Sixt Rent A Car appears on one Miami-Dade list and not on the other
Miami-Dade County names two rental companies that shuttle from PortMiami to their offices, Dollar Rent-A-Car and Hertz Rent-A-Car. Sixt Rent A Car appears on the airport’s Rental Car Center list instead, with a toll free number and no port shuttle attached. Neither county page publishes a time, a fare or a pick-up point.
The port’s price for that shuttle is a $500.00 annual permit, plus 8% of gross revenue from any company running one without a license agreement. Both figures sit in PortMiami Terminal Tariff No. 010, effective October 1, 2025, which names no rental company anywhere in it. The county regulates the shuttle in one document and advertises it in another, and the two documents disagree about how many companies run one.
This site reads figures from the issuer that sets them, and a rental company’s own website is not one of those issuers here. No Sixt schedule, office hour or shuttle fare appears below, because none of it comes from a source this site verifies. What follows is the part a traveler can check before booking: where the cars sit, where the ship sits, and what Miami-Dade County charges for the ground in between. Every reading is from September 2026 unless another date is named.
| What the traveler does with the car | What Miami-Dade County publishes about it | Cost that follows from the published figures | What no issuer publishes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Leaves it in a $25 PortMiami garage, serving Cruise Terminals C, D, E, F, G and V | $25 per vehicle, per space, per day, overnight or greater | $200.00 for eight billed days, $212.00 at the 6% the tariff names | nothing; both figures sit in county documents |
| Leaves it in a $35 PortMiami garage, serving Cruise Terminals AA and B | $35 per vehicle, per space, per day | $280.00 for eight billed days, $296.80 with the same 6% | nothing; both figures sit in county documents |
| Returns it at the MIA Rental Car Center, then takes a metered taxi | $2.95 for the first 1/6 of a mile, $0.55 for each 1/6 mile past one mile | $27.55 across the county’s own 7.1 miles, before any waiting | the wait time itself, billed at $0.40 per minute |
| Returns it at the MIA Rental Car Center, then rides in on transit | $2.25 each way on Metrorail, Coral Way Trolley free | $4.50 for two adults on the rail leg | the total journey time across three legs |
| Asks a rental company to shuttle from the port to its office | Dollar Rent-A-Car and Hertz Rent-A-Car, with the words fees may apply | not calculable from any county page | the fee, the timetable, the pick-up point and the phone number |
| Asks the same of Sixt Rent A Car | listed at the Rental Car Center, toll free 1-888-749-8227 | not calculable from any county page | whether a PortMiami shuttle exists at all |
Four of those six rows carry a total a traveler can build before leaving home. The two that name a rental company do not.
Two county lists of rental car companies, thirteen names against two
Miami International Airport publishes thirteen companies inside the MIA Rental Car Center at 3900 NW 25th Street, from ACE Rent A Car through Thrifty, each with a toll free and a local number. The list includes Sixt Rent A Car on 1-888-749-8227 toll free and 305-503-9849 local. Seventeen further firms appear underneath as companies outside the building that will collect passengers at the Rental Car Center lobby on request.
PortMiami publishes two. Under the heading Rental Cars on its directions page, Miami-Dade County writes that several rental car agencies provide shuttle services from the Port to their offices, fees may apply, and then gives Dollar Rent-A-Car and Hertz Rent-A-Car as the options available, on a page read in September 2026. Each name is a link to a booking site. No address, no opening hour, no telephone number.
The cruise FAQ compresses the same answer into one sentence: there are no on-site car rental agencies at PortMiami, however some provide transport shuttle services from the Port to their rental offices. Whichever building that shuttle has to reach is a separate matter of ten street addresses, laid out in the reference on how PortMiami arranges its lettered cruise terminals.
Thirteen names in one county building. Just two in the other.
The 8% PortMiami charges a rental company for running that courtesy shuttle
Item 714 of PortMiami Terminal Tariff No. 010 carries a business category called Car Rentals, Courtesy Shuttle Services, priced at $500.00 a year. The same table charges $350.00 for Pre-arranged Ground Transportation, and adds a $400.00 non-refundable initial processing fee across the categories. The Miami-Dade County Seaport Department issued the document effective October 1, 2025.
A separate paragraph inside that item defines the activity and prices it again. Rental car companies conducting business at PortMiami without a non-exclusive license agreement are assessed a percentage of the gross revenues arising from those activities at an annual rate of 8%, and the tariff spells out what counts: the pick-up of passengers via courtesy vehicles for transportation to rental car facilities off the Port. Payment and supporting documentation go to the Port’s Permit Section monthly, and the county reserves the right to audit the books behind the figure.
Read the direction in that sentence. What the tariff prices is pick-up at the port and transport to an office off the port, which is the debarkation morning trip. Nothing in the tariff, the FAQ or the directions page describes the reverse leg, the one a passenger needs on embarkation day after handing back the keys.
The invoice was written before the timetable.
Where a returned rental car actually sits, and how far that is from the ship
The MIA Rental Car Center stands at 3900 NW 25th Street, and Miami International Airport connects it to the terminals with the free MIA Mover, boarded on the 3rd level between the Dolphin and Flamingo garages. The building is open 24 hours a day, the airport writes, though some operators close between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.
Distance from there to the ship depends on which arm of the county is asked. The port’s cruise FAQ publishes 7.1 miles between Miami International Airport and PortMiami, while the airport publishes about 9 miles in the other direction. That 1.9 mile disagreement inside one county runs underneath the whole airport to port trip and what each mode of it costs. Neither page measures from the Rental Car Center itself.
The airport’s own Transfer to PortMiami section lists four ways across the gap: pre-arranged cruise line transportation from the North bus station in concourse D and the South bus station in concourse J, public transportation, a taxi or ride-share, and the MIA Mover to the Miami Intermodal Center followed by City of Miami Trolley routes 1 Flagami, 2 Little Havana or 3 Coral Way. Driving a rental car is not one of the four.
One line at the foot of the page carrying those thirteen rental names reads Updated Dec. 2022. Telephone numbers age slowly. Shuttle arrangements do not.
Eight billed days at PortMiami measured against a $2.25 rail fare
Two adults, one seven night sailing, one car already in hand. Leaving it at the port bills eight days, because item 710 of Terminal Tariff No. 010 applies the rate to the day a vehicle enters the parking lot and to each succeeding day it remains. At a $25 terminal that reaches $200.00, or $212.00 once the 6% general sales tax rate the tariff names is added; at Cruise Terminal AA or Cruise Terminal B the rate was $35 when Miami-Dade County was last read in August 2026, so the same eight days reach $280.00, or $296.80. Why the number belongs to the berth rather than to the driver is worked through in the terminal by terminal parking schedule.
Handing the keys back deletes that line and buys two problems. First is the ride from the Rental Car Center to a lettered terminal. Miami-Dade County eliminated all flat fare rates in Resolution R-700-22, adopted on July 19, 2022, so a taxi runs on the meter: $2.95 for the first 1/6 of a mile, $0.85 for each additional 1/6 mile until one mile, and $0.55 for each 1/6 mile after that. Over the county’s own 7.1 miles that arithmetic reaches $27.55, and over the airport’s about 9 miles it reaches $33.60, in both cases before a single minute of the $0.40 per minute wait charge. Two additions sit outside the meter on the county’s rate sheet: a $2.00 per trip charge on any fare originating at the airport or PortMiami, and road tolls, which the passenger pays at the Sunpass rate. Those two totals are calculated from the published formula, not quoted from a county page.
Winner on published cost, and the margin is not close: the rail chain. Metrorail runs $2.25 each way in the airport’s own figure, the Coral Way Trolley is free, and its Northside stop sits across from the Cruise Terminal E surface parking lot. The pair rides in for $4.50 against $212.00 of parking. The nuance is luggage across three legs and an EASY Card bought from a vending machine inside the Miami Intermodal Center.
Winner on debarkation morning: the metered taxi, on published availability. Taxicabs are available at all cruise terminals on cruise days, PortMiami states, and the county sets a $15 minimum for trips originating at MIA or the Port of Miami, a floor the $27.55 arithmetic clears without help. For four travelers taking a van the taxi still wins, because the 30% surcharge the county allows on sport utility vehicles and vans lifts $27.55 to $35.82, which still removes $176.18 of the $212.00.
Where returning the car loses is a short sailing. Three billed days at a $25 terminal cost $75.00, while two metered runs to and from the Rental Car Center come to $55.10 before any waiting, and a second rental contract is needed afterwards to collect the car. Over eight days the trade is obvious. Over three it is $19.90 and an errand.
Details that decide a PortMiami rental drop-off
- The free port shuttle will not carry anyone between buildings on request. Miami-Dade County runs it only when a ship departs from one terminal and returns to a different one, such as out of Terminal G and back at Terminal B.
- Terminal letters are ten separate street addresses. Cruise Terminal AA sits at 2200 N. Cruise Blvd. and Cruise Terminal G at 909 N. Cruise Blvd., with Cruise Terminal V at 718 W. Cruise Blvd. and Cruise Terminal J at 1120 Caribbean Way on the Southside.
- The trolley stop nearest a Northside terminal is across from the Cruise Terminal E surface parking lot, which is also where the county prices oversized vans, motorhomes and trailers at $25 per space, per day.
- Miami International Airport publishes no frequency for the free MIA Mover on its public transportation page. The 30 minute weekday interval printed there belongs to Metrorail, not to the shuttle that reaches the rental counters.
- Seventeen firms operate outside the Rental Car Center and, the airport writes, will pick up passengers right outside the lobby on request, from EASIRENT.COM on 786-358-6875 to FOX RENT A CAR on 305-602-9320. None of them appears on any PortMiami page.
- A lost parking ticket at PortMiami costs a maximum of $275, which the tariff describes as the equivalent of an 11-day cruise. It is a ceiling a driver who parks accepts and a driver who returns the car never meets.
- Broward County publishes about $67 on one page and $86 on another for a taxi from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport to PortMiami, the gap behind the same cruise arrival made from the other airport.
Where the Sixt shuttle question goes wrong before embarkation day
Reading two names as the whole market is the first error. The county lists Dollar Rent-A-Car and Hertz Rent-A-Car under Rental Cars, and the tariff category that governs the activity is generic, open at $500.00 a year to any company that files for it. A company absent from a webpage is not a company barred from the port.
Assuming the shuttle runs in both directions is the second. Every county sentence on the subject describes movement from the Port to a rental office, and item 714 defines the priced activity the same way. The leg from an office back to a terminal on embarkation morning is undocumented at the issuer, which makes it the question to put to the company rather than to the county.
Trusting a page stamped Updated Dec. 2022 for a 2026 sailing is the third. Thirteen telephone numbers on the airport’s rental page carry that date, and a port shuttle arrangement is exactly the kind of term that changes without the page changing with it.
Dropping the car at the curb and parking it anyway is the fourth. Passengers are advised to drop off their luggage prior to parking, Miami-Dade County writes, and should also be dropped off at the terminal if possible, which is a rule about the curb and not a reprieve from the eight day count that starts the moment the vehicle enters the lot.
Landing the rental return and the boarding window on the same clock is the fifth. The Rental Car Center is open 24 hours a day but some operators close between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., so a car handed back outside those hours meets a counter whose opening time no county page prints.
Which issuer supplied each figure above, and when
The figures in this guide were verified in September 2026 against the sources named in each section. One limit belongs on the record: figures credited to Broward County are dated readings rather than live quotes, because that issuer’s site is not among the sources available to this guide. Confirm them on its own page. Where a figure here is built on $35 a day, it is arithmetic across two county documents rather than a quotation from one. The tariff names the Florida general rate at 6% for the charges it prices, and its Item 710 prices the long term day at $25.00; the $35 line is on the parking page. Parking rates usually change in January, shuttle fares and cruise line transfer prices change by season, and ship schedules change weekly; check the issuer’s page before you travel. No provider paid for placement here, and none can pay to appear. Where a booking link earns Lot and Gate a commission it is marked as sponsored and flagged in this line, and as of September 2026 no affiliate link is live anywhere on this site.
Six questions about returning a rental car before a PortMiami cruise
The answers below use Miami-Dade County and Miami International Airport pages read in September 2026, PortMiami Terminal Tariff No. 010 effective October 1, 2025, and garage rates verified in August 2026.
No Miami-Dade County page says so. PortMiami names two rental companies that shuttle between the port and their offices, Dollar Rent-A-Car and Hertz Rent-A-Car, and Sixt Rent A Car is not one of them. Sixt appears instead on the Miami International Airport list of companies inside the Rental Car Center.
Two. Under the heading Rental Cars, Miami-Dade County writes that several rental car agencies provide shuttle services from the Port to their offices, fees may apply, and then lists Dollar Rent-A-Car and Hertz Rent-A-Car. Each is a link to a booking site, with no address, opening hour or telephone number beside it.
No. The PortMiami cruise FAQ states that there are no on-site car rental agencies at PortMiami, however some provide transport shuttle services from the Port to their rental offices. The nearest concentration of counters is the MIA Rental Car Center at 3900 NW 25th Street, at an airport the county puts 7.1 miles from the port.
Two published ways. Metrorail costs $2.25 each way to Government Center, then Metromover to Freedom Tower and the free Coral Way Trolley across the bridge. A metered taxi is the other: $2.95 for the first 1/6 mile and $0.55 for each 1/6 mile past one mile, which reaches $27.55 over 7.1 miles.
Returning it, on a seven night sailing. Eight billed days cost $200.00 at a $25 terminal, or $212.00 with the 6% the tariff names, against $4.50 for two adults on the rail chain or roughly $27.55 for a metered taxi. On a two night sailing the three day charge of $75.00 narrows that gap sharply.
Only one direction is published. Item 714 of Terminal Tariff No. 010 defines the priced activity as the pick-up of passengers via courtesy vehicles for transportation to rental car facilities off the Port, and charges 8% of gross revenue for it. The return leg to a terminal on embarkation day appears in no county document.
A permit category with two names attached to it
Miami-Dade County’s answer to the question is a price rather than a schedule. Any rental company can buy the right to drive a courtesy vehicle onto PortMiami for $500.00 a year under item 714, and one that runs the service without a non-exclusive license agreement owes 8% of what it earns doing so. Two names sit on the public page. That page records who filed the paperwork, not who drives the van.
So the question turns around. What is worth confirming with a rental company is not whether a shuttle exists but which direction it runs on the day it is needed, because direction is the one variable Miami-Dade County wrote down and the one nobody thinks to ask about.