Best Car Hire in Crete: Companies Compared

Car Hire in Crete, Compared Honestly

Around Crete is an independent guide, not a car hire company. This page compares the firms that actually rent cars on Crete so you can judge them on their terms before booking anywhere. We separate two very different kinds of business: international brokers (Zest, Discover Cars, Auto Europe, Rentalcars.com) that sell you a choice of cars and route your booking to a local supplier, and direct Cretan operators (Rental Center Crete, Monza, Go Rent a Car and others) that own the fleet and set their own excess, deposit and fuel rules.

Around Crete is reader-supported: if you book through our links we may earn a commission at no extra cost to you, and it never changes our rankings or verdicts. New to the island? Start with our guide to driving in Crete, the step-by-step car hire guide, or check whether you need a car at all.

Most visitors collect a car at one of the two airports - Heraklion (HER, Nikos Kazantzakis) in the east or Chania (CHQ) in the west. Cruise and ferry passengers usually arrive at Heraklion Port, which has two passenger terminals and cruise infrastructure; unlike the airports, the ports have no permanent rental desks, so a port pickup must be pre-arranged and the firm meets you at the quay. At the airports you will find both in-terminal desks (the global chains) and 'meet and greet' handovers, where a representative meets you outside arrivals and walks you a short distance to the car - typically faster than queueing at a desk.

The single most important distinction on Crete is between true zero-excess and excess reimbursement. A direct local operator with genuine zero-excess Full Damage Waiver caps your liability at the desk, so no large hold is placed on your card. A broker's 'Full Coverage' is usually a reimbursement policy: the local desk still takes a deposit on your credit card, charges any damage to your card, and you reclaim it afterwards with paperwork. Both can be fine - but they are not the same product.

Provider Verdicts

Rental Center Crete

Rental Center Crete is the strongest direct local operator for a low-stress hire: its quotes include zero-excess cover, its Heraklion Airport page promises no security deposit and no blocked funds, and its office sits about 50 metres from the arrivals exit at Heraklion (HER), with service at Chania (CHQ) too. One caveat to get in writing: the marketing says tyres and glass are always covered, while the rental terms exclude burst or non-repairable tyres and damage on non-asphalt roads such as the Balos track. On Trustpilot it scores 4.8, but from only 46 reviews (1 November 2026); the larger review figures on its own website do not name their platform, so we do not use them.

Zest Car Rental

The pick of the brokers for a UK or EU first-timer who wants a filtered marketplace and UK-based support rather than just the lowest price. Every Zest quote includes either supplier zero excess or excess reimbursement - check which one your offer says - and Zest applies a fair fuel policy (full-to-full or same-to-same). Remember the broker limit: the actual deposit, young-driver fees and some exclusions belong to the local supplier, and you will still need to present a credit card for their hold at the desk.

Monza Rent a Car

The most mature direct local in this set by review depth and island coverage, including resort towns like Platanias, Agia Pelagia, Malia, Agios Nikolaos and Elounda plus Sitia. Important: Monza's base product is standard CDW with an excess of EUR 700 to 3,500 depending on the car group, held on your credit card; zero excess is the Premium upgrade at EUR 10-16 a day, which also removes the card guarantee. Even with FDW, glass, mirrors, tyres and the underbody are excluded.

AutoRentals-Crete

A long-running family operator with island-wide delivery including hotels and Sitia airport, inclusive cover with no excess and no deposit block, and a consistently calm, no-pressure handover in reviews. AutoRentals-Crete's terms set the minimum age at 21 for small cars (23-25 for larger classes, licence held for at least a year) and include wheels, tyres, glass, mirrors and the underside in the cover unless you drive off-road. One gap: the terms state no fuel policy, so confirm it at booking. With 4.9 on Trustpilot from 73 reviews, it is a strong practical choice.

Go Rent a Car

A genuine all-inclusive local contender: it publicly advertises no excess, no deposit and no credit card required, with airport, port and hotel delivery. Read the exclusions carefully - non-asphalt and unauthorised roads (the Balos track being the classic case), driver negligence, and damage to glass, tyres and the underbody can still fall on you. Go Rent a Car's Trustpilot score of 3.9 from 288 reviews (1 November 2026) is the weakest among the local firms here, so weigh it against the headline promises.

Discover Cars

An efficient tool for scanning prices and inventory across Crete, backed by a very large review base. The friction point is its 'Full Coverage', which is a reimbursement policy the local desk does not recognise - expect the local supplier's card hold and a claims process afterwards if anything goes wrong. Best for confident travellers who read each car's conditions and have credit-card headroom.

Localrent

The best middle ground between broker convenience and local economics: it connects you to independent Cretan owners and lets you filter for no-deposit cars and full insurance. There is no single island-wide rulebook, so judge each listing on its own terms; you typically pay a 15-20% reservation amount online and settle the rest locally. Inventory leans towards practical, sometimes older cars.

Auto Europe

A conventional, long-established broker that explains excess, deposit and zero-excess clearly and allows easy amendments before pickup. Its public reputation is more mixed than Zest or Discover (Trustpilot 3.5 on the .com profile and 3.3 on the UK profile, 1 November 2026), and a Greek supplier will still require a credit-card hold. Worth using when its specific offer is genuinely better, not as a default.

Rentalcars.com

Only worth considering when it has a clearly superior price for a car whose terms you have read in full. Its Trustpilot score is very low and reviews repeatedly describe desk disputes, pressure to buy redundant local insurance and slow refunds. Not a safe blind default for a Crete holiday.

GetRentacar

A peer-to-peer marketplace where you book directly with individual owners. Daily rates can be cheap, but standardisation is poor: each owner sets the deposit, insurance and age rules for the listing, and GetRentacar scores 3.1 on Trustpilot from 295 reviews. Suitable only for flexible travellers happy with non-standard agreements - we keep it outside our main ranking because there is no single verifiable Crete-wide policy.

How We Rank

We weight transparency and financial friction above raw star ratings, and we separate brokers from direct local operators because they are different products. Full criteria and weights are on our methodology page.