Rental Car Pickup in London
 

We will spend 4 days in London and then rent a car for 13 days, dropping it off in Glasgow. Leaving London, we will first go to Windsor and then Oxford. Where would be a good place to pick up a rental to minimize our driving in London? Is there anywhere easier then returning to the airports?

Thank you.

Steve

The best place would be either at Heathrow or in Windsor. You can take the train to either (or the tube to LHR) and will be outside the worst of the London traffic. Windsor is very close to LHR. I'd personally probably choose LHR simply because every nation-wide chain has an office there - making it easy to work out a one-way drop off at Glasgow.

We picked up our ar in Marylebone - which gave us a sraight shot out to the west - without having t drive through the most congested central areas. I don;t get going all the way out of town to pick up a car - why not just do it close to where you're staying?

if you pick up your car on a sat. or sun. early go to your hotel and then leave town you won't have a problem getting out of town. i did it. there are alot of rental agencies at victoria station where we got our car. have fun.

nytraveler - your idea does sound fine in theory, but you can easily come up against awful traffic, particularly if you head out of London on a weekday afternoon or a Saturday morning. London traffic is also very aggressive and unforgiving of people who (a) don't know where they're going and (b) aren't used to driving on the left side of the road. For stress levels alone, I'd go to Heathrow, where it's then an easy drive to Windsor (people are MUCH nicer drivers once you get out of central London).

We had this same issue. We looked at Marylebone and LHR. We chose LHR.

Janis is correct about LHR having more availability, open 24 hrs, etc. Marylebone was more limited especially on automatic cars.

Never having driven in a foreign country before, much less on the wrong side, LHR was an absolute breeze to get on the M. We too stopped in Windosor for the day after picking up the car. Picking up at LHR and the short drive to Windsor gets you used to the "different" aspects of driving in England, but allows you a break to regroup and de-stress.

Additionally, LHR was actually cheaper than Marylebone (even with added airport taxes/fees) because we had more of a choice.

You'll need to weigh the day and time you want to drive, what kind of car you want, price and choice of company in making this decision.

As always, thanks for the great advice. I think we will go to Heathrow.

Steve

Sorry - perhaps its just the drivers I'm used to but I foujd those in London very polite - at least compared to our kamikazi cab drives.