Overseas Traveling

Should you rent a car on holiday?

 When you’re traveling anywhere, especially overseas, you’re going to run into many questions when planning. One of the biggest is how exactly are you going to get around, or more specifically: should you rely on public transport or rent your owncar? In order to decide that, first you need to answer these questions.

How good is the public transportation?

Getting around in say, the Canary Islands, is vastly different than Mexico City. If the city you’re visiting has an efficient source of public transportation, then you’re not likely to need a car. If you’re in the countryside or a predominantly rural place such as an island, then you might find car rental is essential and having your own hire car will enable you to get from site to site much more easily.

What do you want to see?

The best thing about car hire is that you have the freedom of choice. You are not bound by restrictions on where you can go or what you can see. Instead, if you hear about a small cafe in the next town over, that just so happens to serve the best gelato in the world, you can experience it for yourself.

How long will you be there?

This ties into the second question; having a car is all about efficiency. If you want to see as much of the city and you only have a short amount of time to do it, then the convenience of having a car is worthwhile. Without a car, you are stuck on someone else’s schedule, be it a metro that closes at midnight or a cab driver who doesn’t speak the same language. That makes gettingaround difficult, and more importantly, time consuming.

What do you plan on doing?

This might be the most biggest question to answer. If you’re next holiday is a sun soaking, book reading, relaxation fest, a car probably isn’t worth it. If however, you are trying to see as many off-the-beaten-track sites as you can, or happen to be close toother towns and cities you would like to visit, then a car is definitely worthwhile.

At the end of the day, the biggest benefit from having a car while on holiday is the same benefit of having a car at home. You can go anywhere you want, anytime you want. I realize everyone is different, but I believe traveling is about experiences and if having your own wheels on your trip makes that difference between seeing a place and really getting a feel for it, then you have your answer.