Car Rental Galveston

We have discovered, after booking a 7 day cruise on Carnival Freedom for this summer with our 2 - 9 year old grand daughters, that arranging a rental car pick up at Houston George Bush and drop off in Galveston is impossible....

We are arriving 2 days early and have rented a condo on the beach in Galveston before heading to the cruise terminal on Saturday...now to our dismay the only solution we are finding is to rent a car for the entire 9 days and pay to park !

We would appreciate any suggestions, if there are any, to avoid this high expense to pay to rent/park a car for a week!

Thanks in advance....

Avis will do a one way rental from IAH to Texas City. They will drive you to the port for an additional fee of $ 50. They will do the same on the return as well. Was by far the cheapest option we found.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Forums mobile app

Did you try Enterprise they have an office here on the Island. Since Hurricane Ike they are the only local car rental.

5919 Broadway Avenue J

Galveston, TX

(409) 740-0700

Did you try Enterprise they have an office here on the Island. Since Hurricane Ike they are the only local car rental.

 

5919 Broadway Avenue J

Galveston, TX

(409) 740-0700

We spoke with Enterprise and their offices in and around Houston International do not allow a one way rental to their offices in Galveston or Texas City:mad:

Avis will do a one way rental from IAH to Texas City. They will drive you to the port for an additional fee of $ 50. They will do the same on the return as well. Was by far the cheapest option we found.

 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Forums mobile app

When I spoke with Avis they indicated they did not have any option to transport to cruise terminal....they said customers have to arrange their own transportation ( obviously if you are renting a car, you do not have alternate forms of transportation:eek:)

I will try again tomorrow and see if I can get a different answer....

Thanks for the update

Call the Texas City location directly, Lashonda is the branch manager who set everything up for us. We just did it last Saturday and Thursday. Their number is 409 986 9084. I still had it in my phone :)

Sent from my SM-G900V using Forums mobile app

We have discovered, after booking a 7 day cruise on Carnival Freedom for this summer with our 2 - 9 year old grand daughters, that arranging a rental car pick up at Houston George Bush and drop off in Galveston is impossible....

 

We are arriving 2 days early and have rented a condo on the beach in Galveston before heading to the cruise terminal on Saturday...now to our dismay the only solution we are finding is to rent a car for the entire 9 days and pay to park !

 

We would appreciate any suggestions, if there are any, to avoid this high expense to pay to rent/park a car for a week!

 

Thanks in advance....

Try Budget and use this code:

Pay Now Rate

<LI class=freemiles_disc>BCD Y937800<LI class=freemiles_disc>coupon code none

It's always been the best price for me.

relax, you still have options...

For questions about the port drop off and pick up, try calling the Avis/Budget Texas City location directly. Do not use the national number. (you can make your reservation on line or phone as usual, just not the port transport)

That said, if you want the car on both ends, check the pricing for the nine day rental against the pick up and drop off fees. as you can pick any agency, you might find as good or better deal keeping the at all nine days

Finally, you could check prices for car/shuttle services to and from Galveston. then you could walk or use taxis for your two days in Galveston.

We found that it was just as cheap to rent a car at the Hobby airport; drive to Galveston and spend the night at our hotel; drive to the port and park the car there for the week; drive back to Hobby at the end of the cruise. Even with the week long parking fee, it was the same price as a car service, and we had all the control.

Booked through Hotwire.

Enjoy!

Kel:)

Avis will do a one way rental from IAH to Texas City. They will drive you to the port for an additional fee of $ 50. They will do the same on the return as well. Was by far the cheapest option we found.

 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Forums mobile app

Thank you for this info. I just spoke with LaShonda at AVIS-Texas City and we are set to go in October. She is very kind and helpful!

As additional info for others because I had to ask...their shuttle is continuous from the AVIS rental location to the port during the hours they are open. Call once you've booked your car rental and they will ask for your confirmation # to note shuttle service on your reservation.

Wondering if anyone dropped a car at Budget in Texas City and knows if they have a shuttle to Galveston port or how much a taxi would be? I've been trying to call the location as I have a reservation with them next month but either get no answer or transferred to their national booking line which isn't what I want.

Just a FYI about Budget in Texas City - Now don't know if this is true or not, but I recall researching that location on Travelocity or similar site and the reviews about that Budget location were less than favorable. May have improved since the review, but I got the impression that it was located in a mall type setting and that it was not a good area of town and that they were one of only very few business still located in the mall. Just didn't sound like something I wanted to try. But that was just the impression I got.

So for what its worth...

Avis will do a one way rental from IAH to Texas City. They will drive you to the port for an additional fee of $ 50. They will do the same on the return as well. Was by far the cheapest option we found.

 

Sent from my SM-G900V using Forums mobile app

Is that $50 per person or for your whole party?

Does Budget offer the same service?

Galveston Express has a public shuttle that can drop you off at the Enterprise location on Galveston Island. You can book a round trip that will take care of the transportation between the airport and the island and have a rental car during your stay.

After being unable to get ahold of anyone at Budget & reading the tips on here I ended up calling Avis. At first I was transferred to their national reservation line where I ended up getting a car for half of what Their online price was (also half what Budget would have been). I then called today and talked to LaShonda as others had mentioned & arranged the shuttle. It's $50 for your whole party, not per person. As someone had mentioned, the Mall of the Mainland is now closed down & all that's there now is Sears where the car rental places are located & a movie theater. Sounds a bit deserted & creepy but I don't plan on being there long & I've had to go to worse places to rent or drop off a car!

Avis and Budget share the same desk and same staff inside Sears at Mall or Mainland. I was there in January to see this. My neighborhood Avis and Budget location also share location and staff which is not surprising as the brands are owned by the same company. If I had trouble with the Budget Texas City phone number, I'd just call the number for AvisTexas City or vice versa.

OK, I just called the Texas City location and got some more info, so I thought I would update the information on this thread, based on my conversation with them.

The protocol that works best is to make your one-way reservation through the main 800 line. That will give you access to the best rates, because if they book it out of the Texas City location for pickup in another terminal, the rates will be higher, and cannot access any discounts.

Once you have a reservation number, then call the Texas City location at 409-986-9084 and schedule the drop-off/pickup date/time for the cruise terminal. They are open on most Sundays, with the excption of some holiday dates.

FYI, Barbara is the Manager, LaShonda works for her. They are both lovely on the phone.

Thanks everyone for posting your info. So helpful!

Just to clarify -- does the shuttle for the texas city location only available for avis rentals, or is it available for budget rentals as well? I'm a bit unclear if the office there is all one set of people and services?

ETA - well I did it. I now have a Budget car rented at IAH to drop off at Texas City and canceled my Alamo rental. I called the Avis office and spoke with Barbara and have a spot on a shuttle. It will be about $15 more than I was going to pay with Alamo + hobby + carnival, but I realized I was probably going to lose at least an hour screwing around to go back to Hobby and return the car and then take the rental car shuttle to the airport and get on the carnival shuttle. Bleh. If I get on the first shuttle from Texas City, I can make the most of my FTTF!!!

FWIW -- I tried calling the Avis 800 number and their price wasn't any better than the quotes I was getting online.

Hi all,

I just wanted to post an update for those looking for rental car options to the Galveston port. My fiancé and sailed on the Carnival Freedom 5/16-5/23/15. We flew into Hobby on 5/15 and rented a car from Avis for a one way from the airport. We toured NASA for the day and stayed at a hotel near NASA. We then dropped the Avis rental off the next morning at the Texas City location. They will indeed take you to the Galveston port for $50. We had called the Texas City location directly after booking the rental car online, as the national phone number had no idea about the cruise port drop off. They actually take you directly to the port in the rental car you have. It was so easy, and much more relaxing than taking the Carnival shuttle from the airport! Our driver was Darren, and he was great! He told us they are not allowed to advertise the service due to company policies.

We used Avis on the return as well, since our flight was not until 7pm and the thought of waiting at the airport all day was an unbearable way to end our vacation. We called the Texas City location once we picked up our bags and got through customs. It took Darren about 20 mins to get to us. He brought us to the Texas City location and then transferred our luggage to the rental car we would be using. We then spent the day at the Kemah Boardwalk before returning the car at the airport.

I would highly recommend this option over the Carnival shuttle if you are flying in the day before! I would be happy to answer any questions people have. I love these boards for the info they provide!

After the cruise, did you call them and have them pick you up or did you taxi to Texas City?

Mm386 - this sounds almost exactly like what we're doing next week. We get to IAH mid-day Thursday and go to NASA on Friday. Right now it looks like we have Thursday afternoon and evening open. We are also staying near NASA right off

the interstate at Bay Area Blvd. We have a car from Budget and will also drop off in Texas city. But right now, I'm still planning on the carnival shuttle back to the airport. For two of us, it's way expensive to take the shuttle back to Texas city and rent a car.

Any recommendations on what to do and where to eat on Thursday with my 16-year-old son?

After the cruise, did you call them and have them pick you up or did you taxi to Texas City?

They gave us the number to the store and we called them and they picked us up for $50. There are plenty of taxis outside the port to take you places, but I'm not sure what the taxi cost would be to get to Texas City, as it's a 15-20 minute drive.

Mm386 - this sounds almost exactly like what we're doing next week. We get to IAH mid-day Thursday and go to NASA on Friday. Right now it looks like we have Thursday afternoon and evening open. We are also staying near NASA right off

the interstate at Bay Area Blvd. We have a car from Budget and will also drop off in Texas city. But right now, I'm still planning on the carnival shuttle back to the airport. For two of us, it's way expensive to take the shuttle back to Texas city and rent a car.

 

Any recommendations on what to do and where to eat on Thursday with my 16-year-old son?

You could go to the Kemah Boardwalk. This is where we went to kill time before the airport. It's not far from NASA. There are rides, games, and food there.