When planning your London Vacation one thing is for sure; there is no need to rent a car and drive it in London! The reasons for this are many but apart from the fact London has possibly the best public transport of any major city in the world, the cost of a rental car will be insignificant if you either get clamped, get a ticket or fail to pay your congestion charge. The initial fines on these are enough but if you fail to pay you will be getting some nasty letters from your car rental company when you get home.

On top of all this parking is nothing short of a nightmare in London. Finding somewhere to park is hard enough but when you do central London parking charges are bordering on the ridiculous. One pound can only get you 15 minutes in certain areas of central London and if this is on a parking meter and you return late you will either find a nice blue ticket on your car, a lovely metal yellow accessory on your wheel (clamp), or your car completely vanished into thin air and transported miraculously to the local car pound where a hefty fine awaits you in return for your car! I think by now you will of got the message?

All this is not to say that you should not rent a car if you are planning on touring areas outside London. If you have the courage to take on driving on the left hand side of the road and know where you are going, renting a car can be cost effective and fun. London has all the main car rental companies plus a lot more and you can get great deals if you shop around and make a point of specifying the right car for you and your needs.