Closest car rental to vancouver port?? Comments on whistler drive ?

[caribbeanpuss]

We are travelling from vancouver port - post alaska cruisetour to visit whistler so we either hire a car and drive straight to whistler or we take the train and hire a car in whistler for the four days.....any comments ??

 

Also any car hire companies based at the port struggling to find.....

 

Thanks

[xlxo]

Thoughts....

• first choice for convenience is National or Alamo. They have a vehicle fleet in the cruise terminal. They are extremely popular because they are at the terminal. Minivans are popular and you need to book months in advance for these luggage friendly vehicles.
  
• 2nd location choice would be Avis... they have a shuttle to their Hornby office. Sadly they like to see customers wait for their shuttle.
  
• Hertz would be the next closest at the Fairmont Pacific Rim because they like watching their customers marching 3 blocks dragging their luggage
  
• after National/Alamo... I like Thrifty and Budget for prices.... but they need a cab ride from the cruise terminal.
  
• which day are you travelling? you want to avoid going during the Squamish music festival when the road is busy
  
• dropping vehicle at the airport? you might find savings returning the vehicle downtown location and then riding the Canada Line down.... sometimes I drop my spouse/luggage at the airport.... while I drive the vehicle back downtown and then catch the train to the terminal solo.
  
• bring your cruise itinery with you during vehicle pickup to avoid the 17.5% YVR surcharge when picking up your vehicle downtown. This proves you did not just get off a plane.
  http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/editorial/story.html?id=a1aeb1ee-0289-4c57-8c3f-6a17b8c5aa07
  

[martincath]

First, consider what you're going to do in Whistler - especially when you have four days planned up there. The main village was designed to be entirely walkable, so unless you're puttering around on mountain roads for four days or staying somewhere not actually in Whistler itself, a car may be almost redundant.

 

Assuming you do still need one - you'll be refunded the cab fare from the pier to the car rental spots without a shuttle (it's going to be about five bucks). This saves time waiting around for a shuttle, and also might be quicker than actually picking up a car at Canada Place itself - traffic always sucks on cruise days, there is a huge bottleneck at the one way in and out.

 

As to the drive itself - it's scenic, but try not to look away from the road! While it was significantly improved for the Olympics there are still some slightly hairy corners, speed limits quickly change (there are some small residential areas), speed traps are not uncommon, the road varies from one to two lanes each side, and every year there seems to be at least one idiot who's so enamoured of the scenery they crash their car. Use the scenic viewpoints to stop in if you want to take your eyes off the road.

 

More than once I've had to hit the brakes because there are people parked, walking down or even across the road to take photos of bears eating berries - if there are mounties nearby they'll try to move the crowd along or at least make them park somewhere safe instead of just around a blind corner, but you can't assume anything.

 

Actually check you know where all the controls on the rental car are located. Mist & fog can also make the drive very challenging, the altitude does dip up & down in places rather than being a consistent climb so sometimes you are going in and out of very poor visibility areas - and not being able to find your lights without looking down at the controls is going to make life difficult for everyone around you as well as yourself.

 

On the Good Stuff front, being from the Caribbean I imagine you're at least used to twisty roads - compared to most North American highways, the Sea-to-Sky is like the north loop of the Nürburgring. I love the drive when it isn't full of 'aaaiiiiee-a-corner-I-must-slam-on-my-brakes-even-if-I-can-see-beyond-the-corner-exit' drivers.

 

There are surprisingly-many Whistler residents who commute to Vancouver - heading up right after the cruise won't be too bad for traffic once you're over onto the North Shore, but try to avoid leaving on the way back between 6 and 7am unless you enjoy being tailgated by frenzied businesspeople trying to get to their office for 9am.