By car, you can drive around the whole island, including the northern part of the island, for 7—14 days of a standard vacation, and still have plenty of time to relax on the beach. Alternatively, you can rent a bike in Cyprus, and here I will talk about renting a car.
Where to rent a car in Cyprus and how much it costs
Car rental agencies are not difficult to identify, usually the signage reads «rent a car», but there may be variants in Greek ενοικίαση αυτοκινήτων or Turkish araba kiralama. There are such agencies and their offices at Larnaca and Paphos airports and in all major resorts. Both international and local companies are represented among them. Usually, the rental cost of local companies is somewhat lower, but the fleet is older.
You can rent a car in advance via the Internet or on the spot. In the first case, it is easiest to book a car on large aggregator sites. They provide information about the offers of different rental companies, although their database does not always include small local companies.
- Aggregators: Rentalcars, Myrentacar, AutoEurope, Economybookings.
- International rental companies: Europcar, Sixt, Avis. It is convenient to compare their prices on aggregator sites.
The rental price depends directly on the class of car and the rental period and, as a rule, includes unlimited mileage. The car is usually rented with a full tank, and it must be returned with a full tank — check with the rental company. The traffic in Cyprus is left-hand drive, so I don’t recommend renting a car with a manual transmission — it will be too much of an experience.
- Mechanics without air conditioning are the cheapest option: about 18 €/day.
- Mechanics with air conditioning — approximately 21 €/day.
- Small car, automatic — costs about 25 €/day. This is the option chosen by most tourists, but weak acceleration dynamics will not allow you to feel confident in the mountains of Cyprus.
- Medium class, automatic — the best option if you want to ride all over the island, and the mountains included — about 30 €/day.
- An SUV is not a budget option: from 50 €/day.
What you need to rent a car
The usual documents are required to rent a car in Cyprus:
- National or international driver’s license;
- A valid passport;
- Credit card to block the deposit. The deposit amount must be specified in advance.
The driver must have 3 or more years of driving experience and be between 25 and 70 years old. If the age or experience does not fit within these limits, you can try to contact the rental company personally — some of them are willing to meet you for an additional fee.
Insurance
The cost of renting is significantly affected by the type of insurance:
- Insurance with a deductible of about €1—1,500. This means that if the car body is damaged, the maximum amount you will pay for repairs is limited by the deductible.
- Insurance without a deductible assumes full coverage for any damage to the body of the car, meaning you won’t have to pay anything.
All other damage — in particular, glass, tires, interior — is generally not covered by insurance. In any case, read the rules carefully before signing the contract.
Gasoline and gas stations
A liter of fuel in Cyprus costs approximately €1.1 — €1.2. Current gasoline prices can be viewed here.
In Cyprus, 95, 98 gasoline and diesel fuel are available. Finding a gas station is not a problem, especially if you use a navigator — they are all marked. Most of them are open 24 hours a day, but if you fill up at night, between 20:00 and 7:00, you can only pay through a machine.
To fill up at an automatic fueling station, you must:
- Shut off the engine, insert the gun into the tank;
- Insert the bills or card into the receiver;
- Enter the amount you want to refuel for;
- Select the column number;
- After refueling, return the gun to its original position.
If you pay with your card, you will be charged about €50 in advance. If the amount of the check is less, the difference will be refunded within two weeks. This can be avoided by paying in cash — all machines accept it.
Traffic rules and fines in Cyprus
When passing traffic circles — and there are plenty of them here — keep in mind that the person on the circle has the advantage.
Fines for speeding, as in our country, depend on the degree of violation: exceeded by 30% — a fine of 1 € for each kilometer exceeded; by 50% — 2 € by 75% — 3 €. If the speed limit exceeds 75%, the court will determine the amount of the fine.
Other important rules of thumb:
- All passengers in the vehicle must be buckled up. The fine is 85 €.
- When driving, the driver can only hold the steering wheel in his hands. If you eat or drink while driving, talk on the phone without hands-free — you can get a fine of 85 €.
- Violation of parking regulations (about them below) — fine 85 €.
- It is forbidden to smoke in the car if a child is present. Penalty 85 €.
- A blood alcohol content of no more than 0.22 ppm is allowed. The minimum fine for violating this rule is 100 €.
Find out more about traffic fines in Cyprus here.
You can pay the fine at a police station, municipality or online. Never try to negotiate on the spot — you will be taken straight to the police station.
Parking in Cyprus
Parking rules in Cyprus you need to know to avoid getting into trouble — not all of them are like ours. It is forbidden to park a car:
- against the flow of traffic;
- where single yellow line markings are present on the pavement;
- 10 meters from the intersection;
- 15 meters from the crosswalk;
- at the stoplight;
- at a public transportation stop;
- on the sidewalk;
- in handicapped spaces.
Paid parking lots are divided into municipal and private parking lots. Municipal parking lots have terminals for payment, which contain information on parking fees, time limits and free hours, if any.
In private parking lots, you pay directly to an employee.
Free parking in resort areas is not always easy to find, but you can. If there are no traffic restrictions, no payment terminal or parking attendant in sight, you can leave your car.
How to travel to Northern Cyprus
One of the advantages of renting a car in Cyprus is the opportunity to visit the northern part of the island. You can cross the «green line» — as the border between North and South is called — through checkpoints in Nicosia (Agios Dometios), Pyrgos (Limnitis Yesilirmak), Astromeritis (Zodhia) and Strovilia (Akyar).
During your stay on Turkish territory, the insurance of the company that issued the car is not valid there, so you will have to get a separate MTPL insurance at the border. It costs 25 € for 3 days or 35 € for a month. You should have a rental contract and a driver’s license with you. The hull insurance included in the rental car is not valid in the northern part of the island, so it is better not to get into accidents here.
Personal experience
We rented a car in Cyprus in advance through Rentalcars. In the end, we decided on the Europcar option — we got a brand new Nissan Note with deductible insurance. We received the car at Larnaca airport at the company’s counter. The registration was quick and we were given the keys to the car along with the documents. A deposit of 500 € was blocked on the credit card.
The car itself was in the parking lot at the airport — rental companies have a designated area for this purpose. No one saw us off, we looked for the car on our own. When returning the car, the procedure was similar: we left the car in the same parking lot and handed in the keys at the company’s counter. The deposit was returned to the card within two weeks.
By Nissan we drove around almost the whole island, saw non-tourist villages in the mountains and beaches, the neighborhoods of Limassol and Larnaca, got to Paphos and saw the Turkish part of the island — we visited there twice. Without a rented car trip all this would be almost impossible, because transportation on the island does not go to all interesting places. Don’t be afraid of possible difficulties, rent a car in Cyprus and see the whole island!
