Driving through the UK
 

I will be landing at heathrow by noon on Friday 20th May. Intend to stay overnight in London, then on Saturday rent a car and drive through the UK. My tentative route is Stonehenge - Bath - Chatsworth - York - Windermere - Keswick - Edinburgh - Inverness - Portree - London. i have two weeks.

I was thinking of doing a combination of car and train - maybe take the car in London, drop it off at either Keswick or Edinburg - take a train to Inverness, rent a car again for locations around Inverness/Skye and then take a train back from Inverness to London. Any suggestions of what would be the best way to plan this

Also, if I am just staying one night in London, what would be the most convenient location to stay / a convenient car rental location in terms of being able to easily get out of the city the next morning.

I am not from UK but am used to driving on the UK side of the road - so that is not a problem

I don't think it makes al ot of sense to trek into London for one night - but would rent the car at LHR and start out on your tour - putting all of your time in London at the end of the trip - after you have gotten rid of the car (which is a nonsense in London, given very heavy traffic and congestion pricing).

I understand why you want to be in London to get over jet lag. A wise decision.
But I also agree with the above that driving in and around the Capital my be stressful.
Have you considered pick up drop off in say Reading or Oxford?
Ensure you are allowed to take your hire car onto a ferry. A lot of them do not allow this in the T&Cs.

A few comments:

• >> My tentative route is Stonehenge - Bath - Chatsworth - York - Windermere - Keswick - Edinburgh - Inverness - Portree - London. i have two weeks.<<

Two weeks is not enough for all that. You need to cut back significantly. Definitely not enough time to travel the length of two countries twice.

• I might would not stay in central London. You could of course, but w/ a noon arrival you won't be at any centrally located hotel until probably 2:30 or 3:pm. You'll be jet lagged and probably will only manage a walk, dinner and sleep. So don't pay London prices for essentially a non-day. I'd stay either in Windsor or at a LHR hotel. You might be able to squeeze in a visit to Windsor castle -- but of not, Windsor is still a comfortabel place to wander around, eat. BUT -- I have what I think is an even better idea -- see below.

• >>maybe take the car in London, drop it off at either Keswick or Edinburg - take a train to Inverness, rent a car again for locations around Inverness/Skye and then take a train back from Inverness to London. <<

You don't want to collect a car in London -- if anywhere -- LHR is the best location. However what I'd do is:

Arrive LHR. Fly up to either Glasgow or Edinburgh about 4 or 5 PM. Collect car the next morning and tour the highlands/Skye -- at least 3 full days/nights required. Then to Edinburgh - drop car. 3 nights in Edinburgh. Train to York - 2 nights. Train to London.. That fills your two weeks.

as ever, JJ has the best ideas.

you can recover from your jet lag on the way to Edinburgh.

>>until probably 2:30 or 3:pm. <<

Sorry about the unintended emoticon . .

should be >> until probably 2:30 or 3 PM. <<

You could take the tube into central London stay there for one night then head back to LHR next day to pick up a rental car. I don't know where you are flying in from, but I can't see why you would not manage a bit more than a walk, dinner and sleep when you arrive. Even if you arrive at 3pm in central London, it's sufficient time to do something. However if you don't feel you can manage much on arrival, stay close to LHR and pick up the rental car the next day. In my experience, I don't arrive anywhere jetlagged, I arrive tired and jetlag kicks in over the next few days.

This would have been an ideal time to have booked an open-jaw ticket, flying into Edinburgh and out of London (or vice versa).

You could then have had the Scotland loop, then drove south into England before returning the car somewhere like Bath before heading into London

>>This would have been an ideal time to have booked an open-jaw ticket, flying into Edinburgh and out of London (or vice versa).<<

You are right of course. That is why I suggested the route I did. It essentially turns this into an 'open jaw'. If the OP flies north right after arriving at LHR he will be starting the itinerary in Scotland and finishing in London.

Hi guys - thanks for all the inputs - most most helpful

I will be flying in from India - dont get jetlagged usually but i think i would be tired enough that would like a shower and a bed before starting to drive

Open-jaw ticket - will explore - but I think from Mumbai most tickets to Edinburg are anyway via London and are much more expensive than tickets to and from London. Will explore anyway

What I hear overwhelmingly from all of you is not to pick u the car in London - not even from a location close to the motorway? - if so, then I will consider either spending the night at a Heathrow hotel or going straight to edinburg and doing the scotland leg first

JJ, I hear what you are saying about how much I can accomplish in 2 weeks. However I have spent time at both london and edinburg before and I would rather cut that out of my trip than cut the Lake County.

So - another option - if i can take a train from London straight to Inverness - can pick upp a car at Inverness and do Inverness / Skye. then drop the car back - train -to edinburg - spend a day or so there - pick up a car at Edinburg, drive to Kewsick - then York -then London - fly back from London. But then i would have to drop off the car in London - wont i find dropping off in London city far more stressful than picking up in London city and getting straight on to the motorway?

Sorry to ramble - at this point i only have an arrival and departure date - all the rest is still up for planning - so all suggestions are welcome

>>But then i would have to drop off the car in London - wont i find dropping off in London city far more stressful than picking up in London city and getting straight on to the motorway?<<

Only time for a quick comment right now -- it is very late where I am. You don't really want to pick the car ip or drop it in central London. For the London area, collecting and dropping a car is easiest at Heathrow. The car rental agencies are all located right off the main motorways to the West, Midlands, and the South. Driving in the city is very stressful if one isn't totally used to it, plus there is a congestion charge that you have to pay to even drive through.

Thank you Janisj.

will follow your suggestion and go straight to edinburg and let scotland be the first leg of the tour - moving from edinburg to the highlands

In which case, I will take a train from inverness into england. My question here is - if I want to see the Lake District as well as York - I guess the best way is to take the train to Penrith, then hire a car, see the lake district, drive to York, spend a couple of days there and drop off the car before taking a train to London. is that a practical plan? penrith is not teeming with car hire depots but i am hoping i will be able to find some agency which lets me pick up a car here and drop off in york a few days later

What should be my ideal base be to see the lake district? or should i plan to spend a night each in keswick and windermere?

You can pick up a rental car in Carlisle for the lakes.

I found Windermere a bit busy for my taste. We stayed in Grasmere. But others like Keswick.

Are you still planning to drive to Skye?

yes i am planning to drive to Skye. Any suggestions?