Rental Center Crete - Car Hire

Rental Center Crete - Car Hire Rental Center Crete is a car rental Company offering services in Crete Island, since 1975. We offer We offer free delivery and collection service all over Crete.

We also provide benefits such as all risk insurance without self risk, unlimited kilometres, theft insurance and more. Rental Center Crete also offers special offers, price quotes and a large variety of car models that are available for any summer trip & vacation or a quick city-break in Crete Island.

05/09/2026

Agia Triada Monastery ⛪

A stunning 17th-century gem, nestled among vineyards and olive groves, perfect for a serene getaway from the hustle of city life.

With a rental car, adventures like this are just around the corner! 🚗✨

Cretan growers pick their olives before the fruit turns black, and they do it on purpose. Fully ripe olives give more oi...
03/09/2026

Cretan growers pick their olives before the fruit turns black, and they do it on purpose. Fully ripe olives give more oil per kilo, but the oil has higher acidity and fewer polyphenols. Picked at 70 to 80 percent ripeness, still part green or just turning rose, the acidity stays under 0.8 percent and the oil keeps the peppery finish Crete is known for.

That decision is why the season is so long. Coastal groves start in late October and run to early December. Groves between 200 and 500 metres work through November into mid-December. Mountain groves between 500 and 800 metres do not start until mid-December and can run to late January. November and December are the busiest weeks across the island's roughly 30 million trees.

Most of it still comes off by hand rake, with nets spread underneath. A powered vibrating comb is faster and much louder, and large commercial groves use a shaker that grips the trunk.

At the mill it is quick: wash and de-leaf, grind to a paste, knead for 20 to 40 minutes under 27 degrees, then spin the oil out in a centrifuge. Pressing happens within 12 to 24 hours of picking, which is why every village press runs flat out in November. About 45 kilos of olives becomes 9 to 10 kilos of oil.

You can join a harvest day between October and January with no experience at all: three to four hours picking, a communal lunch cooked with this year's oil, a visit to the mill to watch your own morning being pressed, and a tasting against last year's. Book two to three months ahead for November and December, because those weeks fill first. Late October and January are quieter.

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There is free parking in Heraklion, and it comes with a catch nobody mentions until you are standing in front of a locke...
02/09/2026

There is free parking in Heraklion, and it comes with a catch nobody mentions until you are standing in front of a locked barrier. The free lots belong to supermarkets and public buildings. They close in the evening, they shut on Sundays, and none of them are for overnight parking. They are a daytime tool, not a solution.

Every parking sign in the city is one of four things. Paid, where you pay the posted fee. Blue, where you display a disc. Restricted, which covers pedestrian streets, historic districts and anywhere signed no parking. And residential, which is permit holders only.

The blue zone is the one visitors get wrong. In Heraklion there is no charge for it, but you must display a parking disc showing what time you arrived, left on the dashboard. If you have driven over from Chania, note that this is not how it works there: Chania's blue bays are paid, by app or by meter. Same colour on the road, completely different rule.

Paid lots are inexpensive. Most charge between 2 and 5 euro for two hours, and that is per two hours rather than per hour, so read the board before you walk away. Lots generally open around seven or eight in the morning, and several stay open around the clock, which is what you want for an overnight or a late one.

Three things get a car towed: pedestrian and historic streets, residential permit bays, and anywhere signed no parking. All three are signposted.

The centre and the area around the museums fill quickly in season, and the streets are narrow, so the earlier you arrive the less of this you need to think about.

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01/09/2026

Just 18 km outside Chania, on the road toward Omalos and the Samaria Gorge, there's a green pocket of the island most visitors never see: the Botanical Park & Gardens of Crete. Four brothers turned land scarred by the 2003 wildfires into nearly 20 hectares of fruit trees, herbs, and plants gathered from around the world, all winding along a shaded 2.5 km trail down to a small lake with ducks and geese. There's a restaurant at the end serving dishes made from what's grown in the park, so budget a good two hours and stay for lunch.

There is a bus from Chania, but it only runs once a day each way, which doesn't leave much room to linger. With a rental car from Rental Center Crete, you can go early to beat the heat, stay as long as you like, and combine it with a stop in Fournes or the villages nearby on the same trip. All-risk insurance, unlimited kilometres, and no hidden fees included, with pickup available at Chania Airport and 17 other locations across Crete.

Branches from the olive tree at Vouves, near Kolymvari in Chania, were woven into the victors' wreaths at the Athens Oly...
01/09/2026

Branches from the olive tree at Vouves, near Kolymvari in Chania, were woven into the victors' wreaths at the Athens Olympics in 2004 and the Beijing Olympics in 2008. The tree still produces fruit. It was declared a protected natural monument in 1997, and an olive museum opened beside it in a 19th-century house in 2009.

Estimates of its age run from about 3,000 to about 4,000 years, and both figures are estimates rather than measurements, so we are not picking one.

That vagueness is not sloppiness, it is the method. Olive trees cannot be dated by counting rings, so agronomists work from the circumference of the trunk instead. A modern olive measures half a metre to a metre around. The tree at Azorias, one kilometre outside Kavousi in the east, measures more than 22 metres around its base, and at an estimated 3,250 years it is the oldest on the island.

In the centre, the Mother Olive of Kamilari is estimated at 2,800 years. Twelve stones ring its trunk and eight of them carry carved Minoan symbols, including the double axe. The Minoan palace of Phaistos is 1,400 metres away and the Kamilari tholos tomb is closer still, so the tree fits neatly into an archaeology day rather than needing one of its own.

More than a thousand monumental olive trees are registered across Crete. Most stand in open village or grove locations with no ticket and no gate, which also means no signposting to speak of and some genuinely narrow rural roads. Check the museum hours before you set off, because those do change with the season.

Photographs via Google Maps contributors: Artem Lubko, Юля Чумак, Marius PETRILA.

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Wild camping is illegal across Greece, and that includes every beach on Crete. You may camp only in licensed, designated...
31/08/2026

Wild camping is illegal across Greece, and that includes every beach on Crete. You may camp only in licensed, designated sites. Public beaches, protected nature areas and the ground around archaeological sites are all out, with Knossos named explicitly in the rules, and camping outside a designated area can bring a fine.

The good news is that the legal version is cheap. A licensed site runs roughly 5 to 20 euro per person per night, which is a fraction of any room on the island.

Seven organised sites are worth the drive. On the north coast: Mithimna at Drapanias, open April to October with 80 pitches; Sissi, with its small harbour and a quieter feel than the big resorts; and Creta Camping at Gouves near Heraklion, which has communal kitchens and sports courts. On the south: Grammeno near Paleochora with a shared kitchen and a taverna, Paleochora itself between the Libyan Sea and the White Mountains, Agia Galini where pets stay free, and Koutsounari in the southeast among the olive groves.

Three things vary site by site and none of them are safe to assume: which months it opens, whether there is a kitchen you can use, and whether pets are allowed. One phone call settles all three.

On site, Greek law is specific. Fires only where they are permitted, quiet hours respected, everything you brought carried back out, and water used sparingly.

You can turn up with your own tent, in a camper van, or with a roof tent on the car. Pitches are priced differently for tents and vans, so say which when you book.

The far southwest and the southeast sit a long way from both airports, and you need to carry gear, so this is a trip that works with a car and does not really work without one.

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The big dome inside the Fortezza in Rethymno was built as the Venetian cathedral of San Nicolo. The Ottomans took the fo...
30/08/2026

The big dome inside the Fortezza in Rethymno was built as the Venetian cathedral of San Nicolo. The Ottomans took the fortress in November 1646 and turned it into the Mosque of Sultan Ibrahim, which is what it still is.

Venice raised the walls around it between 1573 and 1590. English Wikipedia puts the labour at 107,142 Cretans, conscripted, and 40,205 pack animals, for 1,307 metres of wall on an irregular plan with four demi-bastions.

The fortress is not a ruin you look at from the road. One of the bastions, St Elias, holds the Erofili open-air theatre, where the Renaissance Festival of Rethymno plays through the summer. The hill was chosen because lookouts could see sails long before they reached the harbour, and you can still stand where they stood and watch the same water.

On the way up or down, the Rimondi Fountain still runs from its lion heads, and people still fill bottles there. A back alley from the square climbs towards the gate.

Practical bits: open daily from eight, parking at the rear beside the Old Town, uneven ground and a steady climb. Hours and admission shift with the season, so check before you set out.

Photographs via Google Maps contributors: DF, Pan Vagio, Jurgis Gavėnas, Nóra Gordos, Patrícia Ivanoc.

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29/08/2026

Day trip ideas from Chania:

🌊 Lake Kournas – 43 km, about 45 min. Crete's only freshwater lake, with pedal boats and lakeside tavernas. Easy half day trip.

🌄 Sarakina Gorge (Meskla) – 20 km, 30 min. A short, easy walk under limestone walls at the foot of the White Mountains.

🏖️ Seitan Limania – 22 km, 35 min. Turquoise inlet on Akrotiri with a steep path down.

🌄 Samaria Gorge – 42 km, about 1 hour to the Xyloskalo entrance. A 16 km one-way hike to Agia Roumeli.

🌊 Kalypso Beach – 85 km, about 1h25. A narrow cove near Plakias with very clear water, ideal place for snorkelling.

🏖️ Preveli Beach – 90 km, about 1h30. A river meeting the sea through a palm gorge.

More ideas in the video.

Rent a car with us and go at your own pace. All-risk insurance, unlimited kilometres, no hidden charges.

Visibility in Cretan water regularly exceeds 30 metres, and there is a reason for it: the island has no large rivers, so...
29/08/2026

Visibility in Cretan water regularly exceeds 30 metres, and there is a reason for it: the island has no large rivers, so almost no sediment reaches the sea. Add a rocky seabed and high salinity and you get water that is clear, buoyant and usually calm in the bays.

Set your expectations honestly first. This is not a coral reef. What you get is rock, crevices and posidonia seagrass meadows, which shelter octopus, wrasse, parrotfish, moray eels and the occasional loggerhead turtle. It rewards looking rather than gawping.

May to October is the season. Water is around 20 degrees in May, up to 27 in August. June and September are the sweet spot: warm enough, very clear, and without the peak crowds.

Five easy places to get in, all shallow and sheltered: Elafonissi, Balos, Almyrida, Voulisma and Ammoudara. Three worth going out of your way for: Matala, where you swim over the submerged remains of a Roman port; Elounda, for the sunken city of Olous just off the shore; and Skinaria on the south coast, which is the clarity champion.

Where to look: octopus sit between 0 and 5 metres, usually under rocks and camouflaged; wrasse and parrotfish between 1 and 5; loggerhead turtles anywhere from 1 to 10; moray eels between 2 and 8, in crevices. Three rules go with that. Stay five metres back from turtles, they are protected. Never put your hand into a hole. And wear something on your feet, because sea urchins are the actual hazard here.

Gear rents for 10 to 15 euro a day. A half-day guided boat trip runs 50 to 80 euro per person with everything included.

Before you get in: never snorkel alone, check the sea forecast, and know that the coast guard emergency number is 108. Conditions on the south coast can change fast.

The best trick nobody mentions: when the north coast is blown out, the south is usually calm. The island is wide enough to drive away from the weather, which is the real argument for having a car.

Save the eight spots, and send this to whoever you are swimming with.

Chania has already told you where you can park. It is painted on the road.White lines are free, first come first served....
28/08/2026

Chania has already told you where you can park. It is painted on the road.

White lines are free, first come first served. They are common in residential streets a 10 to 15 minute walk out, and rare anywhere near the harbour. Blue lines are paid controlled parking, through the city's parking app or a street meter, with some outer areas still using a paper disc and some bays reserved for residents, so read the sign. Yellow lines mean no parking at all: residents, loading and emergency vehicles only, and you risk a fine or a tow.

On-street blue bays run about 0.8 euro an hour with a four-hour maximum, and they are controlled from early morning until around nine at night. Rates change by area and season, so check what is posted where you stop.

If you pay by app, the step that catches visitors is the first one: enter your number plate in Latin letters, not Greek. After that you top up a wallet by card, buy the hours you need, and add more from your phone when it warns you.

Four free lots sit on the edge of the centre: Talos Square by the lighthouse, the East Moat Theatre lot near Koum Kapi, Akti Kanari, and Agioi Apostolon to the west. All of them are busy by mid-morning in summer.

In August, the honest answer is not to try at all. The Kladissos park and ride is about ten minutes' drive west of the Old Town, it is free, and a free electric shuttle runs a loop into town through the day and evening. The shuttle is free whether or not you leave your car there.

And you cannot drive into the Old Town regardless. It is pedestrian. Park the perimeter and walk in.

Three things bring real trouble: parking in a disabled bay without a permit, staying past your paid time, and blocking a ramp, gate or corner. That last one is the expensive one, because for serious violations the police remove your licence plates and you pay a fine to get them back.

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Nidas 1
Heraklion
71307

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