Has anyone else run into troubles renting a car in Bath on the weekends? It seems like every rental places close early on Saturday & are not open on Sundays. Our plane is scheduled to arrive in LHR at 1:15pm on Sat,. The earliest coach from LHR leaves at 2:20 and arrives in Bath at 4:35pm. Hertz & Enterprise close at 12:30 on Saturday & not open on Sunday.
Paul
I would not expect you have any realistic chance of catching a 2:20 bus if your flight lands at 1:15.
With the 'givens' you outline, you can a) pick up car at LHR or b) pick up car in Bath on Monday
I know catching the coach at 2:20 would be a miracle, but the next coach is 2 hours later and that means I wouldn't get to Bath until 6:30ish. Even the Hotel closes it's desk at 7:00pm and they say they will have someone stay until I get there. We made the mistake of getting tickets for Stonehenge at 9:30am on Sunday morning. It looks like those tickets are going to be a waste.
Oh well... It's hard not to over plan your trip.
Oh.. and after a 12 hours on the plane flying thru the night, I am worried about driving from LHR to Bath with so little sleep.
Why don’t you spend the night in London then get the train to Salisbury and a bus to Stonehenge from there?
Or spend the night in London and pick up a car at Heathrow the next morning to drive to Stonehenge?
I don’t understand why you are hacking across to Bath just to head back towards Stonehenge the next day?
You're right. It was poor planning on our part. We are doing what Rick suggest about flying into LHR and taking a bus to Bath. I just didn't realize until the other day that the Car rentals close so early on the weekend & are not open on Sunday. Our plan was to get to Bath early evening, pick up our car & drive 2 miles to the Hotel. Have dinner & get to bed early, wake up the next day, to drive to Stonehenge for a 9:30 visit & start our amazing journey around GB.
Those weekend hours are common for car rental in smaller towns across Europe. Airports are sometimes the only locations open longer. This is also mentioned at the start of Rick's chapter for Bath.
I don’t know why RS suggests that after a long flight people will feel like making their way to Bath as soon as they arrive, as it’s not as though it’s on a direct rail line.
It will take you 15-30 minutes from landing to make your way to passport control. Last month at Heathrow, non EU passport holders only got through passport control within the anticipated 45 minutes on one day. Some waited up to 2.5 hours, according to press reports this week, so unfortunately, you are unlikely to catch the 2.20 coach.
It doesn’t make sense to travel to Bath on the Saturday to travel half way back to London early Sunday morning. Stay in Salisbury on the Saturday or London and hire a car on the Sunday. Please don’t attempt to drive from London to Bath immediately upon arrival when you are jet lagged.
Most car hire offices in smaller U.K. towns do not open on a Sunday.
I will just lose the cost of 2 tickets to Stonehenge for Sunday. Oh well.. I'm sure we will have plenty of fun exploring all the other sites. I'm in the car for 2 hours most days going to and from work, so driving for an hour is nothing. Being on the road going new places is fun for us.. like they say.. it's the trip, not the destination... Don't worry we won't be driving ourselves around until Monday morning.
