Where and How To Rent a Car in Santorini – Insider Tips

You've planning a trip to Greece and decided to include Santorini on your island hopping adventure. The next step is figuring out whether you need to car and if so, how to rent a car in Santorini.

Before you leave home, there's one thing you 100% need to do before you go – get an international drivers permit (IDP)! The IDP is a certified translation of your home license. This is often misunderstood as a requirement for car rental companies but it isn't. When you rent a car in Santorini, they won't ask to see your IDP.

Prerequisites to rent a car in Santorini

Rent a car at the airport

For those that are flying into Santorini, you'll be landing at Santorini National Airport (JTR). This is a small airport and once you pick up your bags from the carousel, you'll be greeted by the arrivals area with a number of car rental kiosks. The rental car companies that service the airport are: Avance, Avis, Autonion, Budget, Centauro, Enterprise, Europcar, Hertz, National, Sixt, Suntime, and Thrifty.

The port has several car rental companies with storefronts but more often than not, reps will meet those that have booked with them and shuttle you up to a customer service center located nearby.

Rent a car at the Santorini port

Rent a car in town

Once you get into the village your accommodations are in, you'll realize there are way more car rental companies that you thought there were on Santorini. There are a wide selection of these unknown Greek companies dotted all around the island in key towns such as Akrotiri, Perissa, Kamari, Imerovigli, Oia, etc.

What you see listed on the website or even on their printed posters isn’t the price they offer.  There’s always an element of negotiation or sometimes they just offer automatic discounts when you sit down in their office.  This may be dependent on the season but you can definitely get a very good deal.

Tips on booking with local Greek car rental companies

They will of course try to up-sell you on insurance. Know what you have ahead of time. If one of your premium travel credit cards has coverage built-in, you can confidently decline.

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