Avis’s Embarcadero desk closes on Oct 31, 2026
Avis’s own page says its desk in the Hyatt Regency Embarcadero, at 5 Embarcadero Center, is closing on Oct 31, 2026. Sundays run later at Avis on the Wharf than at Enterprise or Sixt — Avis is open until 7, Enterprise and Alamo until 3, Sixt until 3, and Enterprise at Union Square until 5.
Budget shares that building, and its page showed no closing notice as of Sept 28 — so ask whether it stays open past Oct 31, 2026.
Book ahead, ride to the desk, and the drive out of the city costs no bridge toll.
SFO is the place to rent if you want a counter that never closes — or you’re leaving the car in another city.
A downtown desk works if
- You’re driving Highway 1, Monterey, wine country or Yosemite
- You’ll be off the ship ahead of the desk’s weekend closing time
- The car goes back downtown or to SFO
- You’d rather skip the airport charges
SFO is the better call if
- You’d like a desk that never closes, and Avis and Budget there are open 24 hours
- The car is going one way to Los Angeles or Sacramento, and you want that quote run from both pick-ups
- You’ll be off the ship after 3 on a weekend and Avis isn’t your company
- You’re flying home that day
Pier 27 to a desk: 1.0 to 2.3 miles
Downtown and the Wharf
- 1.0 to 2.3 miles from Pier 27, our estimates
- Avis daily 7–7 at the Wharf; Enterprise and Alamo weekends 7:30–3; Sixt daily 8–3
- No published ride from the pier
- The 3.5% state assessment only, with no airport charges
- Short weekend hours at several desks; Avis on the Embarcadero is closing Oct 31, 2026
SFO
- About 16 miles from Pier 27; BART is about 30 minutes to downtown
- The Rental Car Center, reached by AirTrain
- A facility charge and a concession fee
- Avis and Budget open 24 hours
- Return it where you fly home
The Wharf desks sit a mile to 1.3 miles from Pier 27 (our estimates) — a short Uber or cab, and a long walk with bags.
None of them publishes a ride from the pier. Enterprise lists pick-up service and Budget offers a free pick-up with 24 hours’ notice — both for starting a rental, so ask what that covers.
A ship at Piers 30/32, the ones south of the Ferry Building, shifts every figure above, because they all start at Pier 27 — your cruise documents name the pier.
Sleeping near the water first? The night-before page covers the hotels.
What do the bridges cost on the way back?
Both bridges charge only into the city, so the toll waits on the way back, not the way out.
The Golden Gate is southbound only and the Bay Bridge westbound only. Heading north or east from the pier costs nothing; coming back over either one is a different matter.
The Golden Gate has no cash lane — coming home, a 2-axle car pays FasTrak $10.25, plate account $10.50 or invoiced $11.25, the rates that took effect July 1, 2026.
The Bay Bridge is $8.50 westbound in 2026, as are the three other state bridges we checked.
Rental companies mostly add a program fee of their own for the crossing — at Enterprise and Hertz on the days a toll is incurred. Ask what it adds and whether you can decline it, because the fees run from $3.95 to $28 a day.
| Fee a day | Company | Limit |
|---|---|---|
| $3.95 | City Rent A Car | $19.75 a month |
| $4.95, on days a toll is incurred | Enterprise, National, Alamo | $34.65 a rental |
| $5.95, on each calendar day a toll is incurred | Hertz | None; every toll billed at the highest undiscounted cash rate |
| $6.95 | Avis | $34.95 a rental period |
| $6.95 | Budget | $34.95 (the district’s page says “per rental month”) |
| $7.95, once used | Payless | $39.75 |
| $11.99, all-inclusive with unlimited tolls | Thrifty | $59.99 a week |
| $13.99 | Fox | Fee capped at 15 days |
| $15.99, plus tax and tolls | Sixt | $90 a rental agreement |
| $28, all-inclusive with unlimited tolls in 24 hours | Dollar | $59.99 a week |
Sorted from the lowest daily fee to the highest — the district posts these as a courtesy without a date and says to ask about fees added after the trip, so confirm at the counter. Courtesy list, undated
Point the car north, south or east
North over the Golden Gate are Muir Woods, Sonoma and Point Reyes.
South are the coast, Monterey and Big Sur, and east are Sacramento and Reno.
Muir Woods, Napa and Point Reyes are the easy ones — Monterey and Yosemite run long enough that a night away starts to make sense.
| Destination | Drive from Pier 27 | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Muir Woods | 16 miles, about 36 min | Parking reservation required, $10. Muir Woods, in full. |
| Napa | 47 miles, about 1 hr 06 min | Tastings average about $40. Wine country. |
| Sonoma Plaza | 45 miles, about 1 hr 10 min | Tasting fees weren’t on a page we could read. |
| Healdsburg | 69 miles, about 1 hr 33 min | Farther up in Sonoma County. |
| Point Reyes | 37 miles, about 1 hr 09 min | No entrance or parking fee, per the park. |
| Half Moon Bay | 32 miles, about 49 min | Down the coast. We couldn’t read an official drive time. |
| Santa Cruz | 76 miles, about 1 hr 43 min | The county puts it 70 miles south. |
| Monterey | 115 miles, about 2 hr 27 min | 17-Mile Drive’s gate is $12.50 a vehicle. |
| Carmel and Big Sur | 118 miles, about 2 hr 30 min | Highway 1 was fully open through Big Sur as of Sept 14; check before you go. |
| Yosemite Valley | 188 miles, about 4 hr 36 min | $35 a vehicle. See the next section. |
| Sacramento | 87 miles, about 1 hr 50 min | Inland, on I-80. |
| Reno | 218 miles, about 4 hr 20 min | Over the Sierra. Winter chain controls aren’t in our figure. |
Route estimates (OpenStreetMap routing, no traffic, no stops); Bay Area traffic adds a lot to them. Park fees and hours are from each park’s or site’s own page. Checked Sept 28, 2026
Yosemite needs a plan before it needs a car
Most of these drives are just drives. Yosemite is a trip, not a drive: it comes with a fee, a long day at the wheel and lodging to sort out.
$35 a vehicle for seven days
Every non-US resident 16 and older pays another $100. There’s no timed reservation for day use in 2026, per the park, and it takes no cash.
About 188 miles from Pier 27
That’s 4 hr 36 min with no traffic, our estimate — and the park’s own page gives about four hours by either highway.
A separate booking
Lodging and camping are separate bookings, and we didn’t research them.
A $50 car for one day, three or five
| Rental length | Downtown desk | SFO |
|---|---|---|
| 1 day | $52 + the ride from the pier | $84 + BART or a taxi out to SFO |
| 3 days | $155 + the ride from the pier | $199 + BART or a taxi out to SFO |
| 5 days | $259 + the ride from the pier | $314 + BART or a taxi out to SFO |
We priced a $50 day, our assumption, with the 3.5% California assessment added. SFO’s page wouldn’t open for us, so its column uses a placeholder $26 a contract and an assumed 11% fee. Fuel is left out. Illustrative
Downtown is cheaper on all three rows — but treat the SFO column as an estimate, not a price, since its charges rest on that placeholder.
You’d pay the SFO extra for a trip that ends at the airport, or for a car you can’t get downtown.
Getting to SFO without the car
SFMTA’s meter starts at $4.15 for the first fifth of a mile, adds 65 cents for each fifth after and charges $6 for an SFO pick-up, with no flat fare from SFO.
Over the 15.6 miles between SFO and Pier 27 that puts a fare at roughly $50 to $65 before tip — traffic adds more, and the sum is ours, so read it as a guide, not a quote.
Trains leave SFO from 4:58 AM on weekdays, from 5:47 on Saturday and from 8:08 on Sunday, from Level 3 of the International Terminal, and downtown is about 30 minutes off. We couldn’t read the fare, so we print none.
Oakland is the other way in: SF Bay Ferry to Downtown San Francisco costs $5.10 and takes 15 to 25 minutes — though Pier 27 is a long walk with bags from the ferry terminal. The airport page sets every option side by side.
One-way to Los Angeles, with no drop fee to point to
No brand’s one-way page for San Francisco was readable to us, so this page publishes no drop fee. Get the figure from the quote before you buy the flight.
Los Angeles is about 381 miles and 7 hr 10 min from Pier 27, free-flow, by our estimate. Set the total against a flight, not just the daily rate.
Sacramento is about 87 miles. Price each one-way on Discover Cars with the drop-off there.
If your next sailing leaves from San Diego, that port’s rental desks are covered separately.
The car seat rule, and the size of car
Vehicle Code 27360 and 27363 set the seat rules by age. Until 2 the seat faces the rear, waived at 40 pounds or 40 inches; until 8 the child rides in the back on a booster or in a car seat, waived at 4 feet 9 inches.
Per their own pages, checking a car seat costs nothing on American, Delta, Southwest or JetBlue, so bring yours.
For size, Enterprise publishes a midsize car at 5 people and 3 bags, a standard SUV at 5 and 5, a full-size SUV at 7 and 3, and a 7-passenger minivan at 7 and 5. They only help if your quote names one of those classes (checked Sept 27, 2026).
Discover Cars lists three downtown pick-ups
Union Square, O’Farrell Street and Fisherman’s Wharf are the three, and SFO is listed too. If you’re flying out of SFO, make that the drop-off.
- Pick-up: downtown San Francisco
- Drop-off: downtown, SFO, or another city
- Taxes and fees itemised up front
- Free cancellation until 48 hrs before pickup
For how a different-city drop-off gets priced, see our one-way guide.
Desks, bridges and Yosemite: the questions
Can I pick up a rental car at the San Francisco cruise port after my cruise?
There’s nothing to pick up at the pier itself — Pier 27, Pier 35 and Piers 30/32 came up empty in our search. The closest desks are at Fisherman’s Wharf, a mile to 1.3 miles away, by our estimates, and downtown, so plan on an Uber or cab. Avis’s Embarcadero desk is closing Oct 31, 2026, per its own page.
Do I pay a bridge toll driving out of San Francisco?
Not going out. The Golden Gate charges southbound only and the Bay Bridge westbound only, both into the city, so leaving by either is free. Coming back you pay, and most rental companies’ toll programs add a fee on top.
How far is Monterey from the San Francisco cruise terminal?
Roughly 115 miles, or about two and a half hours if traffic stays out of the way, on our route estimate. Yosemite Valley is about 188 miles and 4.6 hours by the same estimate, and the park itself says about four hours.
How much does it cost to drive into Yosemite?
The Park Service charges $35 a vehicle for seven days, plus $100 for each non-US resident 16 and older. There’s no timed day-use reservation in 2026, and the park takes no cash.
More on renting around a San Francisco cruise
Want the whole trip handled?
Tell us your ship and dates. A real advisor plans the flights, the night before and the ride to the terminal, at no extra cost.
Got it — thank you.
Seabound Journeys will follow up within one business day. In the meantime, feel free to keep browsing.
Want to talk sooner? Book a free 30-minute call.
Journey further.