Rhodes International Airport (RHO), the island's Diagoras, puts its car park 30 metres from the terminal — a walk of about a minute with the cases. The surface lot holds 186 spaces, five of them reserved for disabled drivers, and it works around the clock under camera cover with barriers at the entrance and the exit. Since May 2024 there is a second choice: a separate long-stay car park a short distance away, with its own price list and a free shuttle bus. Which one suits you comes down almost entirely to how many days the car is staying.
Twenty minutes cost nothing
Both car parks give the first 20 minutes free, which is the real answer for a drop-off: pull in, walk your passenger as far as the check-in desks in the departures hall, and drive out. Past that line the first hour is €6 at either car park, the same figure on both price lists. Leaving a car standing at the kerb instead is not an option — the forecourt strip outside arrivals carries the taxi rank and the traffic heading for the main road, and an unattended vehicle there is in everyone's way.
What it costs
The two tariffs open at the same number and separate as the days pile up. Two hours are €9 by the terminal against €8 further out; a full day is €17 against €15. From there the gap widens quickly, because each day beyond the seventh costs €7 at the terminal car park and €5 at the long-stay one.
| Stay | By the terminal (€) | Long-stay car park (€) |
|---|---|---|
| 0–20 minutes | free | free |
| 21–60 minutes | 6 | 6 |
| 1–2 hours | 9 | 8 |
| 2–3 hours | 10 | 9 |
| 3–4 hours | 12 | 10 |
| 4–5 hours | 14 | 12 |
| 5–24 hours | 17 | 15 |
| 1–2 days | 24 | 20 |
| 2–3 days | 31 | 25 |
| 3–4 days | 38 | 30 |
| 4–5 days | 45 | 35 |
| 5–6 days | 52 | 40 |
| 6–7 days | 59 | 45 |
| Each additional day | 7 | 5 |
Read the bottom rows before you choose. A week is €59 by the terminal and €45 on the long-stay car park. Ten days come to €80 against €60. A fortnight is €108 against €80 — a difference of €28, which is more than a third of the cheaper bill and enough for five further days at the long-stay rate. Under a day, the saving shrinks to a euro or two and the minute's walk from the terminal lot wins instead.
A day here means 24 hours
Charging runs in 24-hour blocks from the moment the barrier lifts, and the operator's own wording leaves no room for argument: one day and one minute is billed as two days. Land back at 10:00 on a Wednesday having parked at 09:00 on the Tuesday and you pay the two-day rate of €24 by the terminal, not the single day of €17. So note the hour you drove in, not just the date, and if your return flight lands close to that mark it is worth knowing you are a few minutes from the next block.
The long-stay car park and its shuttle
The long-stay site opened in May 2024 and works without a cashier: cameras read the number plates, an intercom covers the machines around the clock, and a nine-seater bus shuttles between the car park and the terminal every 20 minutes, timed to every arriving and departing flight. One thing to plan for — payment there is cashless, debit or credit card only, with no cash accepted at all. Allow for the shuttle in your timings: on a bad turn of the clock it adds twenty minutes on top of the ride in and the walk to check-in.
Do you need to park at all?
Rhodes Town lies 14–15 km north-east of the airport, a 20–25 minute drive on a clear run and up to about 35 minutes in peak summer traffic, and the island has no train or metro. Metered taxis wait at the official rank immediately outside arrivals, charging the meter plus an airport pick-up fee, a charge per large case and a higher night tariff. The RODA public buses stop between the old and the new terminal, according to the airport, and in summer KTEL adds a direct line 25 to Faliraki at €3.50 one way, roughly hourly — our bus and shuttle guide has the schedule caveats. Put the numbers side by side and the case for driving is about the return trip, not the fare: twelve single bus fares of €3.50 come to €42, just under the €45 a week in the long-stay car park. Fares, drive times and the trade-offs are compared in our transfers guide.
Before you walk away from the car
- Keep the ticket with your travel documents rather than in the car. You need it at the machine and at the exit barrier, and a locked door turns it into a problem at the worst moment.
- Book a hire car online before you fly rather than counting on the desks: fleets sell out in the summer season, and the rental desks sit in the arrivals hall, where returns go back to the company rather than into public parking.
- Five of the 186 spaces are reserved for disabled drivers, so bring the badge that entitles you to one and do not plan on finding a second.
- Arrive with time in hand at the height of the season, when several flights land together and queues build inside the hall.
- The car parks, the walk to the entrance and the direction of the bus stop are drawn to real geometry on our airport map.
Rates above were checked against the airport's own parking page in September 2026. Both car parks are run by FastCarPark, which has held the terminal lot since September 2020, and the operator revises the tariff from time to time — worth a check before a long stay. The arrivals guide sets out what happens between the aircraft and the car park exit.
