Santorini driving
 

Is it wise to rent a car for three days on Santorini? Would driving there be difficult or even unnecessary?

Renting a car is more convenient then necessary, the island has an excellent bus system. What you gain with a rental is spontaneity. What you have to deal with is parking, manic local drivers and winding roads, especially the road between Fira and Oia.

We typically prefer having a car. Are the local drivers and winding roads exceptionally bad? Trying to decide if safety is such a factor that it's not worth the convenience of a car.

I drove there in June and it was fine for me. Although I have driven in Turkey & Italy previously, and had enjoyed it! I find driving everywhere but when I am in a city very necessary to give me the kind of freedom that I like on vacation.

We always opt for a car, also, except in a city. However, the one exception we've made was in Italy, so you're obviously braver than we are! Are we talking narrow, winding cliff-hanging roads on Santorini?

I just drove throughout Santorini in June 2006. There were not any cliff hanging roads that I recall. This is an easy drive except in Fira where the roads are crowded and narrow. This is much easier driving than 90 % of the driving in the USA.

We had no problems driving on Santorini. Keep in mind that the rental cars are usually standard, not automatic, transmission, so if you're not comfortable driving a standard, that might be a problem. (Automatic is available, I imagine, just more expensive.)

First time post. We re heading for 9 days through the island. Including Santorini and Mykonos and other spontanious activites. Should we rent a car in Athens, hoof it, rent a car at specific islands? How does that work. Do the ferries carry only people?

most ferries carry everything but a car is going to be a lot more expensive than a couple of people

We visited Santorini for five days. We rented a car for three of them. Without it, we would not have been able to explore much of the island.

Santorini has two principal roads. One is cliff side thru the mountains but it is not narrow. The other is along the shore and it is quite flat. This one appealed to us because we wanted to explore the beaches. In either case, keep in mind that most of the driving is during daylight hours and traffic, excpet for in the towns, is not heavy at all.

It is not necessary to decide about renting a car before arriving on the island. In most cases there will be a car rental place nearby where you are staying and you can work directly with them, or better, have your host make the arrangements. We are talking about small cars and pretty low prices.

Are there steep hills? I have not driven a standard in years but would imagine I would have no trouble being able to pick it up again. However, if there are very steep hills and I am backed by drivers used to the terrain it would make me nervous. Is the parking bad at most establishments?

I reserved an automatic car prior to arriving. I would do this if this is what you are most comfortable with. In mid-June the parking wasn't bad, I imagine in Aug. it would be a different story. There are a ton of tour buses and scooters, they are the most annoying things about driving there.

Thanks to everyone for their input! I think we'll go ahead and rent a car on Santorini.

wow - love this blog! I leave tomorrow morning for Athens and directly to a small village across from the Peloponnese. We are spending our last four days on Santorini and the US owner of the house we are renting told us that "we really should" rent a car on Santorini.
BTW - I just found out (accidentally mind you) that our flight is one hour earlier than our itinerary email notification! Glad I called. Just a reminder to call a couple of days ahead of time to recheck status.... whew - I about had a heart attack!

You might consider a compromise. We were in Santorini for three nights, but only rented a car for one full day, picking it up in the morning and covering the rest of the island, ending up in Oia for sunset and returning it in the evening.

I'm not sure how others drove to Oia without encountering a "cliff hanging" road. That was pretty hairy -- meanwhile the Amalfi highway never bothered us a bit, for comparison.

Perhaps they took the secondary road that follows along the far shore away from the cliff. That, or they weren't bothered by the main road. I've driven it many times myself and don't think twice about it anymore.

I would agree with the previous post that said to rent one for a day to explore. We just returned from Greece and rented a car for one day each on Santorini and Naxos and got to see everything we wanted to. We also got an automatic, it was only 5-10E more per day. There are quite a few hills so we thought a manual would be difficult since we aren't used to it. We didn't have any issues except for the congestion going through Fira...we had to back our car onto the sidewalk to let a bus pass!

Erie03-
Who did you rent the car from? Did you rent it before or after you arrived on the Santorini?

I'm not erie03, but we did our one day car rental on Santorini from a local agency right in the center of Fira, near the bus terminal. Our hotel (The Loucas) recommended them). We walked over the day before and booked it after finding another place at about the same price.

The advantage to waiting until you're there and finding a small rental agency to deal with is that you'll get a better price. It's a competitive market. Of course you probably should book in advance if you need a car with an automatic transmission since they're fairly scarce.