Planning the roadtrip was easy!

1. Car hire – P.s. manual is 1/2 the price of automatic transmission, unfort I can only drive auto so I paid the price, still wasn’t too bad compared to train travel as had freedom to move around as I pleased

Budget Car Hire

TBH, wasnt the cheapest but I trusted them – pick up / drop off location was perfect, just outside of Heathrow airport in the foyer of the Holiday Inn so was the perfect pick up location for me. There is a free Budget and Avis shuttle bus from terminal 5, bus stop 23 and was a 5-10min drive to the pickup location (I chose to stay the day & night at the hotel then picked up the car the next morning after check out so I would be fresh and ready to go the next day)

Extra Options

I like making sure that I have a system in place that is easy to use and if something happens to one I have back up, so I was happy to pay extra for a GPS – the way I worked, I had the end location set from the morning (so I knew what time I would arrive at the hotel and could time my day) and I used me offline maps.me to guide me from one stop to the next

Insurance

I recommend getting additional 3rd party insurance that is cheaper and covers any issues that come up. I chose Rentalcover as I used this company when I rented our campervan a few years ago, they were easy to work with and helped make a claim we had, so I have used them and trust them – the insurance the car hire use is much more to expensive and some things aren’t covered – double check and read all T&Cs

Mobile Data & SIM

Data and SIM – “3 Mobile” is my go to when I go to Europe, I know it’s expensive than what’s out there but it works for me especially if I’m also heading to Europe and can use the data there as well – for this trip I bought unlimited 1 month package for £50 as I was using it daily for tethering to my laptop as well for writing my blog and uploading etc, (you can also share with other people you are traveling with if you want to let them use your data) but if you aren’t using for your laptop, then you can get one or the smaller plans instead – If you need just for maps and directions then 20gb should be enough – go to any mobile store at the airport and they will have it there (note: these Sims expire after a year or so, so if you have an old sim, it won’t work – trust me I spent hours the first day trying to figure out hy my old sim wasn’t working! Ugh)