Miami Airport to Port Everglades by Rental Car

Fly into MIA the day before, drive up, and hand the car back at FLL’s Rental Car Center that evening — Avis and Budget there never close.

It’s the version we’d book.

From FLL, your hotel’s free airport shuttle takes over — a dozen of our top twenty hotels near the port run one. On sail morning, the hotel’s port shuttle or a short taxi covers the last stretch.

That gets you Miami’s choice of flights without Miami’s sail-day gamble. We ranked the hotels on exactly that: the 20 best for the night before.

Traveling light, one or two of you?

Tri-Rail runs from the Miami Airport station to the FLL Airport station at Dania Beach, and it’s cheaper still.

Fares go by zones crossed. MIA to Dania Beach looks like two zones, $3.75, and West Palm Beach to Dania Beach five, $7.50 — though the zone map wouldn’t load for us, so treat both as probable.

A weekend or holiday day pass is $5, and each rider may bring three standard-size pieces.

A free shuttle links Dania Beach to FLL’s terminals, and from there it’s the taxi to the ship — a fine plan for carry-ons, not for a family’s trunk-load.

Sunday is the tight one.

The cruise office sits 29 miles from where you picked up, and I-95 traffic is the wild card.

Landing after about 11 on a Sunday? Plan on FLL instead — and treat the office as a bonus if the traffic cooperates.

Every office, and how the cruise office stacks up against the airport: the Port Everglades rental guide.

Toll days start at zero — the general lanes are free.

Try one, and you’ll see what a single pass through the express lanes adds to the rental company’s bill.

Handing the car back at FLL rather than the cruise office? Then add the last leg, $18–$21 in a taxi by the port’s average.

Look at the middle column first. It’s the version where the cruise office has already closed and you pay a cab the last 1.8 miles.

Here the edge disappears: one or two of you land right on the cab’s $80 floor, four of you pass it, and only the six-person minivan still undercuts two cabs.

That’s the worst case, not the best.

Landing late? The center itself is open 24 hours, though “some operators close between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.” Enterprise lists 5 AM–11:45 PM, while Avis and Budget run 24 hours.

I-95’s general lanes are toll-free (FDOT: “non-tolled general-use lanes”). The 95 Express lanes beside them are priced by congestion, per segment, and take a SunPass or other transponder only: “no cash or TOLL-BY-PLATE is accepted.”

In your own car that’s a small toll.

A rental turns it into a fee, not just a toll.

The moment the car passes a gantry, the company’s program bills you for that day. That’s $6.95 at Avis and Budget and $4.95 at Enterprise, Alamo and National, on top of the toll at the higher plate rate.

Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty’s PlatePass All-Inclusive charges every rental day whether you use it or not — decline it at the counter if they’ll let you.

Stay in the general lanes, not the express ones. The entrances are signed well ahead; let them pass.

It may be, and the reverse trip works the same way.

The cruise office on Miami Road says its shuttle will “meet passengers at the pier.” That means you can collect a car the morning you’re back and leave it at MIA before your flight — the office opens at 8.

Would you rather skip the car?

The port’s Van On Demand shares vans to MIA at $25 a head for groups of three or more. The catch is in its own fine print: “not available on all sailing days.”

Port Everglades Shuttle Service lists a private car to MIA at $120 for up to five.

By the port’s account, flights out of FLL may only check bags two hours ahead, which is why Miami gives a late flight more room. The whole morning you’re back is on our airports page.

Put MIA in the pickup box and Fort Lauderdale in the return, then open the drop-off office’s own page and read its hours for your sail day.

Only Avis, Budget and Payless use the cruise office — with any other brand, plan on the airport.