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Recommendations for car rental from Athens Airport



 
 
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  #11  
Old June 24th, 2011, 02:04 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
Tom P[_6_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 563
Default Recommendations for car rental from Athens Airport

On 06/23/2011 07:38 PM, tim.... wrote:
"Tom wrote in message
...
On 06/19/2011 03:24 AM, Dan Stephenson wrote:
Hello, in the Fall I will travel to Greece, flying into Athens and
heading to the Pelopponese by car, for maybe 10 days.

There are several car rental places at the airport: Avis, Budget, Hertz,
National/Alamo and Sixt.

Can anyone recommend one more than the rest? I wouldn't be buying the
high-dollar collision damage waiver.

Thanks,


I can't speak for Athens, but what you might want to consider are
- does the company have an on-airport depot or do you have to wait for
the courtesy bus and even worse, find the depot again when you return the
car. Off-airport depots are a lot cheaper, but driving round at night in
the back streets of some industry park looking for the depot while the
time for your check-in ticks away is no fun.


Athens aiport is new build on a large green field site. All the facilities
are in the same place

tim





Sixt is at an off-airport location, if I read their website correctly.
  #12  
Old June 24th, 2011, 04:17 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
tim....
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 398
Default Recommendations for car rental from Athens Airport


"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 24 Jun 2011 11:45:51 +0100, "tim...."
wrote:


But the guy is still going to be hiring the car (presumably) to go
touring.


You have no basis for assuming that.


Other than his previous post on the subject perhaps

tim



  #13  
Old June 24th, 2011, 04:24 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
tim....
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 398
Default Recommendations for car rental from Athens Airport


"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 24 Jun 2011 11:35:00 +0100, "tim...."
wrote:


"Martin" wrote in message
. ..
On Thu, 23 Jun 2011 18:32:57 +0100, "tim...."
wrote:


"Martin" wrote in message
m...
On Thu, 23 Jun 2011 11:46:57 +0100, "tim...."
wrote:


"Mike Lane" wrote in message
rginmedia.com...
Dan Stephenson wrote on Jun 19, 2011:

Hello, in the Fall I will travel to Greece, flying into Athens and
heading to the Pelopponese by car, for maybe 10 days.

There are several car rental places at the airport: Avis, Budget,
Hertz, National/Alamo and Sixt.

Can anyone recommend one more than the rest? I wouldn't be buying
the
high-dollar collision damage waiver.

Thanks,


Wouldn't you be better off travelling to the Peloponnese by public
transport
and renting a car from there? That's what I did a few years ago. You
would
save yourself the trouble and expense of driving through Athens
which
is
a
place to be avoided these days as far as possible.

I took a ferry from Piraeus to Porto Heli - a small place on the
east
coast
of the Peloponnese near Spetses - and hired a car there for a week.
It
was
a
very relaxed experience compared to the hassle of Athens.

Athens airport to the Peloponnese is 100% motorway.

The only time you'll have to stop is to pay the toll

Why waste time driving and paying per kilometre, if you can start from
a more convenient place?

As the options for this more convenient place a

1)Taking the bus to the Peloponnese presumably from Athens bus station.
Any
idea where that is? I'll wager it isn't very convenient
2) Flying to Kalamata. Hm, I wonder how many flights a day that gets
from
London/New York or wherever it is that the OP is starting.

I flew from South America via Paris to Athens and changed planes to
get to Kalamata.


and how much waiting around at Athens did you have to do? (Skyscanner
show
one flight a day)


One hour.
How long would it have taken & cost to hire a car and drive to
Pylos? Getting off intercontinental flights hiring a car and driving
a long distance in Greece is a recipe for suicide.


And how much did it add to the cost?


Zero.


Then you were lucky.

ATM skyscanner is showing flights from London to Kalamata as costing over
400 pounds (return), whether booked for next week or three months time, all
requiring an overnight in Athens to actually make the connection.

Direct to Athens available from around 200.

tim




  #14  
Old June 24th, 2011, 08:12 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
Jesper Lauridsen[_1_]
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Posts: 463
Default Recommendations for car rental from Athens Airport

On 2011-06-24, tim.... wrote:

"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 24 Jun 2011 11:45:51 +0100, "tim...."
wrote:


But the guy is still going to be hiring the car (presumably) to go
touring.


You have no basis for assuming that.


Other than his previous post on the subject perhaps


Not to mention the subject line...
  #15  
Old June 25th, 2011, 03:12 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
Alexander Arnakis[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 29
Default Recommendations for car rental from Athens Airport

On Sat, 18 Jun 2011 20:24:52 -0500, Dan Stephenson
wrote:

Hello, in the Fall I will travel to Greece, flying into Athens and
heading to the Pelopponese by car, for maybe 10 days.

There are several car rental places at the airport: Avis, Budget,
Hertz, National/Alamo and Sixt.

Can anyone recommend one more than the rest? I wouldn't be buying the
high-dollar collision damage waiver.

I would avoid the high-price rental chains found at airports.
Independent rental agencies in smaller towns are much cheaper. Plus,
you don't want to navigate the Athens metropolitan area by car if you
don't have to.

Here's what I would do in your situation:

Take the express bus from the airport to Syntagma. Cross the street
and take the Metro to the Larissis train station. Take the next
"Proastiako" train to Corinth. Rent your car in Corinth. (This is a
cheap and convenient route.)

You are taking no more luggage than each person can carry/drag in one
"lift," right?

But, bus transportation is good throughout the Peloponnese. If it were
me, I'd take busses in the Peloponnese and reserve the cars for places
like Crete or Halkidiki.

All this assumes that you don't run into strikes and/or riots. In
Greece these days, you have to have a Plan B for everything. That's
why it's not a good idea to make car rental reservations (or
reservations for anything, for that matter) too far in advance.

  #16  
Old June 25th, 2011, 12:42 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
Tom P[_6_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 563
Default Recommendations for car rental from Athens Airport

On 06/24/2011 10:05 AM, Mike Lane wrote:
tim.... wrote on Jun 23, 2011:


wrote in message
...
On Thu, 23 Jun 2011 11:46:57 +0100, "tim...."
wrote:


"Mike wrote in message
dia.com...
Dan Stephenson wrote on Jun 19, 2011:

Hello, in the Fall I will travel to Greece, flying into Athens and
heading to the Pelopponese by car, for maybe 10 days.

There are several car rental places at the airport: Avis, Budget,
Hertz, National/Alamo and Sixt.

Can anyone recommend one more than the rest? I wouldn't be buying the
high-dollar collision damage waiver.

Thanks,


Wouldn't you be better off travelling to the Peloponnese by public
transport
and renting a car from there? That's what I did a few years ago. You
would
save yourself the trouble and expense of driving through Athens which is
a
place to be avoided these days as far as possible.

I took a ferry from Piraeus to Porto Heli - a small place on the east
coast
of the Peloponnese near Spetses - and hired a car there for a week. It
was
a
very relaxed experience compared to the hassle of Athens.

Athens airport to the Peloponnese is 100% motorway.

The only time you'll have to stop is to pay the toll

Why waste time driving and paying per kilometre, if you can start from
a more convenient place?


As the options for this more convenient place a

1)Taking the bus to the Peloponnese presumably from Athens bus station. Any
idea where that is? I'll wager it isn't very convenient
2) Flying to Kalamata. Hm, I wonder how many flights a day that gets from
London/New York or wherever it is that the OP is starting.

They don't seem very convenient to me.

It's a 100 km drive, how hard can it be?

Or:
3) Bus to Piraeus (leaves from airport outside arrivals), then100 metre walk
to ferry gets you to Ermioni, or Porto Heli in the Peloponnese.

I know which I would rather do.



If Dan wants to rent a car at Athens airport, then let him rent a car at
Athens airport for heaven's sake.

I can't think of many things more mind-blowingly stupid than wasting
half a day dragging my luggage through the strike-ridden mysteries of
Greek public transport to get to a car rental depot somewhere on the
other side of Greece when I could just walked into a car rental office
at the airport. Not to mention doing the whole thing in reverse at the
end of the trip.



  #17  
Old June 25th, 2011, 01:07 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
tim....
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 398
Default Recommendations for car rental from Athens Airport


"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 24 Jun 2011 16:24:02 +0100, "tim...."
wrote:




ATM skyscanner is showing flights from London to Kalamata


Again you assume somebody is flying from London.


No, I just used it as an example.


as costing over
400 pounds (return), whether booked for next week or three months time,
all
requiring an overnight in Athens to actually make the connection.


In September-October Athens Kalamata is £114 return.


Yeah, so that three-four days care hire. Remember the guy wants a car at
his destination anyway.

If you have just flown from another continent it isn't a bad idea to
spend a night in hotel before driving any distance.


Perhaps. But surely you'd still want to pick up your car in Athens.
Catching a bus/ferry/plane to (and from) a place where you have far less
choice of car hire just doesn't make sense to me (given the tiny distance
involved).


Direct to Athens available from around 200.


Athens is a long way from the south of the Peleponese.


200Km, now mostly on motorway. Three hours at most.

From what I recall, your idea of a holiday is to spend it driving.


I don't see what that's got to do with anything.

tim





  #18  
Old June 25th, 2011, 01:11 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
tim....
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 398
Default Recommendations for car rental from Athens Airport


"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 24 Jun 2011 23:39:38 +0200, Martin wrote:

On Fri, 24 Jun 2011 16:17:57 +0100, "tim...."
wrote:


"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 24 Jun 2011 11:45:51 +0100, "tim...."
wrote:


But the guy is still going to be hiring the car (presumably) to go
touring.

You have no basis for assuming that.

Other than his previous post on the subject perhaps


which said?


It didn't mention touring.


Try the one titled Recommendations for detailed maps of Greece, where he
says "he would like to do some side trips"

tim


  #19  
Old June 25th, 2011, 01:17 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
tim....
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 398
Default Recommendations for car rental from Athens Airport


"Martin" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 24 Jun 2011 22:12:02 -0400, Alexander Arnakis
wrote:

On Sat, 18 Jun 2011 20:24:52 -0500, Dan Stephenson
wrote:

Hello, in the Fall I will travel to Greece, flying into Athens and
heading to the Pelopponese by car, for maybe 10 days.

There are several car rental places at the airport: Avis, Budget,
Hertz, National/Alamo and Sixt.

Can anyone recommend one more than the rest? I wouldn't be buying the
high-dollar collision damage waiver.

I would avoid the high-price rental chains found at airports.
Independent rental agencies in smaller towns are much cheaper. Plus,
you don't want to navigate the Athens metropolitan area by car if you
don't have to.

Here's what I would do in your situation:

Take the express bus from the airport to Syntagma. Cross the street
and take the Metro to the Larissis train station. Take the next
"Proastiako" train to Corinth. Rent your car in Corinth. (This is a
cheap and convenient route.)

You are taking no more luggage than each person can carry/drag in one
"lift," right?

But, bus transportation is good throughout the Peloponnese. If it were
me, I'd take busses in the Peloponnese and reserve the cars for places
like Crete or Halkidiki.

All this assumes that you don't run into strikes and/or riots. In
Greece these days, you have to have a Plan B for everything. That's
why it's not a good idea to make car rental reservations (or
reservations for anything, for that matter) too far in advance.


That sounds like very good advice.
There's also a train route that goes part of the way down the west
coast. .


Not at the moment, there isn't. :-(

There is a station at Olympia


But not with any trains

tim





  #20  
Old June 25th, 2011, 01:57 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
Alexander Arnakis[_2_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 29
Default Recommendations for car rental from Athens Airport

On Sat, 25 Jun 2011 10:51:02 +0200, Martin wrote:

There's also a train route that goes part of the way down the west
coast. There is a station at Olympia.


The problem is that the regular trains of the Peloponnese don't run
all the way to Athens any more. The rail link between Athens and the
Peloponnese is via the "Proastiako" (suburban) line, which runs as far
as Kiato (just west of Corinth). To proceed onward by rail, you have
to transfer to a regular train. And that regular train goes west,
through Patras. The line south from Corinth (Argos - Tripoli -
Kalamata, with a branch to Nafplio) has been discontinued.

If youi're going to start by exploring the western part of the
Peloponnese by car, the logical hub would be Patras. Plenty of car
rental agencies there. The rail terminus is directly adjacent to the
ferry port. One can take an overnight ferry to Corfu, or even proceed
to Italy.

What sort of support do you get from a local car hire company if
things go wrong?


They all give you a telephone number to call if you need road service
or in case of an accident. (After all, it's to their advantage to get
their car back.) Even the smallest car rental places have people that
speak English, and often other languages.

I always get the "full insurance" add-on, but I've never had any
problems.

BTW, having a mobile phone in Greece is a must, and is cheap. Just
bring your own GSM phone and get a local prepaid SIM card from
Vodafone or Wind. Mobile telephony is one of the few things that work
really well in Greece. (The SIM cards can be "topped off" at any
kiosk.) If you are a couple and have two phones, and get the SIM cards
from the same company, calls between you are free. Also, all incoming
calls are free. You get charged for air time only if *you* place the
call.

 




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