Guide to Paphos Airport Car Hire
As the mythical birthplace of the Greek goddess of love and beauty, Paphos is as you might expect: beautiful. From the mesmerising Coral Bay with its fine sand and blue waters, to the myriad restaurants and bars and World Heritage sites, Paphos has something to tempt everyone. In the summer the fabulous Cyprus weather means temperatures regularly exceed 30 degrees centigrade, which makes it ideal not only for lying around the pool but for the wide variety of water-sports on offer. During the winter, the temperatures become cool enough for cyclists and ramblers to enjoy the fantastic landscape.
Nestled on the west coast of Cyprus, Paphos is divided into the main residential district and original town centre, Pano Paphos, and the area around the medieval port, Kato Paphos, where the luxury hotels and tourist entertainment are centred. Paphos International Airport is the second largest airport after Larnaca Airport. Last year it catered for 1.8 million passengers but the addition of a new terminal building at the end of 2008 has seen its capacity rise to 2.7 million.
Paphos Airport, or Pafos Airport as it is also spelt, is located 10km east of the city centre. While the Paphos Airport buses, taxis and transfers offer a reliable way of getting between it and your accommodation, generally the public transportation in Cyprus is not good. Car hire at Paphos Airport is advisable for those who want to travel around at all. Fortunately there is a superb road infrastructure, with 4 lane motorways connecting the major cities and well-maintained routes linking smaller villages and towns. Cypriots also conveniently drive on the left hand side and as most road signs are provided for in English as well as Greek it makes driving here relatively simple for Brits. To get from the airport to the centre of town takes about 15 minutes and is reachable via the B6 motorway and E603 secondary road.
There are 8 Paphos Airport car hire firms in total, all of which have offices in Paphos Airport arrivals (except for Hertz which is based off site). The Paphos Airport car rental companies are Astra, Avis, Budget, Europcar, Hertz, Petsas, Sixt and Thrifty. It is pretty much standard that you have to be over 21 years old to hire a car here, although for some it is 25 years. Even so, it is likely that anyone under 25 will have to pay a young person´s surcharge.
Each of the Paphos car hire firms have their own deals so check closely on what is included in the quoted price when you get it, particularly when it comes to insurance. Make sure to find out how much the excess is and whether the insurance covers for theft, personal incident and the damage of items such as tyres and windscreen. If not, then if may be worth paying for additional insurance. The best way to work out which companies offer the best prices is to use a price comparison engine like that available on the Cyprus-Airport-Guide.com which will display all the cheap car hire at Paphos Airport. Cyprus is hot on drink driving and speeding so it is wise to be aware of this when hiring a car. On motorways the speed limit is 100 kph, while on regional roads and built up areas it is 80 kph and 50 kph respectively, unless otherwise indicated. Drink driving regulations are pretty much the same as those in the UK.