Being a big island, you have several options for moving around: by car, bus (public transportation), by taxi or by private driver. Also, you have other small options, such as ATV, scooter, boat or organized excursions. Let’s discuss the first option in more details. There will be separate posts about each one.

By car

This is the best and fastest way to get to explore the island. At the airports (Heraklion and Chania) you have plenty of car rental companies, starting from the international ones (Europcar or Sixt, for example) with a lot of cars in their parking lots, to local companies. Local companies are either some than can be found in other Greek regions or islands or they can be found only in Crete. 

Before renting a car, there are some details you should know:

· First, look on the search engines to find the best price. After you find a possible “match”, read the reviews, mainly on Google. Focus on the bad reviews and when they were provided (if it was 8 years ago, you can ignore it, for example). It will save you a lot of unpleasant situations, trust me.

· Now that tourism in Greece has revived and the authorities expect more visitors than in 2019 (B.C.), make an online reservation and pay a small deposit. It will guarantee your car 😊 

 · Read very carefully the terms and conditions! Here are some examples of T&C that people tend to overlook and have a not-so-pleasant surprise at the start of their holiday:

                   o Most companies, even the local ones, require a minimum and a maximum age for the driver. Minimum age is 25 years old, maximum age 65. If you are below the minimum age or above the maximum, they will ask you to pay extra insurance.

                   o Your driving license must be valid and obtained at least 1 year before rental date. Even if you are between 25-65, but you are a newbie in driving, they might not rent or ask for additional insurance

                   o Most companies require International Driver’s license, for non-EU/SEE citizens. Make sure you have it, even if they don’t ask for it

                   o Local companies usually do not ask for a credit card or a deposit. Make sure it states that on their website and ask them to provide that statement in written, via email. Make sure the listing states “full insurance” and double check with them. However, international rental companies might ask for credit card and block a certain amount, as they have to comply with their group-wide policies

                   o Ask beforehand if card payment is accepted. Most local companies accept only cash!

                   o Child seat is mandatory, some companies offer it for free

                   o You are not allowed to leave the island by car without the written approval of the company. Almost all rented cars are branded and upon boarding on the ferry, a close inspection of the tickets is made by someone from port authority.

                   o Road to Balos Lagoon is NOT covered by any insurance (I will talk about it in a separate post about Balos) and most companies strictly prohibit this. You may get there, but either by your own car or if you rented a SUV 😊

· Be extremely careful where you park. The Greek traffic laws are very strict and illegal parking will leave you without money (fines are up to 100E or even more), the car without its license plates for up to 20 days and the driver without their license. Also, you have to pay the parking fee until you get the plates back. I will make a separate post about this, as there are many things to know about driving rules in Crete 😊 

· Make sure you take photos and videos of the car before starting the engine and inform the company about ANY scratch, missing paint, cracks, unusual sounds or smells, etc

· The fuel policy is Full-to-Full. However, you might receive your car with only a third of the tank full (usually happens when cars are taken by the company to be washed or technically inspected). In this case, you return the car with the exact amount of gas it had when you picked it up.

· Most rented cars use Unleaded 95 gas, very few have Diesel engines. Note that gasoline is more expensive than diesel (around 0.3E)

· Make sure you refuel before long trips, there are few gas stations in the mountain areas.

· Please check the itinerary before driving. For example, the road to Elafonisi or to Preveli will take you through gorges, significant changes in altitude or roads where you have to make very tight left or right turns. The road from Seitan Limani parking to the plateau, for example, will test your driving skills, as the ramps are quite steep.

· Be very careful on the roads, especially in villages and those remote, through mountains or gorges. Goats like to wander and they don’t care about humans… or their cars. Also, traffic jams caused by goats or sheep might occur, especially in the mountains

· As in most European countries, manual transmission cars are predominant, therefore the availability of automatic cars can be limited. If you never drove a manual car or last time was many, many years ago, please book an automatic one. 

· If you plan to pick-up the car from one location (e.g. Heraklion Airport) and you wish to drop off in a different one (e.g. Chania Airport), make sure you ask the company before renting. Not all of them have offices in both airports and sometimes the fee is expensive (sometimes it can be more than the amount you paid for the car, as they have to send someone there via bus to bring the car back)

· During summer season, minimum period for renting is 3 days. It is usually cheaper to rent for the entire vacation, as they have discounts

· You can find car rent companies in popular touristic places, such as Rethymno, Hersonissos, Malia or Agios Nikolaos, if you don’t plan to rent for the entire vacation from the airports.

· Try to keep the cars as clean as possible. It is very hot during the summer months, so any spilled drink or food will start smelling super-fast

That being said, stay tuned for more useful info 😊