Driving Through Greece: A Tale of Chaos and Scenic Routes

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My mom and I just returned from fifteen days of traveling around Greece. I think it would be impossible to go to Greece and not rent a car. On the mainland, it would be difficult to get to some places and see some sites. From Athens, there are day trips that take you to the sites and that would, of course, be the second best option, but driving would allow the time you wanted, without having to rush or shoveled along. Driving through Greece is not for the faint of heart. Greek drivers have to be some of the worst drivers I’ve ever encountered. People say Italian drivers are bad, but I don’t think they’ve ever been to Greece. It’s like being in a south East Asian country, but at two or three times the speed. There doesn’t seem to be any rules or laws when driving and the police seem to watch people do what they please, or perhaps they take pleasure in watching people do what they want. Park where you want, drive where you want, those are the rules. 

Our first experience

Our first experience of renting a car was two days after we arrived in Athens. The itinerary was to drive up north to Meteora (4 hours) and spend a night there to see the monasteries on cliffs. I felt confident about my driving ability because I lived and drove in South Korea and they are some of the worst drivers on this planet and in Spain when my family came to visit. We received the car at 8:30 in the morning and left around 8:45. It was a Puegot 208. We got out of the narrow, not so crowded streets of the city center and made our way into the main thoroughfare. Everything was going smoothly until we hit rush hour traffic. We were slowly rolling along until we came to a standstill and the car shut off. I put my foot on the brake and tried restarting the engine and it wouldn’t start. As the gap between the car in front of us widened, the cars behind us started to go around. No one beeped, though. Trying everything, I hoped someone would be kind of enough to stop and help us figure it out. A truck driver stopped, but then continued on his way after my mom said the engine stopped. After what felt like an eternity, I looked everywhere in the car and noticed the middle drive stick position had an “N” with the word start underneath it and a symbol with a foot pressing a pedal. From drive, I put it into neutral and tried restarting the car and it worked! 

The car was supposed to be automatic, but it drove like a manual. There was no “park”. To park the car it had to be put in neutral with the emergency break to hold it in place. It felt like it a manual too,you could feel each gear shift and stutter like one does when you start it out of neutral, giving it enough gas to get it into the first gear so it doesn’t stall. So that didn’t happen again, every time we came to a stop, I put the car in neutral. 

Crete

On Crete, we rented a car too. We were staying there for four nights, two in Chania and two in Heraklion. This time, we had a Toyota Aygo, a small little red car that didn’t have enough room in the trunk for our two bags and only one windshield wiper. Like the Puegot, it thankfully had apple car play, so hooking up our phone and using GPS and listening to music was no problem. Like the Puegot it too did not have a park, just neutral and an emergency break, however it never felt like it was going to shut off. Driving around Crete was much more relaxing than driving around mainland Greece. It was, however, just as dangerous because it mainly consisted of one lane roads, up, around and through the mountains. We started in the city of Chania, stayed there for two nights and drove out to various archaeological sites and then made our way east to Heraklion while stopping at some archeological sites and the city of Rethimno on the way. Once in Heraklion, we spent a day driving south through the island visiting more sites. None of it would have been possible without a car and at points it almost didn’t seem possible with the car we had. 

Rhodes

Rhodes was the last island we visited, and another island in which we rented a car. At the rental counter, I asked if they had an upgrade and he said for 5 euro a day more we can get a Mercedes compact SUV and we said yes. It was a Mercedes GLA 180d. They were going to give us another Aygo and he mentioned that if we wanted to drive into the mountains, which we were, we were going to need the Mercedes. After four days of driving throughout the island, I’m glad that we got it because there’s no way the little Aygo would have made it. Some turns are blind hair-pin turns up and down the mountainside. Driving on Rhodes was like asking a kid to draw a road and they just made a bunch of squiggly lines. It required extreme concentration and constant glances at the GPS to be aware of what the road was doing up ahead. For example, 15 miles took 45 minutes, but it was a very scenic 45 minutes. 34 miles, took us an hour and a half. Some turns had to be done at 15 mph. Like Crete, none of it would have been possible without a car. Other than the first moment in Athens, all went well.