that you can change your mind without changing your life. Extend where you are, or move across town, with a message rather than a moving van. For how the monthly rate works and why it beats stringing nights together, see how monthly pricing works.