By car to Edinburgh

Our fleet on this page holds 45 cars — Comfort, Crossover, SUV and Minivans, from £22 to £176 a day — and we bring the car to any address locally and to Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, London City and Southend airports.

Car rental in London for a trip to Edinburgh

Rent-Trip runs car rental in London for a trip to Edinburgh on a simple arrangement: the car is brought to you, the booking is settled with a manager, and the tank is full at hand-over. That order — agree, deliver, drive — is what makes a 400-mile run north practical from a standing start.

Where we deliver a car for the drive north

We deliver to any address in the capital and to six airports around it: London Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, London City and Southend.

London Heathrow Airport (LHR): the busiest of the six, 84,481,178 passengers a year, 30.3 km from the centre by road.

Delivery outside these places is arranged case by case and is not promised on the site — agree it with a manager first, before you build the rest of the trip around it.

How the booking is agreed with a manager

Nothing is booked off a form alone: you say where the car should be and when, the manager confirms it, and only then does the booking hold. The delivery address, the date and the time are agreed with a manager before the booking is fixed. In our practice the address matters more than people expect — a hotel with no loading bay and a residential street with permit bays are two different hand-overs, and the manager will say so at that stage rather than on the morning. A one-way drop-off changes the plan, and the return slot is part of what the manager confirms. Fix the return time as carefully as the pick-up.

The car comes clean with a full tank and must be returned with a full tank — the full-to-full rule is the only fuel option we offer. If the tank goes back short, the missing fuel and a refuelling service fee are charged as set out in the rental agreement. Deposit, insurance excess and delivery fees are also set out there, not quoted over the phone.

Our 45 cars on this page run from £22 to £176 a day, weekly from £132 and monthly from £462.

Distance, drive time and the route for car rental in London for a trip to Edinburgh

Car rental in London for a trip to Edinburgh starts with the route, and the one you pick shapes the whole day. Two corridors run north — the western M6 and the eastern A1 — and the difference between them is not distance but where you want to be when the motorway empties out. Traffic drives on the left across the whole route, and every car in our fleet is right-hand drive, so the first miles on the motorway feel unfamiliar only until the first junction.

M6 or A1 — which way north

The M6 is the western option via Birmingham and Carlisle; the A1 runs east through Newcastle. Both carry you the length of the country, but they behave differently: the M6 climbs through the Lake District fells and the A1 hugs the North Sea coast past Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Choose by the time of day, not by the map — the M25 ring out of the capital decides the first hour, and a 07:00 start on a weekday puts you in the queue at the M25 junctions or the western approach before you have covered thirty miles. Leaving at 05:30 or after 20:00 buys back most of that hour.

What the long drive asks of the car

This page has 7 hybrid cars and 20 automatics — the two things that matter most over a long motorway run. A hybrid settles into a quiet cruise and sips fuel on the steady stretches; an automatic spares your left leg the clutch work through the roadworks that pepper both corridors. Body style counts too: an estate carries luggage better than a hatchback, and the Volkswagen Golf Estate is £31 a day. For a family with cases and a pushchair, the 7 seven-seat cars on this page — the Volkswagen Sharan, Kia Sorento, Volkswagen Touran, Peugeot 5008, Volkswagen Multivan, Ford Galaxy and Mercedes-Benz V-Class — take the whole load without a roof box.

Prices by class for the trip

The ranges run wider than the «from» figures: the most expensive car on this page is the Mercedes-Benz V-Class at £176 a day, and the cheapest is the Citroen C3 Aircross at £22. A week is charged at daily × 6 and a month at daily × 21, so a Comfort estate booked for a month costs less per day than the same car for a weekend. On a run this long, book the class by luggage and seats first and let the price follow — a smaller car that fits everything beats a bigger one that does not. The delivery address and the delivery time are agreed with a manager when you book, and fixing the return time as carefully as the outward one keeps the plan honest if the drive north takes longer than expected.

Choosing a class for car rental in London for a trip to Edinburgh

Four classes sit on this page — Comfort, Crossover, SUV and Minivans — and the right one depends less on budget than on how much luggage and how many people travel north. We keep 45 cars here, from a £22-a-day Citroen C3 Aircross to a £176 Mercedes-Benz V-Class, and every one of them is delivered to your address before you set off.

Classes side by side

A class's «from» price is not the top of the page: the range runs to £176, and the widest spread sits inside Minivans, where the Volkswagen Sharan starts at £44 and the Mercedes-Benz V-Class reaches the top. Read the class «from» as an entry point, not as the price of the car you will actually drive.

Seven seats and all-wheel drive

Seven-seat cars number 7 on this page, and the Toyota RAV4 and Kia Sorento add all-wheel drive to the mix. The Kia Sorento pairs its 7 seats with a hybrid engine and all-wheel drive at £49 a day, while the Toyota RAV4 gives 5 seats, 218 hp and all-wheel drive at £40 — the cheapest way to put power on all four wheels here. Minivans carry the rest of the seven-seat choice: the Volkswagen Sharan at £44, the Peugeot 5008 at £65, the Volkswagen Touran at £65, the Volkswagen Multivan at £77, the Ford Galaxy at £79 and the Mercedes-Benz V-Class at £176. All-wheel drive earns its keep on winter roads north of the border, not on the motorway — for a summer run up the M6 or A1, front-wheel drive does the same job for less.

Estate bodies for a long trip

Three estate cars sit in Comfort, and they carry luggage better than any hatchback of the same footprint. The Volkswagen Golf Estate and the Kia Ceed Sportswagon at £31 a day are the cheapest estates on the page; the Toyota Corolla Touring Sports at £36 follows, with a hybrid engine and an automatic gearbox. For a family of four heading to Edinburgh with a fortnight of bags, an estate beats a crossover on boot space and beats an SUV on fuel. Book the estate early — three cars is a thin margin once summer bookings open, and the class sells out before the hatchbacks do.

Car rental in London for a trip to Edinburgh with fuel and gearbox choice

For car rental in London for a trip to Edinburgh the car you take north should match the drive, not the brochure: on this page 34 cars run on petrol, 7 are hybrid and 4 are diesel, 25 have a manual gearbox and 20 are automatic, and the seats split 37 five-seat cars, 7 seven-seat cars and one four-seater. Those four numbers decide more about a 400-mile run than any badge on the bonnet.

Petrol, hybrid or diesel

Petrol covers 34 of the 45 cars here, so most of the fleet is a straightforward choice for a long motorway run where you refuel at service stations rather than at home. The 7 hybrids are the Toyota Corolla, Toyota Corolla Touring Sports, Toyota Prius, Toyota C-HR, Toyota RAV4, Kia Sorento and Jeep Compass — all automatics, all petrol-electric. The 4 diesels sit among the seven-seaters: Volkswagen Sharan, Volkswagen Touran, Ford Galaxy and Mercedes-Benz V-Class. On a run north, a hybrid's advantage shows in town traffic at either end of the trip; once you settle at motorway speed, the petrol and diesel cars hold their own. Fill up before you leave the city rather than on the M6 — motorway forecourts charge more per litre than the pumps you pass on the way out.

Manual or automatic

Twenty cars on this page are automatic: the Seat Leon, Toyota Corolla, Toyota RAV4, Kia Stonic, Hyundai Tucson, MG HS, Toyota Corolla Touring Sports, Mini Cooper, Volkswagen Tiguan, Toyota Prius, Toyota C-HR, Peugeot 3008, Volkswagen Touran, Ford Kuga, Kia Sorento, Jeep Compass, Volkswagen Multivan, Mercedes-Benz V-Class and BMW 1 Series among them. The remaining 25 take a manual stick. If you have never driven on the left, an automatic removes one thing to think about at roundabouts, where traffic comes at you from the right and the gear change is the last thing you want to fumble.

How many seats the drive needs

• Five seats: 37 cars, from the Citroen C3 Aircross at £22 a day up to the larger five-seat models.
• Seven seats: 7 cars — Volkswagen Sharan, Volkswagen Touran, Ford Galaxy, Peugeot 5008, Volkswagen Multivan, Mercedes-Benz V-Class and Kia Sorento.
• Four seats: Mini Cooper, the only four-seater on this page — fine for two people with soft bags.
• Luggage check: an estate body swallows cases better than a hatchback; the Volkswagen Golf Estate is £31 a day.

The full-to-full rule

We hand the car over clean with a full tank, and it comes back with a full tank — no other fuel option is offered on the site. If the tank is short on return, the missing fuel and a refuelling service fee are charged as set out in the rental agreement. Keep the last fuel receipt: it settles any question about the level at drop-off faster than a discussion. The delivery address, date and time are agreed with a manager before the booking is fixed, so say there if you plan to return the car with a different mileage than you received it.

Charges and documents before car rental in London for a trip to Edinburgh

Charges along the way are agreed when booking, and the documents question has one clear answer for most visitors. Below are the charges a driver meets on the way out of the city, the Dartford Crossing, and the licence rule that applies to the whole route north.

Charges on the way out

• Congestion Charge: £18 a day if paid on the day of travel or in advance, £21 if paid by midnight on the third day after; it runs 07:00–18:00 Monday to Friday and 12:00–18:00 at weekends and on bank holidays.
• ULEZ: £12.50 a day for a non-compliant vehicle, around the clock except 25 December, and it covers all 32 boroughs — the M25 sits outside it.
• Vehicle check: TfL's vehicle checker confirms by registration whether a car falls inside ULEZ before you set off.
• Who pays: road charges, tolls and any penalty notice are agreed when booking, so settle the point with a manager before the car is delivered.

The Congestion Charge zone lies inside the Inner Ring Road — Pentonville Road, City Road, Old Street, Commercial Street, Mansell Street, Tower Bridge Road, New Kent Road, Elephant & Castle, Kennington Lane, Vauxhall Bridge Road, Park Lane, Edgware Road, Marylebone Road and Euston Road all run outside it or on its boundary. A penalty charge notice for either scheme is £180, cut to £90 if paid within 14 days. If your route leaves the city early, the charge may not apply at all — the zone is not charged from 25 December to the New Year bank holiday inclusive, and electric cars on Auto Pay pay £13.50 instead of £18.

Dartford Crossing and the motorway run

The Dartford Crossing on the M25 is a toll only if your way out of the city takes the eastern side of the M25, and it is £3.50 per crossing for a car, or £2.80 with a prepaid account. Payment is due by midnight the following day, and a £70 penalty notice drops to £35 if paid within 14 days. Fuel on the way costs what the pumps charge: petrol stood at £1.75 a litre and diesel at £1.99 at the last check, and a full tank at the start is the rule on our cars. Speed limits are 30 mph in built-up areas, 60 mph on a single carriageway and 70 mph on a motorway, with 20 mph signs common in parts of the capital — the signs decide, not the default.

Licence and the paperwork for the drive north

A full, valid foreign licence lets you drive for 12 months from your last entry into Great Britain, covering England, Wales and Scotland alike. The drink-drive limit is 80 mg per 100 ml of blood in England, Wales and Northern Ireland but 50 mg in Scotland — the stricter figure applies on the final leg of the trip. Holding a phone at the wheel costs £200 and 6 penalty points, even at a red light. We agree the licence details and the rest of the paperwork with a manager when the booking is fixed, so raise anything unusual at that point rather than at hand-over.

Longer bookings for car rental in London for a trip to Edinburgh

The further the trip, the more the arithmetic of a longer booking matters. Rent-Trip prices a week at six times the daily rate and a month at twenty-one times the daily rate, so the same car gets cheaper per day the longer you keep it. On this page the daily band runs from £22 to £176, which puts a week from £132 and a month from £462. For a drive to Edinburgh and back, a weekly booking usually covers the whole trip with a day or two in hand.

How the multipliers work on the longer trips

• Weekly rate: six times the daily price of the car you pick, so a Volkswagen Golf Estate at £31 a day is charged at the weekly multiplier.
• Monthly rate: twenty-one times the daily price, which suits anyone staying north of the border for a month or more.
• Daily rate: the figure to compare when your trip is five days or shorter and the multiplier would overshoot; at six days the two are equal.
• Class spread: each class has its own entry point, so the multiplier scales with the car rather than the calendar.

What to settle before the booking is fixed

The car is supplied with a full tank and must be returned with a full tank, whatever the length of the hire. If your plan runs past a month, ask about the monthly multiplier rather than stacking weekly rates, and if the car is delivered to one address and left at another, name both when you ring.

One-way drop-off and the return time

A one-way drop-off changes the plan, and Rent-Trip treats it as a separate arrangement rather than a standard option. The hand-over address, the date and the hour are settled with a manager before anything is confirmed, and the finishing point belongs to that same conversation — say at the start that the car will not come back to where it started, because a different finishing point is arranged case by case and is not promised on the site.

Fix the finishing hour as carefully as the delivery: a long motorway run north makes the last hour the least predictable, and a slot agreed with slack is worth more than one that assumes clear roads. In our practice the bookings that go wrong are the ones where the finish was left vague and the customer rang from a service station.

What is set out in the rental agreement for car rental in London for a trip to Edinburgh

The agreement is where a plan turns into a booking: it names the vehicle, the hand-over point, the dates and every charge that follows from them. Three details — where the car goes, which day, what time — are settled with a manager first, and the document is then drawn up around exactly those three.

What the agreement records

• The car: model and class from the 45 vehicles on this page, from the Citroen C3 Aircross at £22 a day to the Mercedes-Benz V-Class at £176 a day.
• Hand-over and pick-up: the address the vehicle goes to and the hour it is collected, both confirmed with a manager before anything is locked in.
• The charges: deposit, insurance excess and any delivery fee all live in the paperwork rather than in a quote on this page.
• The fuel rule: it arrives clean with a full tank and goes back full; a short tank means the missing fuel plus a refuelling service fee, charged as the document sets out.
• Longer bookings: weekly is the daily rate times six and monthly is the daily rate times twenty-one, applied to the daily price of the car you pick.

What is agreed when booking, not printed in advance

Conditions that hang on the driver and the journey are settled with a manager rather than fixed in advance here. Minimum age, the young-driver surcharge, which cards cover the deposit, the territory you may drive in and the additional-driver terms are all agreed at that stage. Planning a second driver for the long haul north? Raise it then — the answer shapes what the document says. The same holds for anywhere beyond our standard delivery area. Any address in the city is covered, and so are Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, London City and Southend; a pick-up elsewhere is arranged case by case and is not promised on the site, so ask before you build a plan around it.

Documents and the drive itself

A full, valid foreign licence is accepted for 12 months from your last entry into Great Britain (England, Wales, Scotland) — that is the gov.uk rule, and it covers the whole run to Edinburgh. Carry the licence itself, not a photograph of it. On the way north the signs beat the default: 30 mph in built-up areas in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, 60 mph on a single carriageway, 70 mph on a dual carriageway and on the motorway. Many zones in the capital are signed at 20 mph, so read the signs rather than assume. The alcohol limit is stricter in Scotland — 50 mg per 100 ml of blood against 80 mg in England, Wales and Northern Ireland — which matters on the last stretch of a long day. Using a hand-held phone at the wheel costs £200 and 6 penalty points, even at a red light. In our experience the paperwork is the cheapest part of the trip to get wrong: read the return time as carefully as the pick-up time, because a one-way drop-off changes the plan and the charges with it.