Our itinerary (subject to change) starts with London (no car), then picking up a hire car to drive to Cambridgeshire/Suffolk and around Britain to eventually finish in Kent before dropping off the car and catching the Eurostar to Paris...and on through France...

Our problem is finding one car hire company that has suitable locations for both pickup and dropoff.

We don't particularly want to get caught up in London again once having "done it", so rather fancy the idea of dropping off the car at Ashford where there is a Eurostar stop and near Rye where we'll be finishing our UK segment. But any car hire company that has depots at Ashford seems to have inconvenient pickup depots for setting off for Cambridge/Suffolk, while those that do have good locations for Suffolk etc (e.g. Enfield) don't have a depot at Ashford.

There are so many experienced travellers posting on this forum, and I'm hoping some will know of a car hire company that may meet these critera. Thanks...

I may or may not have hit on one. Sixt Car Rentals "say" they have a depot in Palmers Green London (near Enfield) and a depot in Ashford. Does anyone know Sixt? Are they OK?I'm just a bit doubtful because my attempts to enter these 2 locations as pickup & dropoff for the purpose of getting a quote on their website have so far been unsuccessful.

Isn't the simplest solutions to pick the car up from Luton, Stansted or City airports? Their hire companies will match Ashford's.

Assuming this isn't going to happen in the next two weeks, do remember that the number of trains from Ashord to Paris falls off dramatically after Nov 14

Sixt is widely used in Europe, especially in Germany. They are absolutely fine and many corporates use them. They bought out a UK car rental firm Kennings some years back.

Sixt is one of the largest/best known hire firms in Europe so no problems there.

I personally would go w/ the company w/ the best rates from either Stansted or Luton since all the "usual suspects" will have airport locations.

W/ the new Eurostar route, I'm not sure Ashford will be your best drop off location. But it depends on what rental drop offs are near Ebbsfleet - have not been in that corner of Kent for a while. W/ the new development I'd guess the same firms w/ depots at Ashford will have locations at Ebbsfleet.

Have you considered using a broker such as Autoeurope or Kemwel...you'd easily be able to find a car that could be picked up at one location and dropped at another without going from agency to agency website etc.

Even if you don't use them for the rental it might help in just knowing which agencies have offices where rather than assuming anything.

Hi two,

Have you tried www.gemut.com, www.autoeurope.com and www.auto-europe.co.uk ?

Thanks for all the suggestions. Sixt has since responded to my query and said they don't do one-way rentals between Palmers Green & Ashford, so I'm back to square 1. But now I have other avenues to try, thanks to everyone's help.

I could try Luton or Stansted, but I rather fancied seeing certain things on the drive from Enfield to Suffolk (Theydon Bois for example). And I fancied Ashford as the drop-off point because of its proximity to our last touring destination (Rye).

But, flanneruk, if, as you say, the London-Paris Eurostar is doing less Ashford stops after Nov 14, maybe I will forget about Ashford and try elsewhere. Alamo Rentals do Enfield pickups, for example, and drop-off at Dartford - probably handy enough for a rail connection to Waterloo.

twoflower: Yikes - When is your trip? Unless immediately - like the next 2 weeks - <b>you don't want to be anywhere near Waterloo</b>. The new Eurostar route goes from St Pancras station.

That is when Ashford sort of drops off the main schedule. Ebbsfleet will be the primary Kent station, and yes it is near Dartford.

twoflower:

Try www.nova.co.uk broker for major car hire places. Have used many times and always been satisfied.

Sandy

Let someone else do the work for you. Call AutoEurope (rather than use their website). They can tell you what agencies match up with the cities for both pick up and drop off that will be convenient for you. Get a price from them on a couple of the alternatives. You can see if you get a better price, but as they will probably tell you, then will match it. I've had phone reps there that really know what they are talking about right down to the locations on the edges of London that easiest for picking up or returning cars.