cingen

My husband and I are thinking of renting a car for 2 days to drive from London to Stratford-upon-Avon and Bath. As we are from the US, we've never driven on the left side before.

After some quick calculations, it looks like this may be a more economical option than taking day tours each day for about $180 pp.

We are a little hesistant, of course. Can anyone share their thoughts on our car rental idea?

Thank you!

TommieG

Lots of tourists from 'mainland' Europe (where we drive on the right!) go to the UK every year by car. They experience no problems.

More chalenging maybe driving with a stick-shift.Are you familiaiar with that?

BKP

I agree that it's doable. My only concern is where in London you will be picking up the car. We attempted this a couple of years ago. Not understading the geography of London, we chose to pick the car up from Waterloo (thinking it was south of the busy section). It took us an hour and almost our marriage just to find the right road out of the city. Someone else will probably have a better pick up location. I would suggest if your starting point is London to take the tube out to Heathrow (or somewhere else away from the city) and pick up the car. Have fun!

altamiro

>I would suggest if your starting point is London to take the tube out to Heathrow (or somewhere else away from the city) and pick up the car.

For that hassle, you will be already in Bath or Stratford if you simply jump on a train...

ira

Hi C,

It's about 1:30 hr to Bath by train from London Paddington.

2:40 hr to Stratford.

Both routes are direct trains.

Why not do them as daytrips?

julieah

We had the rental company delivery the car (had a stick shift) to the hotel and point it in the direction we had to go.
We had good directions and got out of London easily and drove to the Cotswalds with stops along the way to see Stonehege, Bath, Stratford-Upon-Avon and a few other places.
We drove the car back to London/Gatwick.

altamiro

Ira,
Why do things simply if you can make them endlessly complicated?

flanneruk

Tickets on British trains being sold in pounds, I've no idea where you're getting this $180 from. The cheapest available daytime return train ticket is £21 to Stratford and £33 to Bath (go to nationalrail.co.uk and play with alternative times and dates).

It's highly unlikely you'll hire a car for two days for much less than £100. Taking into account a tank and a half of petrol, parking costs in Bath and Stratford, congestion charge and Lomdonm parking costs if you return to London overnight, or an extra hotel night if you stay out that night, the car's going to cost more than a train.

Wherever you start from, getting into central Bath or Stratford from a London base will take longer than the train, and you're not going to see much more countryside than the motorway embankments. There's a strong case for hiring cars if you want to see Britain. For just going from London to two towns with excellent (Bath) and reasonable (Stratford) rail links, a car's a complete waste of time and money.

And don't kid yourselves you're going to be able to stop off in Oxford or at Stonehenge if driving. Detours in Britain - or at any rate mainstream England - wipe most of the day out.

semiramis

Usually I am pretty much in favour of car rental to see the countryside BUT in this case for two days - it REALLY is not worth it.
Take the train (not some over-priced tour). The rail links are excellent to Bath and pretty good to Stratford.

jody

I , too would take the train for a 2 day trip and skip the tour companies.

A 2 day car rental can cost a way lot more than the trains would. You pay a premium price on rentals under 3 days.

Reisender

I agree with the train. Not too sensible to rent a car for these two trips.

janisj

Driving in the UK is not a problem. Thousands of US visitors do it every day. But for these two day trips driving isn't practical/necessary. Now - IF you meant to take 3 days/2 nights to stay in the Cotswolds and visit Stratford and Bath as well - then driving would make sense.

I assume your $180pp/day is for guided tours. Silly idea IMHO. Bath is a snap by train from London. Get on the train at Paddington station and a couple of hours later you'll be standing in front of the Roman Baths. MUCH faster and cheaper than renting a car (going out to LHR to pick it up or finding your way out of central London), driving to Bath, finding the park and ride lot, taking a bus into the city, then driving back to London - All to repeat it all again the next day for Stratford.

So one day take the train to Bath and another day (I wouldn't do these two days in a row) take the train to Stratford upon Avon and maybe squeeze in a visit to Warwick Castle.

Both Bath and Stratford have good open-top double decker bus tours you can take to see the sites/get an overview, then you can wander around on your own.

Mimar

Yes, if you can add another day or two, then the car makes sense. Between Bath and Stratford is the Cotswolds area with rolling green hills and highly picturesque villages. This area is hard to visit without a car. We did Stratford (and Warwick Castle)as a daytrip from the Cotswolds.

Can you drive a stick shift? Those are much cheaper to rent. But shifting is one more thing to think about. Try to pick up your car near a freeway (motorway). We found it easier to get acquainted with driving on the other side on a motorway. Fewer options.

nytraveler

Driving in the UK is not a big deal if 1) you are a good, confident driver and 2) either you're used to driving a stick shift or you rent a car with auto transmission (will up your cost considerably.) It also helps if you're familiar with roundabouts (traffic circles) which are quite rare in the US but common in the UK - and can be scary until you're done them several times

If it makes sense or not depends on your plans. To make 2 day trips by car out of London is silly - take the train instead. If you're picking up the car and leaving London to tour the countryside - and stay there - for several days it makes much more sense - giving you the freedom to explore as you like.

Chris_England

The train is much better (cheap if booked a couple of weeks in advance, unless you are sure you would enjoy the driving and would want to visit places on the way.

British people have to switch sides every time we cross the Channel, and we cope reasonably well - so unless you think US people are less adaptable than us Brits, go ahead !

Please do not pick up a car immediately after flying overnight from the states. You can read hundreds of trip reports where people do that and say "I was falling asleep at the wheel". Combining jetlag with driving a strange car with the wheel on the wrong side and manual transmission ; and driving on the wrong side of the road ; and coping with roundabouts (no big deal, but you US folks seem to be scared of them) ; and strange road signs ; and fast British driving ! All that is just irresponsible of them.

Heimdall

Renting a car to see the countryside, eg Cotswolds, makes good sense. Renting a car to get from London to towns and cities well connected by train is more hassle than it's worth.

Driving in and out of London can be a nightmare, and once in Bath or Stratford you will be best off parking the car and making your way around by foot and/or public transport.

Take the train.

Chris_England

If you hire a car for a one-way trip, beware of the extra fee. This will be well hidden until you drop the car off. It is £35 for a big hire company that is frequently mentioned (pun intended).

And the extra insurance to cover the excess on the CDW can be as much as £12 per day in the UK.

janisj

Not that you should rent a car - it really doesn't make sense for the two day trips you asked about -- but Chris is incorrect about the drop off fees if one pre-books a car before leaving for the UK. There is practically never a 1-way drop off fee. Walk-up rental rates are pretty high. If you were to hire a car it, makes MUCH more sense to pre-book it.

Chris_England

janisj

You are clearly sure about this, so PLEASE tell me how I can pre-book a car from Stansted Airport to Sheffield without paying a one-way fee.

janisj

I have never driven from Stansted to Sheffield - but I have rented probably 40-50 cars in the UK and have only paid a drop off fee twice. Once on a bare bones, mileage not included rental, and once on a car booked at the last minute locally when my plans changed.