Rent a MINI in England? Sightseeing?
 

Hubby and I are going to England in September, 2013, for the Goodwood Revival. I don't know how much time we'll be in England, but we'd like to rent a MINI and drive, probably 2 to 3 weeks. Our last trip to England was in 2001, when we picked up a new Bimmer in Munich, and proceeded to put 4000 miles on her before shipping her home from London. On our list so far:

Goodwood museums, etc.
MINI plant
Stonehenge
Isle of Man
Air museums, such as Duxford (actually, a return trip)
Western coast of England
Mercedes museum in Brooklands (west of London)
Farnborough air museum (west of London)

London isn't on the list, except for outlying areas.

Anyone have suggestions on other sights? Any information on renting a MINI? And yes, we're well familar with driving on the "wrong" side of the road, having done it in England, Jamaica, and other countries. We covered Scotland, Yorkshire, and the eastern part of England on the last trip, along with part of the Lakes region. Unfortunately, much of the countryside was off limits due to the foot and mouth outbreak that spring.

I am not familiar with place outside of London

But I did rent a MINI last year with SIXT (and drive it to Paris:D)

Thanks!

If you're heading across to Stonehenge you may want to take a look and see how far it is to the Beaulieu Motor Museum....for the UK that's a lot of distance to cover, though I do see you have 2-3 weeks, and you've driven there before. It takes much longer to travel any distance in the UK compared to a comparable distance in the US....other place you may want to look at would be Bourton -on-the Water in the Cotswolds......what do you mean by the "western coast of England"...are you talking about Devon and Cornwall? or do you mean you really want the western coast of England...which is of course WALES...the best part of the British Isles......plug..my brother has a guest house B&B in Lynton, Devon.....
Philip

I don't know yet what our plans are. Yes, I understand roads and travel are slower, but we had no problems with our previous trip (other than the foot and mouth disease outbreak). We easily traveled from Newcastle to Scotland to the Lakes Region to Yorkshire, and on to London in about a week. Roads were clear and empty until we got to London. And since London isn't on the schedule this time (except for the airport), I'm not too worried.

Thanks for the tip on the museum. Sounds like it needs to be on our list. What is at Bourton-on-the Water?

(Wanna see slow travel? Try Jamaica. We spent a full day of hard driving going from Ocho Rios to Port Antonio and return in the 80's. Got back and headed straight to the bar--the distance was about 150 miles.)

It's a village/town in the Cotswolds....it's perhaps the prettiest place in England and it has a Motor Museum with a toy car collection.
http://www.bourtoninfo.com/ check this site..the Model village is something to see.
http://www.bourtoninfo.com/memberpage.aspx?page=264 it's not far from Stratford and William Shakespeare
Philip

Don't miss Stonehenge! When we were there they let us drive our rental MINI right up to the monument. That was in 2003; hopefully you can still do that:
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Val

We've rented from Cool Cars 4 U http://www.coolcars4hire.co.uk Previously we've rented from Avis Prestige or Miles & Miles (who run the LHR Avis prestige operation), but they seem to have stopped renting MINIs.

Was that Sixt in the UK? They don't admit to having MINIs.

Once we got to Paris, we rented a MINI from Hertz.

not a chance!

Hope you won't mind if I resurrect this thread from 5 years ago, but it was mine in the first place. We never made it in September, 2013 for reasons I don't recall now, but next week we WILL fly to England. Once again, Goodwood Revival is on the list, as is Beaulieu Motor Museum. Also, Bourton-on-the Water is on the itinerary. And this trip has 4 1/2 days in London, so it's just under 3 weeks total, including flight days. Any new suggestions? Or updates? We will be touring with a large British-car group for the first couple of weeks, by motorcoach, and London isn't a good place to drive a car--been there, done that, so I need suggestions for places we can go without renting, just public transportation or shoe-power. Two of our days are on the weekend, if that makes a difference. We love all things transportation, including historic war and aviation. The standard Buckingham-type stuff we've already done.

Skip England and head north to Scotland!

Not an option. I'll be with a group for 2 weeks, and then coming back through London to return home. Besides, I've covered Scotland pretty well on a previous trip.

Did you make the trip? Give us an update.

I rented a MINI from SIXT in Florida a couple of years back. The MINI was great once I got though the first tank of low quality gas and replaced it with premium. I have been happy with SIXT and recommend them based on 3 rentals. Two concerns: They, like most rental companies, say "or comparable" and I seldom agree with what is comparable. They tried to give me a Nissan Versa as comparable. luckily, they gave me the option of waiting 30 minutes for the MINI. The second issue is the limited area covered by the rental agreement. In the US, the rental agreement only covers a few States. I have heard they report it stolen if you take it too far. (Read the fine print.)

They don't have many locations in the US, but I understand they are more common in Europe.

Yes, we made the trip and it was wonderful! We had 15 days with the group, and 4 days on our own in London. This trip was organized by a company that sells vintage British car parts,and they have an annual trip with varying itineraries in England and Europe. Price was very reasonable, planning was thoughtful, and execution was perfect. (No one got executed, LOL.) We had a tour bus with our own driver for the 2 weeks we were on the road, staying 1 day post flight near Heathrow, 9 days in Winchester, 4 days in Nailsworth, and 1 last night at Heathrow, since most people left then. Besides Goodwood Revival, we went to Beaulieu for the "Auto Jumble" (swap meet) and the museum there, and to Brooklands Museum. Also rode on a horse-drawn canal boat, historic steam engine train, and a modern train to the Portsmouth Naval Museum complex. Went to the Avebury stone circle, which is the biggest circle. Saw the Bath baths. Winchester Cathedral (yes, THAT one; no, the song wasn't playing). Drove through the Cotswolds. Saw where Top Gear is filmed. Toured the Morgan factory. Talked to lots of sheep. Our hotels were home bases for day trips on the bus, thus minimizing the packing and unpacking. We never felt rushed, ate meals both on our own and with members of the group, and had a blast. There were about 48 of us, mostly middle aged and older, mostly couples. We already knew 2 of the couples from one of the local car clubs we belong to, which is how we found out about the tour.

In London we walked. And walked. And walked some more. Rode one of the hop-on-hop-off double decker buses, took the Tube when needed, and also a Thames River sightseeing boat. Mostly walked, though. Plan on making your step-counter reach numbers not seen before! I should add that I'm not young, and had major foot fusion surgery a little over a year before the trip. But, we made it. Our base in London was an AirBNB on the Thames, right at the Lambeth Bridge, so walking was indeed an option for most things. We'd already done some of the touristy things on previous trips, but we did some again and went to new places. The Eye is expensive, but I think worth it, and crowds weren't bad in September.

So, we did all that for 19 days and never rented a car. We couldn't find a way to fit Oxford into our schedule, nor some of the other things originally on the list, but we have absolutely no regrets. If you're interested in touring with Jan and Jeff, who own Little British Car Co, email them at lbcarco.com. Tell 'em Deb sent ya'. I promise you won't be disappointed if you go with them. In all our decades of traveling internationally, independently and solo, land and sea-based, I don't think we've ever had a better planned trip.