janisj

>>I don't plan to keep a car within Edinburgh or use a car within Edinburgh. The car would strictly be used to go outside out of the city. <<

That makes no sense as written. Unless you travel out to EDI each day to rent a different car, you WOULD be keeping the car and using it IN Edinburgh.

So no, renting cars just for day trips does not make sense in your situation. There are sooooooooo many places you can get to easily by train or small group tour, the logistics of renting a car will just screw things up IMO/IME

nutsnbolts

Thanks for the Rabbies tour suggestions. I'm assuming these tours pretty much take a day (I guess depending on the tour in itself).

>>
That makes no sense as written. Unless you travel out to EDI each day to rent a different car, you WOULD be keeping the car and using it IN Edinburgh.<<

What I meant is that while I'm in Edinburgh, I don't plan to use the car to get to one sight to another or to use it as a mode of transportation within the city.

In other words, I would start the rental during the day and go out of the city to explore, when I come back in the late afternoon, evening time I would park the car and leave it for the rest of the day while doing other things in the evening in Edinburgh. The next morning, I would grab the car and either return it or go out of town again. In either case, I say two days because usually car rentals are not just one day.

So yes, "technically" I would have to drive within Edinburgh to get to the my parking.

Dogeared

Nutsandbolts, I think everyone understands what you mean. The question is do you understand what everyone is saying about the practicality or sensibility of bothering to rent a car as you are thinking of doing.

What everyone is saying is you will waste more time than it is worth. With only 4 days, it makes no sense.

I'm done on this one, I don't like banging my head against a brick wall for too long at one time.

Gardyloo

It obviously matters <i>where</i> in Edinburgh you're staying. If you're staying in the Old Town, keeping a car overnight is going to be quite impossible. If you're in the New Town, it depends; extremely difficult but not impossible. In other parts of town, it might not be all that difficult. It's a big, congested European city; driving around is difficult but thousands of people do it successfully every day. And a car is quite useful for getting to some of the interesting areas on the edges of the city - picturesque Cramond Village on the Forth, for example, or Swanston Village with its thatched buildings, R.L. Stevenson connections and path up into the hills, south of the city. You could easily put together a day of touring these outlying areas, never actually leaving Midlothian.

janisj

nutsbolts: We understand exactly what you mean. But it seems I (we) aren't able to explain things so you understand us.

I visit Edinburgh at least once a year, often more, and have driven there MANY times. But I would <u>not</u> choose to have a car while staying IN the city unless for some weird reason I had no other option. Just no up side.


>>but thousands of people do it successfully every day<<

But they <i>live</i> there and know where the snake pits are. And there are MANY. I seriously doubt the OP is staying in Cramond - but maybe???

Fodorite018

Gardyloo--We stayed in Old Town, just off the Royal Mile. There was a parking garage about a block from our hotel, so it was very convenient for us.

I know that some here know much more about Edinburgh, but I just wanted to share our experience as well. I do agree that there is no need to drive for anything in town. It is easily walkable.

scotlib

Hi nutsnbolts,

I've stayed in Edinburgh 4 times (trip reports available by clicking my user name), each visit was a mix of in-town stuff and also some out of town trips.

I've used Rabbies for a day trip to St Andrews. Heart of Scotland Tours for seeing Hadrian's Wall (it's a long day, but then it's a longer ways away!).

Used the train one day for a visit to Carlisle. Another time rode the Falkirk Wheel after getting there by train and public bus. Bus service also got me from Edinburgh to East Lothian and back to visit the National Museum of Flight.

My trip research includes finding the web sites for places and many have a "how to get here" section - very helpful.

Another useful planning tool was http://www.travelinescotland.com/

Cheers.

nutsnbolts

Everyone, I understand what everyone is saying. It's more convenient to take a tour than going through the hassle of renting a car given the amount of time I have in Edinburgh.

In the end, I'm looking to explore my options but I need to understand what my options are within the city if I did rent a car and whether there were "convenient" places for me to park a car (as some of the other posters have had success with...). It seems like it will also depend on where I will stay withing Edinburgh for chance of success.

I know it takes time to get through the rental...take the car out of the city before I'm on my way to wherever versus just signing up with Rabbies tour.

I have not set anything yet in stone and thanks for giving me a heads up of what is realistically feasible based on my 4 days of stay in Edinburgh.

janisj

>>versus just signing up with Rabbies tour.<<

Rabbies is great -- but that isn't your only option. For instance -- Stirling is a VERY easy day trip by train . . . and cheaper than renting a car and driving.

historytraveler

As mentioned in an earlier post there are a good many options for day trips by train. So you have both Rabbies and trips via train as possibilities other than renting a car.

Having visited Edinburgh many times and doing day trips through Rabbies and by train, I would certainly recommend either of these ove a rental car. As already stated renting a car is more time consuming, driving in and out of Edinburgh can present a number of problems and, then, there's having access to parking. Have driven in Edinburgh but that was years ago and personally, even knowing my way around, I wouldn't bother with a car.

nutsnbolts

Thanks again everyone. Just to be clear, part of the reason for the rental car is simply the freedom and flexibility to stop at different locations on a whim (even if we didn't intend to).

At this point, I'll continue to look into Rabbies tour and other "train" friendly options.

Given that it's only 4 days I'm in Edinburgh and truth be told I haven't done much Edinburgh planning (this is secondary trip outside of London). I'm not sure yet if I can squeeze in the day trip.

I'll let everyone know how it goes.