Sydney car rental and boat tour to bird island

[tty206]

My family will be in Sydney for a day in July and our current plan is to rent a car from Enterprise and drive to Englishtown to take Donelda's puffin boat tours (found them through tripadvisor and are well reviewed) to see the puffins and bird island. We would like to make sure we have ample time to drive back to Sydney, return the car and get back on the ship. Has anyone has ever taken a boat tour to bird island while in Sydney and what were your experiences? I did a search on cruise critic and could not find anything.

 

Google maps says the drive is about 45 minutes from the car rental agency to Englishtown... will we have any possible issues with traffic on this drive and does that drive time sound accurate to anyone familiar with the area? Also wondering if anyone has rented from Enterprise and whether their pick up / drop off at the cruise port is efficient or whether we should anticipate a long wait.

 

Thanks in advance for the help!!

[pizzalady1]

My family will be in Sydney for a day in July and our current plan is to rent a car from Enterprise and drive to Englishtown to take Donelda's puffin boat tours (found them through tripadvisor and are well reviewed) to see the puffins and bird island. We would like to make sure we have ample time to drive back to Sydney, return the car and get back on the ship. Has anyone has ever taken a boat tour to bird island while in Sydney and what were your experiences? I did a search on cruise critic and could not find anything.

 

Google maps says the drive is about 45 minutes from the car rental agency to Englishtown... will we have any possible issues with traffic on this drive and does that drive time sound accurate to anyone familiar with the area? Also wondering if anyone has rented from Enterprise and whether their pick up / drop off at the cruise port is efficient or whether we should anticipate a long wait.

 

Thanks in advance for the help!!

 

We rented from Enterprise on Grand Lake Rd and had no problems with pick-up or drop-off or any issues at the rental office. The shuttle was waiting at the pier when we got off the ship.

[maryann ns]

From what I have read the Enterprise pick up service is quite good, but you do have to allow time for this.

 

The drive should be OK. It is the main highway getting out of Sydney and I would think more traffic, if any, would be going into Sydney. So allow about an hour for this.

 

You could contact the tour operator and ask your timing questions there.

 

How long are you in port?

[tty206]

thanks for the responses! we are in port from 9am-6pm.. tour operator says the drive should be around 45 minutes as well so I think we should be okay.

[maryann ns]

So I would have the tour operator have you back to your car about an hour and fifteen minutes from when you have to be at the ship at the latest.

 

I will be very interested to hear how your day goes. I keep notes on Sydney to help other cruisers and would love to add this option to the list.

[hoosiergirl34787]

When are you going? We are doing this same thing on July 19th. We are taking her 1:30pm boat trip, which would be 12:30 ship time. She said we should be back at 4pm (3pm ship time) which leaves about and hour and a half to drive back and return the car. I hope this isn't cutting it too close.

[SpokaneDan]

Just returned from the area, and rented a car to Fortress Louisbourg. I did some research about car rental in Sydney, and found a few posts re delay with p/u, checking out cars at Enterprise (afterall pax arrive and depart at about the same time, bottleneck is hard to avoid). Though most reviews are positive with Enterprise, it is the furtherest car rental agency from the pier (Discount and Budget are other options). In the end, I went with Discount, b/c I could walk there and back (about 1 mile from pier, and I did). BTW, the day I was there, Enterprise overbooked and have to transfer some pax to Discount.

 

If you allow plenty of time, there should be no problem whichever car agency you pick.

[cdubmom]

Good to know about Enterprise! We booked a mini van for July 19 to drive to Fortress Louisburg...I hope they're not overbooked for that day! I booked the van for 9am-5pm, but not sure if those are good times...hadn't considered getting 3000+ people off of a ship! Can you tell it's our first time cruising!?!?