Driver edinburgh to Cotswolds

How many days do you expect to take for this journey?

How many in the party?

2 people. If straight through less than one day but we probably want to top off along the way to do a little site seeing (castles etc.). so say one full day. How do you charge?
Are you private or are you associated with a service. If private are you insured?
Thanks
Al

Mitoll, Nigel is not a potential driver. He is, like me, just someone who offers advice on this site.

You request is, to European ears, a strange one. The normal ways to travel are by train (fast, and good from one town or city to another); or self drive rental car, which allows you to detour, stop off and visit rural locations not well served. by public transport.
That is basically the options for most European countries.

What you are asking for is to hire a taxi for a whole day. That will basically cost "an arm and a leg". UK and the rest of Europe are not low wage economies. Then you have factor in maximum driving laws and compulsory rest breaks. Edinburgh to the Cotswolds is a full day's drive assuming not stops or detours. If you want to stop off somewhere, that makes it two days.
Plus you have to pay for the driver's overnight accommodation and to drive back the following day. Answer: £££££

In short, this is not something someone from the UK would seriously consider. I doubt you will have people who will want to do this.

Finally, the Cotswolds is one of those rural areas that is best explored by car,so you will need a rental car when you are there.
You options are train to (for example) Bath or Oxford, and then hire a car; or hire in Edinburgh, drive all the way and stop of en route (Whitby?)
Unless your name is Bill Gates.

What was said just above...

You should know that a drive from Edinburgh to somehere in the Cotswolds will take 6 and a half to 8 hours or more without stopping for food, scenery, or toilets, depending on day, time of day, road works and accidents.

A train from Edinburgh to Birmingham New Street is 4:15, or Birmingham International (Airport) where there are many rental desks takes 10 minutes longer. Or in Birmingham you can change to a train to Stratford upon Avon where other rentals are available and you are only a few miles from Chipping Campden - where a lot of Rick Steves readers stay in the Cotswolds - or you can get a taxi or bus there.

If you really want to see things and experience Northern England and southern Scotland I expect that you would want several days.

The Cotswolds is a large area. I just picked Chipping Campden because lots of Americans go there. Where did you have in mind?

If you were able to explain more of your circumstances, and needs, wants, and desires we could likely help you more.

By the way, the train I spoke about is as low as £45.

To give you an idea of how you might arrange a driver (chauffeur) as you describe, and the cost, see, for example:

https://www.rangeroverchauffeurhire.com/chauffeur-driven-tours-uk

https://www.chauffeur.org.uk/

Looking at the first link epltd posted:

Full Day Rate - London Pre-booked (incl. 10x hours & 100 miles) £700.00
Extra Miles charged at £1.50 per mile. £1.50
Prices shown are exclusive of tax - (VAT at 20%)
All charges start and finish from Park Lane, W1 London.

Edinburgh to southern England is ~400 miles, so 300 "extra". £700 + 300 x £1.50 + 20% = £ 1380 per day
PLUS an extra day for driver to get back home, plus accommodation for driver.

Against £45 per person by train (if booked far enough in advance).

OK.you convinced me, Now by train. What might there be that we should stop over to see along the route from Edinburgh?
Where in the Cotswolds would be central where I can rent a car to tour and you would suggest we stay?
And by the way, Thanks for your help.
Al

The only Cotswold village with a rail station is Moreton-in-Marsh. If there happens to be a car-rental agency there, I doubt that it has many cars, so I think you'd want to head to a larger place and pick up the car there. I'm sure others can suggest a suitable pick-up city to explore. If you need a car with an automatic transmission, you'll want to choose a sizable place, possibly an airport.

As far as sightseeing goes, here are some of the places you'll likely pass through on the train:

Newcastle
Durham
York
Birmingham

York is the one most often mentioned on this forum as a target, and I found it a very engaging place, though chock-full of tourists. If you contemplate completing the journey in one day, you won't have a great deal of time to stop anywhere, and a sight-rich place like York (or any of the larger cities) might not be the best choice. The train station in York is a bit of a walk from the historic center. Though there are of course buses available, you could lose some time waiting for a bus in both directions, which might be annoying if you had only a few hours to walk around. You'd also need to deal with your luggage, and (based on signage I observed) the luggage facility near the York train station is not in the same building. More time would be wasted getting there, checking the bags, then later retrieving them and walking back to the station.

Actually, dealing with your luggage is going to require some pre-planning.

There are many other places along the rail line; let's see what our experts on England say. You can explore the intermediate stops by selecting a departure from the options displayed on the NationalRail website. For long-distance trips in the UK, there is usually a great deal of money to be saved by buying an Advance ticket well before your travel date (months is advance will help). Advance tickets are date-and-time specific, so you need to be certain about your travel plans before buying.

Annoying though it is, it's quite possible that additional money could be saved on this journey by breaking the trip into separate tickets. That is a subject I am not knowledgeable about, but I believe the savings can be substantial. Edited to add: I don't mean you'd have an additional change of trains, just that you'd need to figure out where to break the journey from the ticketing perspective and research each segment separately. There will probably be multiple changes of trains along the way in any case.

What might there be that we should stop over to see along the route from Edinburgh?

York. Its on the train route, so no doubling back. Old walled city, cathedral, Roman remains, old streets, it ticks all the boxes.
Tourist website here: https://www.visityork.org/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CiMxq3n7N-o

I'd suggest taking the train as far as Birmingham International, one stop (10 minutes) beyond Birmingham New Street.

It is a major transportation hub for the Midlands and the airport is linked to the station by a free land cablecar which runs every 87 seconds and takes that long to reach the terminal. Car rental desks are downstairs. There is a lift and escalators on the platform up into the station, then level to the cablecar. Lifts and escalators in the airport. No actual stairs to deal with.

There will be a large choice of cars available, then you are right next to the M42 motorway which can take you over to Stratford-upon-Avon (about 25 miles) and down into the Cotswolds (Chipping Campden is another 12 miles). If you want castles there is the ruin of Kenilworth Castle in the very scenic small town of Kenilworth right on your way (if you take back roads instead of the Motorway) and nearby is the very popular and certainly not a ruin, Warwick Castle. Both genuine and very old. Warwick is run as a business and has lots for the kids but they are both completely genuine.

While the Cross Country train routes via York on the way from Edinburgh to Birmingham it is significantly more expensive than the Virgin West Coast (about to undergo a name change next month) and the Cross Country is a small diesel train while the Virgin train is a long electric train with comfortable seats and talking toilets.

York is a good stopover but much better done overnight than a stop on the way. There a ton of things to do there.