With life getting more and more expensive, it is good to know where you can go to the beach around Athens, without having to pay ?50 for entrance fee, coffee, sun bed, taxi to the beach, etc. Even though southern Athenian beaches – Alimos, Voula, Vouliagmeni, Varkiza, Aghia Marina, fall in the hands of private owners, Elliniko’s mayor Christos Kortzidis is one of the people, who have went as far as being on a hunger strike, in order to keep beaches open and without an entrance fee.

Last year Kortzidis became famous, because together with some colleagues, managed to free the Saint Kozma beach from the “chains” of private interests. In Elliniko municipality, there are still places, where you can go to the beach without paying an entrance fee but without a doubt the best beach there is, is Saint Kozma.

In Greece, there is an original system for financing state vacations with the famous coupons for social tourism. Yota Pahopou, who is the PR director in the Workers Home, talks enthusiastically about this program. “We are the biggest tourist agent in Greece. Our programs contribute to the decrease of losses from the crisis in the tourism sector. Only for the social tourism programs, ?80 million will be spent in 2009.”

The number of those, who are eligible of leaving on a vacation with the coupons, is increasing – this year their number is 750 000 and they can choose between 2050 hotels throughout the country.

Retirees in Greece also love travelling and they will be able to take special municipality busses, which will drive them from the central square in each neighborhood to different beaches. The organizers have scheduled an afternoon return, so housewives can prepare food for family members on time.