Driving in Greece

Driving in Greece is not to be taken lightly. Greece has a very high accident rate compared to other European countries and much caution is advised. The most dangerous roads are the one lane roads which connect large cities and host large tractor trailers, small cars, older cars, and even smaller motorcycles, all driving at wide ranges of speed. Be extra careful when you pass slower vehicles and have to cross over to the opposite direction lane .

Because of the lack of lanes for large sections of some highways, Greek drivers tend to use the shoulder as a second lane for 'slower' driving, which means that there is no emergency lane. So most Greek drivers treat two lane roads as if they were four lane roads. Greek drivers will normally drive straddling the shoulder, trying to keep as far out of the regular lane as possible, particularly on mountain roads. How much the drivers straddle the shoulder varies because the width of the shoulders varies. Other drivers will then use the lane to pass the cars that are straddling the shoulder.

Other points: Greeks speed and pay little attention to speed limits. In Greece a STOP sign is treated more like a YIELD sign. Very few drivers actually stop for a STOP sign, but simply judge the flow of traffic and yield or stop when needed. On heavily traveled roads there can be a considerable amount of passing, even in places someone use to driving in the United States would least expect, including blind curves on mountain roads.

Read up on driving in Greece and be prepared. I've done it, but I did a lot of research first.

Thank you so much for your advice. Driving on British roads last year was exhausting, in part because it required shifting with my left hand. But in the country, narrow lanes had two way traffic that hedgerows and rock walls blocked from sight until they were almost touching our front bumper. It seemed like I averaged about 18 miles on rural roads. I hope that doesn't infuriate other drivers who are likely to pass.

In 2012 we spent 2 weeks driving from Piraeus through the Pelopennese sleeping in Loutraki, Nafplio, Monemvasia (Gefyra), Kardamili; then to Olympia, Delphi, then returned the car at the Athens airport so we didn't drive through the city. Prior to that we had rented a car for one day on Santorini and on Naxos and had no problems. The kind young man who delivered our rental car to the port in Piraeus drove us through town so we wouldn't have to deal with any traffic. We found the driving to be pretty routine. We live in California and found the roads there to be the same or better than here. There was not much traffic on the roads which were mostly well signed, except for those going to some minor sights we visited. Most signs on the main roads are displayed twice with two of these three languages on each, Ancient Greek, Modern Greek, English, so they were easy to understand. We have driven in many countries and did not find driving in the Pelopennese any different. Driving in towns is more crowded than the rural roads as is to be expected. Where ever we drive we are concerned for our safety, both at home and abroad. We just have to pay attention to what's going on around us but we didn't notice anything different in Greece.

I'm Planning to rent a car in Mykonos. I read about Action-rent-a-car. has anyone rented from this company?

If anyone reading this lives outside the EU be sure you go to your local Auto Club office to pick up an International Driving Permit. By law it's required in Greece. If you live in the USA you will go to your local AAA office, no test or membership required.