The discovery

We left our native France late in the day for an 8:30 pm local time arrival on the island.

We chose Heraklion airport (Ηράκλειο) as the starting point for our escapades.

Fresh out of the plane, we mechanically follow all the passengers to find ourselves at the airport exit.

At the exit, there are countless booths distributed among the different operators or travel agencies.

Time to register, and our first task is to find our rental car.

Car rental agencies

We hadn't necessarily located our rental car agency before landing. We made a mistake.

As we left the airport, we were faced with an army of car rental agencies. Like a giant "where's Charlie", we finally found ours, not without difficulty.

We opted for a C1 which will quickly turn into a 4x4 despite itself, as you will discover in the next few articles.

Papers signed, deposit made, keys exchanged, and we are free to go wherever we want.

New mission: find our hotel. GPS programmed, we take the road.

Driving in Crete

Driving in Crete... it's a concept.

• Are you afraid of the police? Forget it.
• Are you afraid of the white lines? Forget it.
• Do you drive carefully? Forget it.

The new rules are as follows:

• Are you about to be overtaken? Help the person who is doing so by moving over. There it is not the person overtaking who is punished, but the person who prevents overtaking.
• Do you see the hard shoulder? Well, think of them as real traffic lanes for tourists or for slow vehicles.

In Crete it is usual to use these lanes to facilitate overtaking.

Driving there is confusing, but driving in France after a week of driving on the island is equally confusing.

If you have the opportunity to try Cretan driving, you will be almost disappointed to come back to the French code de la route!