travelready1

Travelers, I really need your expert help. We (2 active divorced women in our 60's) are planning a 3 week car trip through Scotland and England. I have a few questions and hope you will advise us!
Arriving in Edinburgh from the US on April 26, departing London on May 17.
What do you think of this itinerary and the lodgings???? One of us was in the UK years ago, drove a car throughout the UK, and has been to most of these towns/cities before, but not the lodgings)
2 nights Edinburgh (maybe Geraldsplace B&B?)
1 night St. Andrews. (Brooksby house B&B??) (we like golf)
1 night Housestead for Hadrian's Wall (Beggar Bog B&B??)
3 nights York (St Raphael Guest House or Crook lodge???)
3 nights Cotswolds (Lygon Arms B&B or Tythe Barn cottage???)
1 night Bath (Threee Abbey Greeen or The Crescent Inn???)
2 nights Salisbury (Legacy Rose & Crown???-I stayed here years ago and loved it)
2 nights Canterbury via Rye and Brighton (Canterbury Cathedral Lodge or?????)
5 nights with friends in London area.
My other questions are:
**car rental---europcar company ok?? Vauxhall automatic car? what about getting the extra insurance?? cost of gasoline??
**is it safe to book all these lodgings online via credit card? what other way do you suggest? This is a real concern!
**where should we get a GPS--bring it from the US or rent one with our car??
**cell phone--rent one? where? Mine won't work in the UK
ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS!! Thanks ever so much!

scotlib

Hi travelready1,

Sorry, I can offer only one small question/suggestion. You'll surely have others more expert than I chime in soon.

Rather than travel north from Edinburgh to then travel south .. what about flying into EDI, staying three nights, use one day for a day trip to St. Andrews, picking up the car at the end of the stay in Edinburgh (parking and driving around the city is usually mentioned by many as troublesome).

For booking places on my UK trips, I've done a mix of booking online with cc on a secure site (looked for the s at the end of https), but also just calling the b&b and leaving my card number to hold the room.

Cheers.

travelready1

Thanks, Scotlib, for your reply--we are not renting the car until we depart Edinburgh because of the parking problem and not needing a car while there. Thanks for the 's' suggestion regarding online booking!

janisj

You have picked some great places to visit. But IMO the first 4 days and the Bath/Salisbury/Canterbury bit are awfully rushed.

Driving from Edinburgh to St Andrews and St Andrews to Housesteads will eat up about 6.5-7 hours just in the car. So basically you'll have 3/4 a day for St Andrews/East Neuk villages and about 1/2 a day along the Wall

Then you'll have 3/4 a day in Bath. And from Salisbury to Canterbury along the coast (Brighton/Rye) will easily take 6 hours w/o any stops. So w/ the stops it will be an all day/exhausting drive w/ no time to see anything else in East Sussex/Kent. No Sissinghurst, or Dover, or Hever, or Bodiam, etc.

It is tempting to try to squeeze in the whole country(s). If it was me I'd slow down a bit.

travelready1

Thanks for the info about our day from Salisbury to Canterbury...would you suggest staying in Rye for that one night instead of pushing to Canterbury? The 3/4 day in St Andrews is ok as we just want to see the links and have tea in the old clubhouse!

Hooameye

"cost of gasoline??"

AROUND £1.33p a litre.

travelready1

Thanks for your suggestions everyone. We've booked almost all our B&B's thanks to suggestions on this site and tripadvisor:
Edinburgh-2 [email protected]&B
St. Andrews--still waiting for confirmation
Hadrians Wall-Ashcroft Guest House
York-3 nights St. Raphael Guest House
Chipping Campden-3 nights-Tythe Barn Cottage
Bath-1 night Three Abbey Green
Salisbury-2 nights-Grasmere Hotel
Canterbury-2 nights--Canterbury Cathedral Lodge
on to London to stay with friends 5 nights
**Now--please guide me to the best car rental company--compact car, automatic. I do not understand the 'extra' insurances.
Thanks everyone! Jill

BigRuss

Assuming you're American (or Canadian, which is effectively the same for this purpose), hire a car from an American company so you can b***h at them when you return if anything goes wrong. We used Thrifty in Scotland, which worked fine. Admittedly, we used Europcar in France, but that's a highly reputable agency and I don't know any other non-American rental agencies that operate in Europe and have equivalent stature.

You may want to cut the rental car short at some point - at current exchange rates, the petrol is $7.88 per gallon. That $80 refuel for an 11-gallon tank will make your eyes pop.

As for extra insurances, call your credit card company/ies and find out what they cover if you use their card(s). Certain ones will give you specific coverages on your rental just by using the card and therefore you won't have to pay the daily coverage rate for the car.

janisj

I'd start by getting a quote from autoeurope.com They are a broker that deals w/ most of the majors. Autoeurope will often (but not always) get you the best rate. They quote w/ full coverage, w/o CDW (like our 'deductible'), and w/ no insurance other than the required liability.

I usually omit the CDW because my credit cards cover it.

Then after getting ae's numbers, you can check the individual websites to compare (Hertz, Avis, Budget, Alamo, Europcar, etc.)

travelready1

Thanks for all this great info....I'll start researching.
Another question--has anyone taken the free walking tours in Edinburgh or York? Are they worthwhile or should we just use a tour book like Fodor's or Rick Steves?