Getting to San Diego

[stevebeme]

I was hoping there might be a local expert on this formn that could could tell me a good way to get to San Diego from the San Pedro dock. We will be staying in San Diego for a week and would like to rent a car. What are the rental companies around the port area? Would Amtrack be a good way to go, love the train and haven't been on one for years. Any advice greatly appreciated.

[Sangela]

The Amtrak terminal is actually across the street, not too far from the cruise terminal, so taking Amtrak is a pretty good idea.

As for rental cars, the airport is about 2 miles (give or take) from the cruise terminal and you have a variety of companies to choose from, and when you return your car, there's shuttles to take you to your airline terminal.

Here's a link to hotels in the area: http://www.sandiego.org/article/Visitors/780

Here's a link to Amtrak in San Diego: http://www.amtrakcalifornia.com/rail/go/amtrak/stations/q_t/san-diego/index.cfm

On this page there's also links at the bottom that may be of interest, too.

Hope this helps and enjoy your cruise and stay in San Diego! :)

[Splinter]

The Amtrak terminal is actually across the street, not too far from the cruise terminal, so taking Amtrak is a pretty good idea.

As for rental cars, the airport is about 2 miles (give or take) from the cruise terminal and you have a variety of companies to choose from, and when you return your car, there's shuttles to take you to your airline terminal.

Here's a link to hotels in the area: http://www.sandiego.org/article/Visitors/780

Here's a link to Amtrak in San Diego: http://www.amtrakcalifornia.com/rail/go/amtrak/stations/q_t/san-diego/index.cfm

On this page there's also links at the bottom that may be of interest, too.

Hope this helps and enjoy your cruise and stay in San Diego! :)

 

Just to clarify, the above applies to SAN DIEGO, not to San Pedro. To get to the Amtrak station in downtown LA from San Pedro you will have to take a bus 35 miles from the port in the wrong direction before getting on the train. The train has frequent delays, so it generally takes longer than the published 2 hours to get to Amtrak station in San Diego mentioned above.

 

You might want to just rent a car and take that to San Diego. You can get an Enterprise car in San Pedro (at the Crown Plaza) although they are not always open on Saturday afternoon or Sunday. Otherwise, you can take a cab or shuttle to the Long Beach airport (about 8 miles) and rent a car there and drive to San Diego, which will take you 2 hours plus depending on traffic and time of day. This lets you see a little more between San Pedro/Long Beach and San Diego as well.

[Sangela]

Splinter, I did not realize that! Thanks for the clarification! Never having taken the train from LA, I was ignorant of the hassle to get to the train station from San Pedro. Ugh, yes, definitely better to rent a car!!!

[stevebeme]

thank you for the prompt reply it has been most helpful. Any suggestions as to think we might want to see on the way down if we rent a car.

[short timer]

We rented a car in San Pedro last Decemeber when we returned from a cruise. We live in San Diego.

Use Enterprise - there is a shuttle from the pier. You call when you arrive and they circle the lot. It was easy. I booked online and then called to confirm.

The drive from San Pedro to San Diego takes a couple of hours depending if you get any traffic. There is a car pool lane for a great deal of the way.

You will pass San Juan Capistrano - there is a mission there. Also Del Mar and other beach cities. Not too much to see that is all that great.

Hope this helps.

[Splinter]

If you have the time, you can see quite a bit by skipping the 405 and 5 freeways on your way to San Diego and instead taking Pacific Coast Hwy (PCH). You can go from Long Beach through the beach cities of Seal and Huntington Beach (a great place to watch surfers and body surfers from the pier) through Newport, Corona del Mar and Laguna Beach, then on to Dana Point where you can go back to the 5 fwy to go through Camp Pendelton Marine base. Once you get to Oceanside, again cut over to PCH and drive down through Encinitas, Carlsbad, Solano Beach and Del Mar on to La Jolla, then on to Pacific and Mission Beach. This will take you 3-4 hours (sometimes longer on a summer weekend) but you will see more of the older type beach towns and get a chance to see some lovely beaches if you keep your eyes peeled and pull over or into side streets occasionally.