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Greek car hire, mainland and islands
Two mainland airports joined by toll motorways and two islands with short airport drives; any ferry trip with the car is agreed first.
Home / Greece
Two mainland airports joined by toll motorways and two islands with short airport drives; any ferry trip with the car is agreed first.
What changes for a driver at each of the four places our Greek search covers.
From the airport the White Tower is about 25 minutes, and Halkidiki is within reach: Kallithea on Kassandra about 1 h 15 min, Neos Marmaras on Sithonia about 2 h.
East to Kavala (about 2 h 15 min) or west to Kalambaka for Meteora (about 3 h) you are on Egnatia Odos; its Thessaloniki toll station charged light vehicles €0.65 (operator’s list, as read 23 October 2026).
79 of the 205 cars here were brought to a Thessaloniki address rather than the airport, on a search run 22 October 2026 covering 16 to 23 November 2026.
Into the city usually means Attiki Odos, a toll motorway: a car pays €2.80 once, on entering (cash rate published by Attiki Odos, read 23 October 2026). Syntagma Square is about 35 minutes off with no traffic.
Cape Sounion is about 55 minutes out. Into the Peloponnese from the airport: Corinth Canal about 1 h 30 min, Nafplio about 2 h 30 min.
AI cameras at eight points in Attica, and cameras on ten buses, have produced fines sent out digitally since 28 March 2026 (Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport).
Rhodes Old Town lies about 20 minutes from the airport, Ancient Kamiros about 25, and Lindos and Monolithos castle about 1 h 15 min each.
No Rhodes car could be left in Athens in our one-way search of 22 October 2026, so a mainland leg means a second car.
We print no time for Prasonisi: the last stretch runs on a road whose surface we have not checked.
Corfu Town is about 5 minutes from the airport and the port about 10; Sidari and Kassiopi in the north and Kavos in the south are each about 50 minutes.
Unlike Thessaloniki and Rhodes, the airport keeps winter hours: terminal open 06:00 to 22:30 from 6 November 2026 to 27 March 2027.
Every one of the 54 Corfu cars held a deposit in the Corfu search of 22 October 2026 (16 to 23 November 2026).
How the main roads work, from the motorway operators and the rental terms.
Greek motorways are run section by section by separate companies. Athens to Thessaloniki, about 6 h 30 min without traffic, takes you through the toll stations of Nea Odos, the Central Greece Motorway and the Aegean Motorway in turn, each with its own price list (the Aegean Motorway’s valid from 1 January 2026, the rest taken from their 23 October 2026 lists). We have not added up a total. West of Athens, Olympia Odos runs to Corinth and Patras, and Moreas, which charges in both directions, to Kalamata.
The Rio-Antirrio bridge operator says one e-pass tag has worked on every Greek motorway since November 2020. Whether a hire car carries a tag was not checked, so expect staffed lanes; Attiki Odos also points drivers with a roof load to a staffed lane so the car is classed correctly.
Egnatia runs from Igoumenitsa in the west to Kipoi on the Evros border, and its former operator called it one of the most mountainous motorways in Europe: more than 220 km in a row sit above 500 m, and the road passes 1,000 m near Metsovo.
For fog, its former operator advised slowing down, leaving a long gap and, if you can barely see, pulling into a parking or service area rather than stopping on the hard shoulder. Its 2013 winter note said conditions change from one section to the next, particularly up in the mountains.
Between Rio, near Patras, and Antirrio, a 2,252 m cable-stayed deck takes 2.5 to 5 minutes to cross, by its operator’s figures. A car up to 2 m high paid €15.90 at our 23 October 2026 reading of its price list.
The operator reports strong winds there, especially in autumn and winter, even on days when Patras and Nafpaktos look untouched; police may then restrict motorbikes and high-sided empty trucks.
Clause 8 of the Greek terms allows a hire car only onto paved public roads, and no Greek road is named, so a beach or hill track is judged by its surface. That is why our Rhodes list stops short of Prasonisi.
We have not read the street-parking rules of Athens, Thessaloniki, Corfu Town or Rhodes Town. For any car left in Greece, the UK Foreign Office advises valuables out of sight, doors locked and a well-lit spot or secure car park.
Rules from Greece’s entries on Your Europe, the EU portal (last checked there 1 October 2026), the UK Foreign Office and the transport ministry.
Clause 6 of the Greek terms sets the order: without delay ring the Greek rental company, and get the Greek police to write up what happened; the rental company alone can let you skip that report. Leave out either and the car’s cover lapses, with the bill falling to you. For emergencies dial 112, or 166 for an ambulance; a 999 call from a UK mobile is passed to the Greek services. The motorway operators list their own lines: Attiki Odos 1024, Egnatia 1077, the Central Greece Motorway 1075 (24 hours) and the Aegean Motorway +30 2414 40 1075.
Each motorway company and each airport publishes its own list; we read them all on 23 October 2026. Clause 12 puts every toll on the renter, as it does fuel and parking.
Thessaloniki (SKG)P4 short stay: 20 minutes free, then €6 for up to an hour. P3 long stay: €15 for 4 to 24 hours. Stopping to park in the arrivals or departures lanes is not allowed.
Corfu (CFU)20 minutes free, €5 for up to one hour, €12 from 5 to 24 hours.
Rhodes (RHO)Open-air car park: 20 minutes free, €6 for up to one hour, €17 from 5 to 24 hours. The long-term car park takes cards only.
Counts below come from four Greek airport searches, run 22 October 2026; each search was for pickup on Monday 16 November 2026 and return seven days later.
161 of the 185 Athens listings had the airport as their handover point; the other 24 were tied to a point the booking engine labels “Rental office”, with no street address shown. A test of 10 Athens airport cars booked with 03:00 pickup and 03:00 return (quoted 22 October 2026) found 7 adding a night-time surcharge, and 1 could not be booked for that hour at all.
Fraport Greece, which runs Thessaloniki airport, says it never closes: 00:00 to 23:59, seven days a week. The Thessaloniki search had 126 cars collected at the airport and 79 driven out to Thessaloniki addresses; 7 of those deliveries had a flat €500 delivery fee built into the total.
Corfu airport keeps shorter winter hours: from 6 November 2026 to 27 March 2027 its terminal opens 06:00 to 22:30, and the airport itself 07:00 to 22:30. Corfu’s search showed 35 cars collected at the airport and 19 town deliveries, with no delivery fee on any of them.
Rhodes airport says it is open round the clock, 00:00 to 23:59 every day. Rhodes had 73 cars at the airport and 4 by delivery; 23 of the airport cars carried a €20 airport charge inside the total, which on the one car we priced was split across pickup and return.
Athens airport · Thessaloniki airport · Corfu airport · Rhodes airport on a map
Free-flow routing times, rounded up. Traffic and stops add to them.
Athens or Thessaloniki if you will drive the mainland motorways; Corfu or Rhodes if you are staying on that island, with a separate car for each island.
Flying home from the other mainland airport? Choose it as the drop-off and the one-way charge appears inside each car’s total.
If the car has to cross to or from an island, get the booking partner’s customer support to agree it before you finish booking.
The advance goes online; the rest, and any deposit, is paid at pickup by the methods printed on that car, once your licence has been checked.
What the Athens, Thessaloniki, Corfu and Rhodes cars accepted for a week starting 16 November 2026; each city searched on 22 October 2026.
67 Thessaloniki cars, 30 on Rhodes and 27 at Athens had no deposit. Corfu was the exception: all 54 of its cars held one.
Thessaloniki had 49 cars taking the deposit in cash, Corfu 19 and Athens 18; Rhodes had none. A listing that says “No credit card” can still want a card for the deposit, so check its payment methods.
Athens asked for a credit card on 103 of 185 cars, Thessaloniki on 66 of 205. All of them were airport cars; no town delivery in these searches needed one.
Booking takes 15 to 20% of the hire online; the remainder goes to the Greek rental company when it gives you the keys.
Greek cars bookable for pickup on 16 November and return on 23 November 2026, listed 22 October 2026; your own dates will give different numbers.
| Listings | Athens | Thessaloniki | Corfu | Rhodes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| All cars | 185 | 205 | 54 | 77 |
| Airport handover | 161 | 126 | 35 | 73 |
| Credit card required | 103 | 66 | 26 | 50 |
| No deposit | 27 | 67 | 0 | 30 |
| Automatic gearbox | 82 | 91 | 14 | 40 |
| Manual gearbox | 103 | 114 | 40 | 37 |
| 7, 8 or 9 seats | 27 | 23 | 1 | 7 |
| Exact model promised | 69 | 79 | 19 | 26 |
| 24-hour cancellation option | 99 | 143 | 25 | 64 |
Greek listings carry up to four tiers; some parts of a car stay outside even the basic policy.
Pick the drop-off town in the search. Counts and charges are for a car picked up on 16 November and returned on 23 November 2026, from our Greek one-way search of 22 October 2026.
The Greek rental terms, and what our 22 October 2026 search would and would not book.
A crossing between the mainland and an island is allowed only after the booking partner’s support desk has said yes, and that agreement must come first, ahead of payment (clause 10 of the Greece rental terms).
Nothing collected on Corfu or Rhodes could be dropped at Athens, and nothing from Athens on either island. Plan a separate car for each island you stay on.
Thessaloniki offered no return in Sofia, Skopje or Tirana, and Athens none in Istanbul.
For Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Albania or Turkey, bring the car back inside Greece and continue by other transport.
Greek terms bar every rental car from leaving the country by road, and the booking partner listed no cross-border package for Greece that would change that.
Some do; Athens and Thessaloniki differ. In our Athens and Thessaloniki searches on 22 October 2026 (Greek cars collected 16 November and returned 23 November 2026), 66 of 205 Thessaloniki cars and 103 of 185 Athens cars wanted one. Where a card is required, bring the actual plastic, embossed, with the main driver named as holder; listings show this before checkout.
Same Greek search (run 22 October 2026, Greek cars wanted from 16 to 23 November 2026): 67 in Thessaloniki, 30 on Rhodes and 27 at Athens. Corfu had none among its 54. The deposit figure sits on each listing.
No. Taking a rental car over any national border breaks the terms. Our Greek border search (22 October 2026) found no Thessaloniki car that could be returned in Sofia, Skopje or Tirana, and no Athens car in Istanbul.
On some cars. For Greek dates 16 to 23 November 2026, 55 Athens airport cars could be returned in Thessaloniki and 53 could go the other way; the one-way charge, €220 to €425 northbound, was already in their totals (searched 22 October 2026). Without stops the drive takes about 6 h 30 min.
Minimum age and licence years are set per car, so near-identical models can differ. 7 Athens airport quotes from 22 October 2026 set the minimum age at 20 to 25, and asked for 1 to 3 years of driving experience.
Carrying one is wise. Greek terms advise a permit beside your national licence, warning that certain companies may decline you without it. UK photocard holders are covered for Greece, per the UK government; paper-licence holders may need a renewal or a 1968 permit.
Attiki Odos, the Athens airport motorway, takes €2.80 from a car on entry (its published cash rate, read 23 October 2026). Nea Odos, the Central Greece Motorway, the Aegean Motorway, Olympia Odos, Moreas, Egnatia Odos and the Rio-Antirrio bridge all charge at their own toll stations. The renter pays every toll.
We have not checked whether any rental car carries one. A single e-pass tag has worked across the Greek motorway network since November 2020, according to the Rio-Antirrio bridge operator, but plan on paying at a staffed lane, where Attiki Odos, Nea Odos and Egnatia take cash or a card.
30 km/h, rising to 50 km/h on some Greek town roads with several lanes, as Greece reports to Your Europe, the EU portal. Out of town the limit is 90 km/h, and motorways allow up to 130 km/h, where no sign sets another figure.
Athens, Thessaloniki, Corfu and Rhodes, searched for the dates you need.