Private driver in Greece: car and driver by the hour, where we run our own

Greece Private Tours hires out a car and driver by the hour where it runs its own drivers and vehicles: on Santorini and in Athens from 50 EUR per hour, the same rate in both. A driver drives, waits and orients you; guiding inside sites is a licensed guide’s work, added on request. Elsewhere in Greece we quote only where we have a driver.

Where we have our own drivers

On Santorini, where the company was founded in 1995, and in Athens, from where our drivers also run the day trips to Cape Sounion, Ancient Corinth, Delphi, the Argolis and Meteora. Those two regions have a page each with the routed sample days and the price basis: the Santorini car and driver and the Athens car and driver. For the other islands and cities we quote a driver only when we have one to send, so ask before you plan around it; the pages of those places say the same.

What a driver is, and is not

A driver with a vehicle at your disposal for the hours you book: the route is yours, the waiting is included, and the practical orientation on the road is the driver’s, where to walk, how long you have, where the toilets are. A driver is not a guide: in Greece, guiding inside museums and archaeological sites is reserved to state-licensed guides under Law 5121/2024, so our drivers stay outside the gate, and a licensed guide is booked on request and quoted separately, as the driver-or-guide guide explains. A driver by the hour is not a transfer either: a ride from one address to another is a taxi’s job, and on Santorini our sister brand Santorini Taxi does those.

How the hours and the price work

The hours run from the pickup to the drop-off, waiting included. On Santorini and in Athens the rate is per hour, from 50 EUR for a sedan, as the office’s rate card prints it, and the larger vehicles cost more per hour; the office confirms the total by email for your hours, your group size and your start point. The request form never computes a total for a car by the hour, so you see the figure before you commit; a day with stops from our lists, priced at once as hours times the rate of your vehicle, is the build-your-day page. Nothing is paid on the site, and you pay the driver on the day. Entrance fees, meals, a licensed guide and, for cruise guests, the cable car are extra; the price guide has the whole card.

Vehicles

A sedan for 1 to 3 guests, a minivan for 4 to 7, a minibus for 8 to 19 and a coach for 20 to 55, air-conditioned, with bottled water in them. The vehicles have no lift or ramp; a folding wheelchair travels in the boot, and child seats are free on request. Tell us the size of your party and what you need, and the office confirms the vehicle with the booking.

Where the driver meets you

In the lobby of your hotel at the agreed time; outside your ship’s terminal at the Piraeus cruise terminals or at the exit of the Fira cable car’s top station, holding a board with your name on it; on the quay at Athinios; or in the arrivals area of the airport on Santorini. Cruise guests book the hours their call allows, and the day ends 90 minutes before all-aboard.

Questions guests ask

Can one driver do Athens, Delphi and Nafplio in a day? No: Delphi is a 9-hour day from Athens and Mycenae, Epidaurus and Nafplio a 10-hour one, each with five to six hours of driving; together they are two days, and the custom tour form takes a two-day plan with a night on the way, quoted by the office. Can we keep the same driver for several days? On Santorini and around Athens, yes, by the day through the same form. How much for a day? On Santorini, the hourly rate times the hours; in Athens, a quote. Is a driver worth it against a hire car? The what-is-a-private-tour page takes that question on with the numbers.