Car hire in Cyprus with us: the rules, answered once

The questions run in the order a hire does: the request, the desk, the road, then the towns we serve and the return.

Who you hire fromPaying for the requestWhen we replyShortest noticeDebit cards and RevolutDeposit versus excessWhat to bringYoung driversUpper age limitSecond driver and child seatThe optional waiverTracks and off-roadBuggy routesKilometres includedFuelCrossing to the northTowns and returnsCharges after the return

You hire from Car Hire Paphos LTD, a company registered in Cyprus under number HE 2334542, with its office at Apostolou Pavlou Ave 33, Paphos 8046. Every vehicle on this site belongs to us, and we set each rate ourselves. No broker or booking portal stands between you and the desk, so nobody takes a commission on what you pay. When you write to us, the answer comes from our own staff, in English or in Russian. The Paphos office opens 08:00 to 19:00 on weekdays and 09:00 to 16:00 at the weekend.

No. Sending the form costs nothing: it asks for no card details and sets no vehicle aside for you. You pay at the handover and never before, in cash or by card. The total your request shows is worked out for your exact dates from our own rate card; anything the form cannot price, such as a buggy waiver or a delivery charge outside Paphos and Limassol, our reply confirms.

Our replies go out from 08:00 until 23:00 (Cyprus time). Anything that lands before 20:00 gets its answer that same evening; a message arriving after that is answered first thing the next morning. A night without a reply does not mean the form failed. If your pick-up is close, phone us rather than waiting on the form.

Our phone number and the other ways to reach us

Eight hours is the shortest notice our request form takes, counted in Cyprus time. Ask at 10:00, and 18:00 that day is the earliest pick-up the form lets you choose; it does not show an earlier slot. When you need a vehicle sooner than that, phone us. We will tell you whether it can be arranged; sometimes it cannot.

Yes, provided the card accepts a pre-authorisation and we approve the hire for that vehicle category under our rental terms. Debit, credit or Revolut on the front makes no difference to us; your bank has to let the hold go through, and your card provider can confirm that before you travel. Cash is equally acceptable for the deposit, so a card that refuses the hold at the desk does not end the hire.

The deposit is 300 EUR, whatever you hire and for however long. It is handed back when the vehicle returns, minus anything owed under the rental agreement, such as fuel, fines or damage; with a card hold, the moment the money shows as free again is up to your card issuer, not to us. Each vehicle on the hire carries its own deposit, so two cars or two buggies mean two deposits.

The excess is a separate figure, also 300 EUR. It is the ceiling on what you pay for eligible bodywork damage once you have taken the waiver, and it has nothing to do with the money held at the desk.

Each named driver brings their own original licence, held for at least two years; we turn photocopies away. Bring the deposit as well, in cash or on a card that takes a pre-authorisation. Anyone taking the scooter needs the matching category printed on that licence. Whether a licence issued abroad also calls for an International Driving Permit is a legal question, answered in our driving guide.

Yes. We hire cars to drivers from 21. A scooter or buggy rider as young as 18 may be accepted, but never automatically; the insurer's conditions, how long you have held a licence and the category it shows settle each case.

On the Paphos rate card the youngest named driver decides a daily surcharge on the rental line: 15 % under 24 on the six small cars (March, Mirage, Note, Note e-Power, Vitz, Fit), 10 % under 29 on the X-Trail, 15 % under 23 on the scooter, and nothing on the Sienta, the Serena or either buggy. The Limassol card adds none.

Yes. A driver over 90 on the pick-up date cannot hire from us. Up to 73 there is no surcharge; at 74 or 75 the rental line rises by 15 %, and from 76 to 90 by 30 %. The waiver, extras and fees stay as they are. The oldest person named on the hire sets the band: name a 78-year-old alongside a younger main driver and the 30 % applies to the whole rental line.

Neither costs anything, on a hire of any length. A second driver still shows their own original licence, held for at least two years, at the handover. Their age counts too: a young second driver can bring in the young-driver rate, and one over 73 can move the whole hire into an older band.

It caps what you pay for eligible bodywork damage at 300 EUR, for 15 EUR a day. Whether you take it or not, every hire includes round-the-clock roadside help and the third-party cover Cyprus requires by law.

Even with the waiver, six things stay with you: keys, glass, the interior, tyres, the underbody and any damage done off-road. You can take it on cars and on both buggies. On a buggy it is charged per machine and has to be asked for in your request, since the total the form shows leaves it out; off-road damage stays yours even with it.

Not in a car, and not on the scooter. Our cars are for asphalt only, and where the tarmac ends you have 15 m to turn around. Any unpaved surface counts as off-road, even when a map app, a tourist sign or local traffic suggests otherwise. The vehicle records where it goes, and that record is how we apply the penalty below, charged on each entry. The Blue Lagoon and Fontana Amorosa are closed to cars entirely.

These penalties describe cars and the scooter. A buggy on a route agreed with us in writing falls outside them.

A buggy goes where we have agreed with you in writing, before you leave. Depending on conditions that day, the areas we may open are Adonis Baths, the White River area, the Avakas Gorge and Lara Bay. Anywhere off the agreed route stays closed, and neither public highways nor the Blue Lagoon is ever opened for a buggy. Our buggies are hired in Paphos only, so every route starts from there.

The buggies we hire in Paphos, with their ratesHow buggy hire works around Cyprus

On a Paphos car hired for under five days, you get 200 km per day. If that is not enough, unlimited mileage costs 20 EUR a day; it is an option you choose, and we never tick it for you. From five days upwards the kilometres are unlimited at no charge. The 2-seat buggy has a cap of its own: 100 km a day, then 0.25 EUR for each kilometre beyond it.

Yes. You collect the vehicle full and return it full. If the gauge reads lower when you hand it back, we charge for the fuel that is missing and add a refuelling fee on top. Filling up near your return point avoids both charges; the link below lists current pump prices across Cyprus.

Only if we have agreed to it beforehand, you carry a separate insurance policy for the north, and you hold the paperwork that goes with it. Crossing without our approval breaks the hire terms you signed. If the north is in your plans, say so when you send your request, and read our guide on whether cover holds there.

Paphos and Limassol have handover points of their own; Larnaca, Nicosia and Ayia Napa are served by delivery. The vehicles on offer and the handover differ by town. The vehicle goes back to the town where you collected it; leaving it anywhere else costs 300 EUR, plus whatever the recovery costs us.

Car hire rates town by town

The table below covers what our agreement can charge once a hire ends. To keep a vehicle longer, ask at least 24 hours before the agreed return; the extension counts only once we approve it in writing and you have paid for it before the original return time. Bringing it back early earns no refund unless we agreed that in writing. Other charges, recovery costs at their actual price among them, are in the full agreement.

Outside 09:00 to 17:30 Cyprus time, each Paphos handover costs 30 EUR, at collection and again at return, unless you return the vehicle to a Paphos hotel, which costs nothing. Inside those hours, collecting at Paphos Airport costs 20 EUR when the hire runs under five days, and nothing from five days up.

Read the full rental agreement