Renting a Car in Santorini: Everything You Need to Know Before You Drive the Island

Is it actually worth renting a car in Santorini, and is it expensive, especially once you factor in parking in Fira or Oia?

Here’s everything I’ve learned driving this island myself, from the paperwork you need to the parking rules that catch most visitors out.

Picking Up Your Car: Airport or Athinios Port

Most visitors land at Santorini Airport (JTR), just 5 km from Fira, with rental desks either right at the terminal or a short free shuttle away. It’s the simplest option if you’re flying in and want to start driving straight away.

If you’re arriving by ferry instead, you’ll come in through Athinios Port, on the west coast below the caldera, about 7.5 to 8 km from Fira. Fewer companies operate directly at the port itself, so it’s worth confirming pickup details in advance; some will meet you there, others expect you to take the bus or a taxi up to Fira first.

On my last trip, we decided to rent the car only on the last few days. We were staying in Imerovigli, just a bunch of Kms from Fira. The car rental company delivered the car to us, and we were able to drop it off at the airport without extra charge. When we considered the cost of the taxi to the airport, the rental almost paid for itself.

So there are plenty of options out there. To be fair, renting a car in Greece, doesn’t matter the island or the place, is much easier than in most countries.

Tip: if you leave the car unattended, as we did at the airport ourselves, make sure to take plenty of photos of the exterior and interior of the car, including the dashboard with the fuel level. Just in case of any issues.

Driver’s Licence Requirements

To rent a car in Santorini, you need a European/UK licence or an International Driving Permit (IDP). A few rental companies will still hand over the keys with an American or Australian licence, but it can turn into a real headache if you’re ever in an accident, since insurance may not pay out without the right paperwork.

If you’re coming from outside Europe, just get the IDP before you travel. It doesn’t cost that much and only takes a few days to arrange. It’s a cheap insurance against a much bigger problem later. You can do it at your local car association or, more conveniently, on the IDP website.

Tip: Always carry with you both your national driving licence and, if needed, the IDP. The IDP alone won’t be enough to drive.

Why Having a Car Actually Matters Here

A car gives you the flexibility to go wherever, whenever, but it also opens up places the buses simply don’t reach. Profitis Ilias is a good example: the highest point on the island at 567 metres, topped by a monastery founded in 1711.

There’s no bus route up there, but the view is genuinely 360 degrees: the airport and the beaches on one side, Fira and Oia on the other. It’s one of the best reasons to have your own wheels for a day.

You don’t need a car for your whole stay in Santorini; two or three days is usually enough to cover the viewpoints, the wineries, and the beaches beyond Fira, with the rest of your trip on foot or by bus.

Booking Your Car

Rental companies are on pretty much every corner in Santorini. In saying that, quality can vary substantially, with a few playing all sorts of scams typical of car rentals in Greece. In a few words, you need to be selective and not just walk into any shop.

I personally book through DiscoverCars, a comparison site that lines up local and international operators side by side and ranks them from 5 to 10 stars based on real customer feedback, so you know which ones are actually trustworthy before you commit.

Every rental comes with mandatory third-party liability insurance (TPL), and usually a collision damage waiver (CDW) too, though it’s worth confirming it’s actually included rather than assumed. This typically caps your out-of-pocket cost for an accident, or even a simple scratch, somewhere between €700 and €3,000 depending on the car and operator.

Adding full insurance is genuinely worth it, since a small scratch at a local counter can otherwise cost you €300 to €500 on top of whatever excess your base cover leaves you with.

The full insurance at the counter usually costs €20 to €50 a day. I find it honestly too expensive. And that’s why I always do it when booking on DiscoverCars for just €8 to €10 a day, including roadside assistance, which is great.

Tip. Book as early as you can, especially in July and August, when the best cars and prices disappear fast, and cancellation is usually free up to 48 hours before pickup, so there’s no downside to locking one in early.

What Size Car Do You Need (and Is an ATV a Better Idea)?

Go as small as you can. Streets in Fira, Oia, and Pyrgos are narrow, often just wide enough for one car, and a compact hatchback is far easier to park and manoeuvre than anything bigger. If you’re travelling with more than three people or a lot of luggage, you’ll need to size up, but expect a tighter squeeze through the older village centres either way.

ATVs and quad bikes are everywhere on Santorini and genuinely tempting for short hops between beaches, but it’s worth knowing they come with a real safety problem in Santorini. The island’s roads are narrow, winding, and often without guardrails on the cliffside stretches.

Local pharmacists have reported treating fifteen to twenty accident cases in a single busy weekend during peak season. If you do rent one, treat it with the same caution as a motorbike, not a toy.

Seatbelts and Child Seats

Seatbelts are compulsory in Greece for everyone in the car, front and rear alike, wherever belts are fitted, with fines running up to €350 for skipping one. It’s a rule worth taking seriously regardless of the fine, a rear seatbelt genuinely can save your life in an accident.

Children between zero and five need a proper child seat, and between five and twelve, or under 135cm tall, a booster seat is required. For a short rental of a few days, it’s usually just included by the company.

Tip. For a longer rental, a week or two, it can work out cheaper to bring your own from home.

Driving and Traffic

I wouldn’t recommend renting and driving a car in Athens. I lived there for six months, and the traffic can be genuinely challenging. Santorini is a different story entirely, laid-back and low-traffic once you’re away from the busiest corners.

That makes renting here worthwhile purely on cost; a single day’s rental is often about the same price as one taxi ride from Fira to Oia, so it doesn’t take much driving around to come out ahead.

Parking in Santorini

Most driving guides tell you to park within white lines, but they’re genuinely rare to find in Santorini; people park pretty much everywhere, often with barely any space between one car and the next.

What you should never do is park on yellow or orange lines, or in a resort’s private parking; your car can and will be towed. And resist the urge to park like a local does in a technically restricted spot; they know the area and the people, you don’t, and that difference matters if it goes wrong.

Fira and Imerovigli generally have decent parking available. Oia is a different story, since most of the island heads there for sunset, free spots are rare and lucky finds, and paid private parking runs around €12, steep, but sometimes the only option.

Arriving by bus is cheaper, but good luck in July or August, when you will be shoulder to shoulder with the next tourist in a hot bus.

Beyond Oia: Other Places to Watch the Sunset

If Oia’s parking crush puts you off, it’s not the only sunset spot on the island, and having a car makes the alternatives easy. Imerovigli, just up the caldera rim from Fira, gets much the same view with a fraction of the crowd. Pyrgos, one of the island’s oldest villages, sits high enough inland for its own wide-angle sunset over the caldera.

The lighthouse near Akrotiri, at the island’s southwestern tip, is quieter still and popular with locals precisely because most tourists don’t make the drive.

Don’t Leave Valuables Visible

Never leave anything valuable where it can be seen through the window; a phone or a bag on the back seat is enough to catch someone’s eye.

If you do need to leave something in the car, keep it out of sight in the back, and it’s very unlikely to be a problem.

Speed Limits

The east coast road is the one stretch where you can pick up the pace, with a 70 km/h limit. Everywhere else, especially the mountain road between Fira and Oia, the limit sits at 50 km/h, and the terrain makes it hard to go much faster anyway. Stick to it; the roads here can be unforgiving if you don’t.

Petrol Stations

Petrol stations are easy to find; just search for one on Google Maps. Fuel costs around 10% more than on the Greek mainland, and stations are full service, so just tell the attendant how much you want.

Return the car with the same fuel level you picked it up with, or you’ll be charged well above the normal price for the difference.

Car or Public Transport?

Buses get seriously crowded in high season, and nearly every route funnels through Fira, the island’s main transport hub, so getting from one place to another indirectly is common.

A car costs more, but it’s faster point-to-point, and it opens up places like the island’s wineries that are genuinely difficult to reach on public transport.

You will need an organised tour, but it will probably cost more than a car, considerable so if travelling in a group

Beyond the Basics: Santorini’s Volcanic Story

The dramatic caldera views you get from driving the island’s west side aren’t just scenery; they’re the direct result of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in human history. Around 1600 BC, the Minoan eruption blew apart the centre of what was then a single island, sinking half of it into the sea and leaving the caldera you see today.

That same eruption buried a thriving Minoan town near Akrotiri under volcanic ash, preserving it almost perfectly for over 3,000 years; it’s often called Greece’s Pompeii, and it’s an easy, worthwhile stop with a car.

The volcanic soil also explains the island’s wineries. Santorini’s Assyrtiko grape has been grown here for over 3,000 years, trained into low, basket-shaped vines called kouloura that protect them from the wind and trap what little moisture there is, and the volcanic soil has kept the vines free of phylloxera, the disease that wiped out vineyards across most of Europe.

That same volcanic sand is also why beaches like Kamari, Perissa, and Red Beach near Akrotiri look so different from the white sand you’d find elsewhere in Greece.

Final Thoughts

Santorini rewards having a car more than the parking situation might suggest at first.

Between the viewpoints, the wineries and the quieter sunset spots, a rental turns a couple of days on the caldera into a much fuller look at the island.