San Diego Cruise Port Rental Car Guide

At our assumed $50 a day, a one-day car for that short hop lands near $67, and Route 992 for two comes to $5. A taxi meter tops out near $17 — for the whole car, not each seat.

Set the group to five and Route 992 still costs far less than the car.

The itinerary flips it, not the distance, so picture Legoland or a run out to Temecula before you decide.

Of the nine brands we read, five say no, and Avis and Budget carve out only corporate accounts held by US residents — a door open to a business account, not to a leisure renter.

The trolley is the way instead — the MTS Blue Line runs from downtown to the San Ysidro Transit Center at the border for $2.50 one way, every 15 minutes, and it takes about 28 to 30 minutes from the Santa Fe Depot by our reading of the timetable. That makes the trolley, not the rental, the way to do Tijuana.

Cross Border Xpress won’t help with a day trip — that bridge serves only ticketed passengers at Tijuana’s airport.

The State Department’s advisory for Baja California, Tijuana included, reads “Reconsider travel” — though it puts the concern in non-tourist areas.

We found no official page on border hours, wait times or return papers, so check CBP and the State Department first; passports are the norm. The Tijuana day, in full.

Neither terminal has a rental counter that we could find — and the Port says passengers may not park on the pier during a cruise, so the car has to come from a desk somewhere in town.

Enterprise Little Italy comes closest to an exception — its page speaks to ship passengers directly and says to call the branch when you’re off the ship, but says nothing about what happens next, so ask before you rely on it.

Enterprise’s Grand Hyatt branch (1 Market Place) shows a 1:15 to 5 PM window every day and no after-hours returns, which we’d confirm by phone.

National and Alamo list only the airport for San Diego, and we couldn’t read Dollar’s or Thrifty’s downtown pages.

Set it to Sunday at 11, then to 3 that afternoon, and watch the open desks disappear.

Avis and Budget in Little Italy close at noon on Sundays and the 6th Avenue branch at 1 — Enterprise and Hertz don’t open at all.

After hours the picture is thin — Enterprise Little Italy takes no returns, the Avis and Budget drop boxes read as template text, and Sixt’s garage is the only documented after-hours return, though Sixt’s own pages disagree on the level. We wouldn’t bet a sailing on any of them.

After landing, the last leg is the cheap part. MTS caps what a metered cab can charge, and on the Port’s 2.4 miles that works out to about $17 before tip at most — our arithmetic, and app-booked cabs sit outside the cap.

Route 992 costs $2.50 and reaches the Santa Fe Depot in about 15 minutes, with service every 15 minutes from about 4:30 AM until 1 AM.

Landing at LAX instead? That’s about 125 miles and two and a half hours to the terminal with no traffic — by our estimate, and traffic will add to it.

Over a single day, airport charges and tax put about $15 on top of a downtown desk. Past five days the flat charge stops, so the gap grows more slowly — it doesn’t close.

What you give up downtown is hours — several desks close on Sundays. We couldn’t see fleet sizes from here, so quote each desk before you commit.

Nothing on the drives out of the port carries a toll — and the Coronado Bridge has been free since 2002. San Diego does have two toll roads, SR 125 in the South Bay, which charges everyone, and the I-15 Express Lanes, which are free only to carpools, and you can skip both.

The rental companies’ toll programs leave gaps. Enterprise’s and National’s says the Southern California express lanes on 10, 110, 91, 15, 580 and 680 aren’t covered, and never says whether “15” means San Diego’s. Hertz’s PlatePass names I-10, I-110 and SR 91 and says nothing about I-15 or SR 125.

Avis’s e-Toll Unlimited option is a flat $10.99 to $25.99 a day by pick-up location — the standard plan charges $6.95 only on days you hit a toll, so read the enrollment terms before you accept either.

The law follows the child, not the car — so a rental has to follow it too. Under 2, the seat faces the rear until the child reaches 40 pounds or 40 inches; under 8, a car seat or booster goes in the back until the child is 4 feet 9 inches or taller (Vehicle Code 27360 and 27363).

Bring your own seat — American, Delta, Southwest and JetBlue all let you check one free.

Discover Cars’ pick-up list for San Diego includes the airport, a “San Diego Port” entry at 901 Bayfront Court and another on 6th Avenue. Choose the one that matches your day, point the drop-off at the desk you’ll really use, and read its Sunday hours first, because that’s where plans stall.