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Greece in Sept. Renting car question

Posted by (Pennsylvania) on

Planning a 10-14 day trip to Greek Islands for mid SEpt.
It's our first time..
Trying to map out our itinerary.. probably 3-4 islands + Athens (it's planning stage at this moment)

Biggest question is the logistics.. Once we get to the island, how do we rent a car?? Do we need to pre book a rent a car? or can we do that once we get to the island.. Do rental company require huge deposits for protection against damages? - I am planning to use my credit card benefit to satisfy the insurance requirements.
How's the parking in islands (I know this is a silly question, not knowing which Island.. but let's just say.. Naxos, or Crete etc. for now)
Is driving logistics just like USA? or is it more like Italy with highly restricted roads like ZTL, and almost impossible parkings..

Appreciate any advise you can share.. it would help me a lot in planning..
thanks

Posted by
8866 posts

We’ve only rented on Crete, and this was in 2019. We booked the car in advance before we left for Greece (picked up in Iraklio, aka Heraklion) and returned it in Hania (aka Chania). Iraklio was a pain to drive in, and Hania was a real pain. Other, smaller towns were easy and pleasant, except for one with a really narrow road through it and a really tight 90 degree curve to squeeze around. No restricted parking except close to the Old Harbor in Hania. There were also confusing one-way streets in Hania that made navigating through the “modern” city very difficult.

If you’re in any mountainous part of Crete, be aware that drivers often take their half of the road out of the middle; on blind curves, we usually had a car coming the opposite direction driving on the center line as it appeared around the curve. All eventually got over on their side of the road before they got to our car, but it was always unnerving.

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