Scooter Hire in Greece – Part 1, Licence and Insurance

Scooter Hire in Greece - Corfu (helmet removed only for the photo, OK!)

Buzzing around the Greek Islands on a scooter or motorbike is one of my great pleasures in life, and I am no biker, believe me.

If you’re looking for scooter hire in Greece, whether in Corfu, Rhodes, Crete or even Cyprus – in fact in any of the main tourist islands – you will only have to go as far as the nearest town of any size to find a scooter hire shop.

But if you are thinking of losing two wheels from your normal set of four, and taking to a bike on holiday for the first time, I urge you to read this Suntrap Holidays guide to scooter hire in Greece.  It’s a four-part guide, and here in part one we’re going to take a look at driving licences and insurance – things that you really need to know about if you are thinking of hiring a scooter in the Greek Islands:

Driving Licence for Scooter Hire in Greece

Since the year 2000, it has been technically illegal for holidaymakers from the UK to control any moped, scooter or motorbike in Greece unless they have passed the motorcycle test and have an EU motorbike licence with at least category A1 – light motorcycle.

The UK category P which came with any full car licence obtained before 1st Feb 2001 allows you to drive mopeds in the UK without taking any further training, but it’s not valid in Greece.  (NB A moped is a scooter or motorbike whose speed is restricted to 50kph and has engine size no bigger than 50cc.)

So, you can no longer legally ride any moped or other motorbike/scooter in the Greek Islands on just a car licence.  However, that does not seem to put off too many companies from hiring scooters to just about anyone who turns up.  The authorities have turned a blind eye to it, presumably knowing that many a bike hire company would not survive if it relied only on qualified motorcyclists.

In practice, if you have a car licence you will probably be able to hire a moped or small scooter, powerful enough to carry two people.  Just.  Please understand though, that technically you are not riding it legally.  Personally, it was 2007 before I knew about this law dating back to 2000.  None of the bike hire shops I went to mentioned it and I suspect they still don’t.

The reality is that if you are stopped by the police for a spot-check (which has never happened to me in 20 years), as long as you have the rental agreement with you (and you should always carry it) then you will probably get away with it.

Be aware though, if you have an accident you may well not be covered at all for anything, and then you could indeed be in deep water for riding illegally.  It’s a risk that I took unknowingly for seven years, having done scooter hire in Greece legally from 1986 to 2000, and not knowing the law had changed after that.
It’s not just that you could end up paying personally for damage to the bike, you could also face a claim for damage to another vehicle or even an injury claim of many thousands of euros – none of which would be covered by your “full” bike insurance OR your travel insurance as you would be riding illegally.

On top of this you could face a fine – or worse – from the Greek police, not to mention coping with any injuries that you sustained yourself.  It is quite likely that any medical treatment you needed would not be covered by your travel insurance either, as you were riding illegally.

So, now you know the risks of hiring a scooter without a motorcycle licence.  It may not

Scooter Hire in Zante, Greece (helmet removed only for the photo, OK!)

stop you, but if you do it, at least you know what you are getting into.  Personally, when I found out about the change in the law I got serious and took my motorcycle test in the UK aged 45 – even though I had never even ridden a motorbike in the UK and I haven’t since!  I only did it so that I can enjoy fully legal scooter hire in Greece when I go on holiday.  The other advantage I get is to choose from whatever scooters and motorbikes the bike shop has, and they sort of look at me as if I know what I am doing too!

Insurance and Scooter Hire in Greece

Now a word about insurance.  You may be offered “full” insurance.  Many is the time this has happened to me.  Every time I ask “now, this is fully comprehensive insurance isn’t it?” And the answer I always get is “yes, yes, full insurance, FULL”.

Unfortunately, this is not comprehensive insurance as we in the UK understand it.  There is to my knowledge no insurance company that offers UK holidaymakers comprehensive insurance for scooter hire in Greece, whether you’re in Corfu or Rhodes; Cyprus or Crete.  It’s not that there is deliberate deceit going on here, it’s just that something is lost in the translation.

So, if you take “full” insurance, you will still be paying for damage to the bike, but you will usually be covered for third party, fire and theft.  It’s a bit of a game of chance, this, because you will almost never get to see an insurance policy document or schedule.  So, it’s like this: when you enter into an agreement for scooter hire in Greece, you need to understand that there are risks and unknowns, and insurance is usually one of them.

In part two of this series on scooter hire in Greece, we take you down to the scooter hire shop and show you what to look for..

Scooter Hire in Greece – Part 2

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