A Traveler’s Guide to Driving on Crete

Monica Lewton
Wed, 31 Jul 2019 12:08:46 +0000

Most of the highway is a two lane highway – one lane for each direction. On occasion, during the straight stretches there would be a 3rd lane for passing. Despite this, many Cretan drivers do not wait for these lanes to pass you. If there is space, they're going to do it. We had a couple close calls with cars passing us when there was no room. The worst is when a car going the opposite direction is in your lane trying to pass someone. Many heart in throat moments were had on this island.

Passing lanes mean nothing Crazy Drivers | Crete, Greece Who needs to wait for a lane to pass? .

Two lane highway, you'd expect cars to be in the lane right? Well not on Crete. Most of the time you end up driving on the shoulder of the road and the actual lane is used for passing. So you'll see car after car driving on the shoulder of the road like its no big deal.

The faster you drive, the better.Speed. If you drive slow, you're definitely a tourist. These guys drive fast! Even around the twisty corners. Upcoming corner around a cliff? Better to speed up.

Learn English. Better yet, learn Greek.Road signs are confusing. They're in Greek and English, but almost never together. They alternate, so its useful to know how the Greek's write the city you're going to. And know the various ways of spelling the city in English too!

Because so much of the driving is done on the shoulder of the road, plus the fact that the island is over run with stray cats, we saw plenty of roadkill. There were so many dead cats lying on the side of the road. A former cat owner, that made me really sad. It was really ridiculous how many there were that it became almost a game – count the number of dead animals! In one journey we counted upwards of 10 dead cats, a couple (alive) goats, and a dead what looked like a badger (maybe?). I have never seen so much road kill in my life.

Those are the basic unspoken rules and what we learned from our experience. You remember these key things and you'll be fine. The island is very hilly so there is a lot of going up and down and you get lots of practice parking on a hill.

Tips for driving in Crete and Cretan driving customsStop sign: slow down, look around a bit, there is a junction

Priority sign: hurry up someone might be coming

Orange traffic light: drive a little faster, otherwise you'll have to stop

Red traffic light: cross very carefully

Do not overtake sign: be careful when overtaking

Double white lines: do not position your vehicle entirely to the left of the lines when overtaking. Watch for oncoming cars.

Seat belts are compulsory and you can sometimes see Cretans wearing them

Please note: none of the above rules count if you ride a moped. Just go for it and hope for the best. But not to worry, in case of an accident the orthopedic and neurological units of the major hospitals have a lot of practice.

Helmets are required if you ride a moped or a motorbike - especially in cold and rainy weather. In sunny weather they are generally used as elbow protectors.

Drinking and driving: the police now have breathalysers. You are not allowed to drive if you have more than 0.5 mg of alcohol in your blood. In practice it is only frowned upon although things are getting tougher and some people really got into trouble. The only time where you can drink and drive without fear is on major holidays: the police quite rightly finds it in very poor taste to spoil the enjoyment of drivers on a feast day.

Driving on the National Road: The emergency lane is in fact used as a driving lane if you are being overtaken. If you insist on staying in the driving lane when someone wants to overtake, you will make some people really impatient. Anyway, it is not a polite thing to do.

Parking: until recently drivers didn't so much park as abandon their car whenever they felt like it. Things are changing in the cities and parking fines are pretty steep.

Passing through a flock of sheep: Cretans take their sheep seriously so don't mess with them (both I mean): if you have to pass through a flock of sheep, go slow and do not cross in the middle but try to make a way on either side of the road. If you try to pass in the middle, you will probably have to stop and wait it out.

Winding roads: it is usual for people to drive in the middle of the road, even if this one is narrow, so take care in corners. I was once given an interesting explanation for this curious driving behaviour: "if a car comes driving towards you, you always have somewhere to go to if you drive in the middle. If a car comes towards you whilst you are on your side of the road, your only escape is off the road". Ten years on and I am still trying to work out the logic of it!