Start at JAX, see the coast, finish at JAX
Book the car at JAX. It’s where the choice is and where the counters open earliest, and if your flight home leaves from there, the car ends the trip where it started. The closer Enterprise office on the Northside is the alternative worth a call — on a weekday, anyway.
Getting to the car is the awkward part. The port lists a taxi line, (904) 222-2222, and a shuttle and special-needs line, (904) 338-9595, option 2 — plus a port access fee for commercial vehicles picking up at the terminal, which it doesn’t put a number on.
Rome2Rio, a third party, puts the ride to JAX at $28 to $35 — zTrip, the airport’s taxi company, publishes no fares of its own.
At JAX the counters sit on the lower level beside baggage claim.
When the car comes back, it goes to the ground floor of the parking garage — that’s the sign to follow on your last morning.
St. Augustine or Savannah?
Everything here starts on I-95. The only real decision is which way you turn.
South, St. Augustine is about an hour away — and Orlando a little over three, by our estimates. North, Amelia Island is under an hour and Savannah about two and a half.
| Where | From the terminal | Before you go |
|---|---|---|
| St. Augustine | 42 miles, about 1 hr 02 min | The Castillo de San Marcos charges $15 for anyone 16 or older, cards only, and the ticket lasts seven days. St. Augustine and Amelia Island, in detail. |
| Amelia Island | 31 miles | Fort Clinch State Park is $6 a car; walking the fort adds $2.50 a person. |
| Cumberland Island, via St. Marys, Georgia | 38 miles to the ferry | Plan on $44 round trip for an adult on the ferry, plus tax, and $15 a person to enter. The Park Service suggests booking ahead. |
| Jacksonville Beach | 19 miles | Parking costs something only in season, March 6 to Nov 1, on Friday nights, weekends and holidays, and tops out at $12 a day, according to local news. |
| Savannah | 136 miles, about 2 hr 37 min | Toll-free on I-95 the whole way. If the fare home is better from Savannah, here are its counters and hours. |
| Orlando’s parks | Disney about 162 miles | No tolls on the way to Disney, then $35 a day to park. Orlando and JAXPORT, both directions. |
| Kennedy Space Center | About 152 miles | A detour off I-95 if you’re heading down to Orlando anyway. |
Miles and times come from OpenStreetMap routing, measured from the terminal with no traffic or stops, so treat them as our estimates; the Kennedy Space Center point is approximate. Prices are from each park or operator’s own site, except the Jacksonville Beach parking season, which comes from local news. Checked Sept 28, 2026
Closer to the ship, with bankers’ hours
| JAX | Enterprise Northside, 11645 N Main St | |
|---|---|---|
| From the ship | About 12 miles; $28–$35 by taxi, per Rome2Rio | About 7.4 miles, our estimate |
| Open | Avis, Budget, Enterprise and Payless from 6 AM; Hertz and Sixt from 7 | Weekdays 7:30 to 5:30, Saturday 9 to noon, closed Sunday |
| Companies | Alamo, National, Avis, Budget, Dollar, Enterprise, Hertz, Sixt, Thrifty and Payless | Enterprise |
| Getting there | Taxi or rideshare | Its page says “Pick-Up Service Available” and doesn’t mention the port. Ask |
| Airport charges | $4 a day, first five days only, plus a concession fee | None |
| Sales tax | Duval’s 7.5% | Duval’s 7.5%, the same |
Hours and services as each company lists them; the Northside distance is our route estimate. Checked Sept 28, 2026
On a weekday, Northside earns a phone call. If its pick-up service will come out to the terminal, you skip the taxi and the airport charges in one go.
If it won’t, the saving shrinks to a shorter cab ride — to a counter that closes at 5:30.
Weekends are where it falls apart: noon on Saturday, and not at all on Sunday.
One day, three days, five
| Rental length | From JAX | From a neighborhood office |
|---|---|---|
| 1 day | $60 | $51 |
| 3 days | $179 | $152 |
| 5 days | $298 | $253 |
Our arithmetic at an assumed $45 a day: base rate, fees, Florida’s $2-a-day rental surcharge and Duval’s 7.5% tax on both sides. JAX adds its $4 daily charge, which stops after day five, plus airport fees we assume at 10%. Left out: fuel, tolls, any one-way drop charge, and the ride from the ship, which costs about the same either way. Illustrative
The gap runs from $51 against $60 for a single day to $253 against $298 for five.
It’s a fee, not a dealbreaker.
On a Sunday the calendar settles it before the price does — near the port, only Avis and Budget on Atlantic Boulevard (10 to 4) and Enterprise Sandalwood (9 to 1) open at all, and neither before 9.
Orlando is where the tolls start
Most drives on this page never meet a toll. I-95, the port’s own route and the Dames Point Bridge are all free, and the one tolled road near the city, the First Coast Expressway, runs south and west, off every route above.
Orlando changes that — the expressways around the parks charge, and in a rental, each toll day can switch on the company’s own fee as well as the toll.
Enterprise, Alamo and National turn TollPass on the first time you pass a plaza. It costs $4.95 for each day that happens, $34.65 at most per rental, and the toll itself comes at its priciest rate: video, cash or undiscounted, whichever is highest (National’s terms).
Avis and Budget’s e-Toll works the same way at $6.95 a day, with a $34.95 ceiling and tolls at full non-discounted price. A separate product, e-Toll Unlimited, is charged on every rental day (Budget’s terms).
Hertz, Dollar and Thrifty sell PlatePass All-Inclusive at $14.99 per day of the rental in Florida, tolls thrown in, whether you meet a plaza or not; there’s a weekly maximum we couldn’t pin down. Refusing it isn’t an exemption — roll through a cashless toll anyway and PlatePass bills $9.99 per toll day, plus the toll (PlatePass).
Own an E-ZPass, an E-PASS or a SunPass, PRO or regular? Bring it, add this car’s plate and your rental dates to it, and delete them once the car’s back. It’s also your only ticket into the I-295 and I-4 express lanes (SunPass).
We read every company’s terms on Sept 27, 2026, and they’re statewide, the same from any Florida pickup.
So if Orlando isn’t in the plan, decline anything billed by the day: $14.99 a day for toll roads you won’t drive is a cost, not coverage.
A rented car seat that ends up in Savannah costs extra
Florida’s seat rule runs to age 5, and a rental is no exception.
Through age 3 a child rides in a crash-tested carrier or the car’s integrated seat; from 4, a booster is allowed as well.
Renting a seat is priced by the day, not the trip — Avis’s US rate is “usually” $14, capped at $84 a rental, and Budget asks $14.50, up to $87.
The Savannah one-way is the trap: Avis charges $50 when a rented seat doesn’t go back to the location it came from, and a JAX-to-SAV rental does exactly that.
Your own seat flies free as checked baggage on JetBlue, Southwest, Delta and American, according to each airline.
By Enterprise’s published counts, 3 bags fit a midsize car and 5 a standard SUV, both seating 5. The full-size SUV seats 7 yet lists 3 bags, apparently with the third row up — the 7- and 8-seat minivans list 5 bags each.
Capacities are Enterprise’s own US figures. Checked Sept 27, 2026
The search: JAX, the morning you dock
Search with JAX as the pickup and the morning you’re back as the time.
Then set the return where the trip really ends, not where it began: JAX again for a St. Augustine or Amelia Island loop, Savannah or Orlando if that’s where you fly home from.
- Pick-up: Jacksonville airport (JAX)
- Return: JAX, SAV, MCO or wherever you stop
- The one-way fee is part of the price shown
- Dropped free until the 48-hour mark
After a JAXPORT cruise: the questions people ask
Can I pick up a rental car at JAXPORT after my cruise?
Not at the terminal — no rental company has a counter there. The usual route is a taxi or rideshare about 12 miles to JAX, where Avis, Budget and Enterprise open at 6 AM and Hertz and Sixt at 7. The closest office, Enterprise Northside, is about 7.4 miles away but doesn’t open on Sundays.
How do I get from the Jacksonville cruise terminal to the airport?
Taxi or rideshare, roughly 12 miles. zTrip doesn’t publish its fares, so we go by Rome2Rio, a third party, which puts the trip at $28 to $35.
Which rental offices near JAXPORT are open on Sunday?
Two, near the port: Avis and Budget on Atlantic Boulevard, 10 AM to 4 PM, and Enterprise Sandalwood, 9 AM to 1 PM. Enterprise Northside and the Hertz on Atlantic Boulevard stay shut. At JAX, the counters open daily.
How far is Savannah from the Jacksonville cruise port?
Roughly 136 miles to Savannah’s historic district, about two hours and 40 minutes on I-95 with no traffic, by our route estimate. You won’t pay a toll on the way.
More on renting around a Jacksonville cruise
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