Renting a car from Vegas to DLR

[Zummi Gummi]

We're coming to Disneyland this June for 5 days, after spending 3 days in Las Vegas. We plan to rent a car to come from Vegas to Disneyland, and then fly home from LAX. I've been playing around with car rentals, and it seems as though it's absurdly expensive, I assume because it's a one-way rental. Right now, the best I could find is $72.89 a day (plus a bunch of fees that bring the Saturday to Monday total to $211) with Hertz. This would be with a pickup at Caesar's Palace and a drop off over on West Katella.

So here's my question...is that the best it'll get? Is there some deal site I'm missing out on? Any tips?

 

[jonabyte]

I was in the same boat a few years back, flew into LV and was going to fly our of LA, but I found it cheaper to just return back to Vegas with the car and fly from there. The rental was cheaper and so was the flight.
My plans were a bit more flexible so I could do this, yours might not be.

 

[BubbaQuest]

Vegas usually has really cheap car rentals unless there is a big convention in town. I tend to stick with Hertz, but I'm surprised Enterprise or Dollar isn't cheaper.

For that much money, if you don't need the car at DL and there are only a couple of you, it might be cheaper to take a one-way flight from Vegas to Long Beach or Santa Ana and take a cab from the airport to the park/hotel. I think a taxi from Long Beach will run about $50. Most of the hotels around DL will charge for parking if you have a car.

 

[Cosmic Commando]

I didn't have your dates, but I found much better deals than $72 per day on Hotwire and carrentals.com. You'd be picking up at the Las Vegas airport and dropping off at LAX, though. I would assume your hotel in Vegas would have a shuttle to the airport or there would be some type of inexpensive service like that, and it would probably save you money on that end. As for returning it right by DLR... why? If you're flying out of LAX, just drive the rental car to LAX. The rental car industry is set up for airport locations; going to the neighborhood locations will normally cost more. Hotwire doesn't tell you which company you're getting, but it's a list of five or six national brands (no no-name ones). Carrentals.com had cars for ~$20 per day with a smaller company, $45 per day for Thrifty. I've rented cars from Hotwire several times before... no problems.

 

[wild01ride]

My two pieces of advice are this:
(1) I often start with Travelocity or Hotwire to get a feel for which rental company has the best rate for the dates I'm searching but there is usually no price advantage for booking through them. 99% of the time I will search on the travel site and then go to the company's actual site to book the rental. It just makes it easier in the end if you need to make a change, etc.

(2) I realize that a lot of people mention cheaper flight or car rental to go back to Las Vegas, however you need to consider your opportunity cost of your time while on vacation. If time is of no question and you could just assume take an extra day or two, that's fine. However, the average person usually has a fixed amount of vacation time available.
If, at the end of your DLR trip, you need to account for driving back to Las Vegas, pay for the associated gas, and account for the numerous potential travel setbacks that could occur during the 3-4hour trip, the effort, time and hassle would likely require the cost benefit to be several hundred dollars less to make it worth it for me.
Even coming from the Midwest, I have never found any flight difference between Las Vegas and Los Angeles to be worth my effort to drive the distance and take that travel time to make it worth the trip into Las Vegas for a return flight.
I would imagine that even if you found a car rental that was half the price you found, it would still not be worth it in the end to travel back to Las Vegas.

Regardless of how you decide to proceed, have a great trip. I did a Vegas/DLR combo trip a few years back and it was a blast.
Have fun!

 

[Zummi Gummi]

Thanks, everyone! Perhaps I should have been a little more specific...

We're leaving Vegas to go to DLR on Saturday, June 14. We aren't leaving DLR until June 18. However, we want to dump the car on the 16th, because we only need it that one day (the 15th) to drive up to Universal Studios for the day. The rest of the time we'll be at DLR and won't need auto transportation. That was why I was thinking of dropping it off locally, to not have to deal with the hassle of needlessly driving to LAX on SNA on Monday morning and then getting shuttled back.

 

[draybook]

Thanks, everyone! Perhaps I should have been a little more specific...

We're leaving Vegas to go to DLR on Saturday, June 14. We aren't leaving DLR until June 18. However, we want to dump the car on the 16th, because we only need it that one day (the 15th) to drive up to Universal Studios for the day. The rest of the time we'll be at DLR and won't need auto transportation. That was why I was thinking of dropping it off locally, to not have to deal with the hassle of needlessly driving to LAX on SNA on Monday morning and then getting shuttled back.

I would recommend using Hotwire and booking under the Hot Rate. It's non-refundable, but the rates are extremely lower than any others. For instance, for our trip to Atlanta last weekend, I picked the car up at 4pm on Thursday and returned it a little after midnight going into Tuesday morning. This was for a full size car(Malibu) and the total for those 5 days was only $117. Now, I know that the rates in California are ridiculous, as I'm pricing a rental for my solo trip out there in July/August, so I can't speak for Vegas pick ups.

Good luck to you bud!

 

[Cosmic Commando]

Get the $20 car, keep it the whole time you're in Anaheim and drive yourself back to the airport. Four days of a $20 car is still better than two days of a $70 car.

 

[TP2000]

I wonder if you've priced out flying JetBlue from Las Vegas to Long Beach (often around $39 to $49 one-way), do an airport shuttle bus from Long Beach Airport to Disneyland, then rent a $30 car from Enterprise on Katella for a day or two to buzz around SoCal in?

Or if Universal Studios is really your only non-Disney stop in SoCal, maybe look into the convenient Gray Line bus tours from Anaheim to Universal Studios? They range from a $38 bus ride only option, to a full fledged Hollywood guided tour plus ticket and full day at Universal Studios for $127. http://www.grayline.com/tours/anahe...heme-park-plus-city-tour-5911_4/#.UxJT2EnTmtU

But the JetBlue flight option could give you more time on your Las Vegas-Anaheim travel day, plus more leeway with the rental car in SoCal. And if you can manage a flight out of John Wayne (SNA) instead of LAX, go for it! John Wayne Airport is infinitely a better travel experience than LAX, and much closer and easier and cheaper to get to from Disneyland.