Is it better to rent a car in the US for travel around England or wait until we get there. Three adults and two young teenagers. We want to go see castles, country pubs, countryside and everything of interest on the way. Day trips for seeing everything would be way over budget, I think. Since I am reasonably sure that Fodorites have done English tours I look forward to your help. Would be interested in learning of all your favorite destinations. We will be there 2nd week in September. Thank you.

Cheaper to book car online before you go. How many nights do you have? One full week? Spending any time in London?

"<i>Day trips for seeing everything would be way over budget, I think.</i>"

I have no idea what this means? Do you mean commercial day trip tours from London -- or something else. Just about all sightseeing is by day trips of some sort. Yes, guided tour day trips by bus for a family of 5 will cost a fortune. If you mean staying IN London and renting a car to do multiple day trips out to the country - that is not a good idea.

But to stay in London for several days and then rent a car to leave the city and stay somewhere else - that makes sense.

There are hundreds and hundreds of threads on here about what to see/do in England. You need to give us a bit more help - like have you decided where you are staying (outside of London).

Whatever - it is much less expensive to rent a car bin advance before you leave home. Check out autoeurope.com to at least get you started

Skaye:

Here is another car broker that we have used htp://www.novacarhire.com

Do you want recommendations on where you could base yourself for a week to see castles, country pubs?

Come back with a bit more information.

Sandy

You are all marvellous.. OK.. We are staying in a house in London - booked for 3 weeks - plan on going to Edinburgh for about the first five days - going by train -staying with friends - then staying in London for "a while", then renting the car in London to travel around for about a week.. then see more of London. I realize three weeks isn't very long for all that so we are trying to be as flexible as possible to please everyone! I know there are lots of day trips but the price for five people really mounts up! I had thought that if we rent a car .. Thank you for the web sites... headed north and west then cut across and go through Coventry and see the Norfolk Broads... As janisj says it is possible to do day trips to almost everywhere from London but apart from the cost I thought it would be more fun to just travel around and see more of England instead of coming back to London every night. I welcome all suggestions - not only about car rentals but also places to stay. It used to be in Sept that places weren't so crowded and you could get a couple of rooms when you arrived in a town.. Why am I sure that has changed??!! Apart from the help, it is a pleasure to hear from all of you. Thank you.

Just thought I would add.. I realize that three weeks isn't long enough for anything but a brief overview -but it is the first visit for them (hopefully not the last) and that is especially why I would like recommendations for Everything!!

"<i>As janisj says it is possible to do day trips to almost everywhere from London . . . </I>" Actually that isn't what I said -- or at least not what I meant

I meant your saying day trips are budget busters was confusing. IF you mean day trips on coaches (buses in US-speak) - then, yes they are very expensive. But ALL sightseeing is day tripping from somewhere. "Day Trip" doesn't just mean paying someone to take you from place to place. If you are staying in say the Cotswolds and driving a rental car to Stratford/Warwick - that's a day trip.

So now that is sort of cleared up - you meant Day Trip <B>=</B> Bus Tour.

And using a car to go out of London for multiple day trips makes little sense -- time or budget wise. There are congestion charges in London, plus parking is difficult/expensive, and the traffic is bad.

"<i>I thought it would be more fun to just travel around and see more of England instead of coming back to London every night</i>"

Yep - That's what I meant by >><i><blue>But to stay in London for several days and then rent a car to leave the city <u>and stay somewhere else</u> - that makes sense.</i></blue><<

So - now that all the semantics are sort of straightened out - You think you have about a week for your outside-of-London touring. Norfolk is interesting --but might be a bit underwheliming for tweeners unless they are into birding or such.

I'd consider Oxford/Stratford/Warwick and maybe North Wales (coastal and mountain scenery and lots of castles to blow your socks off). (Or South Wales - not as dramatic scenery but lots to see and a bit closer.)

Or - York/Yorkshire (Moors, Dales, castles, York/Vikings/etc) and then back through Cambridge and Norfolk/Suffolk.

Or - the Southwest -- Devon/Cornwall/Dorset-- amazing seaside and moor scenery, some castles, etc.

Any one of the above would make a good 5-7 day side trip.

I thank you for your comments. I think we will end up taking the "bus-tours" and keeping London as our base because the house in London is already rented.. Yes, I know, plan ahead! Plus, as you said, parking charges are horrific - plus the rental of a van big enough for five people. I think this trip will be used as a learning curve and the next one will be better planned and probably more efficient and economic! I will post again for restaurants around Camden Town/Market.

Im 2008 we stayed in London for 2 weeks and went on 5 day trips using public transportation. We got an EnglandRailFlexPass which gave us 4 days of flexible train travel (to anywhere we wanted to go in England) (then we used public transport from the train stations where we alit to then get to whatever site we were headed to). One day rode the OxfordEspress which is a bus/coach (got on at Marble Arch area near NE corner of Hyde Park) to and from Oxford.

This--using London as a base and using public transport for day trips--was a great option for us. If we'd had another week we could have still spent time in London, and/or we could have taken more day trips. We preferred to plan our own days/trips/tours which were cheaper than taking a packaged tour. But there are advantages to those sometimes.

Here's the link to my trip report which if you want to read might give you some ideas. Definitely look into the BritRail or EnglandRail Passes (they aren't the cheapest way to do rail travel but they provide complete flexibility in that you just show up any day any time to take any train, as long as the pass is still valid).
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...-day-trips.cfm

(In 2 weeks we are headed back and after 4 days in London are renting a car for 9 days, but the London-as-base thing we did in 2008 was also great--and DH wasn't willing to drive then but after some business travel driving in England and Wales is now willing to drive me and DD around!)

If you want to do day trips out of London, to say Canterbury, Oxford, Bath, Salisbury, Brighton etc, you can easily do this on your own by using trains or buses. London Walks www.walks.com also offer day trips with guided walks thrown in, they are good value and it might be fun to join a few other people.

Once you have some idea of where you want to go for the day, people on this forum can tell you how and where to buy train tickets and which station the train goes from. Don't drive in central London, you simply don't need a car when public transport is so good and parking will be difficult and expensive.

Kay (If you visit Brighton you must check out the Royal Pavilion, built for The Prince Regent in 1787. It's spectacular and quite unique inside.)