nutsnbolts

I apologize if I should separate it out but trying to consolidate how or when I should rent a car for my family. (2, 11 year old, 16 year old kids).

The islands we are expecting to be on are…

Santorini - 3 days
Naxos - 4 days
Milo’s 4 days
Athens - 2 days

Ideally, I would like to ATV on any given island but I’m not sure if this is something we should do as our transportation within the island or more of an activity when we want to explore? I’m not sure how expensive it would also be (cost effective wise). If it was just my wife and I, I would probably opt for the ATV every day.

If we ATV, we would need 3 as my wife would drive one, myself and my son with our younger children with the “adults” My son has his license and have experience in an ATV as well so that’s not a concern. Also, I know that ATV is a more versatile approach.

Otherwise, the other way is obviously renting a smaller car and use that for exploring.

Can someone give advise the best options and experience to do with the island we are visiting?

HappyTrvlr

I would never rent an ATV on Santorini, too crowded.

KayF

I don't know what an ATV is, but I can guess. How about using buses and walking? That's what many people do. We've visited all the places you mention and only ever hired a car for one day. That was on Milos.

nutsnbolts

Oh I thought ATV would be easier to get around. Even for like a day excursion to the beach or exploring the island?

MrAOK

A car in Athens isn't really needed and unless you are really going to visit a friend isn't a good idea. (There are several stop on, stop off tourist buses that offer two day passes and aren't bad in price, especially if bought in advance) Further if you are going to the Akropolis and the museum in the old city, a car is going to be more of a hassle than it is worth.) One set of buses operated by several companies (see viator) does hop on hop off buses all over the city. Another called the Athens Happy Train does a small train bus that goes around the inner city which are harder for the bigger buses in navigate.

In the unlikely event you want to go from the city to locations the hop on, hop off buses don't go to, it's likely to be to Delphi, which is a bit of a drive and where you would probably want a guide, or to the peloponnese which is going to be pretty rushed in a single day. I would either sign up for a tour or get your own guide and do it. There are enough of you to do that.

In Santorini, I'd also question a need for a car. If you use one of your days to take a boat trip, which is glorius (we did the catamaran), you are going to be parking the car for a big portion of one of your days.

I can't answer for Naxos or Milos. Probably depends on where you staying.

We rented in Crete (which you didn't mention), we rented in Corfu and we are renting his year in Rhodes, but those three are bigger islands and our hotels weren't centrally located.

If you do rent, you also have to make sure you can drive stick or pay extra for automatic

nutsnbolts

• In Athens, we definitely decided we will not be using any rental.
• In Santorini, we probably will use it for couple days, maybe even one if we are able to do everything we wanted such as, getting to Akrotiri, visiting other smaller inland towns, getting to the beaches and visiting some wineries. Yes, you can probably use the bus system but being able to be at our own leisure to visit these spots would probably be easier. If we can accomplish everything in one day then one day rental would probably work.
• In Naxos and Milos, it seems like the island is where we will definitely need a car almost full time. We plan to go to day trips throughout the island.

In the end I was hoping we can probably use ATV’s in some of the days to change it up a bit and probably will be more fun. I don’t know but something different.

janisj

I'm not 100% sure but I seriously doubt your 16 yo would be allowed to drive a rental ATV in Greece. Also do check but many European countries require a motorcycle license to drive an ATV.

Sassafrass

Since this is something you already know a lot about and do routinely, you may not need this advice, but double check medical insurance coverage for everyone in the ATV, and the laws as to size for different roads. Likely no one would care unless there was an accident. Then, being in compliance would really matter.