So, you’ve booked your trip. You know where you’re going and you’ve got plenty of ideas floating through your mind about what you’re going to do when you get there. But how are you going to travel once you arrive? Taxis can be a good choice, but they can get expensive and they don’t give you the flexibility of driving yourself around in a rental car. But how do you determine which rental car is right for you? Check out the following guidelines for more information:
Where will you be driving most?
If you’ll be doing most your driving in town, the size of the car you rent will be primarily a personal choice. On the other hand, if you’ll be driving in the countryside or on uneven terrain, you’ll probably want to rent an SUV. After all, what could be worse than going out on your vacation and ending up stuck in the middle of nowhere?
What size will you need?
Though there aren’t many sizes available in SUVs, you’ll have quite a few choices if you choose to rent a car. Rental agencies typically offer seven sizes for cars, ranging from economy to luxury. The economy size usually has a suitability rating for two adults and two children, holding only two small bags of luggage. The larger luxury sizes will hold up to five adults with trunk space for three large and three small bags of luggage.
Traveling out of country?
There are a few other things you should consider if you’re traveling to another country, as other countries tend to have different views on cars then we do in the US. Here, normally the standard is, “the bigger the better.” In other countries, that isn’t always the case. You’ll have to take into consideration road congestion and limited parking space – both of which are frequent concerns in other countries.
If you are traveling to Europe, fuel economy and fewer parking spaces are a major concern. Fortunately, though gas prices are twice as much there as they are here, most of the cars you can rent have much better gas mileage then you’ll see in the USA.
Automatic transmissions aren’t always standard!
Another thing you must consider if you’re traveling to Europe is that cars don’t automatically come with automatic transmissions, and that the shifting is usually done on your left side instead of the right. So if you don’t know how to drive a manual transmission or don’t feel comfortable driving from the right side of the car, you’ll need to book your rental ahead of time. Very few rental cars in Europe come with automatic transmissions, so they’ll be booked up much faster than the others.
Size isn’t the same in all countries.
One last consideration if you’ll be renting a car in another country is size. In Europe, what we would consider to be a compact car is actually considered to be a mid-size car. In the USA and Canada, a compact car has a suitability rating for seating two adults and two children comfortably, while in Europe, that same car would be rated for seating 5 adults comfortably. That’s a big difference – especially if you’re traveling with a group of adults. If you need to have more room in your rental and aren’t sure which size would be right, ask the rental agents – they can go over all the choices with you and help you compare them to rental cars in the USA.
