scotland car rental companies

I've rented through AutoEurope and they've put me with National and Hertz. I think in the future I'd rent direct from one of these companies. I've also rented a car on Orkney and that was with a local company. We only used it on Orkney and picked up a second car in Inverness for the balance of the trip. FYI I would suggest that you not have a car in Edinburgh. A car is helpful in Scotland when visiting Aberdeenshire castles, Skye, the outer Hebrides, anything north and west of Inverness. I also like it in the west and seeing the countryside of Perthshire. Finally, you need a car to visit the Borders. Pam

Depending on what /where you are planning, you might not need a car. The train service is very good and buses usually cover any smaller trips you might want to do.

Not needing a car would be great. Public transport would take us to the highlands? Are there tours for something like that?

We love to base in Inverness and do day trips with tour companies from there. There are several that do excellent tours (we have used Jacobite and Puffin among others). You can do tours that include Culloden, Clava Cairnes, Isle of Skye and Elliean Donnan Castles, various gardens and other castles, a cruise on Loch Ness with Urquart Castle and Drumnadrochit, Glencoe, Great Glen, some distilleries, even a LONG day trip up to Orkney. In Inverness we like to stay at the Royal Highland hotel- it is attached to the station!!! Aviemore also makes a good base for a few days; it is a lovely very walkable village. There are several escellent distilleries and some lovely villages/towns you can reach by train or bus, a funicular up Mt. Caringorm, Rothmurchie estate has canoeing, hiking, horseback riding, and other activities, there is a reindeer preserve, a heather center, a restored steam train that does nice round trips along the Spey river and through the countryside, even a microbrewery that gives tours and samples!!! We like to stay at the Caringorm hotel. It looks like a miniture castle outside and a hunting lodge inside. A piper plays before dinner every evening in the summer and the serve THE BEST food!!! Both are easily reached from either Glasgow or Edinburgh by train (or you could fly directly into Inverness airport then go by train to Aivemore after a few days then to Edinburgh by train to finish your trip).

We'll be flying into Either Glasgow or Edinburgh from Ireland and will stay north of that - seeing the Highlands and I don't know what else (any suggestions?) Guess we'll be using public transit in Edinburgh. Thanks for the info!

Elodie, I mentioned the places where you need a car in order to explore the country. For example, you can take the train from Inverness to Kyle of Lochalsh, but in order to visit the island you must rely on a not very good bus system, a car, an organized tour, or your thumb. ; ) I've done all three. ; ) Another example is the Borders. You can take organized tours, or use the bus, but the best way to see Abbey's, Hermitage Castle, or Traqhir House, or Sir Walter Scott's home is by car. Toni has outlined places you can get to by train. Pam

Thank you Toni and Pamela. I feel much better now armed with all this info. I'm thinking we'll do train part way and then get a car. Don't want to miss things by not having one! Thank you both for your replies.

Elodie, Check out www.arguscarhire.com's website. I had a 5 door hatchback, automatic with super CDW for just under $248 US for a full 7 days. If you get a car it is definitely worth the extra 7 GBPs per day to have the super CDW. I got a rock chip on Skye and it would have cost me around $460 US to replace the windshield. I had a brand new, never been driven car. And the gas mileage was fantastic. I think we put in 100 pounds of fuel in the tank to go 760 miles. Oh and the $248 was to return it empty and they'll fill the tank. There wasn't a station near the airport and the car rental place guaranteed that we'd save about 10 pounds on the gas that way. They had it cheaper than the gas stations. Pam

We're renting from Alamothey had the best rates. We renting when we leave Glasgow and drive a clockwise trip from west to east, ending in Edinburgh. We'll turn our car in at the Edinburgh airport. You don't want a rental car in the big cities. We've also rented from AutoEurope and got good rates from them as well. Arnold Clark is recommended highly by a number of sites, but their rates were much higher.