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Recommendations for car rental from Athens Airport



 
 
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  #51  
Old July 7th, 2011, 02:32 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
Dan Stephenson
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 591
Default Recommendations for car rental from Athens Airport

On 2011-07-06 03:07:10 -0500, tim.... said:


and
someone else is driving. The route to the Peloponnese by road involves a far
greater distance through ghastly urban sprawl.


OTOH 90% of the new motorway goes nowhere near any urban sprawl

tim


When I circuited Athens back in 2009 I was disappointed I couldn't even
see the Acropolis from a distance.

The 'urban sprawl' happens at Sparta itself, but it's not a large
distance to cross.
--
Dan Stephenson
http://web.mac.com/stepheda
Travel pages for Europe and the U.S.A. (and New Zealand too)

  #52  
Old July 9th, 2011, 02:25 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
Tom P[_6_]
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Posts: 563
Default Recommendations for car rental from Athens Airport

On 07/05/2011 11:48 PM, Martin wrote:
On Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:28:14 +0200, Tom wrote:

On 07/03/2011 08:00 PM, Dan Stephenson wrote:
On 2011-06-23 12:36:15 -0500, Tom P said:

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.

That is a good point. Sometimes "airport" car hire is something
off-site, though somewhat nearby.

Hey I just said "car hire" instead of "car rental", without thinking
about that. I'm already getting in the travel mindset! whoo hoo!


- do the airline and car rental company have a big fly&drive deal, in
which case you may be standing in line for hours with all the other
pax that booked fly&drive.

What is fly&drive? and if I made a reservation -- I would expect the car
to be there


Some airlines or tour operators offer packages or special rates with
specific car rental companies. The effect is that even if only 10% of
the passengers on a 200 seat plane have booked this deal, then they will
all arrive at the car rental desk at exactly the same time - and you
probably know how long it takes just to get one customer serviced at a
car rental desk.


The delay is the same whether or not you have a fly drive package. If
you have a Hertz or Avis card the form is preprinted all that is
needed is your signature/initials.

... or you have booked with a car rental that is not part of the
fly&drive scheme, and there is no queue at the counter g


  #53  
Old July 25th, 2011, 07:14 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
Runge 128
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 300
Default Recommendations for car rental from Athens Airport

Ho hoho what a riot

"Martin" a écrit dans le message de groupe de discussion :
...

On Mon, 4 Jul 2011 09:54:13 +0100, Mike Lane
wrote:

Martin wrote on Jul 4, 2011:

On Mon, 4 Jul 2011 09:00:17 +0100, Mike Lane
wrote:

Martin wrote on Jul 3, 2011:

On Sun, 3 Jul 2011 22:48:13 +0100, Mike Lane
wrote:

Dan Stephenson wrote on Jul 3, 2011:

On 2011-06-23 02:54:25 -0500, Mike Lane said:

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.

Well, the rental would not be from Athens per se, but from the
airport,
which is outside the city and near the big motor. I would avoid
Athens
by circuiting it on the motorway, over to Corinth, then south to
Argos.


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.

I will have to look into this, thanks for the tip. I would also like
to avoid the hassle of getting to and from Pieraeus from the airport,
but the ferry time might be competitive with the drive time.

To me the time taken is not important - I actually enjoy the
travelling.
What
I don't enjoy is driving through the surroundings of airports and
large
towns
like Athens.

Getting to Piraeus is no hassle. You get on a bus at the airport and
get
off
at the harbour

What happened to the old airport?

I believe it still remains largely undeveloped.

It seems to be the usual story in Greece - several opposing groups all
see
the opportunity to make a considerable amount of money from a prime
site,
so
the bickering continues and nothing is done. The latest I heard is that
a
Qatari group of companies are interested:
http://tinyurl.com/692lhm4

Ten years already. It was very convenient for Piraeus.

Yes, indeed - I greatly regretted its passing. The new airport must be one
of
the worst designed ever. There's no attempt to separate internal from
international flights, and a chronic shortage of toilets, seats, hotels -
everything necessary for a modern airport.


Sounds remarkably like Schiphol Airport.
"Why are you sitting on the radiators?"
"because there are only 50 seats for 200 passengers"
--

Martin

  #54  
Old July 25th, 2011, 07:14 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
Runge 128
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 300
Default Recommendations for car rental from Athens Airport

martin's help is like a hole in his potty.


"Martin" a écrit dans le message de groupe de discussion :
...

On Sat, 09 Jul 2011 15:25:00 +0200, Tom P wrote:

On 07/05/2011 11:48 PM, Martin wrote:
On Tue, 05 Jul 2011 15:28:14 +0200, Tom wrote:

On 07/03/2011 08:00 PM, Dan Stephenson wrote:
On 2011-06-23 12:36:15 -0500, Tom P said:

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.

That is a good point. Sometimes "airport" car hire is something
off-site, though somewhat nearby.

Hey I just said "car hire" instead of "car rental", without thinking
about that. I'm already getting in the travel mindset! whoo hoo!


- do the airline and car rental company have a big fly&drive deal, in
which case you may be standing in line for hours with all the other
pax that booked fly&drive.

What is fly&drive? and if I made a reservation -- I would expect the
car
to be there

Some airlines or tour operators offer packages or special rates with
specific car rental companies. The effect is that even if only 10% of
the passengers on a 200 seat plane have booked this deal, then they will
all arrive at the car rental desk at exactly the same time - and you
probably know how long it takes just to get one customer serviced at a
car rental desk.


The delay is the same whether or not you have a fly drive package. If
you have a Hertz or Avis card the form is preprinted all that is
needed is your signature/initials.

.. or you have booked with a car rental that is not part of the
fly&drive scheme, and there is no queue at the counter g


or you booked with Hertz in Rhodes who rented all the cars on a first
come first served basis and ignored bookings.
--

Martin

  #55  
Old August 9th, 2011, 04:07 AM
marguie marguie is offline
Member
 
First recorded activity by TravelBanter: Aug 2011
Posts: 3
Default

I would recommend Sixt more than the rest. I have used it on several occasions and I can tell that it's a very reliable company with a great service that you would do well to use...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan Stephenson View Post
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,
--
Dan Stephenson
http://web.mac.com/stepheda
Travel pages for Europe and the U.S.A. (and New Zealand too)
  #56  
Old August 9th, 2011, 09:16 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
Jesper Lauridsen[_1_]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 463
Default Recommendations for car rental from Athens Airport

On Tue, 9 Aug 2011 03:07:02 +0000, marguie
wrote:
I would recommend 'Sixt' (http://www.sixt.es/) more than the rest. I
have used it on several occasions and I can tell that it's a very
reliable company with a great service that you would do well to

use...

Why do you link to the Spanish branch, when the subject is about
Greece? My one rental with Sixt didn't go well, btw. Which is why
there wasn't a second one.
  #57  
Old August 9th, 2011, 01:42 PM posted to rec.travel.europe
tim....
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 398
Default Recommendations for car rental from Athens Airport


"Jesper Lauridsen" wrote in message
l-september.org...
On Tue, 9 Aug 2011 03:07:02 +0000, marguie
wrote:
I would recommend 'Sixt' (http://www.sixt.es/) more than the rest. I
have used it on several occasions and I can tell that it's a very
reliable company with a great service that you would do well to

use...

Why do you link to the Spanish branch, when the subject is about Greece?
My one rental with Sixt didn't go well, btw. Which is why there wasn't a
second one.


I had no problems with them.

tim



  #58  
Old April 22nd, 2015, 05:18 AM posted to rec.travel.europe
Dan Stephenson
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 591
Default Greece 2014 Recommendations for car rental from Athens Airport

On 2011-07-03 17:40:42 +0000, Dan Stephenson said:

On 2011-06-24 05:35:00 -0500, tim.... said:

Peloponnese. he's going to be there for 10 days, so he's going to be
covering all of it. If he starts off in the south west he's still
going to have to drive to the bit in the NE


Laconia, actually. I drove all over the Peloponnese back in 2009; this
is a revisit to Monemvasia with a base at a nice hotel on the mainland
(Panorama Hotel). I want to revisit the ruins at Monemvasia - there is
a lot more to see than I did. I want to see where I can go around the
outside of the massif. I want to see how the Knights of St. John tried
to ascend on the northwestern side. I want to see if there are traces
of the ancient site of Minos that Pausanias mentioned in his
Description of Greece. There are are at last two other ancient sites
nearby, Epidaurus Limera and Zarax. Plus just relaxing. My vacations
have always been far more active than my normal daily life, but the
area around Monemvasia is just .. so .. relaxing... I would park a
ways to the south, near the rocky shore, roll down the windows and pull
back the sunroof, and lean back the car seat back... and relax to the
sound of the waves and scent of the ocean... very nice.


Finally getting back to this group -- and finally getting back to
Greece, perhaps my favorite destination in Europe.

Flying from Dallas through Frankfurt, I landed at Athens, and took a
taxi to my hotel near the city center. The hotel was Central Hotel,
which was fairly nice and had a very good breakfast. And the roof
terrace was a nice place to visit after a day of sightseeing, as it has
a view of the acropolis.

A very pleasant surprise is that the hotel is right across the street
from a tiny restaurant run by Marco and Asine, with great food, beer...
and Asine bringing shots of a liquor called raki. Wonderful!

When I last visited Athens in 2002 I unfortunately arrived the week
after the National Archeological Museum was closed for refurbishment
prior to the 2004 Olympics. This time a dream came true, by spending a
long but very very exciting day at the museum. This museum ranks up
there with the British Museum and the Vatican Museum. And amazing
place! At last, I could see the Mask of Agammemnon, iconic bronzes,
and the Antikythera Mechanism. As an engineer, I encamped in the
special exhibit room for the Antikythera Mechanism. Incredible!!

Another change from 2002, was the Acropolis Museum. In 2002 it was a
modest structure on the acropolis, but now it is a huge building at the
foot of the acropolis. The top floor is, in effect, a reconstruction
of the Parthenon, with all the available surviving marbles places as
they would be on the actual building.

The next couple of days were revisits to Delphi and Mycenae, my two
favorite ancient sites in Greece. By the way, you can no longer enter
the stadium at Delphi.

But the bulk of the trip was spent at Monemvasia. I lodged in a very
nice hotel, Panorama, in the mainland town opposite the Castle -- the
locals' name for the massif offshore and the the fortified lower town.
Nice balcony view, to sit, relax, read.

This was my base for side-outings. In particular, I got to visit
Epidaurus Limera and Zarax! I am SO glad I visited these places. And
the siting of Zarax is just.. superb. And furthermore, I took a walk
around the perimeter of the rock -- a great, great, half-day hike.

Anyway -- I made a travel webpage, hoping it helps someone else with
their travel planning.

GREECE IS AWESOME


http://stepheda.com/Greece_2014/Greece_2014_Index.html


Dan



 




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