Day 292 – Miami to Melbourne
Driving to Melbourne
Today we had a quick Maccas breakfast before checking out from Blue Ocean Hostel. Last night was actually the first night we struggled to fall asleep, due to the loud as hell music from the club downstairs. It’s probably a good sign that the jet lag is wearing off.
Ace Car Rentals
After checking out, we got on the 150 Bus to Miami Airport, with our backpacks. From our reconnaissance the day before, we went straight to Ace Car Rentals. The friendly staff member from yesterday, was replaced by who I think is the manager, who wasn’t overly friendly. The vibe we got was, that it was a hassle for him to rent us a car. He sounded very possessive of the cars from our experience with him.
Despite this, we still went ahead with the transaction. If you pay with a Debit Card (i.e. the good old ING Card) you get charged a massive amount for insurance. Therefore, we used our credit card from one of the Big Four Banks in Aus, for the first time on the trip. The price for 3 day car hire of a Toyota Corolla was $116.15 USD / $167.17 AUD. There was an additional $5.02 AUD for the credit card’s international transaction fee.
Here is the actual breakdown of the charges, which I think is crazy
- Car Hire 3 days = $18
- Liability Insurance = $50.97
- Sales Tax = $5.67
- Airport Access Fee = $8.99
- State Surcharge = $6.00
- Vehicle License Fee = $1.99
- Energy Recovery Fee = $6.00
- Airport CFC = $14.55
Only 15.5% of the cost was the car!
Oh they also appear to push an unlimited tolls deal. Since, we had come yesterday and were prepared for this, I had checked the route on Google Maps the night before. There was no difference in the route with or without tolls, so we refused. The manager said, it can be very confusing and one accidental entry onto an express way will cost more than the unlimited deal they have.
Side Note: If you look online, don’t always expect this to be the final price in the USA. Taxes don’t seem to be advertised for cars, hotels (booking.com) or on restaurant menus unfront, which is really annoying. Especially since, the value of the currency is high and the tax percentage is also high.
Driving in the Florida
We then went downstairs to the pick up area for Ace Car Rentals. Here we got our shiny blue Toyota Corolla, and drove into a world of driving on the right side. This was actually the first time I am driving overseas (not counting NZ or Sri Lanka) on this trip. I was pretty nervous driving, but luckily we were on the highway in no time, which is very easy to drive. Also the tolls and express ways were really easy to avoid.
Lil Red’s Diner
We stopped for lunch at Lil Red’s Diner. They had really good sandwiches and the staff were really friendly.
While we were in Sri Lanka, we had come to know about a distant family member lived in Melbourne. They have never seen us in our lives, but offered us accommodation at their place, which was very friendly of them. Thanks if you reading 🙂
Melbourne, Florida
Since we couldn’t rock up empty handed we went to Walmart in Melbourne. Just wow…it was massive. It was nice to walk around and check out the shop, which appears to sell everything.
Melbourne! Walmart
After buying some items, we drove to the house in what I would call a partially gated community, minus the gate. So maybe just a community. There weren’t many fences between the houses even, and we were told that the odd alligator lives in the water reserve in the back.
Living in Melbourne, Australia, it was cool to spend a night in the other Melbourne.