We are going to travel for two weeks in a rental car and would like your opinion on the best road map when driving in that part of Greece. I am able to read only some Greek signs so I know that I have to have a map in English. <BR><BR>Another question:<BR>How to arrange a rental car without driving in Athens or maybe driving there is not so bad?<BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR><BR>

Gina,<BR><BR>I drove the Peloponnese a few years ago. We had bought a map in Athens that we thought would be great as it had ALL of the towns/sites/etc. in english, no greek. Well let me tell you this was a BIG mistake. Once you get off of the main roads on the Peloponnese the signs are all in Greek, no english translations. After getting ourselves comically lost a few times we ended up finding a map with both english and greek. I suggest you look for the same.<BR><BR>A few notes about roadsigns and driving in Greece: <BR><BR>First: The signs for an exit will first be posted in Greek long before the exit (about 1 km) then right before the exit you will see the enlish translation, so you have to react fast. A basic ability to translate will help you out allot.<BR><BR>Second: If you are following a road and you come to an intersection that is not signed, and you cannot find the intersection on your map, confusion will no doubt overcome you. The general rule of advice is "keep going straight unless told to do otherwise".<BR><BR>Third: Don't rely on a greek to give you directions. We did this and got totally lost. When I told a greek friend about this he just laughed and said, "Don't ask a greek for directions, even if they don't know the way they will tell you to go a certain way -- all because they don't want to admit that they don't know the correct way." Hillarious!<BR><BR>Have fun, the Peloponnese is a wonderful place to travel to. What is your route.

Gina: Yes, driving in Athens is bad...very bad! I doubt I'll ever do it again and I'm a truckdriver.<BR> A regular Greece fold-out roadmap is fine and will get you anywhere. I seriously doubt you'd need a more detailed map to get anywhere in the Peloponnese. Just make sure the cities and towns are in both English & Greek.<BR> Have you given any thought to adding Delphi to your trip, it looks out of the way but there is a ferry near Patras that makes the journey easier. HTH Regards, Walter

Gina, try the "road editions" maps and travel guides of Peloponnissos. They are bilingual (greek/english), very accurate, and contain numerous details (gas stations, forest roads, picturesque routes etc). <BR>Road editions publiced a couple of years ago a travel guide and map for Crete using data from the Greek Army's geographic service. The overwhelming success enhanced them to proceed to release maps for other parts of Greece. They also provide excellent mountain maps for the hiker or the mountaineer. Their site is www.road.gr (unfortunately only in greek, yet if you browse through the site you may get an idea of the maps' looks). I don't know whether you could purchase them online or outside Greece but I definitely can assure you that you may find them in numerous places in Greece (including the airport's bookstore)

the Michelin maps are good (# 981 for Greece, I think). also got a good, but perhaps overly detailed, map from the car rental agency I used (Europcar). I found the michelin map good for overall route planning, and the Europcar map for picking out some of the smaller roads & by-ways.<BR><BR>I suggest bringing an inexpensive compass along, too, so that you can get basic bearings if & when you get dis-oriented.<BR><BR>as others have posted, you are likely to find many signs in greek only, you should try to learn the alphabet and some basic phonemes -- it's not that difficult, could even do it on the plane trip. regardless, signage is poor , especially by US or Canadian standards.<BR><BR>driving in Athens, even just to get out of the city, is arduous. the Europcar agents were very helpful and helped me map the best way out of town. if you leave Athens on a weekend, it will be somewhat easier.

Thank you for some great ideas.<BR><BR>Tom<BR>as I mentioned in my original post I am able to read some Greek words. I used to do it fluently but it was maybe 20 years ago and never used it since then. But I completely agree with you that knowing some basics helps. At least everywhere we traveled and we do travel often. Thanks again

Gina,<BR>I highly recommend buying Microsoft's Map point Europe. This is a great software package for all of Europe. It will give excellent directions along with a trip tic and very detailed maps. You can easily plot out your trips from home and print them.These maps can be zoomed in to an inch=60meters

The VERY BEST map for driving other than just the main roads is RO4D map of the Peloponnese, No. 5 in the series made in cooperation with the Army Geographical Service. Also look for the CADOGAN guide, Greece: the Peloponnese. It is quite up to date and contains lots of interesting and very helpful information. An older but great guide is "the Peloponnese, today and yesterday, a complete tourist guide. I found the latter in a book store in Olympia several years ago and it has really helped us. It is published by Toubi's Michalis Toumbis Editions S.A. Athens. The person who spoke about the roads signs was right about the way they are posted so, keep a sharp lookout! Yes, we got lost several times and laugh about it now but I did not think that we would ever find our way out of Piraeus on one occasion. Mind you my husband speaks good Greek and we went around and about for a long time.So do take that compass with you. Have a great time.