Rent a car in Salamina from the experts.
Milos is the island that Milos travel information covers, but a hire car on the Athens side of the Saronic Gulf also reaches Salamina, an island that lies beside Piraeus. A rent a car Salamina plan begins on the mainland shore at Perama and ends at the port of Paloukia. This page follows that route from shore to shore.
Two ports frame the crossing. Perama stands on the mainland as a suburb of Piraeus, and Paloukia is the main port on the north-east side of the island. A car that crosses the water meets rocky hills, a pine forest, shipyards and harbours, and each part of that setting has its own place in the plan below.
What does rent a car Salamina involve at a glance?
A rent a car Salamina plan covers the largest Greek island in the Saronic Gulf, which lies close to Piraeus and has 37,220 residents. A car reaches it by ferry across the strait and then meets a coastline, hills and a pine forest.
Salamina lies about two kilometres from the coast of Piraeus, the port of Athens, and about 16 kilometres west of the centre of the capital. Its area is 95 square kilometres, and its highest point is Mavrovouni at 404 metres. A significant part of the land is rocky and mountainous. On the southern side stands a pine forest, which is unusual for western Attica. A rent a car Salamina plan starts from these plain geographic facts.
The island has 37,220 residents at the 2021 census, and no other Greek island has a higher density of permanent population. The reason is the short distance to Piraeus and Athens. In the summer months the population rises to close to 280,000, when day trippers, weekend visitors and holiday makers arrive from the mainland. The summer figure stands far above the permanent count, so a rent a car Salamina arrangement serves an island with two very different seasons of road use.
Work on the island is tied to the sea and to the capital. Inland residents are mainly employed in farming, while the majority of residents work in maritime jobs such as fishing, the ferries and the shipyards, or commute to work in Athens. The maritime industry is concentrated on the north-east coast around Paloukia, and dockyards stand at Ampelakia and on the north side of the Kynosoura peninsula. These workplaces shape the traffic that a rent a car Salamina driver meets near the harbours.
A car helps because the services of the island are spread around its coast. The chief city, Salamina, lies in the west-facing core of a crescent on Salamis Bay, while the main port of Paloukia stands on the eastern side. Swimming beaches lie on the south, and cafes, tavernas and shops stand throughout the island. A rent a car Salamina route links places on opposite sides of the island, from the harbour in the east to the chief city on Salamis Bay.
Access has limits as well. The island is partly restricted because of a major base of the Hellenic Navy that lies next to Paloukia. The restriction applies to part of the island only. That base forms part of the map for a rent a car Salamina plan. The climate is hot semi-arid, with mild winters and very hot summers. Administratively, Salamina belongs to the Islands regional unit of the Attica region and has formed one municipality since the 2011 local government reform.
- Position: Salamina is the largest Greek island in the Saronic Gulf.
- Area: The island covers 95 square kilometres.
- Population: The island has 37,220 residents and the densest permanent population of any Greek island.
- Relief: Mavrovouni, at 404 metres, is the highest point.
- Car role: A rent a car Salamina plan fits an island whose services are spread around its coast.
A rent a car Salamina plan suits an island that sits this close to the mainland. The strait is narrow, the population is dense, and the places to reach are spread over the coast, the hills and the pine forest. The next stage is the crossing itself, because the majority of visitors first arrive at the port of Paloukia by ferry from Perama or Piraeus.
How does rent a car Salamina cross from Perama to Paloukia?
A rent a car Salamina crossing runs from the passenger port of Perama on the mainland to the port of Paloukia in the north-east of the island. Double-ended ferries serve the line, and by traffic volume it is the busiest sea line in Greece.
Perama is a coastal town and a suburb of Piraeus on the Saronic Gulf, at the south-western limit of the Athens-Piraeus urban area. It lies 8 kilometres north-west of Piraeus and 14 kilometres west of the centre of Athens. The town forms the western end of the Port of Piraeus and holds the passenger port with the ferry services to Salamina. The municipality covers 14.729 square kilometres. A rent a car Salamina plan therefore starts on the mainland shore at Perama.
The name Perama comes from the Greek word perasma, which means passage, and the meaning suits a town beside a strait. The sea on the western side of the town is the Strait of Salamis. The first shipyards opened in 1928, and the majority of local residents work in the shipyards, so a rent a car Salamina plan begins in a town of working shipyards. The town is called a city of seafaring and holds a museum of maritime tradition.
Paloukia is the main port of Salamina and lies in the north-east of the island. Its name comes from the stakes that held moored fishing boats in the past, when the place had no proper harbour. Ferryboats, fishing vessels and port police craft dock there today, and Paloukia is the base of the port police department of Salamina. The harbour is the centre of the maritime industry on the north-east coast, and a rent a car Salamina driver lands at this working place.
The ferries on the line are double-ended vessels of the ferry type, which carry vehicles as well as passengers. The line is frequent, and in 2009 it handled 9.8 million passengers and 4 million vehicles. That volume made the Paloukia and Perama line the busiest in Greece by traffic, and Paloukia ranks as the second largest port of Greece by passengers after Piraeus. A rent a car Salamina crossing joins this large flow of road traffic.
Other sea links exist besides the Perama line, so the island has more than one crossing. A direct link joins Paloukia with the port of Piraeus by small passenger vessels, and Selinia also has a direct link with Piraeus. A further link joins the port of Faneromeni, near the monastery, with Nea Peramos. The harbour of Paloukia stands next to the Salamis Naval Base, a major base of the Hellenic Navy, so a military site neighbours the ferry area.
- Mainland port: Perama lies 8 kilometres north-west of Piraeus and 14 kilometres west of Athens.
- Island port: Paloukia is the main port of Salamina, in the north-east.
- Name: Perama means passage, and Paloukia refers to the stakes that once held moored boats.
- Traffic: The line handled 4 million vehicles in 2009.
- Vessels: A rent a car Salamina crossing uses double-ended ferries.
A rent a car Salamina route is a short sea crossing joined to a road stage on each shore. The mainland stage belongs to Perama and the wider port of Piraeus, which the rental page for Piraeus and Athens covers in full. The island stage begins at Paloukia, beside the naval base, and continues toward the chief city of Salamina on Salamis Bay.
Which towns and roads does a rent a car Salamina trip join?
A rent a car Salamina trip joins five places: Salamina town in the west, Ampelakia and Selinia in the east, and Aiantio and Kaki Vigla in the south-west. Salamina town, Aiantio and Kaki Vigla lie in the Salamina municipal unit, Ampelakia and Selinia in the Ampelakia unit.
Salamina town lies on the west side of the island, in the curve of Salamis Bay. From at least the 13th century until the 19th century, the town, the island and the bay were all called Koulouri, after their round shape, and the name is still used informally for the town. A rent a car Salamina driver reaches the largest settlement of the island, with 24,537 residents and districts such as Alonia, Agios Minas, Agios Dimitrios, Agios Nikolaos, Boskos, Nea Salamina, Tsami and Vourkari.
The centre holds the churches and museums that a rent a car Salamina route can include. The church of Agios Minas, inaugurated in 1869, is the metropolitan church of Salamina, and the church of Agios Dimitrios was built in 1806. The archaeological museum has stood in the building of the old island school since 2010, and the folklore museum occupies a hall of the new town hall. Paloukia, once a separate settlement, is now a district in the east of the town.
Ampelakia is a coastal town on the east side of the island, between Cape Pounta on the north and the northern shore of the Kynosoura peninsula. The name means vineyards, and the first settlement, Ampelaki, was named for its vines. On a rent a car Salamina visit, the town offers the remains of a Frankish tower of the 13th or 14th century, whose west wall still stands high, and the church of the Entrance of the Virgin, built in 1887 beside a chapel of the 16th century.
Selinia is a seaside settlement and bay on the east side, south-east of Salamina town, with 2,376 residents. Its name comes from the worship of the goddess Selene, linked with Artemis and Bendis. The seaside road from Ampelakia to Paloukia passes a pre-war neoclassical house and, just off the shore, rusty iron bases where Greek pilots once tied their seaplanes. A rent a car Salamina driver on that road has the sea alongside for the whole stretch.
Aiantio, the second-largest town of the Salamina municipal unit, lies in the south-west and was called Moulki until 1915. Its church of Agios Ioannis Kalyvitis dates from the 10th century and is the oldest church on the island. Kaki Vigla is a small community in the south, near Aiantio. When the ancient coastal city was abandoned, life moved to places such as Perani, Kaki Vigla, Kanakia and Moulki, so a rent a car Salamina route to the south reaches the villages that replaced the old shore.
- Agios Nikolaos: This western suburb of Salamina town holds the main cafes and bars of the bay.
- Ampelakia unit: The municipal unit covers about one-sixth of the island, and its largest towns are Ampelakia and Selinia.
- Selinia: A rent a car Salamina stop here adds the beach, restaurants and tavernas of a weekend resort for Athenians.
- Aiantio: Churches of the 11th and 12th centuries, among them Agios Ioannis and Agios Dimitrios, stand in the area.
- Kaki Vigla: A rent a car Salamina route to this community meets pine and olive trees near the shore.
In the Roman period two settlements stood on the island, one in the south where Aiantio is today and one in the north where Salamina town is today. A report of 1674 named three villages: Koulouri, today’s Salamina town, Metropolis, today’s Aiantio, and Ampelaki. A rent a car Salamina plan that links these places follows a very old pattern. Travellers who also plan time in the Cyclades can read about a car on Milos on the same site.
Which places of the Battle of Salamis does a rent a car Salamina trip reach?
A rent a car Salamina trip reaches the shore of the strait where the Greek fleet under Themistocles defeated the Persian fleet of Xerxes in 480 BC. The Kynosoura peninsula, the bay of Ampelakia and the burial mound of the Salaminians all lie on the east side.
The battle belongs to the second Persian invasion of Greece. After the loss of Thermopylae and the retreat from Artemisium, the Persians took Boeotia and Attica, and the allied fleet withdrew to the island of Salamis. Themistocles, the Athenian general, persuaded the allies to fight the Persian fleet there instead of defending the Isthmus of Corinth, hoping to stop naval operations against the Peloponnese with a victory. A rent a car Salamina visitor therefore drives across the island that sheltered the Greek ships.
Themistocles then sent Xerxes a message that the Greek allies were quarrelling and were about to slip away that very night. The Persian navy rowed into the Straits of Salamis and tried to block both entrances, while Xerxes had a throne set on the slopes of Mount Aigaleo to watch the battle. In the cramped water the great Persian numbers became a hindrance, because the ships struggled to manoeuvre and fell into disorder. A rent a car Salamina map shows how narrow that strait is.
The Greek ships appear to have formed in two ranks, from the islet of Agios Georgios in the north to Kynosoura in the south. When they rowed forward, the first Persian line was pushed back into its own second and third lines, the admiral Ariabignes died early, and a wedge of Greek ships split the fleet in two. The survivors retreated to Phalerum. Persian losses are put at 200 to 300 ships, and a rent a car Salamina driver follows the shore of that strait.
The Kynosoura peninsula, on the east side of the island, means dog’s tail in Greek, since it is long, thin and pointed at the end. Its population is 58. In the north lie the remains of an ancient tumulus thought to be the burial site of Greek warriors in the battle, with ruins and foundations on top of the mound. A dockyard nearby builds and repairs ships, including oil tankers and containers. On a rent a car Salamina visit, the peninsula shows a working dockyard beside an ancient grave.
On 17 March 2017, archaeologists announced the partly submerged remains of the anchorage used by the Greek warships before the battle, at the Ambelaki-Kynosoura site. The ancient city of the island once stood on the shore of this bay, on the north side of Kynosoura. A sculpture called the Tumulus of the Salaminians, made to honour the fallen, was inaugurated at Kynosoura in 2006 after disputes over its place, and a monument to the Salaminians also stands about 2 kilometres north of Selinia.
- Mount Aigaleo: The powerful Phoenician fleet stood on the Persian right flank, next to this mountain.
- Psyttaleia: Xerxes placed about 400 troops here, at the exit of the strait, and Aristides destroyed the garrison.
- Archaeological museum: A rent a car Salamina stop in the town shows drawn reconstructions of the naval battle.
- Salaminia festival: The annual festival of that name commemorates the naval battle of Salamis.
- Vourkari sailing: A sailing club of Vourkari runs a yearly open-sea race in honour of the Salaminians.
The battle marked the turning point of the Greco-Persian wars. Xerxes withdrew to Asia with the greater part of his army and left Mardonius to complete the conquest, and in the next year the Persians lost at Plataea and Mycale. From then on the Greek cities took the offensive. A rent a car Salamina route on the east side of the island passes the places where that turn began: the anchorage, the mound and the strait.
How does rent a car Salamina reach the Faneromeni monastery and the beaches?
A rent a car Salamina route links the Faneromeni monastery on the north-west coast with the beaches of the south, such as Kanakia and Peristeria. The island covers 93 square kilometres, so one vehicle joins the monastery, the sandy north-west shore and the southern beaches.
The Faneromeni monastery stands on the north-west coast of Salamina and belongs to the Metropolis of Megara and Salamis. The complex has a fortress-like layout around a central courtyard. Cells, kitchens, a refectory, workshops and storerooms fill the buildings, which rise two or three storeys and open onto arcades facing the courtyard. Towers mark the south-west and south-east corners. A rent a car Salamina journey brings a visitor to this fortified complex on the shore.
The monastery church, called the catholicon, stands in the northern part of the enclosure. It is a three-aisled basilica with a dome. The dome is octagonal and of the Athenian type, and it rises above the rest of the complex, so it shows from a distance as a visitor approaches. The wall paintings date to 1735 and hold about 3,530 figures and scenes. The monastery honours the Dormition of the Mother of God, and the feast falls on 23 August.
A devout Christian from Megara founded the monastery. He restored a ruined church in 1682, and church tradition tells that he dug in the ruins and found an icon of the Mother of God. In the Revolution of 1821 the monastery sheltered civilians from Athens, Megara and the surrounding areas. Strong fortification also made it a safe store for church treasures. The community stayed a men’s monastery until 27 July 1944, when it became a monastery of nuns.
Opposite the monastery, on the shore, stands the house where a modern Greek poet lived from 1933 to 1950. The house now holds a museum. Steno, a small community in the north-west, is separated from the monastery by a hill of shrubs and pine trees. Psili Ammos, whose name means fine sand, is covered with sand and faces Elefsina. Vasilika has a large sandy beach for swimming. A rent a car Salamina plan joins these north-west stops with the monastery.
The south of Salamina offers a different shore. Kanakia sits on the south-west coast at the head of a bay of the same name, and a pebble beach lies in the bay. A pine forest surrounds the village. Peristeria lies in the south of the island, with a pebble beach, very clear water and a small harbour for boats and fishing vessels. Islets lie just south-west of the village. A rent a car Salamina trip reaches both villages from the monastery coast.
- Kanakia acropolis: Excavations that began in 2000 uncovered a Mycenaean acropolis, identified as the Mycenaean capital of the island, whose central building is a double megaron with 33 rooms on four levels.
- Kanakia islet: The islet at the bay entrance covers 0.105 square kilometres and rises to 54 metres.
- Peristeria lighthouse: The stone lighthouse stands on a cape between Peristeria and Kolones, has a tower 11 metres high and first lit on 1 March 1901.
- Peristeria cave: A cave of ten chambers on the slopes of Mount Kochi lies near the village and is about 47 metres deep.
- Kaki Vigla: The beaches near Aianteio have pine and olive trees close to the shore.
The monastery and the beaches sit on different coasts of Salamina, and a single rent a car Salamina plan joins them. The north-west holds the fortified monastery and the sandy shore of Psili Ammos and Vasilika. The south holds Kanakia with its pine forest, Peristeria with its harbour and a long list of swimming beaches. Travellers who sail on to Milos can read how to go to Milos to plan the sea crossing.
What do travellers ask about rent a car Salamina?
A rent a car Salamina plan raises questions about the monastery, the beaches and the terrain. Salamina is the largest Greek island in the Saronic Gulf, about 16 km west of Athens centre, and one vehicle links its north-west monastery with its southern beaches.
Can rent a car Salamina reach the Faneromeni monastery?
Yes, the monastery stands on the north-west coast of Salamina, and a vehicle reaches the complex on the shore. A small port of the same name lies near the monastery and joins the island with Nea Peramos by sea. A commander of the Revolution lies buried in the courtyard of the monastery.
Does rent a car Salamina cover Kanakia and Peristeria?
Yes, both villages lie in the southern part of the island. Kanakia stands on the south-west coast, where the 2011 census counted 206 residents. Peristeria lies in the south, about 12 km south-south-west of the town of Salamina, with 191 residents in the 2021 census. Both belong to the community of Aianteio.
Is rent a car Salamina needed beside the island transport network?
A private public-transport network runs across Salamina in the summer season for residents and visitors. A rent a car Salamina plan adds freedom to link places that sit on different coasts, such as the monastery in the north-west and the beaches in the south, without keeping to a fixed network of stops.
Which south-coast beaches fit rent a car Salamina?
The south side, away from the port, holds less developed areas with swimming beaches. These areas include Aianteio, Maroudi, Perani, Peristeria, Kolones, Saterli, Selenia and Kanakia. A vehicle moves between these beaches along the south shore, while the main port at Paloukia and the naval base lie in the north-east.
Does rent a car Salamina suit Aianteio and its old churches?
Aianteio is a coastal town on the west coast, at the southern end of the bay of Salamina. Churches from the 11th and 12th centuries stand around it, and the oldest church of the island dates to the 10th century. A monastery from the 18th century lies in a forest nearby, so a vehicle suits these separate stops.
Can rent a car Salamina include Selinia and its taverns?
Selinia is a resort south-east of Salamina city and a weekend choice for Athenians. Restaurants and taverns stand in the resort, and the town belongs to the municipal unit of Ampelakia. A rent a car Salamina plan links Selinia with the beaches of the south and with the monastery in the north-west.
Why does rent a car Salamina matter in the peak season?
The island has about 31,000 permanent residents, and the population rises to 300,000 in the peak season because Athenians come for holiday and weekend visits. A vehicle lets a visitor spread stops across the monastery, the north-west sands and the southern beaches instead of staying near the port in the north-east.
What terrain does rent a car Salamina cross?
A significant part of Salamina is rocky and mountainous, and the highest point, Mavrovouni, stands at 404 metres. A pine forest covers part of the south, which is unusual for western Attica. The climate is hot semi-arid, with mild winters and very hot summers. These conditions shape a rent a car Salamina route across the island.