hi. My husband and I will be visiting England in late July this summer. Will be starting the trip off with a few days in London. Then we will be doing a self drive tour of Cotswolds and southern England. we are hoping to have Oxford be our first stop on the tour. For our last night in England we will be staying near Gatwick airport. i’m just trying to figure out the best strategy of where to pick up the rental car. We won’t need one in London. Should we take the train to Oxford and pick up a car there and see if we can return it to Gatwick? Are there car rental places close to the Oxford train station or does it make more sense for us to take the express shuttle to Gatwick and pick up the car from there? Any ideas are welcome. Thank you.
Posted by
Idaho, USA
7877 posts
We picked up a rental car at the Europcar rental office in Oxford June 2. We landed in Heathrow and took the airport bus to Oxford, staying at the Malmaision Hotel that night. The rental office is on the road where bridge repair is occurring, but it wasn’t a big deal to take a taxi to the car rental office.
By the way, there’s some very negative reviews about that office, so we arrived as they opened just in case we had any issues obtaining a car. No problem; our car worked perfectly. (We returned it in Chester.)
Posted by
Calgary, Alberta, Canada
4624 posts
We used Enterprise in Bath with the intention of dropping it off in Oxford, but ended up dropping it off at Gatwick instead. This was 2018 but at the time I confirmed that Enterprise would allow pick-ups in one location and drop-offs at Gatwick for a reasonable fee.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33991 posts
There is a variety of rental offices very close to Oxford station and you are then in a perfect location for Blenheim Palace and the Cotswolds via both the A40 and A44 and then return to Gatwick as you circle around southern England.
As mentioned above there has been construction and road closed just on the Oxford side of the station, and there are days when Oxford will not be called at by trains, but we'd need to match your exact dates. There are alternatives from London if the train has issues on your travel day.
Posted by
OP
2 posts
Thanks for your helpful responses!