How to Rent a Scooter in Santorini (Booking + Documents)

Santorini is way more spread out than it looks, and taxis are pricey — so the cheapest, most fun way to see the whole island is your own scooter. Here’s exactly how I rented mine, and the documents you need on an Indian passport.

Where I booked mine — Motor Inn

I booked online from Motor Inn (motorinn.gr). They’ve been renting in Santorini since 1988, and it made the whole thing so easy. A few reasons I’d use them again:

• A true 24 hours. I picked up one evening and had the scooter till the same time the next day.
• Free pick-up and drop-off at the airport. I landed, collected the scooter right there, and dropped it back at the airport when I flew out. No extra taxi to some far-off shop.
• The price is fixed and clear. You see the full break-up — rental, insurance, taxes — online before paying a single euro. No bargaining, no surprises.
• No credit card or big deposit needed for most vehicles.
• When I returned it, they simply checked the petrol and looked for scratches, asked how my trip went, and that was it. Super smooth.

How to book online — step by step

The website is genuinely simple. Here’s exactly what I did — and you can watch me do the whole booking in this clip:

Then you just show up, show your documents, and ride off.

Documents you need (Indian passport)

This is the part most people get wrong, so read this carefully. To rent — and to legally ride — in Greece as an Indian, carry all three of these:

• ✅ Your Indian driving licence
• ✅ An International Driving Permit (IDP) — get this from your RTO before you fly. It’s cheap and usually ready in a day or two.
• ✅ Your passport

The IDP is not optional. Greece is in the EU, and your Indian licence alone isn’t valid here. Ride without an IDP and if anything happens, your insurance won’t cover you — you’ll be paying for all the damage out of your own pocket. So please don’t skip it.

⚠️ About your licence: a scooter or motorcycle needs a two-wheeler (motorcycle) licence, so make sure your Indian licence has the 2-wheeler category and your IDP covers it. If you only have a car licence, you can't legally ride a scooter — but you can rent an ATV or quad, which a car licence does cover. Pick the vehicle that matches your licence.

Why I skipped the local shops

When you land you’ll see little rental shops all over, and it’s tempting to just walk in and grab a scooter. But here’s the catch I figured out: most local shops charge you by their day, not by a full 24 hours.

So say you pick up at 4 in the afternoon, and their shop closes around 8 or 9pm. You’ve used the scooter for just four or five hours — but you’ve already paid for a full day. The next morning it’s “day two.” That’s how a two-day plan quietly turns into a three-day bill.

💡 The trick: book a rental that gives you a full 24 hours from the moment you pick up — not one that resets at the shop's closing time. That one difference saved me a whole day's rent.

Quick tips before you ride off

• Drive on the right. It’s the opposite of India, so take the first ten minutes slowly until it clicks.
• Helmet on — it’s given to you, and it’s the law.
• Before you leave the shop, take a quick video of the scooter from every side, so any old scratches are on record and don’t get blamed on you.
• Some village lanes and viewpoints are narrow or a bit gravelly (like the path in my photo above), so ride gently there.
• Fill the petrol before you drop it back, or you’ll be charged extra for it.
• Parking is easy and mostly free — so much simpler than squeezing a car through Santorini’s tiny lanes.

Watch the full ride

The complete vlog of me picking up the scooter and riding around Santorini is on my YouTube — check it out below.

That’s how I explored all of Santorini on two wheels without spending a fortune. If this helped, come say hi on Instagram @travelerjyoti — and tell me which scooter colour you’d have picked!