Car Hire in the UK?

Question

I know this is a long way till this will happen but i am considering going to the 2012 Olympics in London.

I will only do this if a can afford doing England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

If I hired a car in England, could i take the car to the other countries and would i be able to take it to Ireland??? But I would not return to england, I would fly to London from Which ever country im in last. Whats the go, what would i have to do and how far advanced can i book.

Answer 1

Good that you like to plan ahead !!

Our friend above is right - there is not normally a problem in hiring a car in one country and taking it to the next.

The only slight problem you may get is when you take it over to Ireland - the insurance for Northern Ireland is far higher than it is for Scotland, England and Wales, so it would be expensive paying higher insurance for the duration of the hire. Also don't forget that the Republic of Ireland is not part of the UK and they may charge you for leaving it here. (I hired a car in Belfast and left it in Dublin, and was charged extra for this).

I would suggest hiring a car to do England, Wales and Scotland. Jump on a passenger ferry to Ireland and hire another car over there.

You should contact the usual car hire companies for more information.

Answer 2

Many car hire companies allow you to pick up in one place and drop off in another. I cannot see this being a major issue as you can do it on mainland Europe, for example. Within the UK is no issue and dropping it off in Dublin should be fine, too.

As for booking in advance, you can book last minute but the selection of cars will be limited and the price maybe higher - there will be he biggest choice in a London office, so start there. I suggest three months in advance - London accommodation will get booked up; you can find holiday accommodation here http://www.enjoyengland.com/book/accommodation/ and a guide to the city here http://www.enjoyengland.com/where/destinations/london/dg.aspx

You can get a ferry from Wales to Ireland, FYI.

Many of the international car hire companies are in the UK and Eire, for example: http://www,avis.co.uk - so you check by pretending to book on their sites.

Note: there are also coach tours around these countries that would save you the time and petrol cost of driving: http://uk.search.yahoo.com/search?p=coach+tours&prssweb=Search&ei=UTF-8&fr=yscpb&x=wrt&meta=vc%3DcountryUK
and you can get cheap domestic flights or trains between the cities:

http://uk.search.yahoo.com/search?p=domestic+flights&sp=1&fr2=sp-top&ei=UTF-8&fr=yscpb&x=wrt&meta=vc%3DcountryUK&ei=UTF-8&SpellState=n-137296589_q-6Ny4UcX4oXObASa.BS9TfAAAAA%40%40 and http://www.transportdirect.info/