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Rental car pick-up outside London: Town recommendations?

Posted by (Helena) on

This is our second 30-day trip to the UK. Last year, we took the train from London and picked-up our Avis car in Cardiff (easy driving!) before our continued travel.

This year, we'll be starting our month-long UK vacation May 1. London for 6 nights and then p/u our rental car and head to the southwest.

Any recommendations as to where would be a good place (possibly outside of London) to pick-up our car? We are thinking of using Europcar Rental. Taking the Tube to our p/u locale would be great, but we are not adverse to the train, if it would ease the whole plan!

We saw that there is a rental p/u in Kensington. Would that be much difficult London driving before we begin heading towards Devon??

We thought of Windsor, as we want to see that area. Anyone know where the car p/u is in relation to the Tube/train? And, is parking a royal pain in Windsor (no pun intended...Well, maybe a little pun...)?

We'll be returning the car to Waverley in Edinburgh, at the end of the month. Is driving in Edinburgh (to Waverley) too confusing?

Apologies for sounding a bit daft!

Posted by
32732 posts

is parking a royal pain in Windsor?

In a single word - absolutely, in the season. Once I tried to park there to show my brother the town on a Saturday and after trying for over an hour to find a space we sadly gave up.

I hope that you have good luck.

Posted by
9110 posts

What Nige said about Windsor, in spades.

Kensington is okay. A bit of the A4 With-A-Thousand-Names prior to the motorway, then you're gone.

Without a GPS, it might be hard to hit Waverley right off. Public transportation in from Turnhouse is easy and it's hard to miss an airport.

Posted by
1021 posts

As you're headed to the West, go to Heathrow by the Piccadilly Line and pick up a car there. The M4 is easy to access from the on-airport rental agencies. Windsor is about a 20 minute drive from Heathrow.

Posted by
56 posts

Hi, great wow a fantastic trip...a few things I would recommend if driving. I would recommend the Phillips navigator road map NOT the rubbish maps you find in service stations..the Phillips navigator has masses of tourist information and speed cameras on the map! Get a good sat nav. With speed camera alerts! The book gives you the heads up on speed cameras parking driving etc.

Edinburgh has road works and it a complete nightmare! It's one way system is a crazy system known to two people on earth the designer and road planner that's it...I tried to get to my hotel in Edinburgh last month ..I could see it but I couldn't get to it for the one way system ...so frustrating! However, have you thought of leaving the car at Edinburgh airport which is easy to get to and get transport into Edinburgh?

I think your right about avoiding driving in London, good call. Why not get the train (did I really just say that I'm Jeremy clarksons brother I don't say things like that! ) get the train to bath and get your hire car there ?

Posted by
1446 posts

Ditto for Heathrow! Best selection of cars as all agencies are there. We just took train from London and picked up reserved car and we were on the road in minutes. Easy access to circle route around London so you can catch any of the Ms. Our first stop was Woodstock and Blenhiem Palace. We stopped at Tourist Info and got a B & B in Bladon. Easy ! At the end of trip we turned it in at Gatwick as we were flying out of there.

Posted by
36 posts

Take the Rail/air coach from Heathrow to Reading, rent a car in Reading. It's not far from Reading to Windsor or Henley. The first time we went to Windsor we couldn't get in the castle, some Royal event and the place was closed to tourists. On our next trip we had downtime between flights and took the bus and train to Windsor, leaving our bags at the airport.

http://www.railair.com/

We have not rented a car there, but have dropped one off several times and taken the coach to Heathrow. They drop passengers off at all the terminals.

Posted by
6497 posts

Reading will probably save you money on the rental, vs. Heathrow where you'll pay for the airport location. There are frequent trains to Reading from Paddington.

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