The great British staycation is still alive and kicking, with more of us setting our sights on national parks and coastlines closer to home for recreation this year.
One of the ways to make a UK trip more special is to hire a classic car, giving you a chance to tour in style and try out a set of wheels that isn’t your own.
A good number of classic car hire companies in Britain now offer day, weekend or week-long rental of a range of classics, and you can even book some of them with a chauffeur. If you fancy adding some classic car class to a UK trip this year, look no further than our run-down of classic car hire providers.
Vintage Classics
Based in Wiltshire on the southern edge of the Cotswolds, Vintage Classics offer car lovers the chance to ‘drive your dream’, with a car hire fleet featuring a 1968 Morris Minor, a Triumph Stag, the ever-popular E-Type Jaguar, and a number of MGs amongst other classics.
Voted the best car hire company in the Cotswolds for three years in a row from 2015-2017, Vintage Classics offer wedding hire and gift vouchers as well as straightforward per-day hire. Their four carefully-researched tours are themed around exploring the Cotswolds or Wiltshire countryside, driving Roman Roads, or even on the trail of Inspector Morse, with filming locations along the route.
Vintage Classics is a member of the Historic and Classic Car Hirers Guild (HCHG).
Book a Classic
One of the larger organisations of its kind, bookaclassic.co.uk offers access to Aston Martins, Jaguar E types, Triumph Spitfires and more, nationwide. You can opt to self-drive, or even go for chauffeured hire and have someone give you a tour of your chosen locale.
Not all the cars are ‘traditional’ classics, either – you can rent a Volkswagen T2 camper for a rural getaway, or if you’re a Back to the Future fan, you can rent a Delorean.
Locations available on bookaclassic include London, Bristol, Sevenoaks, Plymouth, Leicester, Glasgow and Brighton, amongst many others. If you’re a classic owner looking to make some income from your classic, you can list your own car for hire on the site.
Caledonian Classics
Not to leave Scotland out of the mix, Caledonian Classics based in Midlothian boasts a collection of vintage sports cars, designed to help you make the most of Scotland’s stunning scenery.
They offer personalised tours and packages for anything from 2 to 10 days, with everything from taxi transfer from local airports to suggested routes and stops, and a picnic hamper to take along.
For the real enthusiast, the Highland Fling tour covers around 500 miles over three days, with historic stops and full mechanical backup, in case of maintenance or repair needs.