Looking at renting a car on a Sunday morning in London. When I try searching, it looks like no availability. I’m guessing they are not open until noon? I have also considered taking a train (headed to Cornwall) and the advance prices look great. But when I look into getting the car in Cornwall, that looks spotty, too. Also worried we wouldn’t be able to get an automatic (we are experienced manual drivers but prefer not to on our first time driving England). Have also thought about the night train, but not sure we would sleep well. Any suggestions?
Posted by
Hampshire, England.
1075 posts
Most car hire companies are closed on Sunday, the only exception to this is companies that are based at airports.
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA ☔️
6813 posts
First suggestion is to skip the night train (night train = no sleep = three days of misery after you get off that #$*! train).
The issue is sundays (or weekends). Most off-airport car rental agencies are open Monday through Friday. This can snag you on both ends of the transaction. To get around it, you can rent/return from an airport location, or try one of the consolidators (I use Gemut.com); once in a while they may be able to find someplace off-airport that's open on weekends, but often they just confirm what you already discovered....that agencies in cities or small towns work Monday through Friday. You might rent a day or two early and return a day or two late, but that often gets expensive. Airport agencies are your friend in these cases.
Posted by
Land of La
9263 posts
Given that all but airport car rental agencies are closed on Sundays you’ll need to revamp your itinerary AND as already noted overnight sleeper train is anything but.
The car rental spots at Heathrow are located a few miles from the airport so you’ll have to take a 10-15 minute shuttle from the airport to get to them.
Not ideal but if you want your rental on a Sunday this is the option.
Posted by
OP
Boston
98 posts
Thanks for your replies. Is it going to be a major inconvenience to go to Heathrow to get the car? I don’t mind taking the train back there, but I worry it will be stressful trying to additionally find the rental company. This does seem like the best choice though.
Posted by
Tennessee
442 posts
The major car rental facilities are on the perimeter road around Heathrow. For example, I am renting through Hertz in May; it is located on Northern Perimeter Road. Europcar is very near it.
If you don't have alot of luggage, you could ride the Tube to any one of the Heathrow terminals, then go outside the Arrivals area to get a shuttle bus to your particular rental car company. If you plan to take a cab, check in advance with your car rental location to find out whether the cab will be permitted to drive onsite. My impression at Heathrow's Hertz location is that only rental cars and Hertz's shuttle buses are permitted pass the security gate (same impression for Europcar).