Miami airport

[wildwood]

Good morning everyone I was just wondering if any one had any advice or tips for arriving at miami airport first time in August

 

[Kath2003]

Good morning everyone I was just wondering if any one had any advice or tips for arriving at miami airport first time in August

Leave as quickly as possible: it's the most boring airport of all time.

No, seriously, it's just a bog-standard US airport. They'll direct you to a desk for immigration, standard procedure and questions. Bag claim is standard for any aiport.

 

[OldKeyWelsh]

What are your plans when you get to Miami? Will you be renting a car and driving straight to Orlando?

 

[wildwood]

We have booked ourselves into a hotel for the night and then going to take a nice drive up to kissimmee the next day add extra nights on the holiday so we still get 14 days in orlando

 

[OldKeyWelsh]

The car hire centre is located away from the arrivals terminal. Just go outside and get on any car rental bus - all the rental companies are in the same centre. Or, if you are spending your first night at one of the airport hotels, you could use their shuttle bus and leave picking up the hire car until the morning -that's what we do.
One other bit of advice, when you drive up to Kissimmee, use the toll road - Florida's Turnpike - and not the Freeway. It only costs about $20 but it's much better and quieter.

 

[WiganTony]

When we flew into Miami last August, we found that there were far more US citizens travelling and hence the non-US citizens immigration desks were a lot quieter than MCO.

As you arrive at immigration, the desks were numbered from right to left - 1 to 12 were US citizens, 13-25 other nationalities and 26 diplomats. We noticed that the further towards desk 25 you went, the fewer people - we had one family in front of us.

Baggage reclaim wasn't the best - we waited 45 minutes for our baggage to arrive.

As noted above, best to use the Turnpike for the trip up to Orlando. There is a long, long stretch without tolls, but you get caught nearer Orlando and it was around $14 for that section (around 130 miles).

Also note that the rest area at Fort Pierce (around halfway) has an Earl of Sandwich if you get a bit hungry!!

 

[wildwood]

Thanks everyone can not wait to go wish I could fast forward to august

 

[tony64]

Also note that the rest area at Fort Pierce (around halfway) has an Earl of Sandwich if you get a bit hungry!!

Thanks for that, we now know where we intend to stop on our run up in Oct.

 

[Zeebs]

Seems from the Miami Airport website there will be a monorail type train from the terminals to the rental car centre which starts running sometime in 2011. Can't find out when though. We go in May and are doing the same thing as you.

Thanks for the info on the immigration desks. Very handy to know.

Kirsten

 

[Mermaid2sea]

Seems from the Miami Airport website there will be a monorail type train from the terminals to the rental car centre which starts running sometime in 2011. Can't find out when though. We go in May and are doing the same thing as you.

Thanks for the info on the immigration desks. Very handy to know.

Kirsten

Cool, that sounds interesting as we maybe flying into Miami. In the past we've got the shuttle bus from MIA to Alamo.

This time we would prefer to get an internal flight though, but on the return we may to drive back to Miami as we'll have extra luggage!!

 

[Pinky166]

After our Westbound Transatlantic cruise in September we are hiring a car from Port Canaveral (having a few days at WDW) then flying back from Miami. Does anyone know if the car drop off at the airport or offsite?

 

[tony64]

Hi Claire
Debs or Matt should be able to answer this one when they get back from their current trip.

 

[Pinky166]

Hi Claire
Debs or Matt should be able to answer this one when they get back from their current trip.

Yes hopefully they will, thanks Tony.

 

[k8Davies]

The car hire centre is located away from the arrivals terminal. Just go outside and get on any car rental bus - all the rental companies are in the same centre. Or, if you are spending your first night at one of the airport hotels, you could use their shuttle bus and leave picking up the hire car until the morning -that's what we do.
One other bit of advice, when you drive up to Kissimmee, use the toll road - Florida's Turnpike - and not the Freeway. It only costs about $20 but it's much better and quieter.

Is this for all the car hire companies? Or is there one based in the terminal? As I’ve been looking at Car hire and if they are all off site I just go for the best deal rather than the most convenient.

Also on the toll road are there a lot of rest stops? As we've always flown into MCO so Miami trip will be a different experience for us. We booked for May and are spending a night in Miami before driving up to Orlando the next day.

One last question is there anything of interest worth pulling off for on the way up to Orlando?

Thanks

 

[OldKeyWelsh]

Yes, all the car hire companies, large and small are based in the same building. The shuttle buses to and from the airport terminals are clearly marked and run regularly.
I would guess that if you are flying with VA most people on your flight will be using Alamo, so to avoid the queues there, it might be an idea to rent with one of the other companies

 

[PoppyAnna]

I would guess that if you are flying with VA most people on your flight will be using Alamo, so to avoid the queues there, it might be an idea to rent with one of the other companies

Oh, too late.

 

[phinz]

My other advice would be don't linger in the airport area once you leave the car hire. It's not the best part of town. I'd honestly try and get up to Sunrise/Ft. Lauderdale and out of Miami. I actually usually fly into Ft. Lauderdale these days when I head to the Keys because the extra hour of driving is worth not dealing with the Miami airport and its environs.

I'm glad they have the new hire center, though, because the old method of trying to get out of the industrial park that housed most of them was a nightmare and you could find yourself in a very rough part of town in no time flat.

 

[Kath2003]

My other advice would be don't linger in the airport area once you leave the car hire. It's not the best part of town. I'd honestly try and get up to Sunrise/Ft. Lauderdale and out of Miami. I actually usually fly into Ft. Lauderdale these days when I head to the Keys because the extra hour of driving is worth not dealing with the Miami airport and its environs.

This.

In fact, Miami as a whole is not a particularly desirable place. It's the only place I've been in Florida that I genuinely would not want to return to...

 

[Kevin Stringer]

I'm currently sat in our room in Vero Beach (excellent room by the way) after having driven up from Miami. We have just got off a 7 night Caribbean cruise and got the shuttle from the port to the car rental facility at the airport. This is a very impressive new structure and easy to negotiate.
The drive up from Miami is fairly easy, if somewhat featureless. Someone asked about rest areas - they are reasonably frequent but you enter them from the left hand lane - think of them as being on the central reservation.

One other thing - Deb advised us to pre-pay for the tolls. This way you drive straight through the Sunpass lane without stopping and can also use the express lane on the I95 when you leave Miami airport. This could save a considerable amount of time if the traffic was heavy. It cost about $5 per day with Dollar, so may not be the best thing to do if you have a car for 2 weeks and don't intend to use it much, but it worked out well for us. It's called Pass24 with Dollar.

Kev

 

[PoppyAnna]

This.

In fact, Miami as a whole is not a particularly desirable place. It's the only place I've been in Florida that I genuinely would not want to return to...

Oh dear, that sounds a bit doom and gloom. We are spending two nights in Miami at the end of our trip next month.

I'm currently sat in our room in Vero Beach (excellent room by the way) after having driven up from Miami. We have just got off a 7 night Caribbean cruise and got the shuttle from the port to the car rental facility at the airport. This is a very impressive new structure and easy to negotiate.
The drive up from Miami is fairly easy, if somewhat featureless. Someone asked about rest areas - they are reasonably frequent but you enter them from the left hand lane - think of them as being on the central reservation.


Kev

Thanks for the info Kevin