Advice on Cotswolds to London and where to drop off rental car

That's a lot of zig zagging.

Drop off at Heathrow is not difficult as long as you have a plan for where you are going to get gas. It will take a while to get to your hotel from Heathrow...might be more efficient to take the train from Salisbury depending on where you will be staying in London.

I have no idea what you would consider fun. Your 4th day sounds very ambitious to me. We spent one day in Salisbury, one day at Stonehenge and Old Sarum and one day at Avebury . I know many people like to move faster than we do. We prefer to see something well and skip everything else. I would eliminate something.

All the advice that I have seen is that you don't want to rent a car near London due to the traffic. I also know that in the States, renting a car from an airport is much more expensive due to the additional fees. Have you thought about taking a train to Bath from London and renting a car there? I did see Stonehenge and Avebury in the same day. Both Stonehenge and Avebury are doable in an hour (for each). Get to Stonehenge early, before the crowds.

I've done what the above poster describes. But I spent somewhat more than hour at Avebury. Worked well.

Thank you all for taking the time to respond and for your input. I feel a little foolish at the moment because I didn't realize how similar this post was to one I posted a few weeks ago. Between planning for England/London and Scotland (and trying to live my real life which includes a 50 hour work week) my head is spinning. But my last post helped me organize our first three days and this one was more about the last day. I think I've decided that we will leave it as is and drop the car off in Salisbury. If we can see both Avebury and Stonehenge on the way we will.

Nigel, when I plot it on a map there is some zigzagging, yes, but its over four days. The only way to avoid the zigzagging, from my perspective, would be to change our accommodations nightly or not venture out much beyond our base and not see these places. Do you see a more logical way to do it?

Actually, its only a little over 200 miles (or 300 km), not including the driving we will do to see some of the Cotswold villages. But we have always spent a fair amount of time driving on vacation and we enjoy being on the road. Even if its not scenic its always different from home and that's fun for us. We found, for example, a rest stop on the Autostrada A1 in Italy quite memorable (in a good way). Anyone who has ever been in a rest stop on the NJ Turnpike - and also at the Italian one - would understand why. In any case, for us the driving is part of it of the fun.

I haven't been to Salisbury in several years but I did not think the driving was bad there (much easier than Bath). There is a multi-story car park in downtown that puts the cathedral within walking distance. Also, you might want to add Old Sarum, just outside Salisbury, to your list.

Why Sherston? I would think something in the area of Stow would be more centrally located. I recommend Alastair Sawday's web site for locating lodging.

I would vote for dropping the car off at Heathrow. From there you can take the rental agency shuttle to one of the terminals to catch a train or tube. You might try and see if they will drop you off at the Hatton Cross tube station and avoid the terminals. Note that Avis has a drop-off inside Terminal 5 but also another location for the other terminals. There is a rest stop between exits 11 and 12 on the M4 in Reading where you can top-up your tank. I topped off there during may last trip in July and didn't have any problems when I turned the car in.Hunting around for someplace around Heathrow for petrol can be a challenge.

Thanks for all the helpful info MikeS. Sherston kind of evolved because at one point we were going to be arriving at Bristol in the evening and I didn't want to have to drive too far from the airport in the dark. I found a b&b that sounds good in Sherston. The south Cotswolds were also recommended as quieter and less touristy but equally charming. And it's not that badly situated for our purposes.

That's good to know about Salisbury driving.

I think I would rather avoid the tube with luggage (especially at rush hour) having had a really unpleasant experience in a similar situation. I think we'd prefer regular rail and a taxi to our hotel from the train station. Are the trains to London from Heathrow to paddington?

I think it's basically a sound plan given limited time.
Your chosen accommodation is central to all places mentioned.
Day 1 Arrive Bristol + Bath
Day 2 Cotswolds
Day 3 Stonehenge + Salisbury
Day 4 Blenheim + Oxford
Drop your car in Oxford and train into London

Thanks David, I agree that your itinerary is probably more logical (and it was actually my original plan) but we have a tentative plan to meet up and have dinner with friends in Oxford. Even if the meet-up doesn't work out I thought we would enjoy spending more time in that area and have dinner on our own before heading back to Sherston. A London acquaintance told us there are some awesome country pubs around there. The B&B is not too far off the M4 so the drive should be too difficult from what we're told.

You know...at this point I am also thinking that we might just drop the car off at Bristol Airport and take an earlier train into London. It would save us a fair amount of money because it won't be a "one-way" rental and I think we could use a little extra time in the city! That would probably mean leaving Stonehenge etc for another trip but that would be OK.

The bus from Bristol Airport to Bristol Temple Meads railway station is OK outside of peak travelling times, but can become erratic within it since it requires quite a drive through Bristol. Something to be aware of if you are booking advance fares - although it is possible to book a through journey.

Dropping the car back at Bristol and avoiding a hefty 'one way' fee would seal the deal for me too.

So I've been doing most....ummm, no...ALL of the research and planning for this UK trip but tonight I told my husband its time to step-up! His first assignment is to do some research and decide if he really wants to see Stonehenge/Amesbury/Salisbury or if he thinks he will be sick of driving by that point (we will be coming off of six days of driving in Scotland too) . If he picks the former, we'll go and then take the train from Salisbury. If he picks the latter, we'll keep it local and easy in the morning and then drive to Bristol Airport midday, drop off the car (and save 45 or 50 GBPs) and get an earlier start on the the London leg.

I'm betting picks the second option.

Thanks for all the help!

Just a thought. How long will you be staying in London? Stonehenge can be a day trip from London. You could take a group tour, a London Walks tour, or go on your own by train. Just an idea.