Where to rent car in Salisbury that will allow return at Heathrow

Any rental agency that has offices in both locations will allow you to pick up and drop off at different spots in the country, usually without any extra fee. Auto Europe and Kemwel are sister companies in the USA, consolidators that will show you pricing for several brands and are often cheaper than booking directly with the operator.

Hello, I've rented from Auto Europe many times and have always returned the car to another location. I've found them very easy to work with. Have fun.

Do you really need to hire a car? Take the train from London (Waterloo) to Salisbury and then take the shuttle bus to Stonehenge. On returning to Salisbury - see the Cathedral. Then take a train to Bath. Of course, you could argue that with a car, you would not have to double back to Salisbury & could just keep going NW to Bath. However, traffic going around the core of Bath is very heavy & parking is limited. So, you could be better off taking the train.

You could then return by train to the London area - Slough might be near your motel. (Pre book this longer train journey at Great Western Railway to get cheapest fare for specific train). Check for engineering work here for routes in & out of Bath:> https://www.gwr.com/travel-updates/planned-engineering

Train times & fares here:> www.nationalrail.co.uk (The line west of Bath is closed for the first 9 days of April so schedules are not normal at the moment. Normally, a direct train links Salisbury with Bath hourly with the journey taking 1 hour).
https://www.londontoolkit.com/blog/daytrips/outsidetours/the-stonehenge-tour-bus-from-salisbury/

It is a good idea not to hire a car in central London. The main issue you have is that there are few car hire operators in Salisbury, so your choice will be limited. Salisbury is the closest place for Stonehenge. Other places that you could get the train to and hire would include Reading and Slough.

All major car hire companies will have drop off points at Heathrow. In Salisbury, there is Thrifty, Enterprise and Europcar to choose from. Thrifty charge £10 more for picking the car up at the rail station rather than at their offices - I am sure the others will do the same.

Laura is incorrect - there is always nearly always a one way drop fee, but as it is included in the base price, its doesn't show as an odd-on, so most people think there is no charge. Try googling Thrifty and change the return destination keeping all other factors constant - the price shoots up for your dates from £64.71 to £118.38! Thrifty in Salisbury closes at 4pm on Sundays. I have hired at Glasgow airport and dropped the car back at Glasgow rail station 10 miles away and was charged a one way drop fee.

Laura is not incorrect. The prices and conditions that Jennifer sees on a UK booking site are different from what we in North America see when booking from here. (This is one reason it is good to book in advance). The same is true in the other direction----UK and other European residents can get good one-way rentals (no drop fee) on routes in the US, while we cannot take advantage of these when booking from the US.

I see this a lot On Tripadvisor when people are discussing one-way rentals from Phoenix to Las Vegas, a popular route for visiting the Grand Canyon and other Southwest routes. Or LAX to San Francisco with a drive up the coast. That would cost me a small fortune, but UK residents can book it for much less.

I checked prices on Auto Europe and confirmed there is no difference in price between a three-day rental in May from Salisbury, whether returned to Salisbury or to LHR. It was $75 from Europecar and $113 from "major international agencies". I clicked through to the final page and it did not change. This has been our own experience in Italy, Germany, and Norway. (It has been 20 years since I had a rental car in the UK and someone else paid, so I cannot compare that one).

However, regardless of price, it would also be possible to do all of this by train.

Last May my husband and I picked up an Enterprise rental car in Salisbury, and returned it in York. It worked out wonderfully!!! The rental car pick up place in Salisbury is just a very short walk from the train station.

However, there was a 30 pound drop off fee.

It is VERY EASY and affordable to take a bus/train from Heathrow out to Salisbury....Just about an hour and one half journey.

Driving around the Salisbury area is not too bad...even for us Americans used to the other side of the road and much wider roads.