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Where to rent car outside of London?

We're planning our first trip to the UK in a couple weeks. We're flying into Gatwick and out of Glascow. We're going to spend the first 3 days in seeing London, after which we want to rent a car for the remainder of the trip. I had wanted to take the train from London to Windsor, see the Palace and rent a car from there. But I'm not seeing Windsor as an option on the car rental booking sites. Should I train to LHR and drive out from there? I don't want to mess with London congestion charges. Any advice?

Posted by
2775 posts

Hi Sally, you could arrange to rent a car from Slough, which is three miles from Windsor. You might want to consider staying over night in Windsor (since you will have your luggage). In the morning you could take the taxi to the rental office in Slough. Or you could arrange to pick up a rental car at Heathrow, which is a 15 minute taxi ride from Windsor. You wouldn't want to have a car while in Windsor, very hard to find a parking place, so I would suggest completeing your visit to Windsor then picking up the rental car.

Posted by
970 posts

Slough is a good option. Not quite so good is Reading, which is a bit to the west on the same rail line. Bear in mind that neither Slough or Reading are sleepy little villages You'll start off driving in urban traffic, if that's a concern. You might want to bring Windsor up on Google Maps, the option to show nearby businesses, and see where the care rental shops are located.