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Rental car company recommendation request

Rental car company recommendation request

Old Jul 9th, 2014, 01:09 PM
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Rental car company recommendation request

We will need to rent a car for 10 days for pick up at ATH airport. We are looking for a reliable, reasonably/competitively priced car rental company that has ATH airport pick up and return and a GPS We will pick up on a Wednesday during regular business hours ( around 11 am ) and returning the car on Friday. Return time may be after 5 pm since we will be coming in from Kalambaka.

I've checked Kemwel and Autoeurope and the their rates are comparable. The deal breaker is their daily rental rates for GPS , I think it's about $15-20/day. This cost can add up on a 10 day rental period. I can't find the post i saw here several months ago where the poster paid a flat 15 or 20 euros for the 2 week duration of the rental.

Thanks in advance for your recommendations.
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Old Jul 9th, 2014, 05:47 PM
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I just rented from Hertz through AutoEurope at ATH. The GPS cost 5 euros a day for a 10-day rental. It was a great 50 euro investment, as I would never have found my way without it. Greek roads are not well marked and even then often in Greek, which I can make out if I have time but not while I'm driving. Whatever you do, do get a GPS!

I contacted AutoEurope about the GPS. They didn't charge me for it, I had to pay for it in Athens. They may have reserved for me when I contacted them, I'm not sure.
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Old Jul 10th, 2014, 04:58 AM
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takemewithu,

Buy your own GPS before you leave. I have bought used TomTom units including European maps for as little as 80 dollars on eBay and Kijiji. Not only will it save you money but you'll have a chance to learn how to use it... learning in a strange car in a foreign country in traffic conditions you're not used to is no way to learn! ;^)
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Old Jul 10th, 2014, 06:43 AM
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I counldn't agree more with @ParisAmsterdam. Get a GPS and use it in Greece.
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Old Jul 10th, 2014, 07:35 AM
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Yes your own GPS is a good idea.
Just a few tips on using the GPS. It is best to have a decent map with you. Not because you need to follow the map, but you need to have the correct spelling of the destination you want to get to so you can input it into the GPS. Also you should know that there are many places in Greece with the same names so the map will help you pinpoint the location better. Our GPS gave us 10 different Meteora options.
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Old Jul 10th, 2014, 07:39 AM
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Oops I forgot. We like to use local car companies as they are pretty flexible. We have used Ace Rent a car in the past and this June we used Athens Car Rental ACR. Both met us at the airport and we dropped off at the airport departures area. Both were easy to deal with.
Aegean changed our departure time back 3 hours and I contacted ACR and asked if we could return the car three hours later and they agreed at no extra charge.
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Old Jul 10th, 2014, 09:50 AM
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Thanks to all of you for the great suggestions. I will check used GPS, maybe Garmin because I'm familiar with it, on eBay. Great idea on the map too, to check spelling and give us general directional perspective. Scale of 1:1000 or 500, etc? I should probably get 2 maps- one for Peloponnese and one for Central Greece. Will also check with Athens Rental Car ( I think this is the company that came in highly recommend in a post on here several months ago.

Please keep the great ideas and suggestions coming.
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Old Jul 10th, 2014, 12:29 PM
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Bookmarking
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Old Jul 10th, 2014, 05:14 PM
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I had never used GPS before and figured it out fine. The hardest part was putting the unit into the bracket thingy. I finally stopped ever taking it out of the bracket and just stuck it/unstuck it to the windshield.

I picked up a map at the shop in the airport. I don't recall whether I picked the 1:1000 or 1:500, but they looked pretty close to the same to me when I looked at them. I didn't use the map much, but once I got the wrong destination programmed into the GPS and got sent far off course, and the map helped me figure out what went wrong
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