Best car rental pick-up and drop-off points for our UK roadtrip
 

Dear all,

DH and I couldn't decide on WHICH area to explore: Cotswolds or Kent, so we decided to do both! Anyway, we enjoy road trips, and driving around.

Based on your useful suggestions, I was able to book 2 B&Bs: Sissinghurst Castle Farmhouse (in Sissinghurst) for the Kent leg and the Boxtree Cottage near Burford for the Cotswolds.

We'll be coming from London and, again following the advice of a Fodorite, would like to train from London towards Kent area, and pick up our car rental somewhere around there. Then drive around Kent, stay a few days, then drive to Cotswolds, stay a few days. Then drive towards London, drop-off our car near London, then train back. Basically avoid driving IN London, and maximizing the use of the car.

1. Can you suggest pick-up and drop-off points? Because of our indecision, we'll have to pick-up and drop-off in 2 different places
2. Any suggestions on which car rental company?
3. Any suggested routes? Most scenic? We're not really in a rush, and the journey is part of the fun!

Thanks everyone again!

Kat

Super itinerary -- and both B&Bs are wonderful.

Your pick up and drop off locations are easy peasy. Train to Gatwick and collect a car there for Kent/East Sussex, then afar the Cotswolds, drop the car at Heathrow and tube into town. Start w/ autoeurope.com - often (but not absolutely always) they have the best rates. They are a broker so get good rates w/ all the major players.

As for routes - you really don't need 'routes'. Just decide which sites you want to see in each area. How many nights at each B&B?

As a crude generalisation, the best way to get from Sissinghurst to Burford is to drive up to the M20, then take the more or less all-motorway M20/M26/M23/M40/A40 route.

Unless there's something you really, really want to see en route, looking for a "scenic" alternative is a dismal exercise in highly congested and frustrating futility. It's a hundred and forty miles of some of the most densely-packed and unremitting suburbia on earth - and the (not that infrequent) bits of pretty scenery are best seen from the motorways anyway.

There's tons of stuff around Burford and Sissinghurst to potter around, and the hours any diversion between will involve is time you could be spending a lot more productively at either end.

Some almost-sensible alternatives involve turning off the M25 onto the M4, then one of :
- heading to the M40 along the A404
- heading north on the A34, then round Oxford
- heading north on the A419/A361 direct to Burford

These have places nearby (like Windsor) you may decide you can't miss. But I really wouldn't look for diversions that aren't within a few miles of one of those routes. There are far more enjoyable places to get lost in than the major non-motorway roads of SE England.

Oh -- I didn't consider you were looking for a route from Kent to Burford. If that's what you wanted, flanner's post is spot on. There really isn't a 'scenic' route -- just move from one region to the other. But a lot depends on how long you are spending in each base -- hopefully several days each.

And I just saw a typo in my post (darn iPad auto correct) >>then <u>after</u> the Cotswolds . . .<<

Thanks janisj and flanneruk! I'll show your answers to DH since he's the one planning the route. We are staying 2 nights each base. I could definitely spend more time, but then will have to cut our London leg short. Am sure I'll want to go back.

janisj - thanks for the suggestion of Gatwick and Heathrow! Makes a lot of sense. For some reason I thought I'd have to train to some town outside London! Researching now.

Oh - trust me . . . It is MUCH easier getting used to the driving out of the airport rather than in the center of some provincial town. Town/city driving isn't for newbies ;)

And returning a car at LHR may be one of the easiest locations in England. Easy access off a couple of motorways and well sign posted. Then they shuttle you to the terminal so you can hop on the tube into London.