San Fransisco hire cars

[yorkshire born sailor]

Hi,

I'm cruising on Brilliance of the seas from Vancouver to San Diego in Sept 2010. We will be in San Fransisco from 10.00 am on the 21st to 17.00 on the 22nd. I'm toying with getting a hire car. can anybody advise if this is piossible from the dock or, if not, how far would I have to go?

 

many thanks

[mjesf]

Yes, it is possible to rent a car near Pier 35 in San Francisco.

 

What do you plan on doing? If you are not going farther afoot than The City, between traffic and playing The Great Parking Space Race, it is not a very good idea. If you are day tripping to Napa or something like that, then it would be useful.

[zephyr17]

I second that. San Francisco is very compact, has great public transportation (the Muni), and terrible parking. When I DRIVE to SF in my own car, I generally leave it parked and take the Muni around.

 

If you want to go out to Napa or up to Muir Woods out of the City, then a car makes sense. Just for San Franciso, a car doesn't make sense at all.

 

Here is a link to Muni's website

 

http://www.sfmta.com

[yorkshire born sailor]

Thanks for the info people, There will be my wife and 84 year old father in law who can get confused when switching transport methods. I have been to SF before (using a hire car) and I would be going out to Muir woods, Sausalito, I thought that would be easier and cheaper than a coach trip. We may drive along the cost but I really want to get my father in law out and about to see as much as possible in the limited time we have there as he certainly wont be able to come back again.

[yogi2929]

Are you sure you want to rent a car for less than 4-5 hours?

[mjesf]

Sounds like you have a plan.

 

Avis, Budget, Hertz, Dollar and Enterprise are all near Pier 35 and you could walk to any of them.

 

Enjoy the trip.

[duck tune]

Are you sure you want to rent a car for less than 4-5 hours?

 

The OP indicated that the ship would be in SF from 1000 on 9/21 until 1700 on 9/22 so it seems to be an overnight stay instead of just a five hour call at the port. With that amount of time a car would be worthwhile.

[yogi2929]

A 27 hour port stop is a totally different story. OP- find a radio station that has traffic reports and rent a GPS unit.

 

Nice cruise on the Radiance OTS. We loved Icy Straight. The souviner prices are really good there.

[nna]

to manage traffic problems--if you can, before you leave the ship, check http://www.511.org and you will see a live traffic map with current speed of traffic.

the radio station to listen to is am dial 810--traffic every 10 minutes on the "8's"--so 12:08, 12:18, and so on.

[jjb415]

Hi,

I'm cruising on Brilliance of the seas from Vancouver to San Diego in Sept 2010. We will be in San Fransisco from 10.00 am on the 21st to 17.00 on the 22nd. I'm toying with getting a hire car. can anybody advise if this is piossible from the dock or, if not, how far would I have to go?

 

many thanks

 

The Brilliance of the Seas will be in the Mediterranean in September 2010, according to the Royal Caribbean website. I got excited about the possibility of a rare short Royal Caribbean Pacific coastal sailing.

 

Ah, looks like it is the Radiance in San Francisco as part of the final Alaska sailing of the season in San Francisco only until 2pm on September 21, 2010. Shucks................ :)

[jonbgd]

to manage traffic problems--if you can, before you leave the ship, check www.511.org and you will see a live traffic map with current speed of traffic.

the radio station to listen to is am dial 810--traffic every 10 minutes on the "8's"--so 12:08, 12:18, and so on.

Or dial 511 from your cell phone and get frustrated by the computer guy that cant understand anything

IM JK....sort of..... but that is what I do when driving just another option