Car rental/return near London
 

Am looking to rent a car outside of London heading toward Canterbury and Dover. Will be staying near the Holburn Station in London. Read some posts about heading via tube to Maidstone for car rental. Are the car rental places near the Maidstone tube or do I need to take a bus from the tube to get there?
At the end of our driving trip we will be visiting Oxford and Blenheim. Where is the most convenient place to return the car before heading back to London for our last night? Thanks for any help you can give

no tube to Maidstone but regular trains- IMO if going that far may as well go right on to Canterbury and pick up your car.

Oggsford would be a good place to return the car - an hour from London or less by train.

OK -- train to Maidstone, collect a car there and drop it at Heathrow. OR -- where else are you going in Southeast England? If you are going to visit Dover -- I'd consider taking the train to Dover and picking up the car there.

The problem w/ Canterbury is there are few national rental chains there making a one-way rental more difficult.

Heathrow is the easiest place to drop a car, but Oxford is OK depending on which rental company you use. They are ALL at LHR, a few are in Oxford.

Are there surcharges for airport drop-offs?

If driving from Maidstone you can easily stop by Leeds Castle, one of the most picturesque in England - nice dog collar museum:

https://www.google.com/search?q=leed...w=1920&bih=950

A few miles out of Maidstone towards Canterbury.

Maidstone is a lively regional market town few tourists ever visit- great place for a spot of tea or lunch before picking up the car perhaps. Nice setting on Medway (?) River.

Ebbsfleet International train station - on the Channel Tunnel high speed line from St Pancras could be a good choice if they have cars -outside any real city -just zoom away.

I wanted to get the car prior to Canterbury as there seems like no car rentals from out of there...so am looking for an easy rental car pick up somewhere out of london..headed from London to Canterbury and spending the night in Dover. Wanted to avoid the airport surcharges for airport drop offs so looking for someplace between Oxford and London to drop off car...this rental place needs to be near transport so we can easily get there with luggage and head back to London for last night.

Oxford and London to drop off car.>

Check out Reading -direct air bus to Heathrow I think and constant trains to London - a sizable city north of Heathrow.

>> so looking for someplace between Oxford and London to drop off car...this rental place needs to be near transport so we can easily get there with luggage <<

What you want doesn't really exist. First of all - what surcharges? I have rented nearly 50 cars in the UK and normally don't have one-way drop off fees and it seldom costs more to use airport locations. Try autoeurope.com


The very easiest place is at LHR because they will shuttle you to the terminal and you can take the tube into London -- or in Oxford.

As I said in my first post your best options to pick up the car are in Maidstone or Dover

ps: I have rented cars in Kent, in London, in Oxfordshire, at LHR, and at LGW.

I'm a bit confused, but, FWIW (a) could you drop it in Oxford and (b) are you sure you need to pick up and drop off in the same locations?

kja yes, Oxford is a drop off option but I just need to make sure I can get back to London easily from wherever I leave the car...don't want to shlep luggage too far in order to get to train,etc.--does anyone know distance from Oxford rental places to train back to London???--no I plan to pick up and drop off at different places

Maidstone pick up is looking like a great option --does anyone know what kind of distance from train to rental car places--are they near the train station in Maidstone--

janisj--glad to hear about not having surcharges for different pick up & drop off locations or airport dropoffs --that is very rare!! Looking into autoeurope for car rentals

Beggars can't really be choosers. :) If you have set on an itinerary that starts in Canterbury, ends in Oxford, and you want easy access to transport, you'll have to take what you can get.

If you end up w/ a surcharge (most likely not), if you have to take a cab from the train to the rental agency, if you have to detour a bit from your planned route to get the car . . . so be it.

You must use national/international chains since you need a one way rental - and they are only in very limited locations.

Another consideration is days of the week you are traveling. Many city center locations have limited hours and or are closed on weekends

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I just had a thought -- look at Ashford. Trains from London, and at least 3 major rental companies.

Ashford International is a "parkway" station near Maidstone with an Avis operation n site. It has three or four conventional trains an hour from London and highspeed trains slightly more often than hourly, though at a premium.

Avis Oxford is almost at Oxford's city-centre railway station, which means it's a real pain to drive to, but easy to get a taxi to your hotel from. Europcar has an operation near Oxford airport, almost at Blenheim gates, a joy to drive to and a taxi or bus ride to the station. Oxford Parkway, a mile away, is the handiest and cheapest station for there.

Hertz and Thrifty are tricky for the central Oxford station with luggage, and you really need to call a cab

Coordinating luggage, a car, sightseeing in Oxford and getting a train to London isn't at all straightforward, as there's no left luggage at Oxford station and it really isn't easy to park (or navigate) in the city, where we're committed to making life impossible for drivers.

From Oxford we returned our car that we had picked up in Cambridge at Heathrow Airport and took the Underground to our London destination.

Thank you for all responses..you have given me many options to look into..love all the great advice I get from Fodorites!!