Rental Car Dilemma
 

Im trying to choose a flight/airline to St. Thomas (but I'm staying on St. John). Airline "A" arrives on St. Thomas at 1:15 PM. That leaves plenty of time to get over to St. John and pick up the rental car by 5:00 PM when the rental place closes. Airline "B" arrives on St. Thomas at 3:15 PM, which Im guessing does not leave enough time to get the rental car on St. John, but I'd prefer airline"B" because roundtrip airfare is about half the cost of airline "A". If I pick airline "B" to save some money, how do I get to to my villa that afternoon or the car rental place the next morning? My villa is not in town so getting a taxi back to the rental place the next morning would be tough I assume. Any ideas?

Assuming you take the less expensive (later) flight - First, to get to your villa upon arrival on St. John (I assume you are going by ferry), take a taxi from the ferry dock to your villa. That part is simple.

Try calling your rental car company and see if they will deliver the car to your villa the morning after you arrive or if they will at least provide you with a "shuttle" to the rental office. If so, problem solved.

If that doesn't work upon arrival in St. John take a taxi to your villa. Ask the driver if he will pick you up the following morning to take you to the car rental office. Be sure to get his cell phone number, just in case!

Your thrid option is to call for a taxi the morning. There will probably be a "visitor's book" at the villa with the name/number of taxi services you can call. Of course, you can always get contact numbers from taxi drivers waiting at the ferry (there are always plenty around) or look them up in the Yellow Pages.

I have found that rental places on ST John will accomodate you regarding picking up a car after the official close of business. Have you actually asked the rental company in St. John?

We used Courtesy Car Rental this past March. From their website, "We meet all of our customers at the ferry dock on St. John upon arrival. If you will be arriving late it is not a problem, we will arrange to meet you providing that you give us your arrival time on St. Thomas. "


http://www.courtesycarrental.com/

Deb

As Deb suggested I would first contact your rental car company. We unexpectedly ran into this problem when our flights were delayed well beyond closing hours. Windspree picked up the keys from C & C rental and had our Liberty waiting at the ferry dock.I did need to drive back into Cruz Bay to do the paperwork the next morning.

We once needed to get a rental on St. John mid trip (villa provided vehicle needed a new battery - quite an ordeal). We called Cool Breeze and they were there in no time to pick us up and rent us a car. It was low season, but they were great.