Cornwall and Devon
 

We will spend a week with family in London and then my husband and I will travel to Cornwall and possibly Devon (March 20-27). I could add a few days if needed but would need to do so fairly soon. I have just started reading about the area and I know of a few spots that are not to miss: St Ives, Lost Garden of Heligan. We like hiking, National Trust properties, gardens, browsing cute towns, and art. We'd like to visit where Doc Martin was filmed. Exmoor National Park looks like maybe a stop is warranted. Any recommendations of villages to visit or sites that should not be missed.
I have not started to think about transportation yet. We have driven in England so are fine with that. We could pick up a car just outside of London or take a train part of the way and then pick up a car. Any suggestions? Ideally I'd like to stay in a place for 3 days and do day trips from there and then another location for 3 days or so. Any hotel recommendations would also be appreciated.
Thank you in advance.

Some suggestions.

Not knowing anything about the accommodation style you prefer, I recommend the place I stayed outside St. Ives. Thurlestone House, “wonderful (9.3)” on booking.com, parking in front to save you the congestion of St. Ives. Walking distance from town, either along the sidewalk beside the road or down to the Coast Path, my preference, more interesting.

You’ll have a car but, on days when you’d like someone else to do the driving, there’s a train station directly below Thurlestone House, Carbis Bay, & a bus stop a few steps away for the circular route that goes by Lands End, villages & to Penzance, a very nice town to spend a day & to see St. Michael’s Mount.

If you enjoy visiting historic houses, Trerice is an Elizabethan manor house not far off the road to Newquay. Wonderful. See the National Trust website, the link won’t paste.

Do you know if we are able to visit St Michael's Mount in March?

Yes.

https://stmichaelsmount.co.uk/winter/

I was born in Cornwall and occasionally go back for the odd long weekend when we go to stay with friends in Devon. We usually head towards Padstow and use that as a base, saying at Rick Steins Seafood restaurant - https://rickstein.com (he has a variety of other places there too. Lots of great walks in the area inc. the Camel Trail and Port Isaac, the setting for Doc Martin is 20 mins away. It is also not a bad base for heading to other parts of Cornwall, though bear in mind that , in the main , roads are narrow and it can take longer than expected . In March, at least you should be missing the holiday traffic

When we do go it is either from London or Oxford and I would strongly recommend taking the train and picking up a rental car, somewhere like Exeter or Penzance. You could always drop teh car back at Heathrow, though it is probably quicker and certainly easier to get the train to LHR from Exeter. It is a long boring motorway drive to the west country. There are some prettier, routes (one via Stonehenge if that is of interest ) but they do take much longer.

Have you checked when Easter is? Sometimes in March, and that would make it busier and possibly pricier.

Easter is 3/5/6 April next year. # April is Good Friday and a Bank Holiday in the Uk as is Easter Monday - 6 April.

catch23, I am just getting back to working on the Cornwall piece of the trip. I have been busy with trying to organize London and then of course Christmas. We need to make a decision about where to rent our car. We have been told before that we are crazy to drive out of London but we did it last year outside of Heathrow up to the Yorkshire Dale's and had no problem.
the time we have for Cornwall is..depart London the morning of March 20 to March 30 at 1:35 flight. Here are the options we are considering:
1. Catching the train to Exeter out of London (I think about 4 hours). We might consider staying somewhere in that area and then visiting Dartmoor National park the next day. Then to Padstow for 3-4 nights. Then to St Ives or Penzance for 3 days. Then back towards Heathrow, possibly stop at Stour Head. Spend our last night near the airport.
2. Pick up a car at Heathrow (Holiday Inn, West Drayton) and then drive to Padstow (4.5 hours).Spend 3-4 nights. Then to St Ives or Penzance 3-4 nights. Next head back towards the airport and visit either Exmoor Nat'l Park or Dartmoor Nat'l Park. Back to the Holiday Inn to catch our flight the next day.
3. We could catch the train (about 5.5 hrs) to either Truro ( I think we have to pick up the car at the airport) or Newquay Airport. Then spend a few nights in Padstow then to St Ives or Penzance and then work our way back to Heathrow and probably do one of the national parks.
I will appreciate feedback on these options.
Happy New Years

"We have been told before that we are crazy to drive out of London but we did it last year outside of Heathrow up to the Yorkshire Dale's and had no problem."

There is a WHOLE lot of difference driving through London and driving from LHR or near LHR.

Of your choices I'd either rent the car at LHR . . . if I wanted to visit any places en route - like Wells or the Dorset coast etc.

Or take the train to Exeter and rent a car there -- probably staying one night there to see the cathedral and start out exploring Dartmor

I think your 4.5 hours LHR to Padstow would have to be on a very very good travel day. My worst trip like that was 10.5 hours. I much prefer now to catch a train to Cornwall. Yes they do get delayed on occassion but normally only by 30 minutes.

Hi Tidy,

First off, I don't think you would be crazy to drive out of London; it is not really any worse (or better) than any other major city. Make sure you rent a car with satnav and you will be fine. It is more that it will likely take much longer by driving than google or whatever may indicate. I would assume 7-8 hours plus to Padstow. You would need to stop a couple of times along the way and this would be at motorway service stations which are nothing other than a conglomeration of fast food outlets at premium prices! The exception being the farmshop at Gloucester service on the southbound M5.

We do usually drive to the West Country but mainly because we start and end at different destinations. Our friends who live in Devon and come to London regularly invariably get the train (even though they have a Bentley in the garage).

Visiting Stourhead would seem to be the only reason to rent a car from London and drive. Exeter is a pleasant enough city for a night and picking up a rental there would allow time to see the cathedral and a steeping point for Dartmoor. If National Parks interest you, you could perhaps fit in Exmoor on the way back from Padstow before dropping teh car back at Exeter station for the train back to London.

If leaving from LHR then perhaps book an overnight stay in Paddington and get the Heathrow Express to the airport. I confess I am not a fan of staying at LHR unless for a very early flight, In which case I would use the Premier Inn which is nice enough and very inexpensive at around £60 pn.

You could take the train all the way to Truro and rent a car there (though Bodmin could be more convenient). I think much may depend upon the vagaries of car rental as which pick up and drop off options are available. Exeter would seem to make sense if you want to visit any sights in between Exeter and Padstow like the moors.

There are car hire depots in Truro and Penzance, but not Bodmin. Or rather, not Bodmin Parkway station, which is some distance from the town. Personally I think it makes sense to take the train to Cornwall and drive the other way, so that you are not repeating the long slow drive. But, to do that, you need to check both whether one way rentals are available and if so what the drop-off fees are. It might make economic sense to return the car from where you rent, so that might make Exeter more practical.

Don’t even think about hiring from Newquay airport unless you plan to fly in from London (which is perfectly possible). The airport is very awkward to get to and from without a car.

Grrr, thanks for your help, I will work on this later today. Any other ideas of where to rent the car from near London without going to Heathrow? I think there is a fee now to drive in London.

I just checked the Exeter location for auto hire and it appears to also be at the airport, so we would need to hire a taxi or Uber from the train station. Then when we return the car to Heathrow, there is the airport I assume and then also a place close by, called Slough. I will look at Truro later today. I think we looked at the train to Penzance and it is over 8 hours.

The trains to Penzance take 5 hours or a little more. Maybe you were looking at a weekend with some engineering work. There is no way that you can drive there that fast, especially if you have to build in getting to and picking up a hire car.

Slough might be a good place to drop off a car. It’s close to Heathrow and a short train journey albeit with a simple change at Hayes & Harlington.

if you use Auto Europe, Exeter shows 3 car rental places of which Avis is at the station.

I would recommend Auto Europe to deal with British legislational issues.

I will look some more today.

personally I would not use a third party provider like Auto Europe. I would much prefer to book with the car hire company I choose directly in case of any issues.

I would use Auto Europe for just the same reasons.

some years ago I discovered that my business unit also booked cars around the world and moved them to AE to get local legal negotiation ('cause most consumers don't know local laws) and to get lower prices. I saw the budget line stabalise out lower with fewer problems.

Car hire companies are sharks that offer terrible service, they need a broker to keep them honest

I have had much better customer service help from AutoEurope than from any of the majors -- I've rented probably 60+ cars in the UK over the years -- through AE, directly with majors, and small local firms. AutoEurope has built its reputation on excellent customer service.

We have rented cars MANY times and 4 times in England and this is certainly more challenging. I think it might be more challenging because we are requesting an automatic in smaller pick up locations. We can rent in Exeter but only at the airport. What would that be like? I know someone earlier said not to rent at Newquay Airport. It looks as though we can rent in downtown Plymouth and also Truro.

Train travel is more $$ unless we wait until 9:30 or so. If we choose to just rent in London and drive out of London I think we will go towards Dartmoor National Park. and spend the night there. Sixt has rental locations at Bloomsbury Sq Gardens,St Pancras/Kings Cross, Kensington, Victoria Station & 158 Marylebone Rd. We will be staying at the Ciadine Trafalgar, 18-21 North Umberland Ave, is there one location better than the other?
Are there toll road fees? I know there is a congestion fee to drive out of London, so we will need to either prepay or pay within 3 days for the day that we drive out. I guess that there is also an emissions fee if the car does not meet the standard, I would hope that the rental cars would meet the standard and we would not need to pay the fee.
Thank you to each of you for all of your help,I'm sorry that I keep asking questions about this.

tolls, the main bridge in Plymouth is just a few pounds
if you take any ferries (say in Cornwall) then they cost a few pounds
I don't think there is anything else along your route

Did you turn down the Exeter Station car rental for some reason?
If you want to be certain of automatic then hire an EV.

Here is a link to the TFL page for the congestion charge. https://tfl.gov.uk/modes/driving/con...on-this-page-0 . The charge is £18 per day so not a big deal in the greater scheme ... Unless you rent a diesel (v unlikely) the emission charge will NOT apply (rentals are not that old).

In terms of location, I would go for the cheapest and most convenient for getting out of town. As I may have mentioned previously, Marylebone is on the edge of the CZ and Sixt should be ok. It is a short run on the Bakerloo line, maybe 10-15 mins from Charing Cross which is a short walk from your apartment. Black cab or Uber would be slightly longer but may be better if you have lots of bags.
From Sixt it is a very short drive from from pick up to the A40 (Westway) which then continues on to the M40 . Once on the motorway it is a straight run via M4/M5 to the West Country. NB The 5 mile stretch from getting on to the A40 from Marylebone can get very congested. I do it most weeks it is usually ok in the mornings but it took me 30 mins on Saturday. Sixt should be able to tell you the best way to the Westway (it's only maybe 400 metres) avoiding the CZ.

On paper, the train may be more expensive, but slightly shorter on time (if no delays or cancellations . The drive is tedious and boring and could take much longer if you hit traffic problems - no way of knowing for certain.

Fron Exeter train station to the airport is 10-15 mis by taxi.

As suggested above, renting an EV is one way of ensuring an automatic (not that I think there would be a problem) but charging may be an issue. OK in London but you may have problems in Devon and Cornwall and you will almost certainly have to stop and charge en route to the West Country , especially in March.

Renting from Exeter Airport is doable but will just add time and bit of expense on to your journey. There seem to be Budget, Hertz and Enterprise depots in Exeter itself?

What is your date for travelling south west? If it's Friday 20th March I can see train fares to Truro for £42pp at 6am, 8am and 9am, Taking 4.5-5 hours. There is no way that you can beat that driving and if you do drive the driver won't be up for much when you get there.

I'm surprised that you can't fine an automatic car for hire. The car industry is rapidly changing here and now some 70% of new car sales are automatics. Given that's what car hire firms buy I would assume that each depot would have some now.

Hiring an EV would be a guaranteed way to get an automatic. I have been driving EVs for close to 8 years now and hiring one is my first choice almost anywhere I go now. Do you have any experience of them? It would be a perfectly fine solution, as long as you do a little planning when booking your accommodation. If you can book places either with a charging point on site or close by things will be very easy. For the longer journeys there are plenty of fast charging stations these days, but you want to only use them to top up because of their higher charging costs.

If you do decide to hire in London the simplest way to avoid the £18 Congestion Charge is to hire outside the zone, which will mean a short tube or taxi ride. I don't know the zone well enough to recommend somewhere but it should be straightforward. There is no way anyone will rent you a car not compliant with the wider ULEZ Zone.

We have never had or driven an EV car.

holiday is a great time try new things

I just did a quick request for a Hertz car picking up in Exeter and dropping off at Heathrow for a week from 20/3. I was given 12 options, 7 of which were automatic and two were electric. All between £275 and £320 for 8 days.

There is nothing to be feared in choosing an electric car.

John, are you in the UK? Earlier I tried to rent a car with budget at terminal five. We had done that last year and it was very easy to drive out and then we just stayed at the Holiday Inn where we dropped the car off. I was not able to find that same location again. Today I realized that I needed to go to budget.co.uk/rental. Then I was able to find it. I am curious if you are using a UK site to come up with the Hertz rental. I did just find what you were talking about, but I did need to go onto a UK site. I was not doing a UK site previously so many of these locations were not coming up, I find that odd. Some of the smaller towns also do not do one-way drops.

Yes I am in the UK and I was using the Hertz UK website. I also looked at Budget's UK site just now but that only showed cars at Exeter Airport and not in the city and in any event was much more expensive than Hertz. Thrifty also seem to be in Exeter as well.

autoeurope show all of these sites and you can compare all their prices on one screen

We ended renting both ways just outside of Heathrow, Bath Rd. It is with Budget and at the Holiday Inn location. We rented from them at the same location last year and it worked well and then when we returned it we stayed at the Holiday Inn, cheaper than the Sofitel and easy! Hopefully traffic won't be as bad leaving London on a Friday morning. I must say that I became a little anxious when someone mentioned train strikes. We were stuck a year and a half ago on one of the small islands in the Azores for three days because SATA went on strike. I was a day and a half late to start my Camino trek because of it. I do not hear of the UK doing the strikes as much.
We will probably arrange for 2 cars to take the 10 of us to the airport, the family will catch their flights and we will pick up the car and drive to Dartmoor for the night. Then I think we will have 4 nights in St Ives, 3-4 nights in Padstow and possibly go through Exmoor on the way to Heathrow. Any hotel recommendations in any of those locations will be appreciated.
I am grateful to each of you for all the help that you have given me.

Post #2 above, hotel with parking at the front door, St. Ives.

I have written Thurlestone House because it looks as though they may be closed in March.

I learned something interesting today and thought some of you would be interested because you are all so knowledgeable and helpful. Several of the suggestions that were made to me on this post I was unable to find because I was searching on a US website. So when I put in the UK site (for example Budget) I was able to see which rental locations and rentals you were seeing. I noticed on the UK rental sites I was not able to exclude the CDW & LDW coverage because all UK sites include that coverage and require it. When we rent a car, we decline the CDW & LDW coverage because it is included on a credit card that I have or it negates my coverage with the CC. So, if I want it excluded than I was told I need to rent on a US site. Then many of those car locations, for example, the one that we chose outside of Heathrow is not on Budget's US site. I hope I was able to explain this clearly are not available.