Hiring a car and driver from London to North Yorkshire & back again

[CordeliaLOVEScocktails]

My daughter has been invited on holiday but neither her or her partner drive. They have a toddler.

They want to hire someone to drive them from Islington to the North Yorkshire coast and collect them a week later.

Uber is £500 one way.

She doesn't want to get a train or fly due to all the kit they have.

Can anyone suggest anything?

What actual kit do they need? How old is the child? I initially thought they were camping but in a cottage surely they'll be fine on public transport? It'll cost more than the holiday to be driven I imagine?

I have done London - North Yorkshire about once every 6 weeks since DD was 12weeks old (now 1yr) so she can see her grandparents.

Book first class on the train, take the carseat to get taxi from York and then do a massive tesco or supermarket shop of your choice for when you arrive.

For luggage, either use a luggage delivery firm to send in advance (about £50 a suitcase) or we use two gap year type rucksacks instead of suitcases so that i have one + buggy + baby, and DH has one + carseat (was much easier when we had infant carrier that would attach to the buggy).

Does she realise that buses are very limited - buses to my DPs town stop at 6pm and some villages only have buses 3 times per week. They will need to plan their activities to take that into consideration or get the number of a good local taxi firm. I've never been to Runswick Bay so not sure what there specifically is like.

Oh and we've managed through poonamis and projectile vomiting on the train so she should be fine!

Get the Grand Central train from London to Eaglescliffe. Taxi from there to Runswick.

Or train London - Darlington (these are more frequent than the Grand Central ones) then Darlo - Saltburn, and taxi it from there. I suspect Saltburn (well, redcar) taxis will be more amenable to the trip than the Eaglescliffe ones.

Driving that with a small child is the pits. We do it frequently. It involves at least 2 stops. The train will be much quicker, if you aren't going when a strike is on.

Get a family railcard and book a seat for the toddler as well. Sharing a seat on a busy train with a wriggle toddler is horrid and the guards will expect them to free up the toddler's seat if they haven't paid.