We are spending three weeks in England June/July. After a long haul flight we arrive at Heathrow early evening. We intend hiring a car from Windsor to take us there for an overnight stay, before picking up a rental car from Slough the next day. We visited Windsor on a previous trip so feel no need to spend any more time there.
After touring the south-west for two weeks we plan to spend six nights in London. We are looking at the Crowne Plaza London St James near Buckingham Palace.
My question is: where would be the best place to drop off our rental car and catch a train into London? Slough? Is the Crowne Plaza well situated for trains coming into London?

Thankyou,
Mezz

The nearest mainline terminus to Buckingham Palace is Victoria, but the trains to there come in from south and south-east of London.

Trains from Slough go into Paddington, so you might need to taxi from Slough to Windsor (for Windsor and Eton Riverside station, not Windsor Central). Trains from the south-west, including Windsor and Eton Riverside, come into Waterloo, from which your hotel is a few stops on the 211 bus or a short taxi ride.
http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/gettingaro...treet-2442.pdf

It's not far or hard to get to the Crowne Plaza from Paddington

You could take the Circle Line to St James's Park which is a short walk from the hotel or just get a taxi

When you say you are touring the south-west, will you actually need a hire car to get you TO the south-west?

My own choice would be to take the train to the south-west (from Windsor/Eton Riverside up to Reading and change there). Then pick up a car once you are in the south-west, drop it there at the end and take the direct train back to London.

Train journey to Cornwall (which is I guess where you are heading) is heavenly, along the coast down the Exe estuary and through seaside towns like Dawlish.

Before anyone can give you totally useful advice -- we need to know what you mean by the 'southwest'. Just the west country (Devon/Cornwall/Dorset/etc) and then straight back to London? Or are you going places like Bath/Oxford/the Cotswolds too? Or farther east along the coast? This can make a difference re the best place to drop your car.

PatrickLondon, alanRow, Aveyronnaise and janisj:thankyou all heaps for your input. We've decided on the Crowne Plaza in Buckingham Gate, seems easy enough to get there whichever station we come into, Paddington or Waterloo.
As far as our trip goes, we want to drive down to Cornwall. We plan on travelling through the Cotswolds and Bath, then on down through Dorset/Somerset(family history there),Devon and Cornwall, possibly heading back to London via the south coast then maybe up through Winchester. Open to suggestions!
Having driven around Ireland for a month a couple of years ago, we know to consider the 35mph rule when working out travelling time, we aim to stay at least 2 nights in most places, and most of all, avoid trying to cram too much in.
We don't mind paying whatever fee there is for dropping off the rental car somewhere other than Slough, if it means making the best use of our time by approaching London from a different direction.
Thanks!

W/ that itinerary -- really just returning the car at LHR makes as much sense as anyplace. Or Slough.

"<i>We've decided on the Crowne Plaza in Buckingham Gate, seems easy enough to get there whichever station we come into, Paddington or Waterloo.</i>"

Really though, your hotel isn't all that convenient to Paddington or Waterloo. It is closer to Victoria train station.

No-one can possibly advise you on a "best" place to drop a car off.

There are dozens of towns (and at least three airports) roughly between 6 and 9 o'clock of London with fastish trains at least every 30 mins taking 30-60 mins to Paddington, Waterloo or Victoria. None have stations particularly more or less convenient for droping hire cars off - and in the odd case (like Oxford) where there are hire places more or less at the station, the station depots are run by only one or two hire operators (with thge others miles out in the suburbs), and you're better placed than any of us to work out which stations are convenient for your operaror.

Only three locations in this quadrant - Heathrow, Gatwick and Southampton (for Winchester) airports - combine hire drop off points for all operators with easy access from the fast road system and free buses every 5 mins to a railway or tube station.

Otherwise, virtually everywhere within 70 miles of London has a railway station with fastish trains - and in almost every case, dropping your car off and getting to that station is somewhere on the range "serious pain" to "right nuisance even if you're used to English urban traffic". For the overwhelming majority of foreign drivers, one of the three airports will always be the most convenient dropoff location.

For a schematic map of all of SE stations outside London: http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/passen...South_East.pdf

Flanneruk, thankyou for your advice and the link. Instead of using "best" in my initial post, "convenient" would have been a more appropriate term!
Janisj, thankyou.
Decision made....depending on our itinerary, we'll drop the car off at either Heathrow or Gatwick, the latter looks the most convenient because the train from there comes into Victoria.
Thankyou to all who took the time to respond to my enquiry.

Gatwick would be my 1st choice for sure if you are including any sites in Sussex or Kent. Then it is a fast/expensive-ish or almost as fast cheap train up to Victoria.