Paphos Airport Car Hire (PFO): Every Company, Compared
Which suppliers meet you in the car park, which run a shuttle, and which keep a counter inside.
Same as pickup
The value table · Paphos
Every car, side by side.Measured, not sold.
The bars below are drawn to one shared scale, so the gap you see is the gap you pay. Switch the measure to rank the fleet on the day rate or on the full hire.
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Insurance available on every car · TPL · CDW · SCDW · Full CDW
Three ways a car reaches you at PFO
Paphos International Airport sits about 15 km south east of the town, out past Timi, and the arrivals hall is small enough to take in at a glance. That size is exactly why the word airport on a hire listing can mean three quite different walks. Knowing which one you booked matters more than anything else on the page, because it is the part that shapes your first half hour on the island.
A counter inside the terminal
The international brands keep desks in the arrivals hall, a short walk from the baggage belt, with the cars in numbered bays outside the door. It is the shortest distance on offer. What costs you time is never the walk, it is the two full flights that landed ahead of yours and are standing in the same line.
Somebody holding your name in the car park
Meet and greet is the usual arrangement among the local suppliers here. You are given a phone number, you ring it once you have your bags, and a driver brings the car to the short stay car park a few minutes from the door. Nothing happens at a counter. The handover happens beside the car.
A shuttle out to a yard
Some suppliers park their fleet off the airport road and send a minibus for you. It is the cheapest of the three to run and the slowest to use, because it adds a ride and a wait at both ends. Comfortable at ten in the morning. Much less so with a tired family at one.
Or no airport walk at all
Seventy two of the 140 cars will be driven to an address instead, which makes delivery a normal choice in Paphos rather than an unusual favour. It suits anyone whose first day is a pool and a sea view rather than a drive. The timing and the handover are set out on hotel delivery in Paphos.
How the listing tells you which one you are getting
The search box asks for a pickup point, and in Paphos it offers exactly two. That single choice decides most of what follows. The four signals below are the ones worth reading before you compare anything else.
Paphos International Airport (PFO)
The first of the two pickup points. Choose it and the list narrows to cars a supplier will hand over on site. It does not, by itself, promise a desk in the hall.
City delivery
The second option in the same dropdown, and the reason so many visitors here never see the airport car park at all. Pick it and the list rebuilds around cars that travel.
The supplier name on the card
A recognisable chain tends to mean a counter and a queue. A Cypriot name you have never heard of tends to mean a phone number and a bay. Neither is better. They are different mornings.
The voucher that arrives after booking
It names the meeting point and the number to ring once you have your bags. It is the only version that counts, so read it on the plane rather than in the arrivals hall.
The first fifteen kilometres
Out of the car park the airport road feeds a roundabout, and that roundabout is where most visitors meet the one fact that really governs driving in Cyprus: traffic goes clockwise and you stay left. From there the A6 carries you the 15 km north west into Paphos, or east towards Limassol some 65 km away. Limits are 100 on the motorway, 80 on open road and 50 in town. The first few minutes feel wrong and then quietly stop feeling wrong, helped by the fact that 136 of the 140 cars here are automatic, so your left hand has nothing to do. The rest of it belongs on driving on the left in Paphos.
Handing it back before a flight
The return is the half nobody plans, and at PFO it is short enough that people leave it too late. Three things decide whether the morning is calm or not.
Full to full means full, not nearly
Almost every contract in this listing is written full to full, and the needle is checked in front of you while the engine is still warm. Fill up on the road out of Paphos rather than assuming something will appear in the last few kilometres, because the closer you get to the terminal the fewer of your options remain. Keep the receipt and hand it over with the key.
Work backwards from the gate, not forwards from the hotel
A car park handover is a few minutes. A yard handover is those few minutes plus a minibus in each direction. Add the fuel stop, then add the honest drive time, which is not the same coming from Coral Bay, 12 km north west past Peyia, as it is coming from the harbour. Most people who lose the comfortable version of this morning lose it at the pump.
Leave the car with a picture of it
Each corner, the glass, the boot floor, and one frame of the dashboard where the fuel needle and the odometer are both legible. When somebody meets you, the inspection is done there and agreed on the spot. When you leave the car in a bay and take a minibus to the terminal, the inspection happens after you have gone, and that is what your own pictures are for.
What people said about the handover here
“We were met in the short stay car park with the bags still on the trolley. No counter, no queue, no clipboard.”
“The shuttle added a ride at each end. Fine going out, tight coming back, and worth knowing before you book on price alone.”
“First time keeping left. The roundabout outside the airport was the only odd moment, and the automatic took care of the rest.”
Check what PFO has on your dates
Paphos Rides asks the Cypriot suppliers direct, so the list below is a car somebody can put a key into on the morning you land rather than a price on a screen.
Compare PFO carsQuestions about collecting at PFO
It depends which of the three arrangements your supplier uses. The international desks are inside the arrivals hall with their cars in the bays outside. Most local suppliers meet you in the short stay car park once you ring the number on the voucher. A few keep their fleet on a yard off the airport road and send a minibus for you. The voucher names the one that applies to your booking.
Read three things. The pickup point you selected, which in Paphos is either Paphos International Airport (PFO) or City delivery. The supplier name on the car card, because chains keep counters and local firms usually do not. And the voucher itself, which spells out the meeting point and the phone number. If any of the three surprises you, change the booking before you fly.
Give your flight number when you book, and again if you message the supplier. A meet and greet is scheduled against the landing, not against the hour you typed into the form, so a delayed arrival usually moves with you. A desk inside the terminal keeps its own opening hours, which is the arrangement that suffers most from a very late landing.
No. The pickup dropdown offers City delivery as the alternative, and a large part of the fleet here is happy to drive the car to an address instead. It suits anyone who does not want a car on the first evening, or who would rather not learn a new side of the road at the end of a flight.
Count the fuel stop first, because that is what people forget, then the drive, then the handover. A car park handover is quick. A yard handover means a minibus ride in each direction before you are anywhere near check in. Leave yourself the extra half hour and the morning stays pleasant.