
With a 1.5-litre engine and 150 hp this is by some distance the most powerful car we rent, and the only one that never feels like it is working hard on the long uphill sections. It is a manual, so it suits drivers who want to use that power rather than have a gearbox decide for them.
The extra ground clearance is not a luxury on this island. The last 8 km to Balos are an unpaved mountain track, plenty of the best south-coast beaches sit at the end of a dirt road, and mountain villages are reached on surfaces that are patched rather than resurfaced. An SUV also sits you higher, which makes the coastal hairpins a great deal less nerve-racking for a driver who is not used to them.
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.