UK in 2023?

Yes. You can rent cars in London, drive around UK, and return the car to London.

Thank you!

You are planning on covering quite a lot of ground - particularly in rural Wales and Scotland, distances can seem short, but can take longer than anticipated to drive. It may make sense to look into flying back home from Scotland rather than spending a day returning to London. Driving between England and Scotland is like driving between states in America.

How long is your trip?

Hi, forehim7,

I've done this twice. I would not recommend it! The first time, I drove from London to the Butt of Lewis. 4,000 miles in 28 days. Never spending more than two nights in any one place. The second time, I made it as far north as Lochinver, but I had five weeks instead of four, so I was able to maintain a more leisurely pace..

I guess a lot depends how far north you want to go in Scotland. If you just plan to travel as far north as Glasgow and Edinburgh, then you could probably do the trip in an exhausting eight hours. However, if you're also planning to visit Wales, that puts you on the West side of the U.K., and then you'd probably want to head north via the M6, so you can visit the Lake District.

A lot is going to depend on how much time you have for your holiday. Given what I've done in the past, I'd probably take a train to Swansea, hire a car there to tour Wales, take a train from Swansea to Glasgow, then hire a car there for Scotland. You'd finish by taking the train from Glasgow back to London. That would save a lot of long distance driving, and with advance purchase train tickets, you may even end up saving money and time.

What you're suggesting is eminently doable, but exhausting. However, if you want to visit a lot of the countryside along the way, then by all means hire a car for the entire time. Just be aware of the congestion charge if you have to drive in to the city (London).

Whatever you decide, have a wonderful time!

Best wishes for your travels!

Mike (Auchterless)

Personally I'd steadfastly avoid driving in London itself - terrible congestion and imo pretty challenging if you've not driven here before.

I'd also tend not to take the train from Swansea to Scotland, it's a very long journey. Drive to Bristol airport and catch an easyJet flight from there. Even with the time for check in etc it'll save you 90mins to to 2 hrs.

Thanks all!
Your comments and suggestions have answered my questions. We're not sure whether we'll travel for 3 or 4 weeks... just compiling our itinerary.

When we do trips where a lot of driving is involved, we try to to keep daily driving time to a couple hours at most. That allows for stopping at places and still seeing everything at a leisurely pace. We never stay anyplace more than three nights. Sounds like a fun trip.