We are taking my mother on a cruise around the British Isles. Does anyone know about renting a car while in port rather than take the expensive shore excursions.
Posted by
Bromley, Kent,, UK
1829 posts
Depends on where you put ashore and whether you want to visit town or countryside. So would need more details before could comment.
Posted by
Bloomington, IL, USA
9363 posts
My first impulse would be to say that renting a car for less than a day would be a huge hassle and probably very expensive compared to the shore excursion. Remember, you would need time to get to a rental place, do the paperwork, find your way around, and return the car in time to get back on the ship.
Posted by
Portlandia
3313 posts
I agree with the previous responses. The best car rental deal are for at least three days or more. And the pick-up process is typically longer than in the U.S.
I'll bet that the shore excursions will turn out to be cheaper.
If you have specific places where you'd like to be able to travel independently, please tell us. Maybe we can offer suggestions of public transport, estimates of rental car prices etc. Some here are good with Internet research.
Posted by
OP
gig harbor, WA, USA
3 posts
some of the ports that we do not have a shore excursion are: Guersney, Dublin, Liverpool, and Glasgow
Posted by
Gettysburg, PA
1589 posts
British Isles = Right Hand Drive = problems
Posted by
Bloomington, IL, USA
9363 posts
Dublin has great public transportation, and you aren't far from it at the ship docks. You could easily see the highlights if you are there all day. But you definitely don't need a car there. The hop-on, hop-off bus will give you a great introduction to the city.
Posted by
Florida, USA
12172 posts
Shore excursions are expensive. I usually find out my public transport options and skip the tours. Many places also have private companies that offer small group tours. They move quicker (because you aren't with a busload of people), are better organized, more comfortable and often cheaper than the cruise's shore excursion offerings.
I just came back from a cruise to Belize. We took a small group tour to ruins that weren't offered by the cruise because they don't work for big groups. Our trip was a van with eight people to a boat ride up a river (a real world jungle boat ride) and a tour of some great ruins without crowds.
The next day we went SCUBA diving with a local dive operator in Cozumel. We had a boat and dive-master to ourselves for less than the cruiseline's group option price and were able to pick our dives.
A good place to start is cruisecritic.com and review what other people chose to do at your ports of call.