Cheap car hire at Kirkwall Airport in Mainland in the Orkney Islands is available to those who book online. It is the main, albeit small, airport in the Orkneys and saves a lot of hassle with having to mess about with ferries.

Kirkwall Airport receives flights from major cities on the Scottish mainland, including from Edinburgh, as well as Aberdeen and Inverness, plus you can also fly between certain other Orkney Islands from here. British Airways serve the bulk of the main flights, along with Loganair.

You can eat and buy newspapers at Kirkwall Airport, although facilities are lacking and public transport minimal, which is why tourists generally pick up car rental at Kirkwall Airport. Getting to the capital of Kirkwall is via the easy-going A960, five kilometres.

Be sure to see the cathedral and palaces in Kirkwall before heading out with cheap car hire in Kirkwall Airport, and perhaps stop off at the Bridge and Albert streets for shopping.

There is plenty of sightseeing to take in on Mainland, with a glut of ancient villages towards the west and a delightful, pristine coastline. The road goes almost right around the coast, to boot, and the island is only small, so it doesn’t take long to get from one end of Mainland to the other with car rental at Kirkwall Airport. Stromness is the island’s second town and is in the southwest with many sights, while St Margaret’s Hope and Finstown are also must-sees, as is a drive around the Loch of Stenness.