Renting A Car for Your England Vacation

Renting a car is considered a must for the self catering England vacation. The exception may be if you plan only local sightseeing in a city such as London where public transportation is good and it is almost impossible to navigate by private automobile. The cautions and recommendations below are to help you enjoy your driving in England.

We have traveled extensively in England by bus and rail. The result is that we know that renting a car has many advantages over the public transportation systems. The main advantages are flexibility and convenience in scheduling your site visits. You can stay longer at a particular garden, castle, or other venue or leave earlier if you are not dependent upon the schedules set by others. The convenience of having your transportation at your beck and call saves hours of time. We found it necessary in one case to utilize the taxi and local bus after staying in a recommended B&B outside a small city in order to get to the city the morning after the stay.

You must be 21 years of age to rent a car in England. It is now required in some cases that you pass an exam if you are over 65 years old. Friends have reported no difficulty with this.

There are many car rental agencies in England and arrangements should be made prior to your arrival. You can usually have a day or two leeway on the pick up and turn in date in case you might be delayed. Check out several agencies to take advantages of special offers and the intense competition in the industry.

What type car should you rent? Of course, it all depends.The number of people in the group, luggage and any special equipment you have. Can you drive a manual transmission? We recommend automatic shift. The roads are narrow with little shoulder in the rural areas. If there are only two in the group, a small hatchback provides reasonable space and convenience for loading items in the back.

Driving Suggestions: Become familiar with the roadsigns. Remember, you will be driving on the left side of the road with the steering wheel on the right side of the car. DO NOT DRIVE IN MAJOR CITIES UNLESS YOU ARE EXPERIENCED IN DRIVING IN ENGLAND! Obey the speed limits and watch the traffic lights. We know that England probably has more cameras per capita than any other country. A car running a light is photographed. The driver and license plate are in the photo. Also, a yellow light will flash to inform you that you have run the light.

Travel Time - Plan your outing. The combination of the road system with its round-abouts tends to limit your average speed to around 35 to 40 miles per hour. You will even encounter round-abouts on the M5 at major exits.