Car Rental 7/16-7/23 @ Fort Lauderdale, FL Airport

[mikebone]

I am going on vacation with my girlfriend from 7/16 to 7/23 in Fort Lauderdale, FL and will need to rent a car. The whole car rental thing really sucks because we are going on a cruise from 7/18-22 but will have no way to get to and from the boat in Miami . I'll even have to pay for parking at the dock too for the days of the cruise . All this while I have been out of work for 8 months.

 

Anywho, any coupon codes or ideas would be greatly appreciated. The best price I have been able to get have been $270-$300+.

 

Thanks in advance

[Brad]

There are great coupons for all the big rental companies in the Entertainment Coupon Books. Since you have some time, I'd recommend ordering one of the books and then go through all the coupons to see which get you the best deal.

[biomajor]

Would they have a shuttle service or something like that to and from a car rental place? I don't know how the port/cruise thing works, but that seems like a big waste of car time.

[steveh]

From the airport, you'll take the Tri-Rail shuttle (free). It will take you to the "Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood International Airport at Dania Beach" train station. You'll hop on the train south ($3 per person, one way) to the Tri-Rail/Metro-Rail transfer station. From *there*, you're going to have to use one of the many public transit methods available in Miami-Dade. They have a trip planner on their site, but it's not real-time, you submit what you're trying to do, and a Miami-Dade County Transit employee figures out how to do it and emails you back (give them 24-48 hours during the week to figure it out). You'll probably spend $3-5 on bus/train/shuttle tickets for this part. Total cost ~$3-8 per person each way, 2-4 hours of your time.

 

Links:

Broward County Transit (tri-rail shuttle to/from Fort Lauderdale station)

Tri-Rail (train from Fort Lauderdale to Miami-Dade)

Miami-Dade County Transit trip planner

 

Note that the tri-rail route you'd be using only runs once every two hours on the weekends, so plan accordingly...

 

You could always get a limo for the trip, probably cost you $50-100 each way, but you don't have to worry about a rental car, and you can start your vacation a bit early...

 

HTH, YMMV

[mikebone]

Thank you all for the suggestions. My darn cable modem has been out for 2 days and I just got it back. I haven't been able to look into any of these yet...but you better believe I will . I am staying with family for a few days before and after the cruise and my sister said that my brother-inlaw may be able to drop us off and pick us up but she mentioned that a few months ago and seems to have pulled back from that a bit recently .

 

Anywho, Thank you all again