Flying to/Driving in Britain

I would take the airline which offers the best fare even if you might have to change planes once (not twice). I would take the train from Gatwick or Heathrow to your destination town and avoid traffic around London. You will probably have to take the train to London to change trains from either airport. I did take the bus from Heathrow to Bath . . . wasn't too bad. I would do it again.

I agree with the advice above. If you fly into a smaller airport--Manchester or Glasgow, then go ahead and rent the car at the airport. But then I love driving in the UK--particularly the wee roads in the north. ; )

Fly into Heathrow, pick up your rental car at the airport, and drive west to Devon, Dartmoor, and Cornwall. It isn't a hassle to leave Heathrow driving west because it is already on the western edge of London. Winchester, one hour to the southwest, makes a good first night stop. From there, you can visit Salisbury, Stonehenge, Mottisfont Abbey, and Avebury, all of which are very much worth your while. It's interesting to compare the two cathedrals at Salisbury and Winchester.
If you need to use Gatwick, it is probably a half hour longer drive. Either airport, try to land in the middle of the day or on a weekend so you don't have to deal with rush hour traffic.

As Cynthia says, driving out of Heathrow will be OK, since you're going against the traffic flow, and rush hour will probably be over before you get going. Gatwick, too, would work...it's a smaller, less complicated complex. But you may want to consider the train, if only because you'll be coming off an overnight flight, and you'll likely be pretty tired. Exhausted is not the condition to be in as you try to figure out how to drive on the wrong side of the road! ;) Train travel will be up to an hour faster from Heathrow to Exeter over Gatwick to Exeter(check schedules and book tickets at nationalexpresseastcoast.com), and if you pick one with the fewest changes, you'll have a chance to snooze on the way down. If you pick up your car in Cornwall, see if you can drop it off at the airport when you leave....that way you can follow Cynthia's excellent suggestion to see the cathedrals at Salisbury and Winchester. Bottom line on the airport selection...I'd pick whichever one has a significantly cheaper fare. As for booking, with suggestions from this board, you should be able to do it on your own. If not, then go to a local travel agent with British destination experience.

Diane,

Some great tips so far! A few more suggestions:

1.) As the others suggested, use the airline that provides the best fare. I'm assuming you intend to fly home from the same airport, rather than fly "open jaw"? My normal method is to browse the Net for the flights I want, and then book these at a travel agent (there's a reason for that). As you're in Cleveland, you might check flights out of Toronto with Air Transat or Zoom as you might get some good deals.

2.) I'm not familiar with the flights out of Cleveland, but I imagine you'll be able to find flights to both LHR and LGW. I normally prefer Gatwick as it's a bit smaller and easier to get around.

3.) If you'll be returning to the same airport for the flight home, my preference would be to hire the Car there and return to the same location. Returning the car to a different location could incur extra charges. I'd recommend using an auto transmission model if this is your first trip to the U.K. (it will cost a bit more, but I prefer that when driving on the "correct" side of the road). As far as driving after a long flight, I've done that and usually manage fine until late in the afternoon on arrival day. You might choose a flight that lands in the morning. I'd suggest getting full CDW and use both a GPS and a good Map (don't trust the GPS completely - it's still necessary to check road signs and "think"). If you drive out of Gatwick, try to avoid the M25 - at times world's largest car park!

4.) I normally use a travel agent to book flights and car rental, and use Rick's books to arrange my accomodations, via the Internet. Some smaller lodgings will reserve by credit card, but require payment in cash. I wouldn't bother with a "British" travel agency - I'm sure you have lots in Cleveland. Don't forget medical insurance.

Yes, the planning and anticipation is almost as much fun as the trip itself! If you plan well, you should have few problems.

Cheers!

Book the best fare. Heathrow versus Gatwick...doesn't matter. Consider a rail pass over a rental car.

We loved the freedom of a rental car. We rented at Gatwick, but Heathrow would be just as good. Just remember you are going to be really tired to start out driving on the left. It's not that hard, but after a night's flight the tiredness sets in quickly if you are not walking, etc to stay excited. I would also suggest an automatic transmission and a navigation system.

Unless you have driven in the UK, I would not rent a car. Driving on the wrong side is stressful. It took me a week to feel comfortable driving there.

The roads are unbelievably narrow and the drivers speed everywhere. I would use the train every time.

Reserve the smallest car possible and take your car in a remote place to avoid the extra airport fees placed on auto rentals.

Last time we went, we flew into Gatwick, and got a rental car there. Had a little bit of trouble finding the A1, which was where we were headed first, but a nice delivery truck driver told us to follow him and pointed to where we should turn. After that, it was pretty smooth sailing. And that was before GPS. We rented cars with GPS in Italy & France and had almost no problem finding where we wanted to go.

I thought it would be hard driving on the wrong side of the road, but didn't have any problem at all with it. I did, however, as another poster suggested, get an automatic, because I felt like driving on the wrong side would be difficult enough to handle without possibly having to shift on the wrong side too!

Also as another poster noted, the streets are narrower than what we're used to, which could be why some cars are missing their side view mirrors, so that does take a little getting used to - as do the roundabouts. But I enjoyed the freedom it gave us, and it really was no problem.

We booked everything ourselves. With the internet, it's so much easier.

Diane, we just returned from driving in England after having done numerous trips in Frnace, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia and Croatia. I agree completely with Carl's suggestions. I would stress the following:

• You will be coming off a trans-Atlantic flight. You will be tired to start out in such a new situation.

-We were doing a house swap so we didn't have a choice of automobiles, therefore we had to drive a standard shift. I would rent an automatic! You are sitting on the right and shifting with your left hand in a standard.

-Rent the smallest vehicle you can use because the lanes are narrow.

-It is not the driving on the left so much but the lanes are more narrow, and the drivers drive quite fast.

-English drivers go into circles at a fast pace and the drivers coming in from the exits are speeding in and then hitting their brakes which makes you think they are going to hit you.

-Some country roads are a single lane in which there are pull offs every so often that you will need to use or back up to when you meet another vehicle.

-The hedgerows have rock walls behind the greenery that will scratch your vehicle if you go over too far.

-When entering a roundabout, a sign will show the exits and as you draw near there will be route number painted on the lane you are to drive in. Once you are in a lane don't change lanes for fear of an accident.

These might sound like a lot of suggestions but I wish we would have these helpful tips before we went.

I have a couple of more points on driving in the UK. We lived in London for a year, and I drove daily. The first week was terrifying! When I made a right turn, I kept asking myself which side should I be on. This in the midst of city traffic! We bought a car with automatic, and I strongly agree with those who say rent one with. I also think the idea of using public transport to your first destination is a good one. Driving on the motorways is actually the easiest part. They are divided, so no worry about which side to be on. The signage is excellent. However, you will be tired and trying to find your way in unfamiliar territory. On other roads and streets, you may find you have a tendency to drift. Just think about keeping yourself, the driver, near the center of the road. You may find, as I did, that when you return to the US, as you make a left turn, you'll be asking yourself which side of the road you should be on. LOL.

Diane -
Check flights out of Cleveland as well as Columbus or Pittsburgh. If you're leaving CLE, you'd most likely be on Continental going through Newark. If that is the case, ALLOW PLENTY OF TIME IN AND OUT OF NEWARK!! (Minimum 2-3 hrs) Do NOT allow a short connection. The reason I say this is because on one flight to LGW, we were called by Continental (it pays to fill out everything completely) to say they wanted us on an earlier flight into EWR. If we took our scheduled flight, we might not have made the connection b/c of construction at EWR and the heavy flights in and out of the NYC/Newark area. On my last flight through EWR, I allowed 2.5 hours as a layover, and almost missed my connection since my plane couldn't leave CMH since we had nowhere to land once we arrived in EWR.

Rent a car from here - get an automatic. For the roundabout, when you enter, if your exit is before 12:00 (as you think of a clock face) stay to the left. If it is after 12:00, stay to the right until you get to 12:00 and make your way over to the left. Its best if you have a passenger to help you.

We went in May. We had a train pass for our first week and we rented a car for our second week. The trains are great and we loved them. We'd do the trains again. It was nice not to have to drive after a trans-atlantic flight, as we were very tired. It took a bit to get used to driving on the opposite side as we do in the US, but by the 3rd day it got much better. We did pay the extra money to rent an automatic. The most confusing part was how to do the round-a-bouts as the English are used to them and we are not. Looking for the signs of where we needed to go took some getting used to as it was different than what we have here. We bought a street name map by geographical area and that helped a ton to know where we were going before we actually left. The motorways were easy as the person who used to live in England mentioned. We found the signs very clear and easy to follow. I agree with the comments on the country roads, they are beautiful, but be prepared to have to go in reverse when an oncoming car comes your way because of the single lane roads. Totally worth it though as it is so beautiful.