[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by Judemayne

Will be visiting UK and Europe for my 30th Wedding Anniversary-Air Tickets by Qatar airways have been booked-Landing at UK-2/3 days London-planning to drive to Edinburgh, Inverness, Aberdeen and back (3 days)-Fly to Salzburgh and drive to Vienna-4 days in Austria onto Paris-Lourdes from there to Milan-Rome and back to Bangalore. Please help me on the following:-
a) Agency for car hire-any advice on driving in UK.
b) Places to visit en-route and to stay?-Edinburgh and London.
c) Stay at Vienna and Salzburgh -economical.
d) Driving in Vienna-any advice.
e) As Salzburgh is on the German border-is it possible to enter Germany and drive back-any issues-I am applying for a Multiple entry Schegen visa.
Thanking you all.

SIXT is actually the cheapest, however if you go through economycarrentals.com you can get better deals.
Try not staying inside the cities, very expensive. + Congestion charges in london are a killer, use public transport for your local needs, and rent the car on the morning of the day you want to start out.
For example, if you have 2 days in london.
Do this.
Book the car on your second morning, go to rental office, and straightway start your journey in morning.

As far as Austria is concerned, do not book from Salzburg. Limited choices there mean more expensive rentals. Vienna will be cheaper. So fly to vienna(flights will be cheaper), and then drive to wherever you want.
Unlike Switzerland which is mostly mountains, Austria/Germany have a fast freeway system.
Your Austrian rental will have Austria vignette. Germany does not require vignettes.

Do read through the road signs.
Comparison of European road signs - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Pay attention to this
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...en_282.svg.png

This means, all speed limits end.
This means you can drive at the maximum permissible speed for that section.

In austria it means you can drive 130kmph on freeways and 100kmph inside tunnels. 100kmph on major non freeways
In Switzerland it means 120kmph on freeways and 80kmph on major roads(non freeways)

In Germany, if you see this sign on an Autobahn, it means you can drive till you wet you pants.

[Judemayne]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

SIXT is actually the cheapest, however if you go through economycarrentals.com you can get better deals.
Try not staying inside the cities, very expensive. + Congestion charges in london are a killer, use public transport for your local needs, and rent the car on the morning of the day you want to start out.
For example, if you have 2 days in london.
Do this.
Book the car on your second morning, go to rental office, and straightway start your journey in morning.



In Germany, if you see this sign on an Autobahn, it means you can drive till you wet you pants.

.

Dear Tanveer,

Thank you so much will follow your advice-as a matter of fact looking at hotels in and around Heathrow.

[ramkya1]

Hai Jude,

Good luck with your hunt and trip.

Uploading an Excel sheet which would give you a perspective of what we did in Europe and UK, portion highlighted in yellow for UK, hotel near Heathrow, originally booked by Thomas Cook as part of the package, we extended by a day, cost us 140 Euros, most hotels near the airport would be expensive.

Most hotels on this excel sheet are either 3 star or above having tie ups with Thomas Cook, if I am to go on my own, I would search in Trip Adviser and choose B&B or motels, they are known to be good.

As for other places in UK, selected B&B with either parking facility or those who would give us parking tickets, there are lots that would give you a parking ticket, you would have to park it on the road/ streets. B&B were excellent would mail you my costing sheets. As we discussed would also mail you AA map copies of UK. Will dig up my archives, have some information on Edinburgh options for B&B.

I would use the tube / bus in London as congestion charges and traffic can be big problems, on the way back from Bristol to Cryodon had to drive through treacle thick London traffic, even with an excellent GPS we had to circle round and round to get exits and addresses.

I would rent the car in advance, upgrade on the spot or request for upgrade without extra charge on the spot, rent their GPS (if driving for more than 7 days, I would buy one with maps) and take FULL insurance with '0" excess, believe me it's worth the extra cost, I've done lots of research on the insurance charges for car rentals and traps associated with it. One way drop options in UK are one of the cheapest, you can even see if going one way by train / flight, picking up car at the furthest point and driving back to the flyout point would work for you, would save days too. It did for us, we flew to Scotland, picked up car, did the northern end, drove down till the southern end, dropped off the car at Crayodon, one way drop charges were about 30 GBP, cheap compared to drop off charges in Europe and US.

--Ramky
======

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by ramkya1

I would rent the car in advance, upgrade on the spot or request for upgrade without extra charge on the spot, rent their GPS (if driving for more than 7 days, I would buy one with maps) and take FULL insurance with '0" excess, believe me it's worth the extra cost, I've done lots of research on the insurance charges for car rentals and traps associated with it. One way drop options in UK are one of the cheapest, you can even see if going one way by train / flight, picking up car at the furthest point and driving back to the flyout point would work for you, would save days too. It did for us, we flew to Scotland, picked up car, did the northern end, drove down till the southern end, dropped off the car at Crayodon, one way drop charges were about 30 GBP, cheap compared to drop off charges in Europe and US.

--Ramky
======

Actually buying sygic on your phone makes good sense instead of buying a 200 EU GPS just for the trip. Costs 39$ for whole of Europe, and 20$ approx for western Europe I think.

[ramkya1]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Actually buying sygic on your phone makes good sense instead of buying a 200 EU GPS just for the trip. Costs 39$ for whole of Europe, and 20$ approx for western Europe I think.

If you have a good phone, big screen with Sygic would be OK (don't know if this would work on an Android). Map cost of only 50-60 USD is attractive. The GPS box costs are dropping, Chines ones ( I use one for the past 2 years from Deal Extreme) are for 50USD, it takes in all maps. Even Map My India Kits would be around 5-7 K, not sure. There are many options.

If the bundled offfer of the Car Hire Company is around 5 GBP / day, one week drive, I'd take that, that map would be updated, that map would have all the addresses of the car hire company, help line etc, clearly marked. Peace of mind for 4-5 K.

--Ramky
=======

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by ramkya1

If you have a good phone, big screen with Sygic would be OK (don't know if this would work on an Android). Map cost of only 50-60 USD is attractive. The GPS box costs are dropping, Chines ones ( I use one for the past 2 years from Deal Extreme) are for 50USD, it takes in all maps. Even Map My India Kits would be around 5-7 K, not sure. There are many options.

If the bundled offfer of the Car Hire Company is around 5 GBP / day, one week drive, I'd take that, that map would be updated, that map would have all the addresses of the car hire company, help line etc, clearly marked. Peace of mind for 4-5 K.

--Ramky
=======

Unfortunately, no. The GPS which comes with car may or may not be updated. It may even be an year old. Sygic etc., will be the latest version whenever you buy.
As for chinese dealextreme units. they do cost 50 USD, but if you want to get maps for them legally it will cost the same 40$ or so.

In Europe I could get by fine with just Zanavi (Free openstreetmap based turn by turn navigation system) and Sygic 7 days trial.

[ramkya1]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Unfortunately, no. The GPS which comes with car may or may not be updated. It may even be an year old. Sygic etc., will be the latest version whenever you buy.
As for chinese dealextreme units. they do cost 50 USD, but if you want to get maps for them legally it will cost the same 40$ or so.

In Europe I could get by fine with just Zanavi (Free openstreetmap based turn by turn navigation system) and Sygic 7 days trial.

The GPS I got from Europe Car last time was the latest, Bristol section had new bridges and detours, all were marked out well. I was surprised to find even one ways accurately marked, A 836, A 99, M6, sections near Exeter where a new over bridge was built were accurately updated.

Zanavi sounds great. After the 7 days you need to buy it or can it be downloaded into another box?

--Ramky
======

[tsk1979]

Zanavi is free, but not as good as commercial programs.

In austria I used Zanavi, and then I downloaded sygic free 7 days trial.
Sygic truly rocked. Helped us a lot in switzerland!

[Thad E Ginathom]

Originally Posted by Judemayne

planning to drive to Edinburgh, Inverness, Aberdeen and back (3 days)-

eek! That sounds like three solid days of driving! Suggest you cover less ground and see more!

a) Agency for car hire-any advice on driving in UK.

Used to use Easy Rent A Car, but was quite a few years ago now. re driving in UK, please Google UK Highway Code. Whilst there is probably nowbody who follows every rule and recommendation in it, except during their drivkng test, it does cover how you are expected to drive.

Car hire is quite expensive, and fuel is a lot more expensive (double or more?) the price here. Whilst trains are also expensive, good deals can be had if booked in advance, which you can do online.

I never drove anywhere else in Europe.

I am applying for a Multiple entry Schegen visa.
Thanking you all.

Silly question, but better ask to be on the safe side! You do realise that UK is not covered by Schengen visa? Yes, ok... I thought you did. Just checking

[Judemayne]

Dear Ramkaya, Tanveer and Ginathom
Thanks a ton guys -am avidly following all the advice you all are giving-will be applying for a separate UK Visa!!
Ramkya-Booked the same hotel near Heathrow-staying a day more in UK.

will be very cold in mid May??

[tsk1979]

Mid may won't be cold, but I think UK may get gloomy foggy weather. Its supposed to be like this in March, but they can't seem to figure out that March is over and keep supplying gloomy weather.
Europe mainland will be nice, and expensive(holiday season about to start). If you are on a budget, i suggest pre-pone the trip by a fortnight or so

[Judemayne]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

Mid may won't be cold, but I think UK may get gloomy foggy weather. Its supposed to be like this in March, but they can't seem to figure out that March is over and keep supplying gloomy weather.
Europe mainland will be nice, and expensive(holiday season about to start). If you are on a budget, i suggest pre-pone the trip by a fortnight or so

Would have brought it forward or postponed- but 15 May is our 30th Wedding Anniversary-a little bit of a splurge is okay-most importantly the Air tickets have been booked -hotels in London also done will booking for Edinburgh today and Vienna.

[ramkya1]

Originally Posted by Judemayne

Dear Ramkaya, Tanveer and Ginathom
Thanks a ton guys -am avidly following all the advice you all are giving-will be applying for a separate UK Visa!!
Ramkya-Booked the same hotel near Heathrow-staying a day more in UK.

will be very cold in mid May??

Park Inn is HUGE and good, I think 4 star. The travel desk is professional, will do most of the bookings for you if you have a credit card, they booked our bus from Heathrew to Gatwick.

You can walk to the nearby gas station which has a small departmental store inside, cross the road, bust stop there, get the bus to Airport / Main Bus Depot / Tube, all same stop and short ride. I think, we took a 3 days pass on the tube. Alternatively, you have buses coming into the hotel to pick up passengers also, check with reception, you just get out of the hotel into the bus.

Link to AA maps north of Glasgow, hope its clear, you would have to zoom in. If you need any specific map, let me know I'd mail you high resolution ones, these are optimized for upload.

https://picasaweb.google.com/1122303...CLGcsYm---7BVQ

--Ramky
=======

[tsk1979]

So how are you planning it.
Drive around vienna and fly to rome, or rent car in vienna, and then drive to rome through the alps?

[Judemayne]

Originally Posted by tsk1979

So how are you planning it.
Drive around vienna and fly to rome, or rent car in vienna, and then drive to rome through the alps?

From UK flying to Vienna and drive around-flt to Paris onto Lourdes (fly)-Train to Milan-Train to Rome and fly back.-was dissuade from driving anywhere in Italy???