Greece Rent a car

Car hire in Greece – our experience

Car hire in Greece – on this article we will tell you about all car hire features in Athenes, Thessaloniki, Rhodes, Crete and other islands of Greece. Rules and requirements are approximately the same. We took a car in the Thessaloniki Airport Makedonia (SKG). We also will share our experience and give you some advice.

Car hire in Greece – our experience

So we had been travelling in Greece for a week. For our trip we rented a car in the airport and returned it back in the airport also. We will tell you about everything in details. Many independent travelers afraid of car hire in another country. We have big experience in car rental in many countries and we are spreading this idea between our subscribers. With our articles we try to show you, that car hire is a very simple process, there are no any obscure issues and travel by car is more convenient. Car hire gives you a freedom.

Car hire in Greece

Should you car hire in Greece? Our answer is exactly YES. At first, it is safety (further on our article we will show you that you can select 100% of insurance for your car hire). And, at the second, you can see more places of interest of exact country, because you have more freedom.

Our articles about car rental experience abroad and in Russia:

Most popular questions about car hire in Greece

  1. Can we car hire without any deposit or franchise? There is the most popular question between travelers. Yes, you can. This option can provide you some of rental companies, but for our trip to Greece we hired a car without any deposit and franchise.
  2. Can you drive with your national driving license? Yes, you can, but your surname and name should be written in English.
  3. If you do not have a long driving experience, can you car hire in Greece then? Yes, you can car hire in Greece is you are 25 years old and you have driving experience more than 3 year.
  4. Is it possible to car hire from the airport? Yes, it is possible. Moreover it is exactly what you should do. Taxi cost from the Thessaloniki Airport Makedonia (SKG) to a city center starts from 20 Euro. This is cost of one day of car hire. If you start your car hire from the airport, then you will save money.
  5. Is it possible to load a rented car on ferry? You have to check an answer on this question for an exact rented car, because rules can be vary from car rental company to another. Support of Myrentacar will give you reply very fast. You can send an email to hello@myrentacar.com or call by +44 74807 222 04.
  6. Can you car hire in one city and return it back in another one? Yes, you can, but most likely the total cost of your car hire in Greece will be higher on 250 Euro or more. Because usually car rental companies have their head offices in one city only. That’s why they take extra for car return in another city.
We visited Meteora with car. We fall in love with this place in Greece.

Further we will tell you about all aspects of car hire in Greece in details.

Where can you find a car?

On our articles about car hire we recommend to rent a car through rental brokers. It is more cheaper, more convenient and more safety. This rule is applicable for each countries in the world. Why is it so? When you rent a car through big rental companies, then you automatically overpay (sometimes 2 times more), but provided service is the same. If you would like to rent a car through a private owner on arrival, then you cannot control the quality and sometimes you can get old car with problems.

Where do you need to car hire: 

  • Myrentacar. This is the best company on all markets where they are working. We rented a car in Armenia, Georgia, Cyprus and Kaliningrad. We think that they have success, because they are working in certain regions only and trying to provide the best service. This company works with small and medium-sized rental companies. Also prices are ones of the lowest on the market.
  • Economybookings. This broker is working with big and medium-sized rental companies. This company also gives good prices.
  • Autoeurope. We rented a car with this company in the USA (Miami and Los Andgeles). On this website you can find good offers from big rental companies Hertz, Avis and etc.

One more advantage car hire through Myrentacar – you will get exactly the same auto, which you choose. Car type, color, year of car production, engine power and etc. – predictability plays a plus here. I often remember car rental experince in Italy. We rented Alfa Romeo Giulietta, but we received a car with higher class – Ford C-Max (absolutely different types of cars!)

How to car hire in Greece

It is a very simple process:

  • go on website;
  • choose a city of rental;
  • choose rental dates.

You can find many cars in any city of Greece. Thessaloniki, Athens, Crete, Rhodos, Corfu, Kos are the most popular locations. During high season it is better to car hire in advance. Because of pandemic situation upgrade of car park of rental companies is slow. And that’s why sometimes it is not enough cars during summer season.

It is very convenient to find the best variant for your trip in Greece using filters:

Filters will help you to narrow your search to only the options you need. Usually we check all variants to see which kind of cars you can hire in exact country and exact city. After it, we already start choosing the parameters.

In Greece we thought to hire a car with automatic transmission, but we found more cheaper variants with mechanic and change our mind.

After making your choice, please check description attentively. You have to read all the information about the car and after that you can car hire. We stopped our choice on Fiat Punto. This car was chosen because of several causes:

  • Almost a new car – 2018 year of production. We prefer to hire newer cars, because in Greece you can often find older cars.
  • It is trite, but chosen variant had one of the lowest rental price. We could hire Fiat Panda 2018 year of production for 125 Euro, but Fiat Punto had more higher price 140 Euro for a week.
  • No need to leave deposit. Usually we do not worry about it. And we are ready to leave the deposit, but in this case we need to waste time on arranging this process.
  • Second driver is for free – some rental companies cannot provide it for free.
  • CDW was included in the final rental cost and no need to pay additional for it. This option is not free of charge for all the variants. Please check everything attentively.
We chose Fiat Punto. This car is not the fastest one, but it is enough for travelling

When you chosen a car for your trip through website of Myrentacar, then no need to wait any additional payments. You only need to pay 15% of the total rental cost and the rest of the sum you can pay when you get the car (you can pay by cash or by card).

The price is final and you do not need to pay anything additional. For us this is a massive advantage to car hire with Myrentacar comparing with big brokers. Renting a car with big rental companies, you always need to be very attentive, because their rental contracts have many hidden information.

When everything is clear for your with car which you want to hire, then you need to specify your contact details and number of your flight. It is not always easy to find manager from rental company in the airport or to find you there. For many years we use tourist SIM-card Drimsim. Mobile and Internet connection are really cheap enough. On this trip SIM-card was really useful. We called to manager of rental company and found him easily.

After arranging prepayment, you will receive voucher on your email. You just need to print it our to find mobile of the rental company more easily.

Car hire cost in Greece

It will very much depend on from the season, inquiries and place of rent. During low season in Athens or Thessaloniki you can find variants with car hire cost starting from 9-12 Euro per day. Average car hire cost in the beggining or in the end of the season will be 18 Euro per day or higher. In our case we rented a car in the end of the season for 20 Euro per day.

What type of car can you car hire in Greece

Most of offered variants from rental companies in Greece are compact cars, because gasoline price is too high, but level of salary is lower, than other European countries have. You can meet compact cars from almost all producers, but there is another situation with other types of car.

From our experience, we can say that Fiat Punto with 1.2l engine was enough for our trip. It is not the fastest car, but it has low fuel consumption and it quite confidently keeps speed 110-120 km/h on the highway (we didn’t need faster car).

Which kind of insurance will be better to choose

With Myrentacar it is easy to understand which kind of insurance will be better to choose comparing with big rental companies, because Myrentacar provides all the information more transparent. There are only 3 types of insurance:

Compulsory one:

  • TPL – all the cars are TPL insured.

Optionally you can choose CDW and SuperCDW insurance:

  • CDW – most of the rental cars in Greece have such kind of insurance. This insurance will cover damage of your car, if you are guilty in an accident. Usually CDW includes franchise (€300-500). If damage is minor, then you will pay for it within this amount. CDW insurance doesn’t include damage of wheels, bottom of the car and screens. We rented a car with CDW insurance without franchise.
  • SuperCDW – with this insurance you can forget about any damage of hired car and its parts. But you should be attentive, because some rental companies ask about deposit (franchise). In some case franchise will cost you a zero with SuperCDW insurance.

On website you can find an information about provided insurance for each car and also you can compared them. See an example from website:

How to get and return a car at the airport

We would like to tell you about our experience in Thessaloniki. After all the customs procedures, we could go out from the airport building. We didn’t meet a manager of a car rental company and we called to him. Operator explained us that their manager was waiting for us on parcking slot #6 (about 3 minutes by foot from the exit of the airport). Manager was waiting for us with small placard. When we met each other, all organizational issues were closed during 5 minutes and we could take our car and continue our journey. As you can see the process of getting car at the airport was super simple. Nothing special, just some formalities.

What should you check during getting a car:

  1. Attentively check car body, wheels and bottom of a car for any kind of damages. Usually a manager of a car rental company should have them marked in your agreement, but it is always better to recheck everything by yourself.
  2. Check how clean the interior of a car and fuel level.
  3. Take photos of all damages and even better to make 360 degrees video of a car. Keep them till the end of a car hire period.
  4. If you get a car during evening or night time, then it would be better to take a flashlight with you or use your mobile to check car attentively.

The process of car return is even easier than process of getting a car. We agreed to return rented car at 1 pm day time, but reach the airport even earlier. A manger of a car rental company was waiting for us on the same parcking slot #6. He looked around the car, checked level of a fuel, wish us a safety trip back home and that’s it.

We know that car hire process is very nervous for people, who do it for the first time or very seldom. There is nothing to afraid of, but if you are, then you always can call to a car rental company or support team of Myrentacar.

Video about our car hire experience in Greece:

Quality of roads in Greece, style of driving and fines

Quality of roads in Greece is good enough. We were surprised with the level of autobahns. For sure, these are toll roads, but the cost corresponds with the quality of roads. You will ride through payment terminals quite often, but cost of a ride is not too high (usually it is about €1-3). Unfortunately, in settlements the level of roads cover is far from ideal, but you hardly can meet big holes on it. In total we can say that quality of roads in Greece is much more better than in Russia, but, of course, it is not too good as in other parts of Europe.

Toll roads in Greece. Please choose “green man” to pay by card or cash.

Additional information about toll roads in Greece:

  • Cost of ride differs from one toll road to another one because of different managing organisations
  • We paid €4.7 for section from Meteora to Parga on autobahn E90, but from Parga to Thessaloniki – 8.8.
  • You have to pay your ride before exit. Cards and cash are acceptable.
  • Be attentive with your ride through the bridge Rio-Antirio. The length of it is about 3 km, but cost of a ride for a passenger car is €13.5.
You can see many different tunnels on the toll road on the way to Parga. They will differ by length a lot.

Basic traffic rules in Greece

Speed limitation: 

  • In settlements 50 km/h
  • Out of settlements 90 km/h
  • On highways and autobahns 110-130 km/h

Other features of traffic rules: 

  • Acceptable level of alcohol in blood is 0.5 ‰. It is better to avoid any experiments with alcohol driving a car, because fines are too high.
  • It is not obligatory to use low beam, but on toll roads there are many tunnels and it must to be turned on the lights. That’s why we used lights during all the way.
  • You also must use a safety belts for all the passengers in the car.
  • It is forbidden to use mobile without a headset.
We liked road quality and views during our ride in Greece
Fines for traffic violations

Drivers in Greece are not particularly fond of traffic rules. Overspeeding happens very often, because drivers like fast driving. But, at the same time, we didn’t see many policemen on the roads. There are many camera warning signs on toll roads, but almost all drivers are always overspeeding.

Anyway we recommend to drive according the traffic rules. Local drivers know where it is possible to drive faster and where it is not, but it will be better for you to ride by your route without any rush.

The main violations and fines for it

Type of violationsFines, Euro
Speaking by mobile without hands free system100
Low beam80
Unfastened seat belt350
Red light passage700
Solid line crossing700
STOP sign ignoring700
Overspeeding up to 20 km/h40
Overspeeding from 21 km/h to 30 km/h100
Overspeeding more than on 30 km/h350
Drunk drivingstarting 200

Parking in Greece

Parking and tarrifs in Thessaloniki

In some places of Greece is too problematic to park. We had difficulties with parking in Thessaloniki, Parga and Metsovo. The same difficult situation with parking was in Athens.

In Thessaloniki we were lucky to easily find a parking close to our apartment during the night time. At a day time, we left our car at a paid parking in the same area. There are many of them. Cost for 24 hours was €6, but if you would like to left your car till the end of the working day, then you should pay €5. In Athens cost will be higher. Take in to your mind about €10 for 24 hours.

Parga and Metsovo are touristic towns with narrow streets. That’s why it will be difficult to park even out of season. Therefore it is better to choose hotels with parking (preferably free). For example, we booked a room in hotel with free undeground parking.

This is Metsovo. Usually you will park on slopes. Our car had a help system to avoid rolling back.

Our week route by north part of Greece

We had only one week for our trip to Greece in the end of season. That’s why we thought about route by  north part of Greece. It will be our pleasure, if you decide to use our route for your trip.

  • Thessaloniki. 1st day. Evening flight, getting a car and acquaintance withthe city.
  • Paralia-Katerini. 2nd day (moving from Thessaloniki, about 75 km). Rest on the Aegean sea. We even had a chance to swim.
  • Meteora. 3rd and 4th days. Moving from Paralia-Katerini (180 km). Visit of monasteries and points of view.
  • Parga. 5th and 6th days. Moving from Kalambaka (190 km) – rest on the Ionic sea. Here we didn’t swim, because it was windy and stormy. But it was ideal for promenade.
  • Metsovo. 7th day. We visited this cute town on the way to Thessaloniki. It is situiated in the mountaines and if you like beautiful views, then you must visit this samll touristic town on the way from Parga to Thessaloniki. Moving to Thessaloniki (350 km).
  • Thessaloniki. 7th and 8th days. Short drive to the airport (20 km) and way to Saint Petersburg.

Totally we drove more than 900 km by north Greece.

Filling stations and petrol price in Greece

Petrol price in Greece is 3 times higher than in Russia. If you live in Europe, then price will not surprice you. Our car petrol mileage per 100 km was 6 liter. You can try to save some money to hire a diesel car, but total price for car hire can be more expensive.

Average petrol price in Greece in 2021:

  • Unleaded 95 – €1.76 per liter
  • Unleaded 98 – €1.92 per liter
  • Diesel €1.52 per liter
On Shell price per liter was 1.73-1.78 Euro

You can fill your car in any filling station. Petrol quality is the same through all the country. For sure, gasoline price can vary, but we didn’t meet Unleaded 95 by price higner than €1.88. One thing, you cannot fill your tank by yourself, because on gasoline stations they have special people for it. As for the payment process, 1st time we paid on cashbox, but 2nd time refueler had terminal.

Total car hire cost

And so, how much did we spend for car hire for our week route by north part of Greece including all the expenses on car?

  1. Car hire Fiat Punto for 7 days – €140
  2. Parking – €5
  3. Toll roads – €22.9
  4. Fuel – €107

So totally we spend €274.9. We think it is not too higher expenses on car hire considering how many beautiful places we had a chance to see.

Navigation for the trip

For navigation in Greece it will be more convenient to use Google-maps. But we advice you to download them before your trip and use maps in off-line mode. In this way you will save money. To download Google-maps you should push button settings, select off-line maps, find necessary area on map and download.

Also we used Drimsim to be in contact with our families and have possibility to read or find an information about a place. We spent €10 only during our whole trip to Greece.

Our feedback about car hire in Greece

We liked so much to travel by car in Greece. We didn’t have any problems with booking, getting a car, filling and car return. Everything was almost perfect. And we would like to tell you about it to show you which wonderful people are living in Greece.

In the morning we discovered that car lighter didn’t function, but we usually use it for navigator and mobile charging. It turned down that the fuse has blown.

We called to our rental company and they offered 2 ways to solve our problem:

  • come to the office and change the fuse (it should take about 10 minutes), but the way from our apartment to the airport was about 20 km
  • change the fuse by ourselves

Frankly speaking, we were ready to drive to the office, but we decided to ask people in nearby shop where we can buy fuse for our car. In this shop you can buy spare parts for motorcycles. After our simple question, about 5 people came to help us. Someone was checking car lighter, someone was looking for the fuse block, someone found fuses. Together with the help of these people, we fixed the car lighter in 15 minutes. Of course, they didn’t ask anything for thier help. We thanked them all and gave them Russian chocolate as a gratitute for their kindness and readiness to help.

Local people help us with fuse changing

You also can contact Myrentacar support by email, WhatsApp or Telegram. They will always reply you in a fast way.

Find car for hire in Greece

We liked our car hire experience in Greece. And so we can recommend you it.

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