By car to Stonehenge

You're planning a drive from London to Stonehenge and wondering how to sort the car? Rent-Trip delivers a self-drive car to any address in the city and to all six airports serving it, with 45 vehicles on this page from £22 a day. The delivery address, date and time are agreed with a manager before the booking is fixed.

Car rental in London for a trip to Stonehenge and how the delivery works

Car rental in London for a trip to Stonehenge starts with how Rent-Trip puts a self-drive car in your hands for the run: where we can bring the vehicle, what you fix with a manager before the booking is confirmed, and what the rental agreement covers.

Where the car can be delivered

We deliver to any address in London and to Heathrow Airport (LHR), Gatwick Airport (LGW), Stansted Airport (STN), Luton Airport (LTN), City Airport (LCY) and Southend Airport (SEN). The same applies to the places we hold a page for inside the delivery area — St Pancras & King’s Cross, Euston, Paddington, Victoria, Waterloo, Canary Wharf, Wembley, ExCeL London and Mayfair. Delivery outside these places is arranged case by case and is not promised on the site, so it is worth asking early if your address sits beyond the boundary. Give the exact postcode and floor at booking — a driver who cannot find the entrance turns a 20-minute hand-over into an hour. For an airport pick-up, the terminal matters as much as the airport code.

How the booking is agreed with a manager

• Address, date and time: agreed with a manager before the booking is fixed, so nothing is reserved on a guess.
• Rental agreement: the deposit, insurance excess, delivery fees and any discounts sit in the document, not in a phone call.
• Read before you confirm: the agreement is the only place where the money terms are stated, so read it before you sign off the dates.
• Fuel rule: the car comes clean with a full tank and goes back full — otherwise the missing fuel and a refuelling service fee are charged as set out in the agreement.
• No other fuel option: a pre-paid tank or full-to-empty arrangement is not offered on the site.

What the delivery model means for a Stonehenge day

A Stonehenge day trip works best when the car is already outside your door at first light. Our fleet on this page runs to 45 cars, and the daily rate starts at £22, so the delivery model is what makes an early start realistic rather than a scramble across town to a depot.

In our practice, the bookings that go smoothly are the ones where the customer names the postcode, the floor and the terminal or street entrance in the first message — that single detail removes most of the back-and-forth. Booking a week out gives a manager room to match the class you want; leaving it to the morning of the trip narrows the choice to whatever is still free.

Car rental in London for a trip to Stonehenge

Car rental in London for a trip to Stonehenge is a single westward push out of the capital and back, and almost all of it sits on two numbered roads. What changes the day is not the route but the hour you leave and where you stop for fuel and parking.

Which roads to take and how long the drive is

The drive runs west out of the capital on the M3, then the A303 to the Stonehenge visitor centre at Amesbury, SP4 7DE. From the centre of the city the A316 runs out to the start of the M3 at Sunbury, and the A303 takes over past Basingstoke, running through Andover and on to Amesbury. The route holds a steady motorway pace for roughly the first half and then becomes a two-lane trunk road with roundabouts at Andover and Amesbury.

Traffic on the A303 backs up in both directions on summer weekends between 10:00 and 16:00, and the single carriageway near Winterbourne Stoke is the usual bottleneck. Leave before 07:00 to clear the M25 and the M3 before the morning build-up — a departure at that hour puts you at the visitor centre before the coach parties arrive, and the same drive after 09:00 can take half as long again.

Parking and arrival at the visitor centre

• Visitor centre car park: the site at SP4 7DE has its own parking, and the stones themselves are a short shuttle ride from it.
• Shuttle bus: a bus covers the last stretch from the centre to the monument, so the car stays parked for the visit.
• Tickets: English Heritage operates Stonehenge, and entry is booked through them.
• Return leg: the A303 eastbound is slowest between 16:00 and 19:00, so plan the drive back either side of that window.
• Fuel: fill up before leaving the capital and again before the return — the A303 has few stations and they price above town.

Book English Heritage tickets in advance — the shuttle queue, not the road, is the slowest part of the day.

What the drive costs by class

A weekly booking works out at the daily rate times six, and a monthly one at the daily rate times twenty-one — worth checking against your dates with the manager before you commit.

Choosing a car for the Stonehenge run from our London rental fleet

Forty-five cars across four classes sit in the Rent-Trip London fleet for this trip, and the right one depends on how many of you are going and what the weather is doing on Salisbury Plain.

Classes and what each suits on this trip

Models worth knowing before you book

• Hyundai Kona: £36 a day — a 1.0 L petrol Crossover with five seats and a manual gearbox, fine for two travellers and a weekend bag.
• Volkswagen Golf Estate: Comfort class at £31 a day, 1.5 L petrol, 130 hp, and the estate body gives you a boot that swallows a family's luggage without folding seats.
• Toyota RAV4: SUV at £40 a day, hybrid and all-wheel drive with 218 hp — the pick if the forecast turns and you want grip on the A303 in rain.
• Mercedes-Benz V-Class: the most expensive on this page at £176 a day, a seven-seat diesel Minivan for a full group travelling together.

The Toyota RAV4 is the one I would take myself for an autumn run: hybrid running costs on a 90-minute motorway leg, and all-wheel drive costs you nothing extra over the front-wheel SUVs at the same £40. A seven-seater only earns its place with a full group aboard; for four people the Golf Estate or Kia Ceed Sportswagon gives you the same boot space with cheaper running.

Petrol, hybrid or automatic — matching the car to the drive

Of the 45 cars, 34 run on petrol, 7 are hybrid and 4 diesel; 20 come with an automatic gearbox and 25 with a manual. If you have never driven on the left before, an automatic removes one thing to think about at the M25 interchanges — the Toyota Corolla at £31 a day is hybrid and automatic, and the Kia Stonic at £30 pairs an automatic with the Crossover body.

Seats split 37 five-seaters, 7 seven-seaters and one four-seat Mini Cooper.

Fill the tank before you leave the city — motorway fuel on the A303 is the priciest on the route, and the car goes out full and comes back full.

Petrol, hybrid or automatic for a Stonehenge car rental in London

The Stonehenge run is roughly 90 miles of motorway and A-road each way, so the choice between petrol, hybrid and automatic shapes the day more than the badge on the bonnet. Our 45 cars split cleanly enough that most drivers find their answer in the first two minutes of the booking call.

Fuel and gearbox across the fleet

Of the 45 cars, 34 run on petrol, 7 are hybrid and 4 diesel; 20 are automatic and 25 manual. Hybrids sit mostly in the Comfort and Crossover brackets — the Toyota Corolla at £31 a day, the Toyota Prius at £31, the Toyota C-HR at £41 and the Kia Sorento at £49 — and all but the Sorento are front-wheel drive with a 1.8 L engine and 122 hp. Automatic covers a wider spread: the Seat Leon at £23, the Toyota Corolla, the Kia Stonic at £30, the Toyota RAV4 at £40, the Hyundai Tucson at £34, the MG HS at £36, the Toyota Prius, the C-HR, the Peugeot 3008 at £43, the Ford Kuga at £48, the Sorento, the Jeep Compass at £40, the Volkswagen Touran at £65 and the BMW 1 Series at £63. Fill up before you leave the city: the motorway forecourts on the A303 are the priciest stretch of the route, and our cars go out full and come back full.

Seats for couples, families and groups

37 cars have five seats, 7 have seven and one Mini Cooper has four. The seven-seaters are the Volkswagen Sharan at £44, the Kia Sorento at £49, the Volkswagen Touran at £65, the Peugeot 5008 at £65, the Volkswagen Multivan at £77, the Ford Galaxy at £79 and the Mercedes-Benz V-Class at £176. A seven-seater only pays off with a full group — otherwise the estate boot serves better, and the Volkswagen Golf Estate at £31 and the Kia Ceed Sportswagon at £31 carry five in more comfort than any MPV row three.

• Petrol: 34 cars, the default for the A303 — refuelling is easy at Amesbury and the service areas either side of it.
• Hybrid: 7 cars, all automatic — the Toyota Corolla and Prius return the best figures on the steady 60–70 mph stretches.
• Diesel: 4 cars, all seven-seaters — the Sharan, Touran, Galaxy and V-Class, chosen for torque with a loaded cabin.
• Manual: 25 cars, the cheaper half of the fleet and fine on the M3, where the gearbox barely matters.
• Automatic: 20 cars, the sensible pick if you are new to left-hand driving and want one less thing to think about.
• All-wheel drive: the Toyota RAV4 and Kia Sorento only — worth it on a wet, windy return through Salisbury Plain.

A hybrid automatic takes the sting out of the return leg, when the M3 northbound queues build between Basingstoke and the M25 — the electric motor covers the crawling without drinking fuel, and you arrive back with a tank closer to full than a petrol equivalent would manage.

Driving rules and charges on a Stonehenge car rental from London

A Stonehenge car rental from London puts you on the left-hand side of the road with a right-hand-drive car, through the Congestion Charge and ULEZ zones and onto the M3. The rules and charges below are the ones that actually touch this trip.

Left-hand driving and the licences that work

You drive on the left unless signs or markings say otherwise — Highway Code rule 160 — and keep to the left edge when turning (rule 183). Roundabouts run clockwise and you give way to traffic approaching from the right (rule 185). A full, valid foreign licence can be used for 12 months from your last entry into Great Britain. Speed limits are 30 mph in built-up areas in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, 60 mph on single carriageway, 70 mph on dual carriageway and motorway; lit roads default to 30 mph unless signs say otherwise, and many zones post 20 mph — signs win. The drink-drive limit in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is 80 mg per 100 ml of blood, 35 µg per 100 ml of breath, 107 mg per 100 ml of urine. Holding a phone, satnav or tablet is banned even at a red light: £200 and 6 penalty points, and a driver who passed under 2 years ago loses the licence; hands-free is allowed if it does not block your view. Belts are compulsory where fitted, children ride in a child seat until they reach 135 cm or turn 12, whichever comes first — up to £500.

Charges inside the city before you head west

• Congestion Charge: £18 a day paid on the day or in advance, £21 if paid by midnight of the third day after; 07:00–18:00 Monday to Friday, 12:00–18:00 weekends and bank holidays, not charged from 25 December to the New Year bank holiday inclusive.
• ULEZ: £12.50 a day for non-compliant cars, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week except 25 December, across all 32 boroughs — the M25 is outside it.
• Dartford Crossing: £3.50 per crossing, £2.80 prepaid, usually 06:00–22:00 every day.
• Penalty notices: £180 for either zone, reduced to £90 if paid within 14 days.
• Who pays: charges, tolls and penalties on a rental car are agreed when booking.

What the paperwork leaves open

The minimum rental age, the young-driver surcharge, which cards are accepted and the mileage territory are agreed when booking, not fixed here. Fuel prices on this page's market move with the forecourt, so a full-to-full policy — which is how we supply the car — is worth planning around. So are the deposit, the insurance excess, the delivery fee and any discount: they are set out in the rental agreement, and in our practice that is the page people skim past before the drive. Read it before you confirm — a surcharge you did not expect costs more than the fuel.

Making a day of it with your Stonehenge car rental in London

Car rental in London for a trip to Stonehenge is short enough to leave room for something else on the same day, and long enough that the order of stops matters.

Salisbury and the return leg

• Salisbury Cathedral: a 123-metre spire and the best-preserved copy of Magna Carta, 20 minutes from the visitor centre at Amesbury.
• Old Sarum: earthworks and a ruined castle on the hill north of Salisbury, free to walk, good for a 40-minute leg-stretch.
• Avebury: a village built inside a stone circle, roughly 25 miles north of Stonehenge on the A4361.
• Woodhenge and Durrington Walls: flat, quiet ground a few minutes from the visitor centre, worth it if the stones are busy.

Stonehenge is at its emptiest in the first hour after opening and in the last hour before closing, and the shuttle queue is the slowest part of any visit. English Heritage tickets bought in advance cut the wait at the desk, not at the bus. Our advice from running this route: park at the visitor centre, take the shuttle up, walk back down if the weather holds — the return path takes about 25 minutes and passes the Cursus barrows.

On the way home the A303 eastbound is the direction that clogs, so aim to be past Amesbury before 16:00 or leave it until after 19:00.

What to bring back in the car

The boot matters more than the cabin on this trip. A Comfort estate such as the Volkswagen Golf Estate or the Kia Ceed Sportswagon swallows a folded pushchair, a cool bag and two day-packs without anyone riding with luggage on their knees, and both come with five seats. If the forecast turns wet and windy on Salisbury Plain — which it does without much warning — the Toyota RAV4 at £40 a day is hybrid and all-wheel drive, and the extra grip earns its keep on the A303 in standing water. Crossover models from £22 cover the same route for two people with light bags.

The car leaves us with a full tank and comes back full — that is the only fuel arrangement we offer, and the nearest cheap fill is back in the city near the return address rather than on the motorway. A fill-up on the way back in costs less than one on the A303. Build 20 minutes of slack into the evening: the return delivery address, the time and any charge on the route are agreed with a manager when you book, not guessed at the roadside.

Fuel, condition and hand-back on a Stonehenge car rental in London

A day trip to Stonehenge works best when the boring parts — fuel, condition checks, the return — are settled ahead of departure. Here is how we handle them on this route.

Fuel: full-to-full, and where to fill up

Every car leaves with a full tank and must come back full. That is the only fuel option we offer — no pre-paid tank, no full-to-empty. If the car returns short, the missing fuel and a refuelling service fee are charged as set out in the rental agreement. Rent-Trip cars run on petrol (34 of the 45), hybrid (7) or diesel (4), so check the filler cap before you pull away — a petrol pump in a diesel car is an expensive mistake on the A303.

Motorway forecourts on the A303 sit at the top of the fuel price range. Fill up near the return address instead: a full tank covers the round trip with plenty spare, and you avoid paying motorway prices twice.

Condition at hand-over and back

The car comes clean with a full tank. Walk round the car yourself before the first mile: note scuffs on the bumpers and alloys, check the tyres and the spare, and confirm the fuel gauge reads full. On the return, the same walk-round takes two minutes. Raise anything you spot with the manager straight away — liability for damage is set out in the rental agreement. In our experience the disputes that cost money are almost always kerbed alloys on the last hundred metres of a day trip — park wide.

Return the car full, clean and at the time agreed with the manager when you booked. Late returns, extra mileage and cleaning are not itemised on this page — they are set out in the rental agreement, so read that clause before you sign. A Stonehenge round trip from the capital runs roughly 180 miles there and back, which is worth checking against the mileage terms rather than assuming.

Book the return time with a buffer: the M3 eastbound jams from mid-afternoon, and a 30-minute slip turns into ninety. If the day runs long, call the manager before the agreed time rather than after — rearranging is easier than explaining.

What is agreed when booking

• Delivery and collection address: any address in the city or one of the six local airports — agreed with a manager before the booking is fixed.
• Deposit, excess and delivery fees: set out in the rental agreement, never quoted on this page.
• Mileage, late return and cleaning: the same — rental agreement, not a figure here.
• Fuel: full-to-full only; the missing fuel plus a refuelling fee applies otherwise.

Rent-Trip delivers the car to you, so the hand-back is at an address agreed with the manager — no depot detour at the end of a long day.