Blockley Cotswolds to St Erth Train or Car

A safety issue to be aware of is: immediately getting off a jet-lagged long fight and then immediately renting a car and attempting to make a drive on the "wrong" side of road, presumably with a manual shift car. May be safer to get a good night's sleep (Rick thinks ambien may have been invented for jet-lagged travelers) and then proceed from there.

Thank you...you've given me food for thought. I agree and will have to look at alternatives.

What about the trip from Cotswolds to St Erth - do you recommend driving (I would get automatic even though I've had a shift in all my personal cars) or taking the train since I've not much experience with opposite side of the road. Thanks again...

You could do something like driving from Blockley to Exeter then picking up the train at Exeter St David’s where you can get a direct train to St Earth.

Exeter will have a range of car hire places to return a rental car & it will avoid driving in Cornwall, which you sound nervous about.

The route from Blockley to Exeter will be mostly on the M5 motorway. It’s fast & busy, but straightforward. As long as you check the driving rules for motorways you should find it fairly simple. For example, staying in the left-hand lane unless overtaking.

The big question is whether you want to keep hold of the car in Cornwall for day trips but it sounds like you don’t.

I would also strongly urge you to get some sleep before hiring a car to drive on unfamiliar roads. How about picking up the bus at Heathrow to somewhere like Oxford, get over jet lag then get a car the next day?

You would need the car to get out of Blockley. The nearest point on the railway with direct trains to St. Earth in Cornwall is Cheltenham. So, you have to decide whether to turn the car in at Cheltenham & then go by train or keep the car and drive down to Cornwall. If you go by car all the way, go from Blockley west to join the M5 (Motorway = interstate) near Tewkesbury. Then you will have good highways with 3 or 2 lanes each way all the way to Cornwall. (The car would also be most useful for getting around Cornwall once you arrive). If you go by train, you will find it cheapest if you pre-book your trip(s) now for specific trains.

Look at the map that follows and try and figure out your route. Zoom down and go to street view to see what the roads are like. Do the same for Cornwall so you can see what to expect.https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Blockley/@51.4937827,-2.7176041,9.34z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x4870d8042fe9da3f:0x89eb599af26c1db4!8m2!3d52.014696!4d-1.763129!5m1!1e1

"I would get automatic even though I've had a shift in all my personal cars"

Probably a good idea, as you will be changing gear with your left hand on a right hand drive car.

A big thank you to all who replied!! It was a great help in planning our trip. The suggestions not to drive directly from Heathrow and to find something closer to Blockley were wise. I hadn't thought about the exhaustion from a previous overnight flight (when I wasn't renting a car). So we booked GWR to Cheltenham - will get a rental car there (I think Enterprise will p/u from train station) - and then drive to Blockley (Google says about 45 minutes). I will have a longer time to nap on the train before driving. Then we can take the train from Cheltenham to St Ives (5 1/2 hours with 2 changes).

Thank you so much for your suggestions!!! I find the Rick Steeves forum to be excellent with the tips from those responding (all of you) to be so quick and helpful. And, the format for the Travel Forum is simple (just what I needed). Wishing you fun travels!

I might suggest asking Enterprise - who are pretty accomodating usually, but maybe not this time - if they could collect you at Moreton-in-Marsh station instead of Cheltenham. If they could it might save you a bit difficult driving as soon as you get in the car.

I've just looked at what Google suggests for the route to Blockley. I know the area pretty well - like the back of my hand actually, having grown up around there and my parents in later life having lived just outside Stow-on-the-Wold (Where, as the doggeral says, The Wind Blows Cold).

If you go Guiting Power (a favourite village of mine when you get your good driving hat on) tp Bourton on the Hill to Blockley - the Google default - you will be on narrow back roads almost the entire way. Mostly very narrow roads just wide enough for two cars to pass, not wide enough for a car to pass a tractor without somebody scrunching into a hedge. The road is bumpy, fast (for me and locals), hilly, and along much of the distance covered by large trees over the road. Gorgeous, beautiful, perhaps not the best choice if you haven't driven on the left in rural conditions.

If you go Winchcombe to Broadway to Blockley, this may be the route that a sat-nav (GPS) or phone app may choose, again it is extremely scenic once you get out of Prestbury on the outskirts of Cheltenham. And the lanes (we call them carriageway) are normal secondary road width with a line down the centre for much of the distance, so passing and staying in your lane shouldn't be a problem. But. What but? But the road between Prestbury and Winchcombe is very steep where it goes over the end of Cleeve Hill. And the views off to the left and back over your shoulder looking off Cleeve Hill are fab. It is a bit windy at the top, and the road winds too. Then Winchcombe is a market town with everything in the high street (where you will be) and lots of parked cars and sharing the road (not perfectly straight), and pretty nice looking - easy to become distracted and have an issue. Then Broadway. The hill out of Broadway - Fish Hill - has been bypassed now so you don't get the very steepest bits, but you do have a steep winding road to the top and similar on the other side, but it is a main road so lots of trucks, and possibly farm machinery as well as cars, then on to your turn off.

If you go Bishops Cleeve to the A46 towards Evesham (nearby where the best asparagus is grown) and turn at the roundabout onto the A44 for Broadway then as above (I wouldn't turn before the A44 but your sat-nav will want you to), you will be on level major road all the way until you go up the hill past Broadway. That's considerably further but if you want easy that's pretty easy.

Or my original choice doesn't show up much because it is considerably further, but main roads all the way. Through Charlton Kings (where my uncle lived but you won't care about that) onto the A40, probably signposted Burford/Oxford/London or similar, all the way to the A429 Fosse Way. Turn left towards Stow on the Wold, pass through, down the hill (watch the speed) to Moreton in Marsh, then up the hill towards Bourton on the Hill and into Blockley. Easier but longer.

So now you see why getting off the train at Moreton in Marsh and having the car guy there would be so much easier for you.

I'm sure all are good choices - your decision will be which one for the two of you...

Or my original choice ...... Easier but longer.
How long?
Is the above your choice if we go to Cheltenham and then to Moreton in Marsh and Blockley? All suggestions and I really appreciate your first hand knowledge are not my favorite types of driving. I am now rethinking driving!
If we take a train upon arrival from Paddington to Moreton in Marsh, is there a car service or shuttle that could pick us up to drive us to Blockley? Then maybe a local car rental in Blockley- or possibly a driver - for our 4 day stay? Could we then get a car service/shuttle to drive us back to Cheltenham for the train to St Ives.
Since we're on a budget, the cost will be a factor too. This is all a surprise to us since I had planned to drive throughout the countryside. If we rent a car in Blockley is the drive ok to some of the other charming parts of the Cotswolds? I'm sure something will work out ;-).