Car(minivan rentals in Europe)/Recommendations for kids ages 7,11, & 15
 

We will be traveling with 3 kids (7,11&15) for 5 weeks in Europe-- June through early Juyly, starting in Manchester and ending up in Edinburgh. First question - we are thinking of driving from Tuscany down to Amalfi coast over three weeks. Are minivans available to rent or will we be stuck in a sedan? Any recommendations for car rental agencies?
2d q- we are not stuck into any particular itineray. Our only constraint is that we are flying into Manchester in early June and departing back to States 5 weeks later from Edinburgh. We love Italy, and were thinking about spending a fair amount of time there. As to the rest, we intend to spend about 4 days in London, and are up in the air about what else we want to do with the kids. Some ideas are Amsterdam, Paris and Loire Valley, and the Scottish highlands at the end. My son is pressing for Belgium and Monaco. We are planning to spend about 4/5 nights in most places. Can anyone shed some light on some highlights we might want to schedule in?

Go to this site and you will get an idea of what you can "lease" if you intend to have the car more than 17 days:

http://www.renaultusa.com/

We got upgraded to a Renault Scenic once and thought this would be a marvelous car for a larger group. I think it would seat 5 but really can't remember though as there were only 2 of us.

7 passenger mini vans are readily available in Manchester and all over Europe. You might want to do some scheduling as you might do better to pick it up on the Continent after crossing the Channel. In general it is easiest to avoid having a car in bigger cities, like London.

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We rented a 7 passenger mini van in Glasgow during our last trip 2 years ago. It was a Renault Espace, and held 7 passengers with minimal room for luggage - the minivans (or people movers) are generally smaller than in the States - similar to a Mazda 5 in the US. Still, it was large enough for our 3 kids and mother-in-law. We rented from Thrifty Car Rental, but shop around to see the best rate.

We have rented a Renault Scenic twice in the UK for our family of 4 (2 teens). It was a great amount of space for 4 and luggage. Could probably work for 5 if you pack fairly light. I think it is technically a 7 passenger, but a bigger 7 passenger minivan would be more comfortable. The trade off is the handling and parking on smaller European roads and towns. Single track roads in Scotland were tricky enough in the Scenic.