Avis locations in Edinburgh

Old Jun 26th, 2006, 05:34 AM
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oops, meant that to be the Ordnance Survey - Ordinance Survey would be a whole 'nother thing!
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Old Jun 26th, 2006, 06:03 AM
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So much for the final curtain! I just realized that the search I did was "road atlas Great Britain" and got the 3 pages of road atlases of, guess what, Great Britain.
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Old Jun 26th, 2006, 06:39 AM
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"Stick a fork in me. I'm done"

Welcome to the club!

nho9504: I know you have tuned me (and most of the others) out - but I will say this one last thing. I honestly do not know why you are going to Scotland. You are quite literally all over the board. You will not see anything but the inside of your car, have no idea what Scotland is or looks like, and are so totally convinced you are right that you refuse to listen to anyone trying to help you.

You got offended when I mentioned it seems like you are just trying to use your hotel points. But your last few posts make it pretty clear you don't really have much interest in Scotland itself. So if you just want to use your points - knock yourself out. But don't bother asking for any more help/advice/validation -- you don't accept what anyone says anyway.

And I notice you have actually started giving advice on a couple of threads. PLEASE STOP - at least until after you've actually been there . . . . .
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Old Jun 26th, 2006, 08:28 AM
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The reason why we are going to Scotland? Because we have a few days to spare on an "spontaneous" trip - well, not quite spontaneous because the tickets were purchased a couple months ago when a terrific fare came along for US/LHR/CDG/US. There was NO plan to go to Scotland but then we thought "Why Not?" Just because Scotland has an aching beauty in your heart, does not mean it has to be in everyone's heart. I respect your feeling, and hopefully you respect our choice also.

So at the end, these boards are not for sharing information, after all. Only the "residents" can give opinions and advices, any outsider whose idea is drastically different from others would be an intruder and be treated such. LOL.

Because we do not fit the stereo type of most tourists to Scotland, so we would not "plan" our trip in great deails, and this seems to greatly disturb you folks on this board? So for a rare time, there is someone who dares NOT to listen to the residing experts and take it all in, and that makes you guys so mad? I am so amazed by the "civilization" of this community.

Noe

I dont want a Great Britain map - aint going to other parts of England, nothing south of London, nor Wales, nor Cornwall, ete etc. Why should I want a Great Britain map? I just want an concise Scotland map. And the only Scotland map I found on Amazon is the one published by Collins. I want the one from TheAA and cannot even find it on the Amazon UK site via TheAA link.

I dont know why you guys are so wound up here. I talked to a few people on Flyertalk.com and they are all UK base - the correspondences are far more productive than here. Granted, these are folks who are not tourists, nor exchanging common tourists information - they are all frequent flyers based in UK and Europe and fly about 100K a year. FWIW, they too, dont think I need a GB map. They all told me we can get one easily when we are in London, just from the gas station or any discount bookstores. Guys even advised me NOT to buy it in U.S. nor at LHR, nor at the Standfords (the biggest Map store in London as it would cost twice or three times as such.) These are advices from business people who logged 100K+ a year. Would you claim they are full of it?

And yes, I try to see LOTS of pictures by clicking every clickable tab on Undiscovered Scotland's whole interactive Map - and I have to admit, there are not too many pix that really excited us. I then went to VisitScotland site, the official tourism site, and click thru the commercial link for the Tours to see what they would offer. My theory is SIMPLE, the commercial tour operators HAVE TO PUT THE BEST PIX TO ENTICE PEOPLE TO BOOK - from that, we then conclude the most appealing areas TO US, not to any other visitor, but ONLY TO US, is mainly the Western part of Scotland. The East side, the North side, just do not have the "draw". And this upset you guys?

Caroline

I know BA fly to CDG from EDI, but at the time I looked, all flights were thru London and even with BA light, the fare is still like in the 50BP range. My oversight was not to check AF as it was out of our radar due to some not so pleasant experience with it few years back, plus it is not a partner of either AA or UA.

Janisj,

Why can't I post how I view it? I consider our views/opinions are more on the practical side - that would really help to smooth out the annoying parts of logistic. I would not even call it advice, but just opinion deduced from our years of travelling all over the places.

If we are doing a driving trip, the FIRST thing we would consider regarding lodging choice, is PARKING, whether it has ample parking, free parking, reasonably priced parking, or expensive parking? For that reason, we choose to stay at Hilton St.Helen insead of HIX at waterfront LPL on the night before our flight next day, because HIX specifically said there is NO parking and Hilton St.Helen is near freeway just outside LPL - easy to get to and have ample free parking.

I admire db who sent out 45 (1) emails one night to inquire the B&B situation. It could be avoided should you guys offer the precient advice that make sure to book the B&B with Parking if you are going to have your car all the way - that would be the FIRST FEW ADVICES I would have provided.


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Old Jun 26th, 2006, 08:35 AM
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BTW, Janisj, I did not provide advice to db about whether one needs an International Driver License in Scotland or UK. Personally I believe it does not, but not sure.

What I posted is to tell db that AAA provides the service of issuing an International Driver License - and if you read db's post word by word, without injecting your subjective interpretation, db asked about "License" not "Permit".

Not a single word in my post talking about whether it is necessary or not. I just thought it would be helpful if she needs to get it, she can do it on Saturday, and it is only $10, which, comparing to how much the family will spend for this trip, shall we say is a drop in the bucket?

What do you think?
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Old Jun 26th, 2006, 08:57 AM
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Well, I've not been getting involved, because it's pretty clear that you want what you want when you want it, and if we ain't got it on sale that's our loss. But you are being amazingly rude to people who are trying to help you, so here goes nothin'br />
Janis's comment about "aching beauty", I'm sure was intended to help you realise that we aren't any other place you've been, so what you're looking for might not be here. It was not intended to suggest YOU had to find the place beautiful. Beauty, after all, is in the eye of the beholder.

As a mere co-poster here, I hope stick around and offer your information. That's what makes this place as good as it is.

No-one is asking you to "plan". I for one, plan almost nothing (as my husband ould tell you, had you a year or two to listen to his complaints); but you have asked advice and opinions and pretty much uniformly have rubbished what's been offered. Your right, of course, but more fool those who are still trying.

What you "want" and what you need are two different things (right now, a good spanking, comes to mind in category 2), but I would suggest that you should not want a map at all. You will do far better with an atlas. You will, unfortunately, not get a good atlas of Scotland alone, if one is available at all. But is the choice is something you will find useful with bits that aren't as opposed to something that won't help muc, I know what I would choose.

And concise? You are apparently trying to go to bits of Scotland where the sheep outnumber the people by thousands to one. A "concise" map of Sutherland will give you so little detail it will be next to useless.

Of course, you can get a map at a petrol station or a discount bookstores. Just give us a ring when you get lost using it.

You'll find, should you bother with the "search" button, that "we" send most people to the west, fo precisely the reasons you identify. YOU were the one who wanted to go to Thurso.

And if you look at a map of the train routes, you'll see you can't do on the west coats what you were trying to do on the east.

Now, I've never been prompted to say this here before, but I hope you find what you like; and I hope it's not here. We will be far better off if you keep your obnoxious bullying out of our country.
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Old Jun 26th, 2006, 09:13 AM
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nho, I don't think you quite understood what I meant to say. Sorry, I wasn't clear enough.

I absolutely respect that you have your own taste in scenery. What I was trying to convey is that the subtle, aching type of beauty might not be what you are 'up' for. You were going to drive the eastern and northern coasts, yet you later discovered that it isn't your cup of tea. I wanted to further suggest that the highlands might not be what you are expecting. You are heading to the Pacific Northwest/Vancouver this summer. It is not at all the same kind of scenery (I lived in Vancouver the summers of 2003 and 2005, so I can tell you that from personal experience). I'm glad that you are continuiing your research so that you can finalize the best trip for you.

As for the Great Britain map, as others have said, you can't get just an atlas for Scotland - it's in the Great Britain one. And for the kind of driving you are doing (going for scenic routes, maybe back road detours) the book atlas is really the best way to go. I think the people who actually live in Scotland drive with these. And yes, I agree (and I said) that you could buy the maps/atlas in many places once you are over there. But if you want to use the map for planning purposes (which I do) then Amazon does have a fairly extensive selection.

People on this board are extremely helpful. I'm not sure you realize how arrogant your posts can come across. For example, you said "East coastal area really is not very interesting. Even the North part, the Maritimes part is not too interesting either, especially when compare it to Canadian Maritimes. I almost thought I was looking at New England towns and villages when I click open picture after picture. LOL." I guess from this that the kind of scenery that is offered by eastern and northern Scotland is not what you are interested in for this trip. You can say that a heck of a lot less abrasively - and without the "LOL". You ask for respect for your feelings about beauty but don't really give any yourself.
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Old Jun 26th, 2006, 12:01 PM
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I apologize that I offend the regular posters here - may be there is a cultural difference here - after all, English is NOT my first language, and we communicate too much with abbreviations in this internet age. The LOL isn't seen offensive among my little circle of friends, 1/2 of them Americans, 1/2 of them minorities from various countries - may be this is why there are far more tolerances within my little circle as the heritage/cultural backgrounds are so different in this little group.

Sheila, Scotland is a beautiful place in many ways, but it does not mean the whole Scotland is beautiful to every visitor. I know at least that little bit, that the England and Scotland has a deep divide between the two, and quite a few number of Englanders we knew dont ever even think of going to Scotland. Likewise the Scotts dont care for England either. Hey, that may be the reason why there are always THREE teams from GB in most world sport events. In fact, in my native country, we refer GB as THREE English Islands (of course it cannot be farther from truth, but that is what the country is being referred, in our native language).

To give you another example of cultural difference - For one thing, I dont really have a clear concept between Atlas and Maps - to me, they are the same thing - but that is where the cultural differences come in - apparently, Atlas is like a detailed map, to the point where even the streets from A to Z are listed, if you get a City Atlas, and Map is a very abbreviated version of places - that is the impression I get from Noe's kind post.

I believe I found Thurso in one of the long Itineraries people asked inputs on.

The remarks of resemblance of New England came out from both of us. My husband even said this to me, what do you expect? That is why they call that part of U.S. New England, of course the places look alike.

As for 1 person 1000 sheep - NZ probably has a much higher ratio. We will spend 40 days in NZ/OZ next Spring, incidentally, that would be our 3rd trip downunder.
So we do like wilderness, etc.

As for picking scenic areas I found the quickest and never failed (at least to us anyway) is to look up the pictures by the commercial tour operators - they have to put their bests up to entice people to join the tour - and one can browse through those brochures to quickly deduce if such are tempted enough for you to also want to be there.

Noe,
We have families and relatives live in Vancouver. That is a few places in the world that hubby said he does not mind to come back often. Heck, this guy is hard to please - he declares he does not want to return to Hawaii, after our 10day trip ended early June (also the 3rd time, but there was almost 10 years between the 2nd and the 3rd). Most folks would LOVE to go to Hawaii, right? Me, I am not as definite as hubby - yes, I was disappointed by the return to Hawaii too - Paradise Lost, Maui has changed so much, the innocence of that island we found 10 years ago was completely lost. However, I would not rule out a return, if, say, we fly to Asia or Australia, I would not rule it out as a stopover. Though I also think we would not particularly make a return trip. Because of the disappointment of Hawaii trip, hubby wanted a cruise. In fact he mumbled all along when we were in Hawaii, that we should be on a cruise instead. Therefore, when we saw a great fare for a Dec 7day sailing, we booked it. Now, if I am going to add a cruise to an already jampacked 2006 travel schedule, you wouldn't blame me to try to minimize the lodging costs if we have the points to use, on the other landtrips, wouldn't you? That is why I find Janisj's comment is rude about using hotel points. She(?) made the judgmental comments before knowing others personal circumstances and that set the tone of my response.

I think the best approach to any of these public forums are to merely give practical suggestions and give straight answers to questions asked, without inject lots of sentiment overtone. But, that is very hard to do.
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Old Jun 26th, 2006, 12:36 PM
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Airfare

There are a few places one can monitor for good airfares. The easiest one is to sign up for Fare Alert on Travelocity for wherever you want to go. Personally I like Flyertalk.com a lot and have learned a lot from posters there about how to use your miles and points the most efficient way, as well as how to EARN them the quickest way. Many times a fare error or a super cheap fare will be posted on that site by someone, just about a few minutes such fares loaded to booking system, as these are people being "obsessed" by "Mileage Run". Sometimes one of those fares would fit your need, or in our case, would make us jump in for a trip that is never in our "plan", such as this Sept trip. All I can see is a great $465 inclusive fare from East Coast to London, and leave Paris back home, for travels in July,August and thru October. From West Coast was only $50 or so higher, for PEAK SUMMER TRAVEL - Crazy, isn't it? We could actually enbed the Europe trip in our Pacific NW trip as PDX was one of the valid West Coast airport for this crazy UA fare. But we really want to enjoy NW in its summer glory and dont think we would like being in Paris in August, so we booked the Sept dates. Being free to travel anytime has its advantage, but also its disadvantage - there is always a better deal in the next turn after you committed... (Can I use LOL here without offending anyone?)

I did look up BA fare between EDI & CDG - the lowest one-way was UKL58 at the time I looked up, EasyJet LPL to CDG was UKL26. I haven't looked up AF at that time. Today, the same BA Connect flight is UKL78, and AF wants UKL61. I would spend the price difference to car rental and one-way drop off fee, so to see parts of Lake District.

Oh, the Air France site reinforce my disliking of Air France - you can only choose Air France U.S. or Air France France, if you go Airfrance.com - and Air France U.S. would only give you flights between U.S. & France. Air France France site only gives you flights within France. Well, that was what I found during the brief time spent on such sites. To find EDI to CDG, you have to go to Air France UK site. May be they have tabs on the Air France France site to click thru to find the UK site - but I gave up to wade thru the French, afterall my french learned from L'Alliance Francaise overseas was long gone.
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Old Jun 26th, 2006, 12:49 PM
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This is a dialogue of the deaf.

There may well be a cultural differnce, but the prior posters on this thread have hinted that maybe you needed to give some consideration to the way you were dealing with their suggestions, and you have ignored the hints.

"LOL" isn't offensive in itself; it's all in the context- "look at that man with no legs. LOL" is pretty offensive, as was your use of it before.

Even in "apologising" you seem to be suggesting that because you have such a wide array of friends, their tolerance of your rudeness is worth more than our intolerance.
different in this little group.

At no point has ANYONE suggested that Scotland should be beautiful to you or anyone else. Personally I think it should be,but if you don't like it, or any bit of it that's your loss.

There's not a cultural differnce between "map" and "atlas". It's a language thing. A map is a large flat piece of paper and an atlas is a book. The only way you could not have kown that, given your command of English, is if you had not been reading what people were saying. Mind you, that's not so unlikely, is it?

Your ability to completely ignore the message is being taken to such extremes I've come to the conclusion that it's all a wind up. The issue isn't the number of sheep.. it's the detail you'll get on the map.

What you got was advice on the questions asked. YOU brought in the sentiment- rudeness- and you haven't lost it yet.
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Old Jun 26th, 2006, 01:08 PM
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Nope, I have not lost it - whether the beauty of Scotland is lost in my eyes, that is not even an issue. Every place in the world that attracts tourists would at least have some beauty in certain people's eyes, otherwise, there would be no tourist. Of course, there are people who like to refer themselves "Travellers" not "Tourists" - but that is a totally different issue too.

The way I command the language? Would you believe all my English was learned here when I came as a grown up? There is not a single day in my school life I have received formal English education. In fact, in my freshman days, the lecturer was so rude that she claimed she did not understand WHY I scored the highest mark in grammar tests (mind you, this was a Freshman English Class in a State University), and yet my composition was so bad that I did not have a thesis, or whatever, the structure of any sort in the way she viewed it. She declared she would fail me no matter what, if I did not withdraw from her class. I was working full time and attending college, 9 hour load a semester. I could not afford her failing me. So I switched to an English class that was for foreign students - that class only held during the middle of the day, 3 days a week. I got the permission from work, to use my vacation time, so I could take off 2 hours during Mon, Wed, Fri, and drove 40 miles roundtrip to Downtown Houston area to attend my Freshman English Class for Foreign Student. That lasted the full semester. My car had no A/C and often I would return to work with my back soaked thru of sweat. I endured and got a B+ for that course. Did not know how I did it, but I did it. The rest of another 3 more English courses (2 for Freshman, 2 for Sophomore) I managed to get thru with decent grade B+ to A-. That is how I learned my English. So it aint any proper upbringing or social manner or whatever, but a need to survive, alright?
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Old Jun 26th, 2006, 01:09 PM
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And come to think about it, the "rudeness" is a fine result of the Education I received in this country, college education to boot.
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Old Jun 26th, 2006, 01:20 PM
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I thought the first question I asked was what is the difference in the Avis location description, as I thought it is a bit strange to have 2 locations at the airport, normally the terminal location is not even listed in U.S. as you cannot pick up the car at terminal.

The 2nd question I later asked after many posts was where are exactly the most senic routes, and the routes Noe mentioned.

All the other comments and my responses were derived from the post I said what we had in mind (in mind, not really an execution plan that MUST follow). but then everyone jumping up and down and such ... to the effect that I feel like to post back, to clarify things and to point out the fact that we are not your "normal" audience.

Just because I dont agree lots of the comments posted here, as they do not apply to our unique situation (but they probably are very well suited, and most suitable to others who also look to these boards for information), that I am being labeled being "rude" because, How dare I to speak my mind?
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Old Jun 26th, 2006, 01:29 PM
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Hey everybody - let's leave dear nho work this out on her own. She keeps interjecting totally irrelevant bits about her diverse friends, her education, visting Vancouver, blah, blah, just sort of diarrhea of the mouth IMHO. (nho - just a hint, you have absolutely no idea of the ethnic background of those who have tried to help you. I would not jump to any conclusions if I were you)

Funny thing is - nho was so stubborn/know-it-all, I somehow assumed we were working w/ a guy. (my appologies to all the men on here) I even told my Mom about this thread and said "I hope his poor wife gets some input on this trip from hell. Wonder how she feels about hours in the car w/o stopping to see anything"

Come to find out "he" is a she -- amazing!
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Old Jun 26th, 2006, 01:35 PM
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<< I thought the first question I asked was what is the difference in the Avis location description, as I thought it is a bit strange to have 2 locations at the airport, normally the terminal location is not even listed in U.S. as you cannot pick up the car at terminal. >>

Fairly standard prctice in the UK - it tells passengers from flights that you can sort things out at the terminal & it tells other people that theuy don't have to go to the terminal to pick up a car
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Old Jun 26th, 2006, 01:56 PM
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nho, I was figuring that English was not your first language (and guessing that you are originally from Asia) which is one reason I was very careful in my post about maps to say both "fold out map" and "book atlas".

Here's the quote:
"Buy or order a big fold out map for your overview - something like the Michelin 501 Regional Scotland map. It will help so much with laying it all out. Then you will NEED a book atlas map for the actual fine tuning and the driving."

Part of this is about paying attention.
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Old Jun 26th, 2006, 03:19 PM
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Noe,

I gather you are right about spell out the difference between Atlas and Maps. A kind cyber friend on FT told me he would be on the look out to get me TheAA version of Atlas/Maps he used at those discount places he often saw popping up around London. He said his Atlas was published by TheAA, it had 6.99BP printed on but he paid only 1.99. He insisted I do not need to order one here.

AlanRow

Yes, I understand now it is a common practice - their U.S. counter parts hardly have any personnel at their Terminal desks these days, everyone takes the shuttle to the rental car center or individual depot - thus I thought for a moment, is there really a place at the Terminal for picking up the car? Common sense says it should not be.

Janisj

My husband thinks the routes are piece of cake, if you think I am being overly confident, you aint hear nothing yet. He has the background to think so though, I must say.
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Old Jun 26th, 2006, 03:32 PM
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Janijs

I never insult you or anyone eventhough I dont really feel lots of the advices applicable to us, but your last post truly crossed the line. It shows what a person you really are though. Pitty you to use such language. Dont know what kind of upbringing or education you have received. Sorry there is a poster who challenge your post and put some damper on your "Authority" image power trip.

The reason I told a little bit of my story is to answer Sheila who obviously think given my command of English, I am playing with this board - as she uses the phrase "wind up" - incidentally I just learned about the meaning of such slang over the weekend on Flyertalk.com under United Forum - someone from Australia used this term and quite a few others do not understand what it is until another person posted an explanation.

Noe

You are the person who has class - being consistently patient, polite, and not getting personal. And yes, Noe, I should read things more slowly and carefully - I have a small problem of jumping lines when I read. One time in school when doing multiple choices I miss-matched a full line and the whole test was screwed. My professor let me re-do another, different set of the test he made up immediately after he realized what happened - as he knew the answersheet was totally out of whack, and he had the wit to move the answers by one line and then everything would work out.
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Old Jun 26th, 2006, 07:30 PM
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I wondered how this post got so long. Lordy! I think I'll go have a glass of wine!

Fellow Fodorites...More patience than I could muster.
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Old Jun 26th, 2006, 08:10 PM
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Heck - wine is the only thing that got me through it

(actually a bit of Macallan 12 year old if truth be told)
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