Driving in London: honest advice

Why I stopped renting a car for London itself

I rented a car for my first trip to London, because that’s what I always did in a new country. I regretted it by the second day. Between the traffic on the North Circular, the search for parking near Westminster, and a congestion charge bill I hadn’t budgeted for, the car cost me more time and money than the Tube would have, and it got me around slower. I haven’t rented a car for central London since, and I don’t recommend anyone else does either.

This isn’t a blanket “never drive in the UK” post. A car is genuinely useful for some day trips, and I’ll get to that. But for central London and most of Greater London, driving works against you, not for you, and it’s worth understanding exactly why before you book a rental.

The two charges that catch people out

London has two separate driving charges that overlap but aren’t the same thing, and mixing them up is the single most common mistake I see visitors make.

The Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) charges £12.50 a day for any vehicle that doesn’t meet a minimum emissions standard, and as of my last check it covers nearly the whole of Greater London, not just the centre. Most cars registered in the last decade meet the standard, and most rental fleets do too, but “most” isn’t “all” — check your specific vehicle before you drive, because the fee is charged to the driver automatically by camera, not collected at a barrier.

The congestion charge is a separate £15-a-day fee for driving into central London on a weekday between 07:00 and 18:00. It applies whether or not your car meets the ULEZ standard. If your rental fails both tests, you’re looking at £27.50 a day just to be in the zone, before parking.

Neither charge is optional and neither is negotiable at the roadside. Cameras read number plates, and the bill (or a fine, if you miss the payment window) follows the registered keeper — which with a rental car usually means it follows you, sometimes with an admin fee added by the rental company.

What driving actually gets you, compared with the Tube

I’ve timed this myself, more than once. A trip from a hotel near South Bank to the Tower of London and the City took twenty-two minutes by Tube, changing once. The same trip by car, mid-morning on an ordinary weekday, took closer to forty minutes once I’d found parking and walked from it. That’s before adding the £15 congestion charge for the privilege.

London’s road layout doesn’t reward cars the way some cities do. Streets are old, narrow in places, and full of one-way systems that turn a short trip into a long detour. The Underground, by contrast, was built to move people through exactly this kind of city, and it does it well. An Oyster card or contactless payment caps your daily fare automatically, so you’re not doing fare maths on top of everything else.

Parking, if you do find it, tends to run £6 to £10 an hour in central boroughs, and a lot of residential streets are permit-only for anyone without a local permit. A single day of parking near a major sight can cost more than the ticket to the sight itself.

If you want to see the highlights of the city from a car without dealing with any of this yourself, a guided option like the private 6-hour walking and driving highlight tour or the Royal London grand tour covers the ground with someone else doing the driving and the parking, which sidesteps the whole problem.

Remember: you drive on the left

If you do decide a rental car makes sense for part of your trip — more on that below — the UK drives on the left, not the right. This sounds obvious written down, but it’s the detail that trips people up in the first tense minute of leaving the rental depot, especially at roundabouts, which go clockwise here rather than counterclockwise. Give yourself a few quiet minutes in a car park or a quiet road before you merge into anything busy, and remember that the driver’s seat is on the right-hand side of the car.

If you’re not confident about this at all, it’s a reasonable argument on its own for skipping the rental entirely and taking the train or a guided tour instead.

Where a rental car actually earns its keep

The case for a car isn’t in London — it’s outside it, specifically in the Cotswolds. That region is a scatter of stone villages across several counties, and while day trip tours exist and work well, public transport between villages like Bibury, Bourton-on-the-Water, Castle Combe and Stow-on-the-Wold is thin enough that a car buys you real flexibility if you want to see more than one or two villages in a day.

I’ve done this both ways: once on a coach tour, once with a rental car picked up for a single day. The rental day let me linger in Bibury longer than any tour schedule allows and detour to a village that wasn’t on anyone’s itinerary. If that kind of freedom matters to you, a car for the Cotswolds specifically — not for London — is worth considering. Options like the Cotswold tour from London or, if you want your own vehicle and pace, the private Cotswolds tour, sit between full self-drive and a fixed coach schedule.

For a single destination day trip — Windsor, Oxford, or Bath — I’d still take the train from Paddington over a car. Once you count the ULEZ and congestion charges for leaving central London, plus parking at the other end, the train usually comes out both cheaper and less stressful. For Bath specifically, a coach option like the day trip from London handles the whole return journey without you touching a car at all.

What I’d actually do differently now

Looking back at that first trip, I’d have skipped the rental entirely for the London portion and only picked up a car for the single day I spent in the Cotswolds. That split — no car in the city, a car only where public transport genuinely thins out — is what I now recommend to anyone who asks. It saves the ULEZ and congestion charge bills, it saves the parking search, and it means the only time you have to remember to drive on the left is on quiet countryside roads, not in the middle of rush-hour traffic near the City.

If you’re still weighing this up, it’s worth reading about getting around London by Tube, bus and boat alongside this, and comparing black cabs against the Tube and bus for the times a car feels tempting but a taxi solves the same problem without the paperwork.

Driving in London: your questions answered

Should I drive in central London?

No. Traffic, parking and the ULEZ and congestion charge fees make a car in central London slower and more expensive than the Tube. A rental car only makes sense for day trips into the countryside, where you’ll drive on the left.

What is the ULEZ and does it apply to rental cars?

The Ultra Low Emission Zone charges £12.50 a day for vehicles that don’t meet emissions standards, and it covers almost all of Greater London. Most modern rental cars meet the standard, but you still have to check before you book, because the fee falls on the driver, not the rental company.

Is the congestion charge the same as the ULEZ?

No, they’re separate charges that overlap. The congestion charge is £15 a day for driving into central London on a weekday between 07:00 and 18:00, and it applies on top of the ULEZ fee if your car also fails that standard.

Do I need a car to see London itself?

No. The Underground, buses and the Elizabeth line cover central London and Greater London far better than a car could, and you avoid parking entirely.

Which side of the road do you drive on in the UK?

The left. Roundabouts also go clockwise, which takes a bit of adjustment if you’re used to driving on the right.

When does a rental car actually make sense?

For the Cotswolds, where villages are spread across several counties and public transport between them is thin. For a single destination like Windsor, Oxford or Bath, the train is usually easier and cheaper once you count parking.

How much does parking cost in central London?

Expect £6 to £10 an hour in central boroughs, with many streets restricted to residents only. A day of parking near a central sight can cost more than the sight itself.