Picking up a car at Athens Airport: what actually happens
You have landed at Athens International Airport, you have your bag, and you have a car booked. Here is exactly what happens next, so none of it is a surprise.
Finding us
Athens Airport is a single terminal, which makes this easier than most. After baggage reclaim you come out into Arrivals. Car rental is signposted from there.
If your flight is delayed, tell us. The single most useful thing you can do is send a message with your flight number when you book — a delayed flight is not a missed booking as far as we are concerned, but we do need to know you are coming.
What you need to have with you
Three things:
- Your driving licence. If it was issued outside the EU, bring an International Driving Permit alongside it. You get one before you travel, from the motoring authority in your own country — you cannot get one here. Licences in non-Latin alphabets need one too.
- Your passport or ID card.
- Nothing else. No credit card, no deposit. That is not a promotional line, it is how we work: we do not block money on your card before handing over keys, which is the part of renting from the big chains that people complain about most.
The paperwork
Short. We check the licence, confirm the dates and the return location, and go over the insurance you selected when you booked. If you want to change anything — add a driver, extend by a day — this is the moment.
Then we walk to the car together and look at it. Take your own photos of anything already marked; we do the same. It protects both of us and takes two minutes.
The car itself
You will have booked a category rather than a specific registration — a Small, a Family, an SUV. What you get is a car from that category, and we tell you the model when you book. Every car goes out non-smoking, cleaned, and serviced by us rather than a contractor.
Have a look at the boot before you load it if you are travelling heavy. A small car with four adults and four large suitcases is a physics problem, and it is easier to solve on the forecourt than on the motorway.
Fuel
We work same-to-same: the car comes to you at a given level and comes back at the same level. That means you buy exactly the fuel you use and nothing else. There is a station a few minutes from the airport for the return leg — plan for it rather than discovering it at the barrier.
Getting out of the airport
The airport sits northeast of the city and connects straight onto Attiki Odos, the ring motorway. It is a toll road, well signed, and the fastest way to almost anywhere: west toward the city and Piraeus, or south toward Koropi, the coast and Sounio.
Our office is in Koropi, a short hop from the airport, which is why airport collections are quick for us and why we can meet flights that land at hours when other desks are shut.
Dropping off somewhere else
Pick-up and drop-off do not need to match. Land at the airport, drive the coast for a week, hand the car back at Piraeus before a ferry — that is a normal booking, and the price is confirmed before you pay.
If something goes wrong
Every car carries our number. Call it. You will get somebody who knows the car and can make a decision, not a queue and a reference number. That is the actual advantage of renting from a small local company, and it only matters on the day it matters.
