Chania Airport by Car: Hire Car Pickup, Parking and Drive Times

Collecting your hire car at Chania airport

How you collect a hire car at Chania airport depends on the supplier. Some firms have desks in the terminal, while many local Crete firms meet you in the arrivals hall or in the car park in front of the terminal and hand the car over there. Fraport's environmental bulletin for Chania airport counts 586 car parking spaces at the airport (reference year 2024).

• Read your booking voucher for the exact meeting point and the phone number to call when you land.
• Photograph the car, the tyres and the fuel gauge at pickup, and check what the excess cover excludes.
• If you plan to drive to Balos, read the rental terms first: several Crete firms ban the Balos dirt track outright (see our Balos guide).

Our Crete car hire comparison sets out deposits, excess and fuel policies supplier by supplier. Takeaway: the meeting point at Chania airport is in your voucher, and the Balos clause in the contract matters more in western Crete than anywhere else on the island.

Driving times from Chania airport

From Chania airport the road runs down the Akrotiri peninsula to Chania town and joins the northern road (the BOAK) heading west to Kissamos or east to Rethymno. The table gives road distance and free-flow driving time from Chania airport, from our OSRM route check on 2 November 2026.

Balos is a special case: the last 10 km from Kaliviani, just west of Kissamos, is a dirt track that many rental contracts exclude, so plan the boat from Kissamos port instead (see Balos by car). For the road rules, see our guide to driving in Crete. Takeaway: Chania airport puts all of western Crete's famous beaches within two hours' drive.