Practical Car & Van Rental?

I've not heard of them. Doing a google search they describe themselves as the fourth largest vehicle rental company in the United Kingdom with over 150 locations situated throughout the UK and EIRE. The different branches seem to be franchises which makes it difficult to find reviews for Oban. Their Facebook page for Oban has two reviews with the overall score of 3. Out of intereast, I tried making a spoof booking for Oban for different dates and kept getting the message 'sorry no results'...

There is also Flit Vehicle Hire, which seem to be a local company. Hoiwever you would need to check if they do a one way hire unless you are intending to return the car to Oban.

I've also just found this other local company- https://www.obancarhire.co.uk/
but can't tell you anything about them.

I'm sure there used to be one of the national companies just behind the station, but can't just place it at the moment.

Visit Oban suggest https://www.rhinocarhire.com/ (who seem to be a consolidator) but I get no results for Oban when I try it.

I at least could make a spoof booking for Oban for Practical for tomorrow.

I'm not trying to talk you out of renting a car in Oban, but I was thinking one thing you might do is rent a car at Glasgow outside the city. You could take the train from Edinburgh to Glasgow then pick up a car outside the city or even at the airport. That would reduce your driving time but give you much better access to rental cars. I'm picking mine up at the Arnold Clark office on South St., which is outside the city, or you could pick it up at the airport also.

It also wouldn't be that difficult to pick up the car at Edinburgh airport either. Whichever route you choose, there's very pretty scenery from there to Oban and you'll be passing near Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park.

That said, I did some checking on Practical and it looks like they are adding lots of new locations (this is from their Facebook page). They do have ads on Visit Scotland and are listed on the Undiscovered Scotland rental car page. It sounds like they've been around for awhile but have only recently started renting from Oban.. You could try emailing them and request a quote at oban@practical.co.uk.

Here are a few positive reviews from Trip Advisor - you might be able to find more:
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g186485-i107-k9164999-Our_Recent_Adventure_To_Scotland-Scotland.html
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g186485-i107-k9150529-Practical_Glasgow_Best_value_for_money-Scotland.html
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g186545-i910-k7980534-Car_Hire_Fort_William-Fort_William_Lochaber_Scottish_Highlands_Scotland.html

Wow, you all are so helpful! You’ve done more research on my behalf than i have! I’m grateful and a little embarrassed. I will look into all the info you provided. I did send Practical a message - we will see what they come back with, hopefully tomorrow.

Mardee, I have thought of the Glasgow idea as well (we would save on the second destination drop off as a bonus). My first inclination was Edinburgh, too.
Truth be told, I think my husband wants to work in a train excursion and the trip to Oban - our first leg - seemed to be the obvious choice.

Anyway, I’ll do a bit more digging based on all of your feedback. I think I’m still exhausted from working out the itinerary and accommodations. Hopefully, this won’t be as stressful. Worst case, we can just drive the whole way and I can plop the husband on a train and meet him on the other end!

Thanks again!

@dinahmann - I’d love to know what you decided to do about your car rental in Scotland? Was searching the forum, as we are planning a July 2024 trip and trying to figure out the exact same thing for our group of four.

I know Practical from seeing their rental vans around, possibly more in Scotland than down here in London. They are a legit company. Going by the posts above, I'd be wary of renting from them in Oban though. They won't have anything like the choice of cars that you'd find in Glasgow or Edinburgh. I wouldn't want to be forced into an "upgrade" that I didn't want because they have a limited stock of cars.

Do you drive stick? Automatics are way more common these days but needing an automatic is another factor which is going to limit your choice of cars, especially in a smaller town with fewer rental cars to begin with.

I agree that Glasgow to Oban is a great train journey. One of the best. That makes it a bit more of a tough call, even though renting in Glasgow or Edinburgh is way more practical.

The last time I rented a car in Glasgow was some years ago, so I can't speak to the current status. Last time I hired a car it was from Avis, Lancefield Street, Glasgow G3 8JD, just because it was in walking distance of my workplace at the time. There's branches of several car rental companies in that area. It would be an inexpensive taxi ride from Queen Street station to collect a car from there. Arnold Clark are the biggest car retailer in Scotland and come with a recommendation from Mardee for their rental division. That alone would be enough to sway me into checking them out :)

Oops... I didn't notice this thread was from March!

Brooke, if you have more questions about car rental in Scotland, start a new thread and some folks may chime in.

Hi Brooke.
You have reminded me that I am woefully remiss in giving a trip report! I will get on that!

We rented a car from Flit Car Hire in Oban - hires.flit@gmail.com. It was one of the itinerary details that I was worried about, but I had no need. It was perfect. John and Tracy were wonderful and accommodating. The rental car office is a three minute taxi ride or a seven minute walk from the train station. We had an automatic Toyota Camry hatchback. It was large enough for our luggage (four medium bags and four carry-ons) but small enough for the roads on Mull.

Other than a flat tire in Newtonmore (shoutout to the wonderful folks who aided us there), the car was great and the rental process was seamless.

I will say that driving in Oban - for me - was the most stressful of the entire trip. Between my three “helpful” companions making simultaneous suggestions and the wonky roundabout, we almost missed our ferry. We were the last vehicle boarded. I think it took us about 30 minutes to get from the Flit office to Cal-Mac. But it was better than driving in Glasgow or Edinburgh, so I would do it again in a heartbeat.

Anyway, I highly recommend Flit.

dinahmann

That's great that you found someone in Oban to rent a car from after my pessimism, which turned out to be after the fact. The rental offices I mentioned in Glasgow are right next to some of the worst designed motorway in the country. You might have struggled there if you found driving in Oban a chore!

I'll watch out for your trip report. I'm keen to know how your journey from Edinburgh up to Oban went too.