Glasgow Travel Forum

Woulod any one be able to help my sister out with the following question She is trying to organise a 6 week trip over and its a bit tricky doing it from Australia .And she know I rave about how helpful VT's are so her question is
- has anyone hired a car in Glasgow - toured Scotland, taken the car across on the ferry to Belfast - toured Northern Ireland then returned to Scotland,

If so what hire car company did they use and was the car covered by insurance whilst on the ferry to and from Northern Ireland.

This is what we want to do but trying to find a hire car company who will let us take the car on the ferry is very difficult.
We would appreciate any advice thankyou

Contact this VT member, she may help you: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/70a7e/

You may well have trouble finding a company which will let you do this.

But your sister could just take the ferry as a foot passenger and then pick up a hire car on arrival in Northern Ireland. This would save some money too: car ferry rates are not cheap.

Any reputable car hire company should be able to advise. It is not something I have ever tried to do, but don't see it as too big a problem.

However, I would suggest an alternative. The road to the NI ferry ports is not the most interesting and can take a while as it is mostly single carriageway. Why not just book one of the very cheap bucket airline flights (last time I went with Flybe for less than £30 return by booking well ahead) to Belfast City Airport from Glasgow (can also go from Edinburgh but different operators there)? She can easily pick up/drop off cars at each airport.

Your sister is lucky as a six week trip should allow her to see most of both countries. If she is looking for specific places to visit, just ask.

I think the additional car hire charges (if she does find a willing company) and ferry costs mean she would be better off either flying or taking the ferry as a foot passenger. Flying would be much quicker, of course.

www.whichbudget.com will list budget carriers (watch out for 20kg hold luggage limit, 15kg for Ryanair) www.skyscannerr.net will list mainstream carriers as well.

Cheapest air fares are booked well in advance, budget or mainstream.

I'd rent a car in Glasgow just for the Scottish part of the trip. Then I'd fly to Belfast, pick up a car there for the NI part of the trip. I think it will work out cheaper and in any case, the trip down to the ferry at Stranraer can be absolutely manic as trucks and cars hurtle along to make the ferry on time - not the most relaxing of trips. Of course, if they are planning to be in that part of the world some days before the ferry, then they might do as well to leave the car at the port, go as foot passengers to NI, rent another car there. I have no idea how that would be cost wise, as they would be paying for an "unused" car in Scotland whilst they are in NI. You might be able to arrange for a "drop off" and "pick up" of a car at Stranraer. Unless they are planning to be touring in Dumfries and Galloway, then by far the easiest and probably, the cheapest option is to do the fly option. Please note that Ryanair go out of Prestwick airport - has train connections from Glasgow (also bus but I'd recommend train) and Prestwick airport passengers travel for half-price on trains to and from the airport.

Thankyou all for the advice I will pass it all on to Diane and we appreciate the help
Have a good day

Why is it difficult to find a car hire company which will let you take a car on the ferry? Hertz, for example, imposes no restriction on taking a vehicle to Northern Ireland, which is after all part of the same country. However, there is a supplementary charge if you wish to take the vehicle south of the border.

Northern Ireland is not part of Scotland.

Scotland, Northern Ireland, Wales and England are all part of the UK.

I see no reason why Hertz should apply a supplement for using a Scots hire car in England, other than there may be more traffic and thus the potential for accidents greater.

See http://www.arnoldclarkrental.com/faq.html

Arnold Clark, biggest company in the Scottish motor trade, will let you take a hire car to Northern Ireland as part of their standard rental, but not into the Republic of Ireland. They will permit travel to other European countries with prior agreement, so I would assume this could also include the Republic of Ireland.

And Leicestershire is not part of Derbyshire but they are in the same country: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

A Hertz hire car may be driven anywhere in the United Kingdom, which excludes for example the Isle of Man which is not part of the United Kingdom. There is a supplement if the vehicle is taken over the United Kingdom's only land border, i.e. from Northern Ireland to Ireland. Please read the posts carefully.

I do read posts carefully.

In the UK, the phrase 'south of the border' is most frequently used to refer to the Scots/English border. In consequence, I misunderstood your post which did not make it clear to which border you were referring.

There are, btw, land borders between the countries of the UK. They are clearly marked on all main roads.

If I WERE WRIINGwrote A\

If I WERE WRIINGwrote A\

I see. If I mentioned the USA in one sentence and then wrote "south of the border" in the next sentence, you would assume somewhat anglocentrically that I was referring to England. And I don't see what the land borders between the constituent parts of the UK has to do with the price of fish. There are, after all, land borders between, say, Yorkshire and Durham and between Leicestershire and Northamptonshire. They are simply smaller divisions of the one sovereign state which is the United Kingdom. If you are going to call England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland "countries", you should also call, for example, Sicily, Sardinia, Aland Islands, Quebec or any other territory where there is a strongly developed sense of identity "countries".

Thanyou to everyone for your help my sister emailed me tonight and said
thank you so much for your help with this car hire "adventure". based on the replies you forwarded us, further research etc we have changed our travel plans.

we are now flying to and from Belfast - taking a vehicle on the ferry got way too complicated, comments said the road was pretty awful and we would have left in the dark to get down to Stranraur for ferry departure at 7am -

thankyou for your help, it made the decision easier - we have booked our flights, just organising car quotes now!!!!

So we do appreciate it and she is looking forward to a great trip
so Thanks again you have all made her planning a lot easier
Kerry and Diane

I'm glad you got it sorted. Flying does seem the most sensible way to go.