Renting a car in Anchorage

[clintjake]

Got a 4*4 Gold package from yescarhire.com in Anchorage for $US225 for 6 days. Have dealt with them before in USA and they are Alamo cars but much cheaper than Alamo gives you. dont know how they do it, but I always use them.

[clintjake]

Hey Neal, My wife and I are spending a week going to Denali etc after cruise. Might run into you.

[kenish]

Sort of a repeat of other comments:

 

- Check discount codes you get through AAA, credit cards, your employer, AARP, bank, national organizations, etc. It's tedious going to each rental car website and trying different codes. But I saved about $400 using my employee discount code. Not bad for 2-3 hours of effort.

 

- ANC airport fees and taxes add 25% or more to the rental cost. We used the downtown Avis office instead. There was no one-way drop charge to return it to the airport.

 

- If you rent from Whittier or Seward and drop off in ANC, the drop charge applies to every single day of your rental. The idea is to have it apply only from port to ANC. Then do a separate rental in ANC for the rest of the trip. Leaving Whittier, there's a junction- left to Seward and right to ANC. It's about 45 minutes from the junction to downtown ANC so that's not too much backtracking for the money saved.

 

- Avis is the only agency in Whittier (Hertz in Seward) so the trip to ANC has to be with one or the other. A separate rental in ANC provides the option of using a different company if you find a better deal.

 

- Be aware there is a one-way tunnel out of Whittier that is used by vehicles and trains. Traffic in each direction is on an hourly schedule. Be aware of the schedule so you aren't sitting around (a google search finds it quickly).

[family_planner]

We aren't getting into ANC until 11:30 p.m. Are the airport car rental places open 24/7?

 

I realize the airport taxes are higher, but we are only renting for one day and it seems like it would be cheaper than getting a taxi and renting from the city the next day. (there are 4 of us with luggage so it may be two taxis). The hotel we are considering does not have a shuttle.