Houston/Galveston Trip

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Sanrith Descartes

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Booked a new passage on a Plagueship of Nurgle leaving out of Galveston. Coming in a day early. Recommendations on getting from IAH to Port of Galveston? We are arriving late on a Saturday night. Better to crash at an airport hotel and then head down to Galveston Sunday morning or just trek down Saturday night and hotel at/near the port? Are their shuttles from IAH to the port or just Uber it? There are four of us and shuttle tends to be per person so thinking about Uber.. Finally is there a car rental/near the port that I could just do a one-way rental from IAH to the Port?

Thanks.
 

Burns

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Booked a new passage on a Plagueship of Nurgle leaving out of Galveston. Coming in a day early. Recommendations on getting from IAH to Port of Galveston? We are arriving late on a Saturday night. Better to crash at an airport hotel and then head down to Galveston Sunday morning or just trek down Saturday night and hotel at/near the port? Are their shuttles from IAH to the port or just Uber it? There are four of us and shuttle tends to be per person so thinking about Uber.. Finally is there a car rental/near the port that I could just do a one-way rental from IAH to the Port?

Thanks.
I think the shuttles depend on the cruise line. People I knew did a Carnival Cruise that had a shuttle van from IAH to their hotel in Galveston, but that was before Nurgle unleashed the Wuhanic Plauge. With the financials the way they are, for cruise lines, that may not be an option; I would assume you would have seen it as an option on the cruise line's website.

For a rental, I am sure there is a car return for most companies at the cruise ship port, they might just charge more for 1 way trip. The drive from IAH to Galveston is between 1 to 1.5 hours and traffic after about 8pm will flow fine. For Saturday night, Downtown will be all lit up all pretty like, but if you want to skip it, you can take Beltway 8, as it might have a slightly less chance to have party people (drunks). Sunday morning traffic could be slightly heavier than late Sat, but should still be in the 65 to 80 mph range.

I like to use google street view to look at interchanges between highways, so you kinda know what to look for. If you are used to NYC driving, you will have no issues with Houston downtown. I don't think Houston is that bad and it's certainly better than some of the Dallas cluster fucks. One consideration is that the Houston Rockets play down town, so maybe look up their schedule, if you are driving through downtown on Saturday night.

Galveston proper is fairly small, and the cruise ships leave out of the historic district (8653+63 Galveston, Texas). You should be able to find things to do while waiting for the ship to leave, if you wanted to drive down the night before.

Never stayed in anything but a few beach houses, outside of town, so cant comment on the state of hotels in the area, but it's touristy, so their should be some quality places to stay. If you are renting a car (for more freedom of movement), you might be able to find a beach house for cheaper than a couple hotel rooms on AirBnB.
 

Sanrith Descartes

Veteran of a thousand threadban wars
<Aristocrat╭ರ_•́>
41,351
107,244
I think the shuttles depend on the cruise line. People I knew did a Carnival Cruise that had a shuttle van from IAH to their hotel in Galveston, but that was before Nurgle unleashed the Wuhanic Plauge. With the financials the way they are, for cruise lines, that may not be an option; I would assume you would have seen it as an option on the cruise line's website.

For a rental, I am sure there is a car return for most companies at the cruise ship port, they might just charge more for 1 way trip. The drive from IAH to Galveston is between 1 to 1.5 hours and traffic after about 8pm will flow fine. For Saturday night, Downtown will be all lit up all pretty like, but if you want to skip it, you can take Beltway 8, as it might have a slightly less chance to have party people (drunks). Sunday morning traffic could be slightly heavier than late Sat, but should still be in the 65 to 80 mph range.

I like to use google street view to look at interchanges between highways, so you kinda know what to look for. If you are used to NYC driving, you will have no issues with Houston downtown. I don't think Houston is that bad and it's certainly better than some of the Dallas cluster fucks. One consideration is that the Houston Rockets play down town, so maybe look up their schedule, if you are driving through downtown on Saturday night.

Galveston proper is fairly small, and the cruise ships leave out of the historic district (8653+63 Galveston, Texas). You should be able to find things to do while waiting for the ship to leave, if you wanted to drive down the night before.

Never stayed in anything but a few beach houses, outside of town, so cant comment on the state of hotels in the area, but it's touristy, so their should be some quality places to stay. If you are renting a car (for more freedom of movement), you might be able to find a beach house for cheaper than a couple hotel rooms on AirBnB.
Thanks. I opted for an Airport hotel for the night and we will probably just Uber down on Sunday morning. Uber estimate was $75-100 for the trip. We don't board until around noon so plenty of time To get down there on Sunday.
 
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