"Driving through Scotland" Scotland Transportation Tip by micas_pt

Edinburgh was the starting point of our road trip through Scotland, focusing on the Highlands. For this, we choose to rent a car in Edinburgh and return it in Inverness, from where we flew back home.

I searched several renowned companies - Avis, Europcar, Hertz - all of them with expensive prices. Also, I enquired some local companies, one of them Arnold Clark the major car rental in Scotland, and prices still felt like very high and somewhat the conditions concerning insurances, excess and fees didn't seem clear enough for me.

At last I noticed that on Easyjet's website there was something about renting a car with their partner Europcar and nice prices for Easyjet's clients, which was our case in our visit to Great Britain. It turned out that there was a good deal for Easyjet's clients: the additional driver was free of charge and there was an up-grade of car category. So, we decide to rent a Renault Megane for the price of an Opel (Vauxhal) Corsa. Nice!

One must guaranty the reservation with a Credit Card, being that if you choose to pre-pay the price is lower. That's what we did. Also, we choose an additional cover concerning insurance and lower excess and child booster.

On the first day of the rental, we walked into Waverley Station and the Europcar shop was closed!! All it had was a hand-written note saying that there was a computer problem and that customer's should visit their other shop at the other side of town! We weren't at all pleased with this as we were carrying our luggage and had to walk for about 30 minutes to reach their installations.

When we arrived, we asked for our car and they explained us that they were out of Renault Megane and that they would rent us another vehicle, for the same price - what they had available was a diesel Skoda Fabia (the family model). It was a car of a better category than the one we had rented, so we accepted their offer. Another plus to mention is that the Skoda Fabia only had 13 miles, meaning the car was brand new! And in fact it was, we were very pleased with the car. Also, they explained us about their full coverage insurance lowering the excess to 1 penny, it was a good deal and the just paid the remaining, which was about £10.

After our road trip through Scotland it was time to deliver the car in Inverness Airport. To our surprise, the signs about delivering cars were the opposite direction of the airport! And we remembered the day we picked-up the car in Edinburgh and the distance we had to walk carrying our luggage. But in Inverness the case seemed worst as it was raining! But on we went, following the signs. The park is a bit far from the airport, but we were relieved to find that they have a free shuttle to drive customer's to the airport! It was a happy ending. :)

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Type: Car/Motor Home