Advice on Car Rental in Scotland

Peggy, I have used Auto Europe which has sent me to Hertz and National. Both have been fine. I may even have used Avis once. You do not need the car while you are in Edinburgh, but I enjoy having one when I am outside of Edinburgh and Glasgow. I've picked up the car at Glasgow Airport and Edinburgh City Centre. It's not that hard to get out of Edinburgh, particularly, if you have a navigator. ; ) The biggest issues, of course, are, 1. driving on the left and 2. driving with a stick shift unless you request an automatic. I drive stick in Scotland and don't have any issue with it. Others are more stressed by it. The other issue that is unique to Scotland, although it may exist in Ireland, are the single track roads. These are roads that are only wide enough for one car. When you see an oncoming car, the vehicle that reaching a passing place first, stops and waits for the other car to pass. It's etiquette to wave as they pass, or if your hands are full to raise your fingers from the steering wheel. I always get as much insurance as possible, because no matter how good a driver I am, I will bump the curb. I have mantra, "think left, think left," but that means I sometimes am a little to close to the left and I am susceptible to scratches and dings. I love driving in Scotland. I think the wee roads are wonderful. There is a book by Iain Banks, called RAW SPIRIT, wherein he is on the hunt for the perfect dram of whisky. Part of the search is about the roads and driving in Scotland.

We have used Hertz several times, picking up at both Glasgow and Edinburgh airports. We have never had any problems with Hertz in the UK, Norway, or anywhere in the US or Canada........If you choose to use Hertz in Edinburgh, pick up only at the airport.......Some people will warn you about the higher prices for petrol. We found this was offset by the dramatically better mileage. We rented a VW Passat diesel at York, returned it to Edinburgh. It averaged sixty miles to the gallon. Almost three times better than my Honda CRV does.

We rented with Hertz from the Edinburgh airport with no problem. We paid the extra $$ for an automatic and for two drivers since I had driven in the UK but my husband hadn't. He didn't want to drive right out of the airport. For insurance we used our CapOne cc, and luckily got no scrapes at all on the car. The tight roads in the Highlands were an experience, compensating for that left side in the bushes gave us some hairy moments when the lorries and coaches came at us on the other side. We had a great time driving the single track roads- get a good Ordnance Survey map to find the loneliest places. I recommend Glen Elg near Isle of Skye and Glen Lyon near Killin.

I meant to give you some links for reading about driving in Scotland. You might find them helpful. First Wikipedia. I include it for the picture which is a good example of a passing place where people who are used to right hand drive can go wrong. You do not pull to the right. Rather if you reach the passing place first, you stop on your side of the road and the oncoming traffic passes on their side of the road pulling into the passing place to do so. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single-track_road Second, Undiscovered Scotland. They give examples of the signs you can expect to see. http://www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/usfeatures/singletrack/index.html Third, Visitscotland.com. They give you the general rules for driving in Scotland. http://www.visitscotland.com/guide/travel/travel-around-scotland/driving-in-scotland Pam

Hi Peggy, Pamela pointed you towards undiscoveredsotland.com and it is great help to know what the signs you see are gong to be like, but their website has more information on Scotland, routes, attractions and links to hotels than any other site. it doesn't matter where it is in Scotland, they will probably have a feature page with loads of pictures. It is probably better to use an airport rental branch, as you will be straight onto bigger roads and have time to become used to driving with the steering wheel on the right. Take an automatic - so much less to think about. Beware your "very competitive rate from Avis". If it sounds too good to be true, it very probably is. Some multinational companies like Hertz and Avis do not always include the insurance cover in their quotes (I believe the reasoning follows the lines that "so many of their customers have platinum card cover, they do not need to purchase the rental company's cover". If you do not have platinum card cover, then expect your quote to increase by about 70-100%). All rental companies have an excess (deductable) on their insurance. This is the minimum amount you will be responsible for if you have a crash or an accident and is usually between GBP500 and GBP1000. You pay a daily amount to reduce this excess to nothing, or with some companies, to GBP100. Try one of the local companies like Arnold Clark. Use one of their agents to get better rates. Have a great trip, Willie Wallace