San Francisco downtown car rental for Napa with same day return?

[mikeerdas]

I need to rent a car in downtown San Francisco for only part of a day, e.g. ~7 am to ~9:30 pm for a day trip to Napa. Just about every rental agency I checked closes at 6pm and does not allow free after-hours drop off. Parking seems to cost ~$50 a night in my area (Financial District)! I don't need a car for 24 hours, so I'm trying to avoid paying extortionate parking fees

 

The only alternatives I have found are:

 

* cityrentacar.com - They evidently offer free, late drop offs till 10 pm at a nearby Holiday Inn; however, they seem to only offer 24 hour car rentals... defeats the purpose, as I'm trying to keep my costs low by not having to pay for overnight parking.

 

* Zip Cars offers car rentals by the hour; but I believe they have some sort of a ~$35-$50 fee just to register with them. That defeats the purpose of eliminating overnight parking fees

 

* Dollar rent a car provides free drop offs at SFO; but then I'd have to pay for two one-way BART tickets back to downtown SF. However, I also called a local Thrifty (same company?) on O'Farrell Street and the guy said something about only offering a minimum of 24 hour car rentals. Strange. I've never had someone tell me I can't return a car early...

 

Is dropping off at SFO and taking BART back in my best option? If it's even possible given my bizarre experience with the Thrifty guy. I never called the local Dollar rental car desk. Have I missed any other options?

 

Should I forget the whole idea and do a Napa bus tour?

 

Thanks.

[nna]

if you don't want to pay for a bart ticket to the airport (cheap in my mind....), you could drive out to the area of town that has free street parking- like ocean ave west of 19th ave--and then take the K or M car back downtown. or park over by sunset blvd and judah street and take the J car back downtown. just watch the street signs on parking carefully...this would take more time that returning to airport, but it may be cheaper--fare would be $2 each way. these locales are about a 20 minute drive across town. or out on geary blvd somewhere--the geary street #38 bus runs often...and goes all the way from union square to the ocean.

 

I don't see why car rental companies would want to rent for less than 1 day---when I get my car repaired, and often use city car rentals---I still pay the 1 day charge.

[mjesf]

if you don't want to pay for a bart ticket to the airport (cheap in my mind....), you could drive out to the area of town that has free street parking- like ocean ave west of 19th ave--and then take the K or M car back downtown. or park over by sunset blvd and judah street and take the J car back downtown. just watch the street signs on parking carefully...this would take more time that returning to airport, but it may be cheaper--fare would be $2 each way. these locales are about a 20 minute drive across town. or out on geary blvd somewhere--the geary street #38 bus runs often...and goes all the way from union square to the ocean.

 

I don't see why car rental companies would want to rent for less than 1 day---when I get my car repaired, and often use city car rentals---I still pay the 1 day charge.

 

In any part of San Francisco EXCEPT Fisherman's Wharf, parking meters operate from 7 AM to 6 PM Monday - Saturday, which means that you can park on the street for free when they are not in operation (at Fisherman's Wharf, meters operate 24/7/365.) Also, the J Church does NOT go to the Outer Sunset. You would be taking the N Judah from Judah and Sunset into the Financial District.

 

In any case, finding a legal parking spot in San Francisco is an art.

 

That said, if you are renting a car here, it has been my experience that the best deals are at the airports (either one) and your best bet just may be to rent from there.

[mikeerdas]

if you don't want to pay for a bart ticket to the airport (cheap in my mind....), you could drive out to the area of town that has free street parking- like ocean ave west of 19th ave--and then take the K or M car back downtown. or park over by sunset blvd and judah street and take the J car back downtown. just watch the street signs on parking carefully...this would take more time that returning to airport, but it may be cheaper--fare would be $2 each way. these locales are about a 20 minute drive across town. or out on geary blvd somewhere--the geary street #38 bus runs often...and goes all the way from union square to the ocean.

 

I don't see why car rental companies would want to rent for less than 1 day---when I get my car repaired, and often use city car rentals---I still pay the 1 day charge.

 

Thanks. What's puzzling to me is why someone wouldn't rent to me at the 24 hour rate. I don't expect to pay less than the full day rate, but then I don't expect to pay more--or be denied either--for dropping the car off during the same day. Makes no sense to me.

 

Thanks for the bus info. Perhaps Bart is my best bet.

[mikeerdas]

In any part of San Francisco EXCEPT Fisherman's Wharf, parking meters operate from 7 AM to 6 PM Monday - Saturday, which means that you can park on the street for free when they are not in operation (at Fisherman's Wharf, meters operate 24/7/365.) Also, the J Church does NOT go to the Outer Sunset. You would be taking the N Judah from Judah and Sunset into the Financial District.

 

In any case, finding a legal parking spot in San Francisco is an art.

 

That said, if you are renting a car here, it has been my experience that the best deals are at the airports (either one) and your best bet just may be to rent from there.

 

Thanks for the info about the meters. If I can pick-up downtown and drop off at SFO for no additional charge, then that probably is my best bet. A bit of a hassle, but then I wouldn't have to worry about oversleeping the next day.

 

I've read that the minimum parking ticket one can get in SF is ~$70--and that's $20 more than the extortionate $50/night hotel parking.

[nna]

they currently start at $56 (expired meter, street cleaning....) and go way up from there

[Coreopsis]

Have you spoken to City Rent-A-Car? They do have after hours drop-off ... I don't think there is a rule you can't return early. Besides ... they could rent it out again.

 

If you are planning to do wine tasting, how about hiring a car service? If there are a few of you, comes out to about the same as those horrible tours that aren't allowed at most wineries.

 

Another thought - take advantage of the entire 24 hours and spend one night up in Napa. You'll be glad I suggested it!

[Happy ks]

Have you spoken to City Rent-A-Car? They do have after hours drop-off ... I don't think there is a rule you can't return early. Besides ... they could rent it out again.

 

If you are planning to do wine tasting, how about hiring a car service? If there are a few of you, comes out to about the same as those horrible tours that aren't allowed at most wineries.

 

Another thought - take advantage of the entire 24 hours and spend one night up in Napa. You'll be glad I suggested it!

 

 

Both great suggestions. The DUI could end up costing a whole lot more than a parking fee/overnight parking charge. But a lot more than a rental car. We've used wine tour vans in the past and had a lovely time, I think it was around $50 per person, there were 7 of us. Take away the tasting fee (of course the van tour takes you to specific choices of theirs) and the cost went down to around $25 per person ($5 per tasting room).

 

Spending the night in Napa sounds even better.

[Bowie MeMe]

Try Hotwire for your car and KEEP TRYING. I got my 2 week rental one-way from SF to San Diego from almost $2000 down to $514. It took about 6 tries. I do see that on all my requests the hours are very limited and the time on weekdays 7Am to 6PM and on weekends 8 to 2PM. There are lots of car agencies in Union Square area but I found it is about $11 cheaper to walk to a NON HOTEL based rental counter than one in the hotels with valet parking (fee at least at Marriotts and Hertz)and tips to boot. I think staying in Napa and enjoying that area would be great since you do not want to return the car until about 9:30 PM so not planning on doing SF based activites. Have fun.

[JJ2sail]

You could also take the Ferry from San Francisco to Vallejo and rent the car in Vallejo and drive up to Napa from there. Enterprise will pick you up at the Ferry. It's about a 30 minute drive from the Ferry to the Napa wine region.

 

Enterprise Car Rental

1225 SONOMA BLVD

VALLEJO, CA 94590-6954

 

Tel.: (707) 554-8200

[mikeerdas]

We ended up renting a car downtown with Enterprise (O'Farrell Street) early (7:30am) and returned at the same location (was some time before 6:00 pm).

 

Drove over the Golden Gate bridge and hit Muir Woods first (coastal redwood forest where the Ewok Village scenes from Return of the Jedi were filmed). Then we hit about 4 wineries in Sonoma and 1 in Napa. Sonoma wineries were smaller, more intimate, less snotty, and had less expensive tastings. Came home going over the Bay Bridge.

 

Had I know I could have, I would also have driven to the base of the Golden Gate Bridge (at Fort Point, where Kim Novak's character jumps into the bay in Hitchcock's film Vertigo) on the way out that morning.

 

Anyway, I'm very glad we didn't end up doing a bus tour, since we had a lot more flexibility. If I'd anticipated needed more time with the rental, I would have made the reservation drop-off be for SFO and taken BART back (~$8 per person one way), since most of the car rental places downtown close by 6pm. The price for a pick-up downtown and a drop-off at SFO were about the same; at least for the days I checked.

[nna]

just a correction--the ewok scenes were filmed up in humboldt county--and in a redwood grove near Lucas films--not in Muir Woods---a national monument...