Car rental insurance in Greece

INSURANCE - In renting a car for the peloponnese with others, a number of times, we have used the offered CDW which for a short rental makes one responsible for the first €500 ... for a longer rental you can get the total 100% coverage. If you write to the rental company (Athens Car rental -- ACR -- has a fine reputation), you can get a personal e-mail explaining the difference. Other people keep saying that if you have insurance thru a credit card, first you must turn down the CDW option, then your card has the insurance. Frankly if something major were to happen, the time difference for a US resident is 7 - 9 hours... and do you want to try calling your CC at midnight US time? For a couple days, not worth it.

GPS etc -- Frankly, if u look at a map online, it is clear that both Delphi and Meteora are straightfoward destinations. Just a word about electronics for more complicated itineraries: GPS seems like magic, but can mislead the unwary. Put in a name like Episcopi as your next destination, the dumb device does not know that each section of Greece has a town called Episcopi. (I once encountered a carfull of Japanese scientists in Southern Indiana, at a gas station In Columbus. They were on the Interstate heading for Columbus Ohio, saw "Exit for Columbus" and ended up 150 miles off track). So a paper map is a good back-up to look at, along with Google on your phone.

Good info....thanks. What kind of international phone service should we sign up for? Viber? AT&T pkgs?

Hi
You better take full insurance. Check the cost but I always do that. Concerning GPS there are signs on the road but why not have it! It's always easier than paying attention to all signs especially in the cities
On GPS you can even find siteseeing during travel or restaurants etc

The last time that I drove in northern Greece, some issues I ran into included:

• Rock falls on mountain highways, maybe not where you're going, but did result in a flat tire that was fixed by the rental agency's roadside assistance. (Not all insurance covers tires and it may depend on whose fault they think it was.)

• Drove down a narrow village road between stone walls, only to find it blocked by a parked car, and then had to make a very tedious 100-point turn to get out of there, not without a few scratches to the paint. I was glad to have full coverage rather than negotiate extra payments.

I don’t use GPS. Since I travel with my spouse one of us can look at google maps and be the navigator. The other drives. If you are alone then voice GPS would be very useful.

If you go with google maps be sure to download your map so it can be used offline, or have a back up app with offline maps. You may run into areas with no cell service. However GPS on the phone still works - your blue dot will still show you your location. I don’t think it can recalculate directions offline - you’ll need to look at the map and figure out your own route until cell service returns.

I'll share my experience renting a car in Athens. We just got back from two weeks and followed the Rick Steves itinerary for the Peloponnesian tour (with Delphi and Hydra). It was wonderful.

We rented a car from Hertz near Hydrian's arch and followed the excellent instructions in the tour book to get out of Athens. I used Hertz bc someone mentioned a good experience on this site. I would recommend them as well. They were extremely easy to work with...and suggested that I NOT buy the insurance when I showed them my American Express card. They said that we were already insured...which we were. But after reading so many warnings, I was just going to buy full insurance so I didn't have to worry about it. Still I knew we had insurance and when he said not to buy it, I decided not to. For an 8 day rental, it cost about $300 for a standard...with no insurance. They also said not to buy the GPS bc our phones would be more accurate. My husband navigated with his iphone and I drove. It was always accurate.

Second to last day in Nafplio, I turned down a street to come head on to a huge tour bus. I needed to back-up. No problem. I got right in front of a parked car. He still couldn't quite make the turn and there was enough room for me to pull forward on to the sidewalk and move out of the way. He motioned me to move forward. That's when I hit a small post that none of us could see. It wasn't bad but noticeable. We called American Express (I assume they are available 24/7) so wasn't concerned about it. They told us we had full coverage, no deductible and simply to file the claim after we return the car. Hertz noticed the damage. Wrote up a report quickly. It was a little over $600 in damage. We put it on our Amex card. We sent the claim to Amex on our return. It took a little over a week and they paid the full damage portion. They put it on my card. There was a VAT (tax) and some administrative fees that they did not pay (a little over $100) which was fine as that was still less than buying extra insurance. It was all very easy.

Hertz did a nice job of explaining purchasing gas, tolls etc. They even refunded the extra gas in the car (they explained that in Greece extra gas is refunded and we didn't need to bring it back full). They understood the differences bx the US and Greece and explained them. The claims process as well was done quickly and professionally and Amex had no questions.

I also found the driving to be pretty easy. Note: I lived in Japan for 3 years and have a comfort with narrow roads and pulling over to let other cars through. We noticed a lot of cars driving part way on the shoulder...in fact the majority. We quickly figured out that the shoulders were large to allow for 3 lanes. It made it easier for cars to pass in the middle if you hung on to the shoulder which was the common practice. That was the main difference. The driving in the mountains was not scary...but you need to pay attention and turn constantly in some places. So a few hours of mountain driving was usually enough for a day. The roads did not have heavy traffic. Most gas attendants (you can't fill up yourself) spoke some English and were friendly. Some big gas stations were nice and clean (think toilets). Parking was easy at all sites and towns (in April).

So that was our experience in renting, driving and damaging a car with no extra insurance. We were glad that we rented a car regardless the small mishap. It gave us a lot of freedom to explore small towns and be on our own schedule.