We need to be in the Malvern area for a wedding in October. My husband has driven on the left side of road once about 23 years ago.
He found it do-able in countryside but very hectic getting out of London at that time. Of course now he is older(68) so we would like to rent a car but where would the easiest place be to pick one up if we were flying into Heathrow. Is there a train at Heathrow where we could get a direct line somewhere quieter and then rent there. Not a complicated two connection train ride and then the rental. I was thinking somewhere direct on train.
Then we could spend 4 -5 days in the Malvern area driving around and then return to Heathrow the same way.
Thanks for any info.

Well, you will be fine driving around that part of Worcestershire, but try to avoid Worcester town centre at the rush hours! Also be warned that the 'new' bridge over the River Severn is only single carriageway and it can be v-e-r-y slow just going that one mile!

The only train at Heathrow goes into London. The nearest station with reasonably good links is Reading, and there is a shuttle-bus link there from the airport. You will find more info about that here if you search.

From Reading you can get a direct train to Great Malvern, via Evesham and Worcester. Are there car hire companies in Malvern? Without seaching online I can't tell you that. There are sure to be in Worcester - but just make sure it is Worcester Shrub Hill Station, as the other Worcester station is tucked away in the centre of town and is basically a pedestrian station with virtually no vehicle access.

Evesham is another possibility, and possibly the easiest to drive away from as the station is out of the town centre, and the roads around there are not at all busy and it's well under an hour's drive from Malvern.

OK, I just googled car hire in Malvern and this is one of several that comes up...

http://www.brookhire.co.uk/

Julie,
Thank you for the reply.
I am now thinking Evesham might be a nice place to anchor ourselves. There is a car hire there that I will write to, but now I have spent some time on the web and trying different train sites and am totatlly confused.
Are you saying that I would go from Heathrow airport to Reading ( train or Bus) then change trains to Evesham.
I am having trouble tring to get this info. Also we are both over 60 but do not understand if the over 60 discounts are applicable.

One more thought. The train that goes from Heathrow to Paddington station is the Heathrow Express. Your can make connections from Paddingtion direct to Evesham on the
Great Western line. Not knowing the time you arrive I can offer this.Depart Paddington 1:21, 3:51 and 5:22 taking about two hours. Be sure to allow lotsof time between the planes ETA, clearing immigration and into London. Purchase your train ticket 8 to 12 weeks in advance for the best price. I use Nationalrail enquires for fares and times.

I did a re-check and it seems the walk up fare is the same as for buying before hand. About 30 pounds.

Take the train from Heathrow to Reading www.heathrowairport.com
www.nationalrail.co.uk

I have looked at www.netflights.com/carhire and you can rent a car through them from £27 per day. They use Alamo, 6/8 Commercial Road, Reading. A taxi from the train station would take you there in a few minutes. Then you can drive west and north to Malvern.

An alternative would be to fly from USA to Birmingham (BHX) which is just north of Malvern and easy to drive from in a rental car. Continental fly there from Newark, NJ and US Airways fly from Philadelphia to Birmingham. Look at www.BHX.co.uk for Birmingham airport. Birmingham airport is 45 miles from Great Malvern and takes 1 hour to drive it. Look at http://route.rac.co.uk/ for driving directions.

Merlot, for UK trains look at
http://nationalrail.co.uk/

There is a discount if aged 60+
With a Senior Railcard anyone 60 years or over can save 1/3 on Standard and First Class rail fares throughout Great Britain for a whole year. The card costs just £24, so if you make one journey that normally costs £71 or a couple of shorter trips you've covered the cost. And you can look forward to dramatic savings for 12 whole months. There are plenty of ways you can use your Railcard, for both long and short trips. Better still you can use it almost anytime during the week, weekends and Public Holidays. The only restriction is morning peak period services, Monday to Friday (not including Public Holidays) when journeys are made wholly within the London and South East area. For more details see time restrictions. As with anything in life there are some exceptions, so check the different ticket types and whether to see your Senior Railcard discount applies.

I would not take the train from Heathrow to Reading--just get on the airlink bus from Heathrow which goes directly to Reading station. They depart about every 20-30 minutes.

I generally rent cars at Heathrow itself. Most of the agencies have easy access (usually off the Bath Road/A4) and have shuttles to and from the terminals. From there access to the M4 is dead easy, and the M4 can take you to Reading or beyond. The driving is no more difficult from the airport to the M4 than it would be in towns like Reading. In fact, with the car you might be able to stay (if interested) in a smaller town or village. Frankly with luggage I find hiring a car much easier than fussing with trains, and with the price of trains nowadays, not especially more expensive for two.

You are being given some extraordinarily duff information here. Some of from people who hang round this board often enough to know better

1. There's no train from Heathrow to Reading. And there's
no point in getting the Heathrow Express to Paddington: only someone who knows nothing at all about our railway system would recommend anything so absurdly profligate. You have a choice between getting the Heathrow Connect train(far, far cheaper than the Heathrow Express and just a few minutes slower) to Paddington, or a bus to Reading station, where you catch the same train about 40 minutes after it leaves Paddington

2. It's NOT £71 to get the train to Evesham. The standard walk-up return railway ticket from Reading to Evesham (<b> that is, from Reading to Evesham and back to Reading again </b is £22.50 each: from Paddington it's £40. If you're planning to visit London on the way back, it might be worth buying a return ticket to Paddington, even if you get the train at Reading

Hard facts apart, if you're seriously contemplating getting off an overnight flight, then driving straight to Evesham or Malvern with next to no experience of driving on the left, please stay at home. We've got enough inconsiderate fools on our roads already.

If you're nervous of driving, Heathrow's actually by far the best place to start, as it gives you immediate access to 50 miles of dual-carriageway before hitting undivided highway. If this is what your husband found hectic, he'll find collecting a car in a town - any town at all - a great deal worse. The only responsible choice in your case is to overnight at Heathrow and collect a car when you're fit to drive, or get public transport to Evesham or Malvern.

The advantage of going to Paddington first is that it's cheaper to get to Paddington than Reading in order to pick up pre-booked train tickets as you can't do that at Heathrow.

If you do need to pick up tickets then get the Heathrow CONNECT to Paddington as it follows the same route as the HEX, isn't much slower & is substantially cheaper.

So before deciding whether to go to Reading or Paddington check the total cost

Well, I was away for 2 days and came back to more advice here.
It does seem to differ from one person to another though. So I will read up on all these choices and then get back if I need more advice. I am coming from Canada, so Birmingham airport is not the best idea . Would have been the perfect answer though if I were coming in from the US.

Well, I have now checked out prices and this is the comparison.

There does not seem to be a senior discount unless I have a senior card good for 1 year. I looked into it and since this is the only travel other than car than we will be doing it does not pay to get the card.

Airport to Padd. with Heathrow Connect 30 pounds for 2
Padd. to Evesham on train 66 pounds for 2
Total_ 96 pounds RETURN FOR TWO
or
Airport to Reading by Coach 46 pounds for two
Reading to Evesham by train: 36 pounds for two
Total: 82 pounds RETURN FOR TWO.

Then we would rent a car at Evesham for our stay of 5 days.
So not a huge difference in price, that is if I am researching this correctly.

So I imagine it is just a matter of which one I want. Any reasons why I should use one way or the other now not talking price. But maybe the easiest with luggage.

I firmly believe your easier option is also the cheaper--the Railink bus from Heathrow to Reading station and train from Reading to Evesham. At Heathrow, you can wheel your luggage on one of the free carts/trolleys to where you board the bus.

The bus stops right outside the Reading rail station, which is a relatively small station and easy to maneuver. There are escalators, stairs and elevators down to the tracks.

Thank you Cathinjoetown for that info.
I think I might do that.
I would be arriving the Tuesday in Heathrow and departing the next Monday. Total of 6 nights.
I will be staying in Evesham for wedding ( I have accomadations) the Friday, Sat, & Sun.
So that leaves me 3 nights looking for accomadations, the first 3 nights. I do not mind every night in a new place. What would be nice towns to visit and where could I stay for the 3 different nights. Not too much traveling, about 2-3 hours a day maybe.

Evesham is close to Warwick and Stratford. Also the north part of the Cotswolds, neither is is far from the beautiful county of Shropshire - Ludlow is about an hours drive and worth a visit.

You are really spoilt for choice! Look at an atlas and a guide book and have a think about what you really want to see and then come back to us. Castles, stately homes, gardens?

I agree with Cathinjoetown that the bus to Reading is the better option - why go all the way into London to get on the same train that you will get on in Reading?