We start and begin our 10 day trip in Edinburgh but do not want to drive in Edinburgh. So where would be a good place outside of city center if we are heading north to pickup and return the rental car? Thanks!
Posted by
Seattle, WA, USA ☔️
6788 posts
Actually, Edinburgh is not particularly bad for driving. I mean, it's not like driving in central Paris, London or Rome.
I drove in to Edinburgh (from England), parked the car there in a hotel lot for a few days, then drove on to the highlands, it was no big deal.
Granted, it's an old city, very hilly, full of tourists, etc., but as long as you're not planning to cruise around the old center, I wouldn't be terribly spooked by the idea of just renting a car there and simply driving away. If I were there, and wanted a car, I wouldn't worry too much about doing just that. Others might disagree.
Posted by
Delaware
1376 posts
Hi, gocardsjoeh,
The easiest thing to do would be to hire your car at Edinburgh Airport after you've spent your initial time in Edinburgh. Assuming that you're starting out by either flying in or taking the train to Edinburgh, you can take a tram or bus to the airport, and get your car there. As the airport is on the A8, you can get right on and head off on he rest of your Scottish holiday.
Best of luck!
Mike (Auchterless)
Posted by
OP
53 posts
Thank you Mike.
Posted by
Mid-Atlantic area
6534 posts
Pick it up at the airport. When we visited, we took the bus into Edinburgh for our stay there. No need for a car in the city. When we left for the rest of the trip, we took the bus back to the airport and picked up the car. At the end of the trip we dropped off the car, took the bus again, then spent another couple days in the city.
Posted by
Sacramento, CA
671 posts
If you want to get even further from Edinburgh, we dropped our rental car in Perth and took the train to Edinburgh. The Europecar drop-off location was just around the corner from the train station and the train to Edinburgh was beautiful and relaxing.
Posted by
47 posts
We rented a car at EDI and it was a good experience. It wasn’t difficult at all to get onto the M9 from there for our trip to Oban. No need to drive in the city. We took the tram to and from the city - very easy.
Posted by
Last Frontier aka Alaska 🏔️
3227 posts
Agree with the others. The airport is not in the city center. Go back to airport to pick up your car. You will encounter your first roundabouts very quickly and we took a couple of wrong turns, but still not too difficult. Hopefully you have GPS.
Other than that, easy peasy.