Tampa Rental Cars & Hotels

[scsagh]

Are there any rental car agencies that have returns at or near the pier in Tampa? We will be flying in on Thursday, Mar. 31. We want to go to Busch Gardens on Friday, April 1. We also want to visit a friend who recently moved to Land O' Lakes sometime, so we are thinking a rental car would be best for our family of 4. We haven't been to Tampa in 20 years, and he doesn't know the area yet, so we need help.

 

Does anyone have any suggestions for hotels near Busch Gardens? Or do you think we'd be better staying somewhere else and driving to Busch Gardens?

 

About how long will it take to drive from that area to the pier? Will there be much traffic on a Saturday morning?

 

Thanks for any help you can offer!

 

Sandy

[tadjr]

http://www.visittampabay.com/stay/results.php?&pHighRate=9999&pHM is the Convention and Visitors Bureau website listing hotels in the area. You can check out the various areas by the links. Driving on a Saturday morning shouldnt be a problem. Will probably take about 20-30 minutes to get to the pier depending on where you actually stay. You can take I275 from the Busch area north of town right downtown and then its only about 5 minutes on local roads to the pier.

A rental car will definitely be the best bet. The local public transportation is not conducive to getting around where you want to go.

Check out some of the hotels in the area. If you can stay at some close to USF/Busch Gardens they are fairly new. Most of them are located on Busch or Fletcher.

You might be able to find a hotel away from the tourist areas a little cheaper and drive to the park. The website link above will give you some other ideas maybe.

Anything else I can try to help with just ask.

[scsagh]

Thanks, Tadjr! I checked out the website, and now have ideas on how long the drive may be.

 

Do you know if there is any particular car rental agency that would have a dropoff location near the pier?

[tadjr]

Marriott Waterside

700 South Florida Avenue,

Mo-Fr 0800-1700, Sa-Su 0900-1400

 

Port of Tampa

1101 Channelside Drive,

Mo-Fr 0800-1800, Sa-Su 0900-1400

 

Hertz lists these two locations although I havent seen the one on Channelside. Both are about the same distance from the cruise ship terminal though (about 2-3 blocks)

Also Budget shows

Budget Car Rental

200 N Tampa St

Tampa, FL

Phone: (813) 224-0015

 

This is located downtown about a 5 min cab ride away.

Also I know Alamo will pick you up at the pier and take you to their lot at the airport. Not sure if anyone else will do that.

[scsagh]

Thanks for the car rental info, Tadjr. I will check into it. Appreciate you taking the time to help all of us out-of-towners out by giving us lots of Tampa info.

 

Sandy

[tadjr]

You're welcome. I dont know all the answers but will help where I can.

Have fun and let us know what you end up doing.

[Iowaflatlander]

My wife and I (from Iowa) would like to pull our 5th wheel (36') with our 1 ton pickup to Tampa. Then go on a cruise out of Tampa. Where is the best place to leave our "rig" while we are on a cruise?

[cruise on carnival]

we rented a car through hertz and when we returned it to the airport they had a shuttle to take us to the pier.

we had actually asked the day before at the hertz desk where you rent them and the woman there said that she didn't know whether they offered that service, that we'd have to check when we dropped the car off. ahh, customer service...