Driving N. Wales or York to London. Best place to turn in rental car?

Hard to say without knowing where you will be on the last last day before going to London. That said, the further away the better, unless you are really scrimping pennies. Find out in which towns you can drop the car (where does your franchise have shops?), and as long as you can catch a London train there you'll be OK. Just ask them to call a taxi to the station. Even the train from Bath take less than two hours to London. One alternative closer to London is Reading, a town of about 150,000 that's 30 miles or so west of London. Very frequent trains into the city. i wouldn't relish driving nearer to the London area.

We've taken the train from York to London a couple times; it's 2 hours. Unless you want to visit some places along the way, the train into London is a good choice. From there you're into the Tube or bus system. If returning your car in York, be sure you know, in advance, exactly where the return office is located. We nearly missed a train once, because the return place was well hidden, and a bit of a walk to the train station. Also, book early on the train; the fares vary dramatically from advance to walk-up.

Thanks for the replies. I'll either be driving from North Wales (Conwy) or York. From York, I've checked the bus (roughly the price of another rental day on the car but 5+ hours) and train (quick but around $300) so neither is really an option I want to consider. Guess my real question is...where does the "real" (i.e. super congested) London begin? Since both inbound routes are from the North, should I consider Luton Airport...is King's Cross (so I can switch directly to the tube) too close...is Heathrow a decent option? Andy

Andy Where in blazes did you come up with $300 York to Kings Cross? Are you travelling on gold plated seats? Or are you travelling with a small army? I just looked at next Wednesday, purely at random, and found standard class Advance fares from £37 to £41. .... No, you do not want to try to drive to Kings Cross. You will probably stray into the horrid Congestion Charge area and get dinged for a large payment. Also there is loads of construction there, and there is not a direct route there from a motorway. ... As for where it gets tough, I think most folks would agree on sort of 10 miles before you get to the largest parking lot on earth, the M25 outer ring motorway.

Nigel, You know the price I found on BritRail seemed excessive but I ran through the reservation process three different times so I figured it must've been right. Especially considering RS has always said Britian's trains are the most expensive/mile in Europe. Anyway, I checked National Rail and saw an advanced fare for £30 (from York) all the way to Victoria Station. I was just going to re-post to say that I must have lost my mind but saw your response first....I might check out the gold plated seats though if that's an option :). Given that price, I might just drop the car in Conwy or York and take the train in. Thanks for the feedback and the good natured ribbing. Andy

We did a similar trip a few years ago. We returned the car to Oxford, then took the train into London - about an hour ride. We used Avis and their drop off point was near the train station and an easy walk with luggage.