Where outside London to pick up car?

You didn't mention if you have experience driving on the left. We have found Heathrow to be an easy place to pick up a car. Our car rentals have been along the perimeter road where there isn't much traffic. After a round about or two, you can be on the motorway. We have found the motorway to be relatively easy -- they work like interstates, you can just go along in the left lane and get used to car position when the steering wheel is on the right.

We found narrow roads, intersections and coming out of parking lots (your instincts tell you to go to the wrong side) harder than motorways.

LHR is not really backtracking as you will be heading west.

You have other options but LHR is not bad.

In all honesty it's easier and makes sense to the rent and return your car at Heathrow. It's a fairly easy drive from LHR to the Cotswolds. Transport from LHR into and out of London is a breeze. Tube. Heathrow Connect or Heathrow Express. Coach.
Car hire. Taxi. Myriad of choices. Enjoy your trip.

I last drove on the left many years ago, and found that I fairly shortly adjusted. The roundabouts in the first half hour of driving were tricky. I was thinking of a "calmer" place to avoid those!

I'll check LHR -- is there a significant airport fee as there is in the US?

A large facility like a LHR car hire facility is much more likely to have an automatic transmission available or any other need - much more than a small location.

Being right on the M4 Extension is very helpful. Straight on for Cheltenham or Newbury or the side of Oxford, or a short bit around the clockwise M25, and off on the M40 for Oxford or the North Cotswolds.

We are looking at a class B (Corsa-type) manual tranny, and that should be available at most locations. Taking the tube to LHR might make sense. We plan to use the tube to go from LHR to central London when we arrive (note to self: research buying Oystercards at LHR)

The proximity of motorways might be useful, but we really want to stick to A (and smaller) roads for our rural sojourn.

I will try to get the car booking done tomorrow (talking to our credit card people later today about insurance coverage, per another thread on this forum), and then the next task is to figure out how to put UK maps on our US GPS (garmin) -- not sure what to buy and install, but this will be better than hiring an unfamiliar GPS unit.

Our first night with the car will be at Stow-on-the-Wold; this should not be overly ambitious if we pick up the car (at, say, LHR) midday and allow a couple of hours for glitches in the pickup process. Does that make sense?

We had the same question and when we had our half-hour consultation with the Rick Steve's travel office (for us it was well worth the $75) they suggested we take a train to Oxford and pick up a car there. That is the arrangements we have made. It puts us close to the Cotswolds where we will be staying for 3 nights after our time in London. We will drop our car in Glasgow because of our itinerary.

Maybe its just me, but I'll take Bath Road to M4 Extension over the Botley Road to the interesting junction next to the Spire building onto the A34 to the A44 anyday.

Heathrow to Stow in a couple of hours is slower than I would go.

My suggestion from the M40 would be to leave the motorway at the A40 (near Oxford Services) which is a dual carriageway for a while before singling above central Oxford, then the A40 towards Cheltenham as far as Burford which is a most beautiful wool church market town on a relatively steep hill down through the town, loads of tea rooms and small local shops, down to the absolutely fab church, stop at the bottom of the hill in the queue for the one way at a time narrow ancient bridge over the river (if you park for Tea or Church, walk down and look at the bridge and water meadows), turn left and bear right up to Stow on the Wold (past the Rissingtons and Bourton on the Water.

Or

Out of Oxford, get onto the A44 past Blenheim and Woodstock, through Enstone and Chipping Norton (see if you can spot the huge toilet plunger on an old mill converted to flats), and into Stow that way through the woods, turning left onto the A436 after Salford or all the way to Moreton in Marsh and left onto the Fosseway (ancient Roman Road) A429.

Nigel: Thank you for the routing suggestions; I will purchase a good road atlas this weekend. I think we will also look into picking up the car at Oxford. We had not planned a visit to Oxford but that might be a bonus for a few hours.

John

I would think picking up in Oxford would be easiest for you, and a nice place to stop off. Dropping off at Heathrow is a very easy experience. I have done it twice, once with Hertz, and once with Europcar. If you can co-ordinate your drop off with your flight it's much preferable than having to spend a night.

Nigel's route via the Oxford northern bypass currently has a double set of roadworks - the speed on much of it is currently reduced and there are works on the Wolvercote and Cutteslowe roundabouts. Delays range to considerable depending on the time of day. This has also increased traffic on other sections of the bypass.

A bit of work on AutoEurope this evening was very interesting. If we rent and drop in Oxford, the cost is the same as renting in Oxford and dropping at LHR. As I suspected, if we rent and drop at LHR, the cost is about $40-$60 higher due to the airport tax.

My wife and I are now leaning toward the Oxford/LHR combination, even though it will involve two single rail fares to Oxford. But we get a previously unplanned few hours in Oxford, which will be nice. My only concern is where we can leave our Rollaboards after arriving in Oxford, before picking up the car.

UPDATE: I just went a bit further in the process, and only at the "Book now" page did it reveal that there will be a GBP 50.00 fee for a one-way rental. Back to thinking what is the best use of time vs money!