Car rental near cruise ship terminal in Seattle?

[MyAimIsTrue]

We'll be staying on an extra day or two after our Alaska cruise to see family in the Seattle suburbs. Can we rent a car near the cruise ship terminal and then return it at Sea-Tac a couple days later?

[SpeedNoodles]

I'm unaware of anywhere very close to the terminal (Smith Cove is a bit north of downtown).  You may have to grab a Lyft or Uber to a car rental business.

[Kathleen]

If I remember correctly the car rental at the airport is off site just down from it. Because of that it makes it easy to pick the car up at the airport.We took a taxi from the port to the car rental area at the airport and picked the car up there and returned it there before flying outa few days later. 

[WAYNO]

Speaking only personally, as we live relatively close to Seattle and have rented cars to and from Seattle, be aware Seattle has some quite high tourism taxes.  Renting a car within Seattle's city limits can cause the car rental cost to be quite expensive.  If you can... arrange the car in a Seattle suburb, outside the city limits.  You can still return the car to the airport rental facility.  We found no rental car facilities to provide shuttles, so either via taxi or Uber, you'll have to find your own way to and from a car rental facility. 

For us, we rented the car in Oregon, and dropped it off in downtown Seattle.  It was 25-bucks for a taxi ride to the port.  Then at the end of the cruises, it cost us again, 25-bucks for a taxi ride to the rental car facility.  Then although we already had a car reserved, the rental cost to drive back to Oregon was twice what we were promised and quoted, with no exception.  They said sorry, it was the tourism tax superseding the price we were promised.

I know folks have different experiences for different reasons, but try as we might, we were stuck with this.  And we've done it twice with the same results. 

[Atricks]

We went on Quantum's May 29th Alaska sailing and rented a car on the 27th at the seatac airport (avis) and drove around the first two days.  We got a one way from the airport to Komo Plaza Avis/Budget Office downtown (literally right across the street from the Space Needle at 100 4th Avenue North) and it worked out pretty well.

For that particular location to drop off you have to leave the car in the Komo Plaza underground parking garage (466 John St, Seattle, WA 98109), grab a tikcet on the way in, park, go up the elevator and walk around to the corner to the office to turn in the keys and parking ticket, then I just uber to the port from there.  I didn't wait long at all for the uber (maybe like 2 minutes), uber was $18.92 before tip.  About a 7-10 minute drive between the pier and the Space Needle  

What I did was drove all of us to the port early, around 945am, dropped everyone (and the luggage) off but me, then grabbed gas at a shell station between the port and the space needle, went to the parking garage, went up the elevator, into the office door along the street, got in an uber and dropped me off at the port and in I went.  In my case it went smooth as butter.  I did not rent a car on return from Alaska.  

One thing is that Pier 91's dropoff/parking is counterintuitive.  Going in you get off turn right into the "parking" area but keep going (It looks like you need to turn left, but you don't), the first time I drove in to drop everyone off I turned the wrong way and had to leave and come back.

Renting on return you could probably get one from that same office since it's much closer to the airport and return it either there or at the airport, the 1 way rental I remember being much cheaper than I thought it would be.  Added bonus you could drop the bags off in the car, tour the Space Needle THEN head out.