Travelling in a party of seven

Renault Escape makes it very uncomfortable for the passenger seated in the middle seat of the intermediate row. It's actually more a 6-person car that can occasionally hold a seven. But not on a long tour I think.

If you are planning to use the van to travel between destinations I don't know where you would put luggage for 7 people.

Two adults and 5 girls,, are the girls small,, not like 16 yr olds,, but like 10 yr olds?
A van is never comfortable when fully occupied by adults, but with smaller sized kids its ok. Luggage may be an issue, unless you only pack one small backpack each( soft sided luggage compresses better into odd spaces,, so a small duffle would work too). Regardless it would be tight,, but as I said, with kids ,,perhaps surviable.

Matt, The best mode of transportation to use will depend on where you plan on going in England. If you'll only be in larger cities, I'd suggest using a combination of train and National Express Coach. "renting the largest possible van" is not necessarily a good idea, as the roads in some areas are VERY narrow, and driving in cities with a large vehicle is NOT a pleasant experience! Keep in mind also that you'll be driving on the "correct side of the road" and possibly shifting a manual transmission with your left hand. If you haven't done that before, travelling in a large Van is not something I'd recommend. Unless you plan on visiting smaller locations that aren't well served by public transit, train and Bus would be better and probably faster (and certainly less stressful). Good luck and happy travels!

Where are you traveling in England? They do have trains and buses. How much luggage will you have? How old are the girls? Might have to combine all 3 modes of transport.

We have two adults, and 5 girls ages 13-22. Of course we could use rail/bus transport, but with 7 people that seems inefficient.

But maybe more efficient than renting two vehicles. I rented a van in Germany. At the beginning of the trip we had 5 people, which then became 4. That was fine with our luggage. For some day trips we had 7 people, but no luggage. I can't imagine trying to cram 7 full sized people and their luggage in a van.

ok,, so not all kids, sorry , a 22 yr old makes that THREE adults( maybe more depending on other girls ages).
Forget the van,, it will be too crowded. See if they offer any family deals.. or group deals. Travelling by train is not cheap in UK ,, at least it has never been my experience.

We have traveled by train as a family group of 7 or 9 around Switzerland and it was fine (and fun). You should look into the family deals on BritRail passes, described on the Railpass section of this website. For example, there it the offer for one free child age 5 to 15 per adult pass. Or the "party pass" for groups of 3 to 9 adults and youths, which includes 2 children for free. Depending on the ages of the children, one or the other of these deals might make train travel less expensive than you think. And it would be much more comfortable. And fun.