Rotterdam Cruise Port Rental Cars: Station Desks, the Airport and ss Rotterdam Parking

Cruise Terminal Rotterdam, Wilhelminakade 699 on the Wilhelminapier in Kop van Zuid, is the only sea-cruise terminal on the port’s 2026–27 schedule.

Holland America’s port page prints the number as 669; the port’s own directions page says 699, and we go with the port.

Type 699 into the sat-nav — not 669.

The building is a 1946–49 harbour shed, used for cruise ships since 2000 and a national monument since 2011. It’s a protected monument — a quay shed, not a glass terminal.

No brand page we read offers to deliver a car to the terminal or collect one there. You fetch it — and you hand it back.

Holland America homeports Nieuw Statendam and Rotterdam here in 2026, and says both stay for 2027 while Zuiderdam moves to Amsterdam. That’s why this page plans around turnaround days, not port calls.

If your ship is a day visitor rather than a turnaround, the should-you-rent page is the better start.

Read the cards in pairs — two Sixt branches, two Avis, one Hertz and a shared airport building.

Avis sits on Walenburghof, behind the station on the Blijdorp side. That puts it on the wrong side of the tracks for the ship — the longest drive of the station group, about 2.7 miles, against 1.8 from Hertz on the city side.

Sixt runs one branch on the Weena and another at Hofplein. Its UK and Singapore sites file them differently, so match the street name on your voucher — not the word “Rotterdam”.

A reseller’s Rotterdam Centraal page lists Hertz, Sixt, Europcar (through Keddy), Alamo, National, Ace, Enterprise and Green Motion; Europcar’s and Enterprise’s own Rotterdam pages returned nothing for us, so we can’t give their addresses or hours.

Avis lists two more Rotterdam branches, Rotterdam South at Tandwielstraat 2 and “Rotterdam A” at Metaalhof 65, both well away from the station. Skip those — unless your hotel is next door.

At Rotterdam The Hague Airport, Avis and Sixt share the Car Rental Center at Airportplein 4, about 6.5 road miles from the ship. Schiphol’s five brands get their own page.

Ring the number on your booking, not one from a directory.

The checker opens at 2 PM on a Saturday. That’s deliberate.

All four town desks shut at 1 PM on Saturdays, so by mid-afternoon only the airport pair is staffed — Avis until 11 PM, Sixt until 5.

Weekdays are simple: every town desk keeps 8 to 6, except around the holidays. Avis at Centraal is shut Dec 25 and Jan 1 and keeps holiday hours on other days; ask Hertz and Sixt for theirs. Christmas-market sailings land in that window.

Sunday is the odd one.

Avis at Centraal opens 9 to noon and Hertz 10 to noon — while neither Sixt page lists Sunday at all, which the checker treats as unknown, not closed.

Sunday is also the day Holland America’s Rotterdam came in on both autumn dates we read, Sep 27 and Oct 4. The after-the-cruise page sets the desks against that day.

Landing after lunch on a Saturday? Book the airport, not the station.

Avis Netherlands holds at least €250 on a car and €350 on a van, and its FAQ says debit and prepaid cards “cannot be used for the deposit”. That’s about US$280 on a car and US$395 on a van — frozen on your card until the car is back and checked.

A debit card can pay the rent itself at Avis’s Rotterdam desks outside the airport, up to the Compact class. It can’t cover the hold — that needs a credit card.

Sixt and Avis both set 21 as the minimum age, with the licence held a year; Sixt charges drivers under 25 a fee it doesn’t print, and Avis limits them to fewer car types — so a 24-year-old pays an unknown extra, not nothing.

We didn’t read a collision-damage excess on any Dutch brand page. We’d rather say so than borrow a number from another country.

Need an automatic? Ask for it by name, not by hope. The Schiphol page covers what we could and couldn’t confirm.

Bring the credit card in the driver’s own name, and keep enough room on it for the hold.

The port’s own cruise parking is at the ss Rotterdam, 3e Katendrechtsehoofd 25: €19 (about US$20) per 24 hours, no reservations, and a free shuttle to the terminal for embarking passengers.

The lot is about 1.8 road miles from the terminal by our routing.

Seven blocks at €19 come to €133 (about US$150), our arithmetic — before the rent on the car.

You pay on return at the ss Rotterdam’s hotel reception on the Main Deck, cash or card, and show your boarding pass and parking ticket.

MSC’s Australian page prints €13 (about US$15) per 24 hours for the same lot, undated; the port’s page, read Oct 3, 2026, says €19. A €6 gap a day is a lot of drift. Budget on the higher figure.

The ss Rotterdam’s own FAQ prices its guest lot in front of the ship at €4 an hour or €22 (about US$25) for a 24-hour day ticket, also with no reservations; that’s the hotel’s rate, not the cruise rate.

Park in the wrong row and a week costs €154 (about US$175).

Camera surveillance, at your own risk, and no height limit printed — so empty the car of anything you’d miss.

Now price the rental itself: at an assumed €40 (about US$45) a day, a week of rent for a parked car is about €280 (about US$315), our arithmetic, on top of the parking.

Return it before you board and book another for afterwards — two short rentals beat seven days of rent on a car that never moves.

Driving your own car to the ship is a different question; our Rotterdam parking guide handles that.

Dollar figures use the European Central Bank reference rate of Oct 2, 2026 (about $1.12 to the euro); your card’s rate will differ.

Choose the counter you can reach while it’s staffed — then compare prices.

Discover Cars’ Rotterdam page showed “from” $39.47 a day, its Rotterdam The Hague Airport page $44.58 and its Schiphol page $28.78, all updated 21:39 on Oct 3, 2026, in dollars as displayed to us.

A “from” price is the floor of the search — not your quote.

The city page mixes station and airport desks, so read the pick-up line on every result. Our review of Discover Cars explains its deposits and its own coverage product.