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Hertz in Luton

You could be forgiven for assuming the only reason people visit the UK town of Lutonis to make use of its world-class airport. But you might be surprised. While this Bedfordshire town is undeniably most famous for being the home to London Luton Airport and serving some 15 million airline passengers every year, it still has plenty of other attractions to excite visitors from far and wide.

Perched on the edge of the beautiful Chiltern Hills, Luton is a diverse and cosmopolitan town with a proud heritage and history of motor vehicle production and millinery. While hiring a car in Luton is the perfect way to get around the town, it also opens up the wider area to you, putting cities like London within easy reach.

We operate a pick-up and drop-off location in the Onward Travel area of the arrivals hall of Luton Airport – so you can hop in your hire car and be on your way as soon as you land.

Pickup Locations Luton

  • Luton B&Q

    Opening hours:

    Address: Dallow Road, Laporte Retail Park, Bedfordshire, Luton, LU1 1HJ, United Kingdom

    Phone:

Driving in and around Luton

As you would expect from a town that operates the UK's fifth busiest airport, Luton has truly excellent road links. The A6 runs through the core of the town and the M1 runs along the west, on the edge of the town.

Driving in Luton centre presents no particular problem for drivers, with clear signage. There’s plenty of available parkingthroughoutLuton, especially at The Mall shopping centre, which is open from 6am to 10pm, seven days a week.

Speed restrictions in the UK are fairly sensible, with 96km/h being the limit for main single-carriageway roads, rising to 112km/h on motorways. Most towns, cities and built-up areas cap driving speeds at 48km/h or sometimes lower.

As in New Zealand, you’ll be driving on the left-hand side of the road and overtaking on the right.

Luton’s proximity to the M1 and London's major M25 ring road means that road trips to any of the major British cities can be easily planned.

London is around an hour’s drive southbound on the M1, with the nearby university city of Oxford only an hour-and-a-half drive west on the A418. The other great city of learning in the UK, Cambridge, is just a 65km drive north on the A505.

With so many towns, cities and attractions within a short drive, hiring a car in Luton makes perfect sense.

A quick guide to Luton

Surrounded by lovely green countryside, and a short drive away from lots of excellent days out, there are plenty of reasons to spend time in Luton.

Discover Stockwood

An award-winning museum that's dedicated to being environmentally friendly and entirely sustainable, the Stockwood Discovery Centre – formerly the Stockwood Craft Museum – is a fascinating day out.

Just a 10-minute drive from the centre of Luton, this museum is a fun and interesting place to visit for all the family.

With ever-changing exhibits focused around archaeology, engineering, social history, geology and rural crafts, it makes for entertaining free day out with an extensive collection of interesting and rare items on show.

While you’re here, take the time to explore the adjoining Stockwood Park with its period gardens which include medieval, Dutch and Elizabethan gardens.

A zoo with a view

Set across some 600 acres of land, ZSL Whipsnade Zoo is Britain’s biggest and most impressive zoo. Whipsnade is just 20 minutes’ drive from Luton and offers not only the most comprehensive range of amazing animals to watch in wonder, but a whole host of immersive experiences to enjoy too.

There are some 23,000 animals and almost 800 different species represented at Whipsnade, including chimps, cheetahs, zebras, lynx and brown bears.

The zoo offers opportunities to ‘meet the animals’ and get up close and personal. You can also book amazing ‘safari sleepovers’ at their Lookout Lodge and even become a zookeeper for the day. All this is just an easy 12km drive from Luton town centre.

Wonderful Woburn

For almost 400 years now Woburn Abbey has been the home of the earls and dukes of Bedford, but its illustrious history dates back much further than that.

Originally built as Cistercian monastery way back in the mid-12th century, this spectacular country house has since played host to some very high profile dignitaries including prime ministers and presidents. It also lays claim to being the very house where the great English tradition of afternoon tea was first born.

Painstakingly and lovingly restored to its former glory after some years of disrepair, this abbey and its stunning 28 acres of formal gardens makes for an especially enjoyable day out. This is especially true if you visit during one of the many annual events such as one of the classic car or vintage aviation rallies.

The greater Woburn estate compromises of much more than just the abbey and its gardens. There’s also one of Britain's top deer parks and a famous safari park that over 1,000 species of animal call home.

Whether you plan to stay local and visit the sights of the nearby area or spread your wings and explore the rest of the UK, car hire in Luton gives you the freedom and convenience to do it all at your own pace.