We want to rent a car for one day while staying in Oia, Santorini, but would prefer not to have to travel to the airport to pick it up and dro pit off. Are there any car rental places right in Oia (or maybe Fira)? I haven't been able to locate any on the internet other than at the airport.
Thanks in advance.
When we stayed in Oia 3 years ago, our hotel owner set us up with a car for the day right in Oia. We didn't set it up ahead of time, he just asked us if we were interested when we checked in. So you might check with your hotel if you want to plan to rent a car ahead of time. It worked out great and we saw a lot of the island. We especially liked going to the Akrotiri Archeological site.
We rented from here in Oia in 2018. We returned the car to the ferry which was very convenient.
Please note, Greek car fleets have MANY More stick-shift vehcles because of the high pricve of fuel (prices are quoted in euros per liter, but in US terms its over $9 gallon). Therefore if you can only drive automatic, best to reserve somewhat ahead unless you are visiting in Early Spring, when crowds are fewer.
Thank you, Iken56. We will be staying in an AirbNb, and the host has not offered to set us up with a rental car, so I don't think that will be happening. And yes, janet, we do understand why there are so many standards and so few automatics. We just tend to rent automatics in other countries where we are unfamiliar with the traffic patterns, etc, for simplicity's sake. We will be renting soon and visiting in mid May. Finally, BethFL, We would love to rent the car in OÍa and return it either there or at the ferry. Thank you so much for the tip.
I just learned about one other car rental company in Oia called Ist Choice Santorini. Does anyone know anything about their reputation?
Thanks again.
The prevalence of manual transmission cars in Europe is not because of fuel prices! It's because manual cars are cheaper and 99% of European drivers can drive manual transmission cars anyway so no need to overpay. If you take a driving test with an automatic car it results in a restriction code (78) on your drivers licence and means that you are only allowed to drive automatics so most people learn to drive manuals with no restrictions on the type of car they can drive.
Oh, qq. I didn't know any of that. Thanks for the education.
