Rotterdam car rental, airport or city?

[mvh]

What is the closest (and or easiest to get to) car rental agency by the Rotterdam cruise terminal? Do I have to go to the airport or is there one closer? I plan on taking a cap to it unless there is a better way to get there.  I'm looking to book in Rotterdam and drop it off in Amsterdam 3 days later.  Has anyone done this first hand? Thanks for any help.

[Ine]

I am not familiar with rentalcar agencys in Rotterdam. Why not check some websites of various firms and see which one is most convenient for you. Rotterdam is rather compact (as most dutch cities). 

Be aware parking in Rotterdam is expensive and no more cash, only credit or bankcard. Very likely you will need a PIN number to use them in the machines.

Parking in Amsterdam is extreme expensive depending in which part of town. Also driving in the centre is far from nice.

[FreestyleNovice]

As Ine said, driving in Amsterdam is ugly. It's busy, crowded and full of near-suicidal cyclists cutting you off in any possible directions and trams ringing their loud bells at you.

 

There's nothing nearby, Centraal Station might be an option, the airport isn't big and not better than a down town location (and not picking up at the/an airport might save you some money).

 

What is the main reason for a rental? Public transport is quite good and might be less worries.

[mvh]

21 hours ago, FreestyleNovice said:

As Ine said, driving in Amsterdam is ugly. It's busy, crowded and full of near-suicidal cyclists cutting you off in any possible directions and trams ringing their loud bells at you.

 

There's nothing nearby, Centraal Station might be an option, the airport isn't big and not better than a down town location (and not picking up at the/an airport might save you some money).

 

What is the main reason for a rental? Public transport is quite good and might be less worries.

We are planning on hitting a few small towns in three days after we get off in Rotterdam (Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels, Guithorne) and then flying out of Amsterdam.  We are spending the first two nights in Brussels then the last one in Amsterdam and flying out the next morning.  We can't really hit any of those towns on the way with all of our luggage from the cruise.  I think the best thing will be to take the car back to Amsterdam the day before and take a cab/bus/train  to the hotel and the same back to the airport the next morning.

[FreestyleNovice]

1 hour ago, mvh said:

We are planning on hitting a few small towns in three days after we get off in Rotterdam (Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels, Guithorne) and then flying out of Amsterdam.  We are spending the first two nights in Brussels then the last one in Amsterdam and flying out the next morning.  We can't really hit any of those towns on the way with all of our luggage from the cruise.  I think the best thing will be to take the car back to Amsterdam the day before and take a cab/bus/train  to the hotel and the same back to the airport the next morning.

 

Fair enough. 🙂

 

The Amsterdam plan sounds solid, if you haven't booked you could turn the car part around: stay at the outskirts of Amsterdam,  use the hotel's car park, take public transport into Amsterdam for your days there and taking the car back to the airport. Less expensive, less immersive too perhaps but might be an option.

[mvh]

14 minutes ago, FreestyleNovice said:

 

Fair enough. 🙂

 

The Amsterdam plan sounds solid, if you haven't booked you could turn the car part around: stay at the outskirts of Amsterdam,  use the hotel's car park, take public transport into Amsterdam for your days there and taking the car back to the airport. Less expensive, less immersive too perhaps but might be an option.

I like that idea.  The car is the same price if I turn it in the night before I was originally planning, so that make a lot of sense.   How far out of the city do they have hotels with parking and is it easy getting in and out via public transportation?

[FreestyleNovice]

17 hours ago, mvh said:

I like that idea.  The car is the same price if I turn it in the night before I was originally planning, so that make a lot of sense.   How far out of the city do they have hotels with parking and is it easy getting in and out via public transportation?

 

Depends, it may be a bit far out. A great hotel further away is Fashion Hotel Westcord, but still comes with a some 25 Euro per night rate for a car park spot...

 

Staying in/around a city like Haarlem and taking a train from there to Amsterdam Centraal takes 15 minutes from platform to platform. Going from the outskirts of Amsterdam to the popular place might take the same amount of time.

 

South of Amsterdam is the business district, congress center and Schiphol Airport, that side is not appealing for a good deal price wise (let alone the parking facilities..), to the east is pretty much all water. West and north are the areas to search for, with Haarlem city coming in sight pretty fast. Up north there's NH Amsterdam Noord with free parking, had to Google that one for specific info but it does offer a free shuttle to down town (otherwise a walk to the ferry crossing to Amsterdam Centraal Station and trekking further down into town from there).

 

The benefit of staying in/at Amsterdam is taking a tram or metro, which might be an extra if you do multiple visits, if you plan on a once or twice exploration of the city the "disadvantage" of being dropped off at the Centraal Station in Amsterdam is less. Plenty of canal boat tours start at the station's square and you probably will get tired feet of walking the beautiful canals anyway! 😉