A few things to consider here:-

Are you arriving on a long-haul flight? If, so the idea of jumping immediately into a hire car and venturing out on to the busiest roads in Europe is reckless.

Late afternoon/early evening on a Friday in summer (!) - I can hardly think of a worse time to be on the M25/M4 for traffic.

Where are you heading anyway? If it is central London (I hope not), then you really don't want a hire car - use public transport instead. Assuming you aren't planning to go into London and are heading for somewhere else, do yourself a favour and spend the night (carless) in an airport hotel and go to the car hire depot refreshed the next morning to pick up your car. By the time you get out of the airport it will be close to 6pm anyway and you'll probably want to get straight to the hotel for a shower and something to eat (I know I would).

BTW, you won't pick up a car from AutoEurope as they are a broker and don't operate any cars or depots themselves. Your car will almost certainly be from one of the major hire car companies at the airport (Avis, Europcar, Hertz etc)

The traffic will always be bad at 6pm on a Friday, as Londoners and commuters take the opportunity to get out of town. However, Heathrow is close to some very nice, affluent villages that you get stay in on your first night.

Adice is often to stay in Windsor, but in this case, I think the commuter traffic in Windsor could cause more problems that it solves. I think your options are thus:

1. Stay in Central London, using the Heathrow Express train, thereby avoiding the need to drive in heavy traffic completely AND avoiding the commuter crush on the tube. If you take this option, I wouldn't recommend a car service from Heathrow as this car will get stuck in traffic.

2. Stay in a nice Berkshire or Buckinghamshire village, which is an easy drive from Heathrow. You will probably get stuck in a 'bit' of heavy traffic around the junction of the M25 and M4, but it's only a short stretch. Villages I would recommend are:

(a) Bray, near Maidenhead. A tiny village with a HUGE culinary pedigree, home to two 3-star michelin restaurants, including the famous Fat Duck, which is often voted one of the top 3 restaurants in the world. Heston Blumenthal, the chef, also owns at least one if not two of the pubs in the village. As the restaurants are so popular, occomodation gets booked up fast: here's one option: http://www.thecrownatbray.com/where-to-stay/

(b) Cookham. A very picturesque and often overlooked village. The Sanctum on The Green is a lovely boutique hotel cum restaurant cum pub. http://www.sanctumonthegreen.com/

(d) Beaconsfield Old Town. Another very picturesque village, with a VERY funky hotel. the Crazy Bear. http://crazybeargroup.co.uk/beaconsfield/

FTR, I used to live in the area.

If your flight arrives at 4 you likely wont get to the rental desk until 5pm, lets say 15ish minutes to get to the car from there and you are looking at hitting the road at the peak rush hour. Plus on Friday everyone is heading out making it even busier!

If you dont want to go into central London I would perhaps rent the car and stay in a hotel/B&B near Heathrow on the road out of town and then get an early start the next morning.

It really does depend on where you are going, but it won't be pretty in any case. The UK, especially southeastern England, has far more cars than it has roads to handle them.

If you are used to driving on the left and are used to driving out of, say, New York City, on a Friday afternoon, none of this advice applies. If you are used to driving in, say, Dallas or Atlanta, you are not going to be happy.

Another possibility, depending on where you are going, is to take a bus (coach) to that city, spend the night, and rent there.

"My thought is not to spend the night in London"

That is rather nebulous. Just where were you considering? But in any case the others are correct - if you are flying in long haul you really cannot expect to drive anywhere. Are you planning on visiting London at all? If so, do that first and head in to London on the tube or by pre-booked car service.

But is sort of hard to give useful advice w/o knowing your itinerary/plans.

(BTW - you wouldn't get your car at 'autoeurope'. They are simply a broker. The car will be at Hertz or Avis or whichever. And it isn't Customs that takes the time it is Immigration)

Could you tell us a bit more about your plans. Where are you coming from before London, where are you intending going from London

BTW there won't be a "commuter crush" heading INTO London at that time of the day - most of the traffic is the other way so if you want to stay in London then as long as you stay on the west side (eg South Kensington, Earls Court) you won't suffer from the commuters - indeed at Heathrow you will be going onto an empty train except for other people coming from Heathrow.

Thank you for all the responses

I will arrive from HK with Cathay Pacific, a nearly 13 hour flight.

My thought is to pick up the car and heading straight out of London to our B&B at the first stop over town ( hopefully within 2 hour driving time ), have a quick dinner, sunk into the bed. This plan is to fully utilise the first day by getting most things done so that we can start the tour on the second day.

The altenative option may be to catch a train to the first stop over town and get the car on the second day?

Coming from the OZ every day is valuable.

honestly, don't try driving in or around London on a friday night. we were there last week [we used to live within spitting distance of the M25 but now live in Cornwall, so are out of practice in dealing with the london traffic, but have some experience of it to draw on] and it was horrendous. much worse than 15 years ago.

even though it will be light in July, the time of year brings the other problem of people setting off on a friday evening to the west country, which is precisely the direction you are likely to be heading in too. in fact it sounds as if you may be arriving just as the summer school holidays start, in which case i would seriously consider delaying setting off til the sunday, when traffic is likely to be much lighter and you'll have at least started to recover from jetlag.

A thirteen hour flight, the time involved in disembarking and getting to immigarion( can be at least 15/20 minutes) getting through immigration, picking up checked baggage if necessary, picking up rental car and then attempting to head out in the worse case traffic scenario for a couple of hours is crazy and even dangerous for you and everyone else on the road.

Stay at or near the airport and pick up car the next morning.

without telling us where you are going it's a fruitless exercise trying to give you helpful advice, other than to say a 13 hour flight, followed by a picking up a hire car at Heathrow at 5pm on a Friday in July is probably the most stressful start to a holiday imaginable.

And then you are going to drive 2 hours….!!!

jeez…

why so coy about your destination?

Mind, I live in UK and often drive an hour or more after a long flight from the Far East to get home. Of course I'm familiar with the road, traffic and the car and I don't have to check in when I get there! If it were at the start of my trip to the Far East, I would just get a bus or public transport to a convenient hotel, get over the fatigue and jet lag (up to 9 hours) and then start my sightseeing properly the morning after.

We just arrived at LHR T-5, on Monday. Took 40 minutes to get our bags (required to check them, not enough room in the overheads), plus 45 minutes at the UK border with a non-EU passport. No idea about picking up a rental, as my cousin met us at arrivals. However, to go 11 miles from LHR, to Hampton Court, took an hour and 15 minutes. The roundabouts were terrifying; and I kept expecting traffic to be coming from the other side. I would imagine a Friday might be worse.

Would traffic be better if I arrive on Thurs 4pm??

Would traffic be better if I arrive on Thurs 4pm??

Yes, relatively speaking (in the sense that there's a difference between "terrible" and "very bad"). But now you've revealed you will be arriving on a 13-hours flight from HK (one of the longest it's possible to make into the UK - done it myself 3 times) it doesn't make any practical difference: trust me, you will be exhausted, disorientated and frankly dangerous behind the wheel of a car until the following morning.

You wouldn't get far on the arrival evening anyway - what's the problem with a night at/near LHR and picking up the car the following morning?

>>The altenative option may be to catch a train to the first stop over town and get the car on the second day?<<

This might be doable if you're going west (geographically speaking, that is, as opposed to metaphorically, which is likely to happen if you try to drive straight away, even with Australian experience of driving on the left).

There are buses from Heathrow to Woking and Reading (for the south-west and west), and (which I didn't know before) to Watford for the north-west (but that would take quite a long time):
http://www.heathrowairport.com/transport-and-directions/buses-and-coaches/rail_air-buses

"Would traffic be better if I arrive on Thurs 4pm??"

Even if it is (slightly) - it won't make any difference. You will be exhausted and should NOT even think of driving.

I asked if you are going to visit London at any point during your holiday? If you are, then heading into the city by public transport and doing the London bits first makes a lot of sense.

If not, tell us what areas of the UK you plan on visiting and we can help you figure out how to manage the first day or two car-less.

To drive on your arrival is dangerous and dumb . . .

when we got back to LHR after an 11 hour flight recently, we checked ourselves into the Heathrow hilton [where we had left our car on their sleep and park deal] and got a good night's rest. when we woke up, we just got in our car and drove home - it was super-easy.

you could do exactly the same thing with a hire car - spend overnight at the airport or nearby, then pick up your car and set off. but because of the timing of your trip i would still consider delaying this until the sunday - saturday morning in mid-July would not be my choice of time for practising my UK driving skills.

Thank you

Got your message very clear

Abandon this thought because it is dangerous

I will start another thread later after I study England Trip Report from this website and have some idea