Car Hire to Southampton

We are sailing from Southampton QEII terminal to Barcelona leaving on 31st August. This looks as if it's going to be a very busy day in Southampton [emoji33].

My current plan is a one way car hire, has anyone done this ?

Would you advise dropping off the luggage before leaving the car ? Is that just making it too complicated ?

Thanks in advance for any advice

Hi, Hattie,

Since you're sailing from QE11 terminal, which is deep in the docks and a long way from the nearest car rental depots, you'll need a taxi from depot to ship whether you have luggage or not. So in your case it's simpler to return the car first and take the luggage with you in the taxi.

Most of the major car rental operators except Avis have depots in the city centre, many of them off West Quay Road near City cruise terminal - Hertz, Europcar, National, Dollar, etc. A taxi will cost about £7.

Alamo and Enterprise are further, Avis are out at Southampton airport - a taxi from the airport to the ship will cost somewhere north of £20.

One-way fees and zero-excess insurance cover can double the cost of a one-day hire - whether it's worthwhile is gonna depend where you're coming from and how easy / expensive the alternatives.

JB :)

Thanks, we're travelling from South Wales. It's not the cheapest but I'm hoping not the most difficult (if it is, I won't bother doing it again !).

I am sure it will work out for you. In any case I hope you enjoy your holiday.

Thank you, we've tried other options for a one way trip, car & driver (easy but expensive) and train (cheap but more difficult) so I am hoping this will be a viable alternative.

we did enterprise hire one way - dropped luggage at port and wife - dropped car into hire depo - make sure you go to right one of the 2 - enterprise then drop you at terminal... also from S wales... however they didnt quote the one way extra fee when we booked despite specifically telling them what were doing so had to complain to manager on pick - up who waived the fee... We probably would have done the train if the fee had been disclosed prior to us deciding method of travel... booking train tickets well advance via advice on martin lewis's website moneysavingexpert is relatively cheap... hope this helps

Thank you, we've booked with Enterprise so we'll see how it goes. The one way fee was around £20 which didn't seem too bad.

I would have been happy to go on the train but there are so many timetable changes at the moment it's more of a risk.

The last time we did a one way trip we flew out and sailed home. The trains were in chaos when we got back, I was very glad I had a phone app to find our way home !

My only problem now is that I have booked our overnight stay in Salisbury [emoji33]

One way fee is often prohibitive but £20 is a steal especially taking into account Southampton port parking costs which are a total rip off.

Sent from my CUBOT MAGIC using Forums mobile app

Just reporting back as today was the day.

It worked well and I would do it again if I was on a one way cruise. Southampton wasn't too busy and apart from the Sat Nav in the car not recognising the drop off location we had no problems.

I had booked via an online broker to return to Southampton West on Old Redbridge Road but had an email last night from Enterprise to say that if we were boarding a Cruise ship it would be easier to drop off at their location opposite the train station.

There were plenty of taxis at the station.

Just reporting back as today was the day.

It worked well and I would do it again if I was on a one way cruise. Southampton wasn't too busy and apart from the Sat Nav in the car not recognising the drop off location we had no problems.

I had booked via an online broker to return to Southampton West on Old Redbridge Road but had an email last night from Enterprise to say that if we were boarding a Cruise ship it would be easier to drop off at their location opposite the train station.

There were plenty of taxis at the station.

Glad it went well and Bon Voyage.

Thank you