The Night Before a San Diego Cruise: Do You Need a Car Downtown or on Coronado?

The Midway closes at 5 and Seaport Village runs until 9. An evening arrival gets you the second, and only the outside of the first.

Little Italy’s Mercato runs Saturdays 8 to 2 and Wednesdays 9:30 to 1:30 — over by early afternoon either way. It helps only if your night before lands on one of those days.

The Port puts Santa Fe Depot two blocks east of the terminals.

In a straight line we measure closer to half a mile, so don’t count on two blocks.

The Gaslamp Quarter’s own association says everything in the district is within a five-minute walk of everything else.

That’s a marketing claim, and only for the district.

MTS charges $2.50 a ride on its buses and trolleys. With a PRONTO card or a tap the fare stops at $6 a day, and the reduced fare is $1.25.

The trolley reaches Petco Park, Little Italy and Old Town, and the Green Line stops at County Center/Little Italy. We couldn’t confirm the trolley’s hours or how often it runs, or the walk from the terminals to a station. Read the timetable before you count on it.

Rapid 215 and Route 7 both cover downtown to Balboa Park and the zoo, in about 15 minutes. MTS routes 8 and 9 run to SeaWorld from the Old Town Transit Center.

The Coronado ferry costs $9 one way or $18 round trip, and boats leave Broadway Pier about every hour.

Children 3 and under ride free — so do bikes.

Per the Ferry Landing’s page, the leisure schedule starts around 9 AM. The last boat leaves around 9 PM Sunday to Thursday and 10 PM Friday and Saturday.

The operator lists earlier commuter departures, so confirm current times. On the island, MTS Route 904 links the Ferry Landing with Coronado City Hall.

Should you drive over anyway, the bridge stopped charging a toll in 2002.

The ferry is a way to leave the car behind, not a way around a toll.

The spread runs from the Best Western Plus Bayside Inn’s $30 covered lot to the InterContinental’s $57.

The Marriott Marquis charges by the hour — $11 for the first, $7 for each after, capped at $50 a day.

The Wyndham sells parking packages alongside cruise stays, and the Best Western has a park-and-cruise package of its own.

Both look aimed at guests who leave a car for the week, not at a renter who hands one back.

A rental goes back before you board — the package is for someone else.

North Embarcadero meters, the ones nearest the terminals, were $2.50 an hour in the Port’s March 2025 announcement. They’re enforced seven days a week from 10 AM to 8 PM — check the meter for today’s rate.

The city’s downtown meters differ: enforced Monday to Saturday, to 8 PM in the hospitality zone — and not on Sundays.

The city says a car can’t sit more than 72 hours unless it moves at least a tenth of a mile.

It has to stay 15 feet from a hydrant and be gone for the whole posted street-sweeping period.

We couldn’t find San Diego’s parking-fine or tow-fee amounts — so we won’t print one. Tow recovery is through AutoReturn or 619-527-4392.

A night with a car comes to about $115 at our assumptions, and two nights to about $227. The garage takes $45 of the first and $90 of the second.

MTS at its daily cap is $12 a person for two days — a per-head fare, not a per-car one, so the comparison tilts as the group grows.

Try the Best Western’s $30 in the parking box and watch the gap narrow.

Pick up at the airport or at a downtown desk, whichever puts the car nearer your hotel, and choose a hotel that lists its garage rate.

Enterprise and Hertz are closed Sundays — a Sunday return means a different desk or the airport. Look at the hours before you lock in a date.