Best value car rental for 2 week uk holiday

[kwak250]

i was planning on renting a car for 2 weeks in the UK and was planning on staying for maybe 2 nights in London on arrival so might not be the best idea to rent a car and try to park it in the middle of London
Any hotels that have good car rental delas or best to book in advance?

[Harrisfan]

2 minutes ago, kwak250 said:

i was planning on renting a car for 2 weeks in the UK and was planning on staying for maybe 2 nights in London on arrival so might not be the best idea to rent a car and try to park it in the middle of London
Any hotels that have good car rental delas or best to book in advance?

Why ask in Thai forum?

[kwak250]

2 minutes ago, Harrisfan said:

Why ask in Thai forum?

Many people visit the UK from Thailand 
Why do you go on about Trump on a Thai forum?
 

[Harrisfan]

Just now, kwak250 said:

Many people visit the UK from Thailand 
Why do you go on about Trump on a Thai forum?
 

Ask the Trump haters

[MangoKorat]

Hotels that rent cars?  Not something I've heard of and if they do, I doubt they'll be competitive.

[kwak250]

1 minute ago, MangoKorat said:

Hotels that rent cars?  Not something I've heard of and if they do, I doubt they'll be competitive.

I have seen a few people from years ago on this forum saying they can be booked at hotels although they will be from the major rental companies 

[MangoKorat]

I normally use Enterprise.

[kwak250]

1 minute ago, MangoKorat said:

I normally use Enterprise.

I will have a look

Thanks

[baansgr]

Budget or Enterprise, though if you haven't rented for a while you may be shocked....I certainly was. And for insurance, you used to be able to take out independent cover for the excess, was far cheaper..good luck, I found it far cheaper by train with the cost of petrol 

[kwak250]

13 minutes ago, baansgr said:

Budget or Enterprise, though if you haven't rented for a while you may be shocked....I certainly was. And for insurance, you used to be able to take out independent cover for the excess, was far cheaper..good luck, I found it far cheaper by train with the cost of petrol 

Yes not rented for many years
4 of us so the train might work out more expensive
Do the prices not cover insurance?

[Denim]

Doing the same thing myself with wife in September.

 

On landing we will stay at a hotel near the airport as we arrive around 7.00 pm.  I booked this with booking .com. ( Thistle hotel in Longford Village ) Have stayed here before and found it good and not expensive. Being in the village there is a pub just down the road for a late bite or a beer. Also a nice little park between hotel and pub. In the morning a good buffet overlooking the runways or a McDonalds 3 minutes away. To get there take a bus and get off 500 meters from hotel before it turns right to Harmonsworth. Walk to hotel from here. Opposite this bus stop there is a corner shop selling cheap booze and sandwiches.

 

Booking. com also do car rentals. If you click on the link in their site it will give a comprehensive list of what cars are available for rent in that area. Various different companies with small cars around 20-25 pounds a day. Mostly manual transmission. You don't have to book with booking.com but I found the list ueseful. If you book with hertz it is possible to rent at one depot and drop off at a different one. 

 

Wife wants to see London again. So from hotel go back into the airport and either take the tube or the more fancy Elizabeth line into the city for a day or two. Everything is cashless but you can swipe on the buses with your UK debit or credit cards. I give one for the wife to use. This is no problem for 2 getting on the same bus etc if 2 different cards ( in same name ...mine )  but 2 people can not get on the bus using one swipe card.

Previously my wife really enjoyed the boat ride down the Thames to Greenwich and back. Lots of historical sights plus you pass under tower bridge by the tower of London. Saw the Cutty Sark at Greenwich then walked up to the meridian through the park. Had a good Vietnames / asian buffe for lunch then coffee on the boat for the return trip. We were lucky....not many passengers.

 

Well....a bit long but yea....car hire from Heathrow gives heaps of choice.

 

Forget taking a car into London ....nightmare.

[Stocky]

Last month I had a 18 day car rental from Europcar Birmingham, total for £277.56, that was for a medium size car Ford Focus or similar, I was given a cherry red Jeep Avenger, which was a surprise.

 

 

 

This was the basic hire package, so would have been liable for £1,600 for any accident, but I wasn't willing to add another £7,60 a day to reduce the liability. It's cheaper to book and pay in advance, there is free cancellation.

 

[kwak250]

1 hour ago, Stocky said:

Last month I had a 18 day car rental from Europcar Birmingham, total for £277.56, that was for a medium size car Ford Focus or similar, I was given a cherry red Jeep Avenger, which was a surprise.

 

 

 

This was the basic hire package, so would have been liable for £1,600 for any accident, but I wasn't willing to add another £7,60 a day to reduce the liability. It's cheaper to book and pay in advance, there is free cancellation.

 

That sounds perfect

Did you fly into Birmingham as looking at flights to Heathrow but would prefer not to fly into Heathrow if possible

[baansgr]

1 hour ago, Stocky said:

Last month I had a 18 day car rental from Europcar Birmingham, total for £277.56, that was for a medium size car Ford Focus or similar, I was given a cherry red Jeep Avenger, which was a surprise.

 

 

 

This was the basic hire package, so would have been liable for £1,600 for any accident, but I wasn't willing to add another £7,60 a day to reduce the liability. It's cheaper to book and pay in advance, there is free cancellation.

 

That's a bargain, last time over 2 years ago, smallest size was £50 a day I could find. Yeah, used to able to get insurance just to cover the excess for £1 a day...

[Stocky]

34 minutes ago, kwak250 said:

That sounds perfect

Did you fly into Birmingham as looking at flights to Heathrow but would prefer not to fly into Heathrow if possible

Yes, I flew Qatar to Birmingham. I have a house near Stourbridge, so Birmingham works much better than London. It would have been slightly cheaper to take the Europcar hire from Birmingham airport, but after a long haul flight I wasn't keen on driving at 7:30am.

 

I've found that booking direct is usually the same or cheaper than the aggregator sites, but I do use Rentalcars.com first to get some idea of prices. Note Europcar has a budget option called Keddy worth seeing what price you can get via Keddy by Europcar. The other car hire company I've used that are reliable and not too expensive is Sixt.

[Stocky]

27 minutes ago, baansgr said:

That's a bargain, last time over 2 years ago, smallest size was £50 a day I could find. Yeah, used to able to get insurance just to cover the excess for £1 a day...

2023 was expensive, I had a 29 day hire for £807 (Peugeot 308) - August/September

2024 was 19 days for £385 (Vauxhall Astra) - September

Both with Europcar, though I presume there's a seasonal variation in price that would account for some of the differences between April, August and September.

[brewsterbudgen]

I did this recently (April) - a compact rented from Alamo at Gatwick for around 13 days.  A Ford Kuga SUV.  Cost around £700 including the insurance.  Lovely drive.

[kwak250]

4 hours ago, Stocky said:

Last month I had a 18 day car rental from Europcar Birmingham, total for £277.56, that was for a medium size car Ford Focus or similar, I was given a cherry red Jeep Avenger, which was a surprise.

 

 

 

This was the basic hire package, so would have been liable for £1,600 for any accident, but I wasn't willing to add another £7,60 a day to reduce the liability. It's cheaper to book and pay in advance, there is free cancellation.

 

This is a bargain
I have family in Cheltenham so Birmingham would also be much better for me .
Did you get a direct flight or had to stop as looking for direct flight if possible

[kwak250]

4 hours ago, Stocky said:

Last month I had a 18 day car rental from Europcar Birmingham, total for £277.56, that was for a medium size car Ford Focus or similar, I was given a cherry red Jeep Avenger, which was a surprise.

 

 

 

This was the basic hire package, so would have been liable for £1,600 for any accident, but I wasn't willing to add another £7,60 a day to reduce the liability. It's cheaper to book and pay in advance, there is free cancellation.

 

Just been trying on the website 
I am getting quoted £496 for 14 days for a shi77y Vauxhall Corsa
Last thing i want to rent having owned a few in the past

[Stocky]

22 minutes ago, kwak250 said:

This is a bargain
I have family in Cheltenham so Birmingham would also be much better for me .
Did you get a direct flight or had to stop as looking for direct flight if possible

No direct flights Bangkok - Birmingham, but several 1 stops options.

Qatar via Doha 

Emirates via Dubai 

Turkish via Istanbul 

KLM via Amsterdam 

Lufthansa via Munich or Frankfurt 

 

There are no doubt a couple more

[Stocky]

19 minutes ago, kwak250 said:

Just been trying on the website 
I am getting quoted £496 for 14 days for a shi77y Vauxhall Corsa
Last thing i want to rent having owned a few in the past

Prices aren't fixed but rise and fall based on demand and what they think they can get away with