Car rental from Syntagma Square

I'm fairly cautious when driving out of a big city, and I went with the airport. Have you looked at the map? I'm not the driver, hubs is, but I have sometimes made him map out a drive to know what he's getting into.
It's not a big deal at all to get to the airport by taxi but you could encounter a line--that would be my biggest con for that option.

Having to drive through central Athens does not sound like an attractive option. If it was my trip I'd try to rent a car from e.g. Corinth railway station or somewhere else a bit west of the city.

Have you looked at a map?? You don't drive to the Peloponnese from Central Athens, no no no. THat way lies Madness! When you pick up your car at Airport, you AVOID Athens by going immediately onto the Major modern (divided) intercity highway that loops ABOVE Athens, heading for the Corinth Crossing -- you don't even have to tap your brakes until after the Canal. Here is an online map that makes it perfectlly clear - https://tinyurl.com/zekuft9 - (click & it gets huuge; use side-slides to navigate). Please, do what everyone else has learned to do... Friends & I have done this at least 3 times,.. once in blinding rainstorm. Easy as PI !!

As for the hassle of getting to the airport, a taxi summoned by your hotel doorman will cost you flat-fee €38 or 40 these days including everything - since it's rush hour it may take u an hour... OR you can walk a few yards up the street to the KTEL x95 bus to the airport. It's at top of Othonos St. (the side of SyntSquare), leaves every 20-30 minutes, takes same exact road as taxi, baggage secure inside bus, upholstered seats, A/C, €6.50 per.

THe super-cautious conservative thing to do IS go from Airport. Driving IN Athens in rush hour & trying to find your way to the "Beltway" will result in your using curse words you never even realized you knew.

During a 2018 trip to Greece, we picked up a car at the airport to go to Peloponnese. Easy drive following highway around Athens. Returning from Peloponnese, got caught in the wrong ( right side ) lanes approaching Athens during afternoon rush hour. Drove all the way thru downtown to airport. Needless to say, the drive was very slow (and for the wife terrifying), but the car and truck drivers were skilled and courteous - no one wanted to bang up their rigs. Not so with the scooters (Vespas, etc) - weaving and squeezing thru traffic. So it can be done if you are patient and have a good gps map program. There are few directional signs. Would be better to take the bus or taxi and rent and drop at the airport tho'. And stay to the left on the highway returning!

THanks Larry for the first-person report on the experience of driving into central athens... where u may be hemmed in with huge trucks much of the time. Sometimes people take convincing.

What Larry refers to is on the Return trip toward Athens (Pay attention, NEEL) -- It is on the same easy modern divided highway you drove outbound. There is only ONE juncture where you must make that critical correct move (See map - https://tinyurl.com/zekuft9) ; coming back, when you reach ELEFSINA (THere will be MANY Signs) You must turn LEFT .... otherwise u will be trapped in that shore road with the trucks, with NO easy way to exit.

In the past....car rentals have picked us up at our Athens hotel ( luggage and all) and driven us out to the outskirts of the city pointed in the right direction. There may have been a nominal charge but it was well worth it. You might ask if they offer that service.

Lewis, I think the only one tat has offered that service was Thrift Car Rentals... and there have been very iffy reports about th e conditions of their rental cars. Just adding as a precaution.

From Syntagma Square the X95 bus goes to the airport pretty much 24/7, leaving every 15 minutes. It's direct, so there are no transfers. Very inexpensive (buy your tickets from the kiosk there before getting on the bus). This was pretty easy and you avoid having to drive in Athens.

Also, we found that Volta4U near the airport had the best rates (at least when we were there). This is because they are not actually on site in the airport, but right outside it's boundaries. They will pick you up from the airport though in their van. We took the X95 to departures at the airport and they picked us up from there.

We have never rented from Thrift before....always ACR.....but the car rental business has been so upended by covid, I wouldn't be surprised if that service is no longer available.

We used Swift Avanti and it was fantastic. They picked us up from our hotel in the Plaka and drove us to their offices on Syngrou (main road between Athens and Piraeus). At the office we did the paperwork, they gave us easy directions out of town and off we went. From Syngrou, it is a straight line, one on-ramp onto a highway, and then highway driving all the way out of town. The car was a fairly new VW Golf.

People have been referring to a company called "Thrift" but I wonder if they are really referring to "Swift"

https://www.greektravel.com/swift

YEs, my mistake, I misspoke, it was Swift. Glad you had a good experience with them, but I do advise people to check internet for reviews of that company. Experiences vary. And as Darren's example show, Swift no longer drives you right to the on-ramp. They put u in the car outside of their Syngrou office, give you directions and wish you luck. Do they continue to charge a higher rate that the agencies mentioned earlier?