Rental car, parking, traffic.....oh my

[live4christp1]

Trying to decide on the best transportation plan.....

We will be flying in to SNA - landing at 10 AM. We want to rent a car and go explore a little around Hollywood before checking into our hotel late afternoon.

Once arriving at hotel though, we won't have a need of the rental for the next three days. Does anyone know if they will pick it up or if there is a rental company in close proximity to the park?

We have three days in the parks and then will need a rental again on check out day as we want to drive to Huntington Beach and down the coast to San Diego.

Seems such a waste to pay for the rental and parking for 3 days that the car won't be moving as we are staying right across the street.

Any tips or advice?

 

[live4christp1]

I just found there is an Alamo right at DTD, wanted to share in case anyone needed that info.

If anyone knows of any other rental companies on site or close proximity please share.

 

[Darkbeer1]

Plenty of Rental Cars, Enterprise, Avis, Hertz, National/Alamo all have offices and available cars on Katella Avenue, near Harbor, Most are near the Cheesecake Factory, Alamo/National has two locations, the main one is the one on Katella Avenue near the Convention Center Arena (Alamo and National are the same company and is actually now owned by Enterprise). And since Alamo is an official sponsor of the Disneyland Resort, they have a small office on the west end of Downtown Disney, but the cars basically are stored at the Katella facility.

But look at your quote and agreement, in many cases, they will charge a drop off fee for using a second location, instead of returning it to the same location.

Also, I would get online quotes for your entire trip, as most Rental car companies offer discounted rates for weekly rates, and could end be cheaper just to pay for parking (whatever your Hotel/Motel charges, some don't charge at all, or it is part of the required "Resort Fee" where you pay for it even if you don't use it. So check out all your options and then make a final decision.

Have a great trip.

 

[Alinasan]

We are planning to do something similar, except we are potentially driving in and flying out of SNA. I added up the parking fees and the charge for the extra days and it seemed to be less expensive to just hire an airport transfer rather than keep the car extra days we would not use it--but it was really close.
Could you just rent the car for the last day, drive around to tour departure day instead of on arrival? From what I read about LA traffic, people say it gets really hideous during rush hour and the window of non-rush hour was something like 10 to 3 or so until much later in the evening after dinner. By the time you get out of the airport, depending on how far you wanted to go, stopping for lunch and things like that, you might wind up caught in it trying to get over to Anaheim from wherever you were in the touristy parts of LA. On Departure day though, you could already be enjoying a drive along the coast, rather than cutting through LA during Rush Hour to get over to Anaheim--but this is a question better left for the local experts I'd think. I've just read some really good analysis from people about the stranglehold of LA traffic (when looking into how we could go from Universal Studios to Disneyland). I'm not sure how that would apply to your situation but something to ask about I suppose.