We are travelling to London Aug. 3 and after visiting 6 days, are heading to Edinburgh. It was suggested we train up to Edinburgh, then after seeing the city, rent a car for the rest of our trip. I have been reading travel message boards and am getting a bit overwhelmed at all the decisions to make. My husband leaves it all to me, so I am free to plan whatever is my whim! My grandmother was born in Airdrie so we have to go there, for sure. Now if we get a car (suggestions) in Edinburgh can we drive around Scotland and then take the ferry from Stranraer over to Belfast? We want to see some of Irleand and need to be in Dublin on Aug. 21 to fly home. We are great wanderers and love looking and seeing. I am figuring on staying in London 6 days. We get there Aug. 4th -- Leave Aug. 10 for Edinburgh and take the ferry on Aug. 15th to Belfast. Does this sound feasible? What are the rules & regulations for taking a rental car over to Ireland and dropping it at the airport in Dublin. Please! I need help. Thank you so much. Susan

With regard to hiring a car you will have to contact the major UK car hire companies before you book your car as quite a few will not let you take a car from the UK to Dublin or anywhere in Eire.
I would avoid Capital Car Hire in Edinburgh as it has been getting very poor reviews for customer service etc.
As you are going to Edinburgh during festival time you may be thinking about going to some of the shows / events and I would suggest that you look at the website www.edfringe.com as this lists the shows and they are already selling tickets online.
The Book Festival is also getting quite a few enquiries and you may wish to look at their website www.edbookfest.co.uk

Even IF you could find an agency that would let you take a car to Ireland - you wouldn't want to? It is very expensive to take a car on a sea ferry. (just think - would you rent a car in Miami and expect to drop it off in Puerto Rico?)

Airdrie is just east of Glasgow. So you could do a short 5 day driving tour from Edinburgh up to Stirling/Perthshire, the Trossachs, Loch Lomond, Airdrie -- and then fly from either Edinburgh or Glasgow to Belfast or Dublin depending on if you wanted N. Ireland or the Republic.

Thank you both for the information. I am looking into the events that will be going on when we are in Edinburgh. What do you think if we rented a car in Edinburgh and after touring, returned it in Glasgow and fly out to Shannon? We want to get there the most economical way. Does it matter where you fly from?/to? Which airline would you suggest? Also, does anyone recommend using one of the online hotel/B&B sites that you bid on? We are interested in getting the most bang for our buck (pounds) but not to the point of getting into mix-ups with reservations. Because of the time we are going, with more travellers, would we be able to find a B&B without reservations? Thanks again for you help.

Do you already have your accomodations in edinburgh? Certainly hope so - because Edinburgh is basically "full up" the entire month of August.

As for where to fly from/to - check out whichbudget.com. It lists most (but not all) budget airlines and which routes they serve.

The bidding sites like PriceLine aren't really an option for B&Bs. In general, the discount/auction sites are best for large cities/larger hotels. But Scottish/Irish B&Bs are pretty good bargains anyway.

You will probably want to pre-book your B&Bs after you work out your itinerary. Most of the year, winging it is fine, but August is the busiest month in both countries.

When you start to work out where you want to go - I'd suggest you start a new thread w/ a better title (probably should have suggested it in the first place)

"Car Rental" is way to general to get the sorts of info you want, and could be asking about anywhere in Europe. In fact "Car Rental" isn't even the main gist of what your are asking.