
The 208 sits in the same class and at the same price as the Corsa, and the choice between them comes down to the cabin: the Peugeot puts its instruments above a small steering wheel rather than behind a large one, which some drivers take to immediately and others never quite do. Mechanically it is the same easy 1.0-litre proposition.
A small hatchback is the easiest car to live with in Crete. The old quarters of Chania and Rethymno are a grid of lanes barely wider than a car, village streets in the mountains were laid out for donkeys, and parking in Heraklion is genuinely tight — all of which a compact car shrugs off. It is also the cheapest to run on the long west-coast drives, where you will cover 300 km in a day without noticing.
It has a manual gearbox, which keeps the daily rate down and gives you more control on the long descents — useful on the mountain roads, where engine braking saves your brakes on the way back down from Omalos or Anogia.
Balos is 2h 50 west, Elafonisi 2h 45, Knossos barely 15 minutes from the airport, and Matala just over an hour to the south. Our Crete guide has driving times, parking and road conditions for every one of them — written for people arriving with a rental car, not a tour bus.
See the full Crete guide →Free delivery to Heraklion Airport and the port, and to hotels in Heraklion. Chania Airport is €80.