We are renting a car from Birmngham airport a few days before our cruise from Southampton on the Ruby Princess doing Norway then hiring a car again after the cruise. Where exactly is the best place to drop off and pick up the the car nearest the cruise terminal? I think it's at the Eastern Docks!! Thank you for your help.

I would suggest just going to Carrentals.com or Rentalcars.com. Just put in your info and you can compare rates. You can verify the location of the rental on Google Maps.

There are several car rental firms within a mile or two of the terminal. The cruises coming in are obviously their bread and butter, so they are more or less situated to serve cruise passengers.

When I went in 2010, my sister and I just walked from the terminal to the Thrifty car rental where we'd arranged to pick up a car. That was a 2.5 mile walk, but apparently they will also send someone to pick you up, if you arrange it. There are several other agencies (Hertz for one) that are only about half a mile away.

While I don't remember for certain, I'd be surprised if there weren't several taxis out front for people to hail if walking is a problem.

Thank you, Asak, for your reply. I will definitely check them out. Just got back to town after being gone for two weeks.

Depending on the car rental company, you may not be able to drop off at or near the cruise terminal, but it will matter from whom you rent. Your most likely scenario is that you would have to drop the car at the Southampton airport and then take a taxi to the port.

You'll get a better sense once you price rentals and see the options, but some one-way rentals are airport-to-airport. You may get a better rate through a company like Autoeurope but might have fewer drop-off options. If you book directly with Hertz or Thrifty, you'll probably have different options that may be more agreeable, but you could pay a bit more. It's always a balancing act with these rentals.