Your quick travel guide to Glasgow

Car Rental in Glasgow: the largest city in Scotland

Once a major industrial center of the United Kingdom, Scotland’s largest city has become known as an important and exciting center of culture and the arts since the early 2000s. Glasgow is an excellent city to visit to experience the sonorous and visually stunning landscape of metropolitan Scotland. Make the most of your visit by exploring the city’s surroundings by hired automobile as well! Book your rental car today.

Spring and summer, from March to August, are the most enjoyable seasons to visit Glasgow, when the weather is warm and the days are long.

A unique Glaswegian dialect of Scots is spoken in Glasgow, which native speakers of English should be able to understood without too much difficulty. While Scots, Scottish Gaelic, and English are the primary languages of Scotland, all native Scots speak English. Workers in major tourist areas are likely to speak a continental European language, such as French, German, or Spanish.

Glasgow is in the Greenwich Mean Time Zone, UTC+0.

The currency in the UK is the pound sterling (pound or quid in colloquial speech). Credit cards are widely accepted and ATMs frequently available. If you are travelling to Wales or England from Northern Ireland or Scotland and the pound bills you received in the north are met with skepticism, you can exchange them free of charge at any bank.

Cheap car hire in Glasgow is available in 10 locations, including Glasgow International (GLA) and Prestwick Airports (PIK), and at the railway station. Interested in car hire in Glasgow City centre? It is also available!

Visa Regulations

At the time of writing, citizens of nations that comprise the European Union and European Economic Area, as well as Swiss nationals, do not require a visa to enter the UK. Citizens of a further 80 or so nations can enter with a valid passport and stay visa-free for up to six months. All other nationals will need to apply for a visa from a British embassy or consulate in their country of legal residence before they depart.

Driving in Glasgow

Like any large European city, driving in Glasgow can be stressful. Streets are often one-way and narrow, parking is difficult to find, and residents drive quickly and without much patience. Still, the city is drivable, particularly if you have access to complementary off-street parking. To make the most of your time and money, consider renting a car only when you plan to drive outside of the city itself.

Left-Hand Driving

  • Traffic drives on the left-hand side of the road throughout the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Speed Limits

  • In cities and towns: 30 miles per hour (48 km/h)
  • Single carriageway highways: 60 mph (96 km/h)
  • Dual carriageways and motorways: 70 mph (112 km/h)
  • Avoid getting stuck in bad traffic by staying off the roads during morning and evening rush hours in Glasgow, from 7:30 to 9:30 am and 3:30 to 6:30 pm respectively.

Other Regulations

  1. Street parking in Glasgow is quite expensive and highly regulated. For instance, don’t inadvertently park in resident-only parking areas. The best way to avoid large parking fees is to park at the subway and railway stations along the outskirts of the city, such as the Shields Road Subway station.
  2. Visitors to the UK can drive passenger vehicles with their valid domestic driver’s license alone for up to a full year.
  3. The primary toll road in the UK is the M6 north of Birmingham.
  4. The minimum driving age in the UK is 17, though you will likely have to be 21 with a full year’s driving experience in order to rent a car, and you are likely to face young-driver surcharges until the age of 25.

Cheap Car Rental in Glasgow

Car hire in Glasgow starts as low as $15 a day. Here are some of the best deals in Glasgow:

  • Fiat 500 or similar (mini class) – $16/day
  • Volkswagen Polo or similar (economy class) – $17/day
  • Ford Focus or similar (compact class) – $18/day
  • Volvo V40 or similar (intermediate class) – $24/day
  • Volkswagen Passat or similar (standard class) – $25/day

Note that prices vary depending on the availability of each specific car and the season in which you rent. For the most accurate offers, use the search bar above.

Tips for Renting a Car Inexpensively in Glasgow

There is very little seasonal variation in price for automobile hire Glasgow, though you may find that for any given month, prices from the same agency go up or down by around $5. By far the cheapest locations to book a rental car are Glasgow International Airport and downtown, where agencies such as Green Motion and EasiRent offer exceptionally low prices.

Keep an eye out for discounts of at least 12% that keep these rental prices especially low.

Unless you’re renting from more highly priced, internationally recognized agencies such as Keddy, prices typically go up when you extend your rental period to over a week. Plan to hire your car only for the period of days during which you plan to explore Glasgow’s surroundings to keep your prices low and avoid the cost of parking.

Experience the top locations with car rental in Glasgow

Glasgow Airport
Alamo
8.6
Glasgow Prestwick Airport
Europcar
10.0

Discover the cheapest car rental in Glasgow

Cheap Car Rental in Glasgow Ford Fiesta 5door
Ford Fiesta 5door
5
1
5
M
From US$ 13.83 per day
*
Cheap Car Rental in Glasgow Volkswagen Golf
Volkswagen Golf
5
1
5
M
From US$ 15.28 per day
*
Cheap Car Rental in Glasgow Fiat 500
Fiat 500
4
1
3
M
From US$ 11.35 per day
*
Cheap Car Rental in Glasgow NISSAN QASHQAI
NISSAN QASHQAI
5
2
M
From US$ 55.83 per day
*
Cheap Car Rental in Glasgow Skoda Octavia
Skoda Octavia
5
2
5
M
From US$ 28.46 per day
*
Cheap Car Rental in Glasgow NISSAN QASHQAI
NISSAN QASHQAI
5
2
M
From US$ 55.83 per day
*
Cheap Car Rental in Glasgow Toyota Verso
Toyota Verso
7
2
4
M
From US$ 49.35 per day
*
Cheap Car Rental in Glasgow MERCEDES C-CLASS
MERCEDES C-CLASS
5
1
4
A
From US$ 162.79 per day
*
Cheap Car Rental in Glasgow Mercedes-Benz Vito
Mercedes-Benz Vito
9
4
4
A
From US$ 129.33 per day
*

* Disclaimer: Prices displayed may not reflect today's rates.

What our customers say

Car rental companies in Glasgow

We have prepared a shortlist of top rental companies in Glasgow. To save both time and money compare offers on EconomyBookings.com to find the best deal.

Alamo
star
8.6 /19 reviews
Available in 1 location
Time it took to drop your car off9.6
Cleanliness of the car9.2
Overall condition of the car8.9
Time it took to pick your car up7.8
Green Motion
star
7.0 /17 reviews
Available in 1 location
Time it took to drop your car off7.9
Cleanliness of the car8.9
Overall condition of the car8.6
Time it took to pick your car up5.4
EasiRent
star
7.7 /16 reviews
Available in 1 location
Time it took to drop your car off8.4
Cleanliness of the car8.1
Overall condition of the car8.2
Time it took to pick your car up7.1