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Need help figuring out the best rental car option for Bristol

Posted by on

Hello,

I will be in England the first half of July. I will have a week in the Bristol area, but in the countryside about a 30' drive north of the city. I will be there to do some family history research and don't see how I will be able to function without a car. I arrive on a Monday and depart for London the following Sunday. I have already discovered that many car hire places are closed on Sundays. Fortunately, if necessary, I have a cousin who will help me with transportation on my last day in the area so I can return the car on Saturday if necessary.

I have Rick Steves' Best of England book which says to expect to pay $250 for a one week rental. I will need an automatic and I know that adds about 50% to the cost. Still the prices I'm seeing are way, way worse. I have checked Kayak, Expedia, AAA, Autoeurope.eu, Autoeurope.com, Sixt and Europcar. Kayak seems to have the best prices with Alamo at the Bristol Airport: $442 for Monday through Saturday and $531 for Monday through Sunday.

Are there any other avenues I could pursue?

Thanks very much in advance.

Elizabeth

Posted by
5291 posts

I have Rick Steves' Best of England book which says to expect to pay $250 for a one week rental.

Car rental prices have rocketed since the pandemic due to a shortage of cars and it's a problem encountered everywhere. You also need to consider the costs of fuel as both petrol and diesel how now breached the £2 per litre barrier in a number of places and only look set to rise.

Car rental is an expensive option at the moment but unfortunately I don't see another easy or cost effective alternative to travel around the countryside as you intend to do.

Posted by
10 posts

Does anyone have any experience or recommendations for off-site parking at Bristol Airport. I need to drive to the airport and leave my car for 5 days. The options are the official airport parking for around 100 quid, or a less official car park site nearby, for about half that. All advice / horror stories / good experiences welcome.

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Posted by
6113 posts

I don’t know how old the book is (costs are usually out of date by the time a book is published), but I hired a manual car in Glasgow for the day 8 years ago and it cost £90, so $250 a week sounds wrong.

You have looked at the best options - unfortunately, hire prices have rocketed everywhere and there’s a shortage of new cars, driving prices upwards. Some cars have a 12 month delivery period, so the issue isn’t going to be resolved quickly.

Posted by
5291 posts

Does anyone have any experience or recommendations for off-site parking at Bristol Airport.

I now avoid all non-official airport parking due to personal and anecdotal experiences. I have no experience of Bristol airport but the plethora of horror stories about cars being taken out for joyrides, parking fines incurred, cars dumped in insecure compounds or even left in people's driveways is enough for me to take the hit and park in an official site. Remember the old adage, if it seems too good to be true...

Posted by
11 posts

Another cost to factor in is gas prices. Yesterday, a friend in England told me that gas prices are currently the equivalent of $11 per gallon. Eeks.

Posted by
6 posts

I tend to use Avis in the centre with third party insurance from Questor. I often find this the cheapest option if taking the car for a few days. MSE probably has a link to a discount for Questor

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