Hello:
My family & I are staying in London for a few day and then departing for Stonehenge and Dover for several days and then returning to London for a while longer. These aren't the most efficient travel choices; however, what we are most interested in seeing. We'd like to rent a car to facilitate seeing some off the beaten path sights (see Avebury, Woodbury & Old Sarum by Stonehenge as well as St. Augustine sites & Hastings by Dover). We also got an early access reservation to Stonehenge so public transport from our hotel to the site does not seem feasible. Would anyone have suggestions on where to rent a car when departing London? We are staying by the Tower Bridge area and returning to the Docklands/Canal Wharf area. It seems prudent to rent as far out of the city as possible but we need to rely on public transport to get there. Is there somewhere other than Heathrow that fits this description? Also, suggested driving directions show returning to M25/M20 south of London and then over to Dover. I'd prefer to meander along the coast but my husband is concerned about driving through so many small towns. Any suggestions would be helpful. We took the suggestions for resting before driving and renting an automatic to heart. Thank you also to the person who is posting the websites & video with left side driving tips. They are very helpful.
Posted by
Portsmouth
5554 posts
You could certainly take the coastal route down to Southampton, along the M27, A27, A259 and finally the short stretch of the M20 to Dover. This route will take you past Portsmouth, Chichester, Eastbourne, Brighton and Hastings but on major roads and without the need to drive through small towns. Of course if you wanted to visit any of these interesting towns and cities it is very easy to pull off and explore them. Obviously this route pretty much doubles the journey time if you took the M25 option however you could easily get stuck for an hour on the M25.
Posted by
UK
1015 posts
The coast road isn't really a meander through small towns. It's a busy not particularly scenic route - if you look carefully at the map you'll see it sort of skirts the outskirts of a lot of big coastal towns and cities, it's often traffic-clogged and isn't the scenic route that I think you probably think it is!
Portsmouth, Chichester and Brighton are all very interesting but you'd need to detour off the road to see them.
If you would like a scenic route, the South Downs would be a lovely way to travel. You could pick up the A272 across the South Downs at Winchester. Follow it through Hampshire and Sussex , then meander through the Kent Weald. Very pretty country road, a few small towns, some good antiquing in places like Petworth if that's your kind of thing.
Or you could hack round the non-scenic M25.
But I think the coast road could prove the worst of both possible worlds - busy but not especially scenic, unless you dropped off the main road into each coast town you pass, but that would take forever.
Posted by
OP
6 posts
Thank you both very much for responding. I'll research the South Downs option.
Any suggestions for places to rent a car while avoiding the London traffic? I was hoping for options other than Heathrow for pick-up.
Posted by
Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, USA
14824 posts
Don't have an opinion on rental cars but....
You probably meant to type Woodhenge? It is interesting (in the middle of a field of sheep, lol) but also don't miss Durrington Walls which is literally just across the narrow lane from Woodhenge.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durrington_Walls
Also while you are at Stonehenge, take the shuttle from the Visitor Center out to the stones for your early access, but then walk back thru the field sort of paralleling the shuttle drive to see the Barrows and the Cursus. There are some signs out there and the folks that are loading the shuttles for return will point you in the right direction. (I tried to do a googlemaps link but even though it says it is a 2017 image it is long enough ago that it shows the old Visitor Center instead of the new routing from the new Visitor Center.)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge_Cursus
My experience in walking back to the Visitor Center thru the field is that the grass is long and in the AM it may be wet so if you are taking waterproof or water resistant shoes this is the day to wear them. If you just have regular shoes, they'll dry out, lol.
Posted by
UK
1015 posts
Re car rental, do you have a particular reason for wanting to avoid Heathrow? It's ideal for many reasons - accessible by public transport from London, widest available range of car hire companies and cars, well-placed for Stonehenge, right on the motorway so you avoid town driving immediately.
You could probably do a Heathrow pick-up and drop back at Gatwick on your way back from Dover...
The other option would be to get public transport from London to a big town sort on the way - Woking, Basingstoke - maybe even get the train all the way to Salisbury and pick up the car there? All easily accessible by train from central London.
Or if you want to avoid one way fees, I guess you could split the difference between Stonehenge and Dover and pick somewhere random halfway between the two like Guildford? But that would mean more driving at either end.