Whether for a tourist tour, a business trip or just a walk around Crete (the biggest island in Greece), one of the most effective ways to get around the island is by car, so the rental of these vehicles comes to have good demand.
Although carrying out the rental of a car is necessary, some parameters must be taken into account, which will make this process much easier and more practical.
10 Tips for renting a car in Crete
Below, we can see a series of tips that will be of great help when renting a car in the island of Crete.
1-Try to see different car rental offers
There are a lot of car rental companies in Crete, and in this case, it will be quite useful for us to find the perfect solution. If you know your pickup location is very good because you can search for a car rental that can deliver the car in the specific location you need. Therefore, I recommend you to look for car hire crete offers from different car rental companies and compare prices and services.
2-Make sure you rent the ideal type of car
When choosing the car, we must take into account the characteristics that car has, such as its size and its model. Thanks to this, we will be able to book a car that suits in our needs and budget. If we are with our family, it’s better to rent a large family car and spend some more money because Crete is a large island and we are going to spend plenty of hours in driving for discover the island.
3- Rent a well-equipped car
When it comes to touring the Island of Crete, we will need a comfortable vehicle, but that is also useful, because of this we must ensure that our rented car contains GPS as a very important location tool.
GPS when traveling is one of the things that we can get to use the most, and it is because on certain occasions we will not lose or we will not know how to locate ourselves, and that is where this useful tool will help us to get out of that kind of problem.
4- Complies with the necessary requirements
To avoid problems, find out a little about the requirements you need to have the right to rent a car. Among the requirements we have:
- Minimum age: You must be at least 21 years old to rent a car.
- Driver’s license: It is absolutely mandatory to have this document, as well as the fact that it is at least one year old.
5- Know well about car rental insurance
Cars and insurance always go hand in hand, and when renting a car this topic is present, therefore, it is necessary that you inform yourself fully before you can choose a vehicle.
Although there is a variety of insurance for rental cars, we recommend renting a car that already has full collision damage waiver without excess or full insurance. In this option you do not need a credit card as guaranty for the car.
6- Additional fees
We must take into account that additional rental fees may apply for things like:
- Be under 25 years old
- Remove and return the car in a different city
- Submit damage to the car without having some type of insurance.
7- Check the fuel policy of the car rental company
There are basically two options:
- Fair fuel policy (most often in the local Cretan car hire companies) or same – same. For example, you pick up the car with half-full then you have to return it half-full.
- Full – Full policy. The car is delivered to you with full tank and you have to return it full. In this case you pay a little bit more as extra and credit card is needed as guaranty.
8- If you are at an airport, take advantage of that moment to make the rental
If you are in Chania Airport or Heraklion Airport then you can look for car rental in the offices. For many people it can be tedious to visit a rental agency, therefore, a practical way to avoid this is to rent the vehicle just at the moment you are at the airport. But this is a little bit risky especially during the high season in summer and we advise to make an early online booking to avoid delays.
9- Use the tourist parking
It is recommended to park in tourist areas, as well as in hotels, this is due to the fact that there are few parking lots on the streets, in this way, we can avoid illegal parking.
10- Respect the speed and traffic regulations
Finally, one of the best tips is to drive responsibly, where you will not exceed the speed limits and respect the road channels. In Crete, the police is very strict, especially in the national Cretan Road.