Vero Beach... Need a car??

[thisismyusername]

We are headed to VB for the first time in March for five nights, and I was wondering if you thought we would need a car for anything other than getting to/from the airport? We would have the car the first day for 24 hours to pick up groceries, and then we plan to rent bikes. In Hilton Head, we hardly touched our (own) car once we arrived at the resort as we biked everywhere--even to the grocery store. Is VB a typical beach town with lots of necessities within a reasonable and easy bike ride?

Car rental rates are really high for our dates as of right now, but renting a car for a day to the resort and then for a day back to the airport is very reasonable. And if it's just going to sit while we enjoy the resort, I see no reason to rent it for more than what we need.

Also, does anyone know the closest car rental location to the resort? Are there taxis or other public transportation (Uber would be great, too!) to get us back to/from the resort?

Thanks for your opinions!

 

[rlovew]

I am sure you can take taxis but I don't think there is much close enough to the resort to bike or walk too- if you plan on only doing the pool and beach at the resort you could get away with this but I don't even know that there are much of any places to eat off the resort that are within biking distance. The list of suggested places to visit I remember seemed to start at about 5 miles away and get further. There is not anything as close to Vero Beach as I remember from Hilton Head.

 

[Barbydoll8]

Agree w/ pp. There isn't much available in walking/biking distance of the resort. Unless you are not leaving the immediate area, I personally would do a car for at least part of the visit.
We were there 2 years ago 4th of July weekend and I was surprised at how much was so far away. I live on the west coast of FL and the beaches here have a trolley service and everything here is very close to beach side resorts. I do not remember that type of thing there. Even downtown Vero is a good 15 min drive from the resort.

 

[PammyK]

I'd say it depends on how much time you plan to spend away from the resort and what you consider a reasonable and easy bike ride.

If you plan to spend your days enjoying the beach/pool and are good with dining primarily at the resort (either at their dining locations or cooking in your villa) then you'd probably be able to get by without a car. However I'd take into consideration the following things:

• There is not likely to be a convenient rental car return location near the resort - While there is an Enterprise location in Sebastian, the other major car company locations are either near the Vero Beach Municipal airport or in the downtown area. That is quite a distance from the resort and on the mainland.
• Speaking of the mainland, bear in mind that to get there, you'll need to go over a causeway bridge and most of them are pretty steep (to accommodate tall masts on sailboats) - not necessarily an "easy" bike ride.
  
• Even if you stick with restaurants/attractions on the barrier island, you're still going to have a fairly long bike ride - at least 8 miles to the South and nothing closer heading North on A1A

Personally, I wouldn't do DVBR without a car at my disposal, but I know others have stayed there without a car and were perfectly happy.

 

[OKWJan]

I would never want to be at Vero without a car. Drop off and pickup of a rental car would be difficult, most of the restaurants are not easy to reach by bike, and there are so many things to explore when you have a car. Keep checking prices, they go down all the time.

 

[Dean]

I'd never do VB, HH or Aulani without a car.

 

[jerseygal]

We definitely used our car for dining out for variety in restaurants outside of the resort when we were at VB and plan to have a car again this summer.
ENJOY!

 

[disneyaggies]

Yes.....