Four of us will be spending three nights in London and then heading to Scotland for six days. We want to start in Glasgow, rent a car and drive around to Edinburgh, where we'll fly out of. My question is: Should we rent the car in London and drive from there, fly from London to Glasgow or take the train?

If you are renting a car anyway seems it would make more sense to pick it up in London (or a suburban town to avoid London's oft horrendous traffic though a Sunday departure can negate that) - the drive is along motorways which are good to start driving on the other side if American at least - you could even hit some nice places for a short stop en route, like York.

Trains can be very expensive or very cheap depending on how far in advance you book and the type of restrictions such as on the lowest fares no changing of your specified train nor refunded and since they are sold in very limited numbers you must grab them weeks in advance. Actually there are several tiers of fares with varying conditions but if you just show up and buy a ticket you may pay much more - hundreds of bucks more for your group than by going to say www.nationalrail.co.uk and nabbing a cheap ticket weeks in advance. And there is also an overnight train, except Saturday nights I believe. For lots on British trains check out these fab IMO sites - www.seat61.com; www.ricksteves.com; www.budgeteuropetravel.com. And do not book thru American travel agents as they only sell basically full fare and fully flexible tickets and not usually the discounted ones - for what you'd pay in North America check out www.seat61.com and click on their commercial link to Rail Europe, one major purveyor of British tickets in the U.S. But again better check out www.nationalrail.co.uk and see what is available and do not dally if wishing the cheapest tickets, which can be very cheap - perhaps cheaper than the petrol going by car and you would not need a day or two of car rental that way.

Driving up makes no sense -- <i>unless</i> you want to spend at least 2 or 3 full day for the drive north -- there is plenty to see/do along the way.

But to just get from London to Scotland before touring by car -- driving up will merely eat up an entire day.

Trains take 4+ hours - so about 5 hours by the time you get to the rental car sorted out.

If you fly to GLA in the early AM, total travel time will be a bit less - you do have to figure the time to get out to LHR. But w/ an early flight you could still be to Loch Lomond by mid morning.

We have driven up twice - but we were doing a road trip. That is, once we took 6 days and once 5 to get there - stopping in a couple of places along the way to see a variety of towns and sights.

Agree with Janis -- unless you plan on stopping a day or two somewhere, best to take the train. Only advantage of driving is it might be cheaper with 4 people, but you'd have to get a car big enough for all four plus luggage.

We did the drive up and back last summer -- I used to love driving in England, but now with all the motorways being redone, clogged up, and with those darn speed control cameras -- that can double the drive time!

Unless you intend to do a loop of Scotland it's better to travel to somewhere like Inverness (fly or Sleeper train), hire a car then head south to Glasgow / Edinburgh which are only an hour apart

I made the drive from London (LGW) to Edinburgh and it was a much longer drive than I anticipated. On the way back to London we made some stops along the way in England so for that reason I have no regrets. But if it's just a matter of getting from London to Edinburgh I would take the train. By using the train you can enjoy the countryside without the hassle of a long drive.

why not just fly from London to Scotland?

Since they are all ready in London <I> " Four of us will be spending three nights in London and then heading to Scotland </I>" it is far easier and certainly no more time consuming to take the train.

Did I really say all ready instead of already ? Oops

For tickets prices and schedules www.nationalrail.co.uk For Glasgow, use Euston Station (London) to GLC ( Glasgow Central Station).

Petrol/diesel fuel prices are outrageous in the UK... it is about £1.36/litre for petrol - though probably higher in the London area.

I don't know about how much train tickets will cost, but I think the journey on the train would be far more enjoyable than sitting on the motorway for several days. Plus, by booking tickets in advance you can get cheaper fares.

the ultimate time-saver would be to take the overnight train from London Euston to some place in Scotland. Google Caledonia Sleepers for info and some real deals - could either get two adjoining doubles or I think a quad.