Renting a Car After a Trieste Cruise: Key Boxes, Weekends and the Airport

Holland America: “There is no luggage storage at the pier.” So the bags come with you to the car, not the other way round.

If you parked with TTP, the cars come out from 7 AM to 1 PM on the last day. Outside that window you pay TTP’s €50 call-out — so don’t linger over breakfast.

The free shuttle back to the car park isn’t bookable — and TTP doesn’t promise a seat.

A cab from the pier starts at the €4 flag fall plus a €2.40 port supplement; with two oversize bags that’s €8.40 (about US$9) before the meter moves, our arithmetic.

MSC’s covered car park on Via Carli is about 1.5 miles from the terminal by our routing, 4 minutes in a car — a long walk with cases, so wait for the shuttle.

Or walk the Rive to the station, under a mile by road — fine with a backpack, and a cab job with a week’s luggage.

One conflict matters more than the rest: Avis’s station branch page says the car “must be returned during office hours,” while Avis’s list of Trieste offices says 24-hour drop-off for the same place.

We’d go by the branch page — it’s the more specific of the two.

If your Avis return falls on a Sunday, a Saturday afternoon or after 7 PM, take it to the airport instead, where the 24-hour drop is printed plainly.

Enterprise is the easy one — its station key box is “availble 24/7,” misspelling and all.

Photograph the car, the fuel gauge and the parking bay before you post the keys, since a key box gives you a slot, not a receipt.

The hours checker on the desks page tests any day and time against every counter.

On a weekday, book the pickup for mid-morning rather than 8 — the gangway rarely runs to your schedule, and Avis by the station is staffed until noon.

From the pier, the airport is about 24.6 miles (39.6 km) by our routing, 40 minutes on empty roads.

Enterprise’s airport drop box opens at 5 AM. A flight before then means Avis, with its 24-hour drop — or a night near the airport.

Radio Taxi’s fixed fare to the airport is €60 (about US$65) — the price to beat if the car has no other job.

A rental that only carries you from the pier to the airport rarely beats that cab once you add a day’s rent, so keep it only if there’s a day out on the way.

Aquileia sits west of the city like the airport, about 56 minutes from the pier by our routing. The day-drives page has what we could find on it.

Discover Cars’ Trieste page listed one-way offers to Dubrovnik “from $279.76”, without saying whether that’s a day or the whole rental.

That’s Croatia, two borders away — and the cross-border terms decide whether it’s possible at all.

Hertz and Sixt both put limits on driving outside Italy, as the Slovenia section quotes. We didn’t obtain Croatia-specific rental rules.

On Slovenian motorways you’ll need the vignette, bought for the plate, not the driver. Its price and fine are on the arrivals page.

Get the one-way fee and the border permission in writing, in the same quote, before you pay.

For Venice instead, our Venice rental page has the desks at that end.

Three days at an assumed €40 (about US$45), plus fuel to the airport, comes to about €126 (about US$140), our arithmetic.

Against a €60 cab that’s no contest for the airport run alone — about US$140 against US$65. The car is buying you the three days, not the ride.

Add your day trips to the mileage box before you decide.

Book the pickup for a time and a day the desk is staffed, and the return for a desk with a printed key drop.

If those are different places, search with both so the drop charge shows. Our Discover Cars review covers deposits.

We convert euros to dollars at the ECB’s Oct 2, 2026 reference rate, roughly $1.12 each. Your card will apply its own.