Tag Archives: car hire

St Kitts

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This advice covers both island of St Kitts and Nevis, although it assumes you are arriving on flights to St Kitts (Basseterre).

Why get a hire car in St Kitts or Nevis?

  • Explore at your leisure — with so much stunning scenery, a car is ideal for visiting both islands.
  • Poor public transport — buses congregate around the seafront in Basseterre, but they tend to leave when they are full, and there is no set timetable or interval.
    Also, there is no bus service out to Frigate Bay where the main Marriott resort is, nor are there any buses serving the peninsula. It is assumed that all villa users will have their own transport, but this is often not the case.
  • Sea Bridge — you can take the Sea Bridge ferry across to neighbouring Nevis and explore the island at your own leisure. Alternatively, you can park in Basseterre and use the passenger ferry – a hire car gives you the flexibility to use either option, whereas there is no public transport serving the Sea Bridge on the St Kitts site.
    Whether you get a hire car or not, an excursion to Nevis is highly recommended – see options for visiting Nevis without a car below.
  • Plantation Inns — both St Kitts and Nevis have a number of plantation inns which tend to be situated away from the bus routes. Wherever you are staying, these plantations are always good to visit for a meal or a very genteel afternoon tea.

Why not? St Kitts and Nevis without a car:

  • Car hire cost — in our survey of car hire prices around the world for cities featured on Carornocar.com, the cost of renting a car in St Kitts is amongst the highest in the world.
  • Taxis are widely available, and are usually reasonably priced, with fixed rates to and from major locations such as the ports and airports. Always agree the price in advance, and confirm whether the quote is in local (EC) dollars or US$.
    You can charter a taxi with driver for the day, although this will be considerably more expensive than getting a hire car or just making individual taxi trips.
  • Limited road space — a car might be fine for a day tour around the island, and an additional day on Nevis, but after that you might well find that you don’t need to go that far anyway, or that you’re doing other activities which don’t need a car.
  • Local driving licence — in order to drive a car in St Kitts or in Nevis, you need to pay for local driving licence, which costs US $20. Considering that a hire car in St Kitts is expensive enough as it is, this is just an unwelcome extra cost.
  • Sugar train — step outside Robert Bradshaw airport and it almost looks like there is a station right on-site. In fact, Basseterre has the curious distinction of being the only city with a station next to the airport, but no train service to the city centre.
    This is because the sugar train is very much setup as a scenic attraction, rather than a functional line, and if you can get a booking, this really is a great ride to take, and the only one of its kind in the Caribbean (outside Cuba).
    I would like to say that the St Kitts sugar train alone is a reason not to bother with a hire car, but unfortunately despite having made several trips to the island, I’ve never yet managed to go on it.
    Running patterns are determined more by the arrival of cruise ships than by any kind of regular schedule, and then the service tends to sell out quickly to block bookings from the cruise companies, so check ahead to see if you can get on board.
  • Buses — despite local buses not running to a European style schedule, they are still a great way of getting around either island.
    All the major settlements are served, and circular trips can be done from either Basseterre in St Kitts or Charlestown in Nevis.
    Buses usually have their names in emblazoned on the front, and they can stop anywhere on the route. Payment is usually around $3 EC per trip, made at the end of the journey.
  • Town ferry — whereas the Sea Bridge is mainly a vehicle ferry, a slower but far more scenic ferry operates between Basseterre and Charlestown, catering for pedestrian traffic. This makes it easy to travel both between and around the islands by a combination of bus and ferry.
  • Cycling – despite its compact size, Nevis has established itself as a leading destination in the Caribbean for cycling, and it even hosts an annual triathlon which attracts top competitors from around the world.
    Bikes can be hired from Ouallie Beach in Nevis. You can also hire a bike and explore both islands, using either the Sea Bridge or the town ferry.
  • Walkability — the islands are generally pleasant to walk around, and there are several reasonable hotels within the town of Basseterre. Any of the sea level hotels in Nevis are easy to get to by bus.
    Real cheapskates (we know, not usually an expression you associate with travel around the Caribbean, but there are a few of us) can even walk from Robert Bradshaw airport into Basseterre.

Conclusion: – To get the best out of both islands, a hire car is extremely useful to have. In any other destination we would say that the hire car costs are exorbitant, but nothing in the Caribbean comes cheap, so if you’re spent a fortune getting here and you want to keep things simple, a hire car is a good idea.

Verdict — yes.

Note: Very few car hire companies actually have representation at Robert Bradshaw airport in Basseterre, and there is no on-site car hire facility at Vance Amory airport in Nevis. Avis have an office in Basseterre, which is only five minutes’ drive from the airport, so it should be fairly straightforward to arrange a pickup.

Belfast

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The Northern Ireland peace process has brought about a significant rise in the number of tourists visiting Belfast. As with most European cities, the main attractions in Belfast itself are easy to walk to, so what about places to visit beyond the city?

Why hire a car in Belfast?

  • Limited railway lines — look at any major city in England or central Scotland, and you will usually see a network of rail lines fanning out, including local and long-distance services. There are only four railway lines heading out of Belfast, two of which only provide suburban connections to Larne and Bangor respectively. A regional service operates as far as Derry (Londonderry), whereas the Enterprise service continues down to Dublin Needless to say, you can head out of Belfast in any direction you want in a hire car. This network, branded as Translink, is not just short on routes, frequencies outside the Belfast area are also extremely poor. For example, trains to Derry depart roughly every two hours, considerably less often than might be expected on an equivalent inter-city service elsewhere in the UK.
  • Giant’s Causeway — this is surely the most impressive natural feature on the Emerald Isle, and is only a short drive from Belfast.
    However, scheduled (from Belfast, Coleraine or Portrush) or guided bus trips are available, so there is no need to get a hire car just to visit Giant’s Causeway.
  • Inland — the railway routes in Northern Ireland generally stay close to the coast, so to go anywhere inland, especially to visit the various points of interest around Lough Neah, you will need a rental car, or you will have to rely on slow bus services.
  • Blue Stack mountains — head across into Co Donegal for some superb scenery on Ireland’s northwest coast.
  • Poor public transport — although Northern Ireland has seen a lot of investment in recent years, little of this has gone on to noticeable public transport infrastructure, although the Translink fleet itself has been upgraded. No new lines have been built, and unlike many comparable cities in central or northern England, there is no form of tram in Belfast. The city remains car dependent, and it has relatively few good routes to explore by bike.

Why not? Belfast without a car:

  • Coastal trains — what Northern Ireland lacks in quantity is more than made up for in quality. The train hugs the coast in many areas, offering some excellent scenic views, especially between Coleraine and Derry, along Lough Foyle, and south of Newry most of the way to Dublin.
    My personal favourite is the train journey into Belfast from Larne Harbour.
  • Celtic cousins — instead of just visiting Northern Ireland, why not combine a trip to Belfast with a visit to Glasgow, or even tack on Edinburgh and Dublin at each end? This is an easy rail trip, with plenty of flights available from throughout Europe at either end if you extend to the Scottish and Irish capitals. The train south of Ayr towards Stranraer is particularly scenic, and you also get to include a short ferry crossing on the Irish Sea, although this now needs a bus link from Cairnryan harbour to Stranraer station.
  • Ramble by bus – you can take “Rambler” buses along designated scenic routes, giving you access to the Mourne Mountains to the south of Belfast, or the Sperrins to the west. A Rambler bus service also operates along the coastline near Giant’s Causeway. Other buses run directly in to scenic areas, such as the Davagh Forest country park.
  • Boat trips – from Ballycastle, you can take a boat to Rathlin Island, with its nature reserve. Further west and into the Republic of Ireland, you could take a boat from Burtonport to Arranmore Island. The outings themselves are car-free, however, although you can reach both ports by bus, it is still easier to get to these places in a hire car.

Conclusion — despite some useful bus connections to supplement the handful of railway routes which are on offer, public transport options in and around Belfast are still relatively limited, and the best attractions in the region are landscapes rather than cities.

This makes our verdict lean heavily towards recommending getting a hire car.

Verdict — yes (strong)

Note — it is easy to pick up a hire car at either Belfast International or Belfast George Best city airport. If you don’t plan on getting a hire car, you’re better off flying into Belfast city airport, which is much closer to central Belfast. You can even take a short shuttle bus journey to nearby Sydenham station to start onward rail journeys within Northern Ireland, although for just getting to the city centre, it is quicker to take a taxi or shuttle bus. Belfast City airport has a wider network of domestic flights from the rest of the UK, whereas Belfast International has more flights from mainland Europe.

Belfast and Northern Ireland  Local transport links:

Nice

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When you hire a car in Nice, the chances are that you’ll be wanting to explore so much more than just the city of Nice itself and its immediate environs, but can you still get around this beautiful part of the world without one?

 Why hire a car in Nice?

  • Superb Scenery — as soon as you hit the roads outside Nice airport, you are in stunningly scenic terrain, whether you head east or west along the Cote d’Azur (Azur blue Coast), north into Provence or even north-east into neighbouring Italy. The cliff-hugging villages in the area immediately behind Nice is are a personal favourite.
  • Gorges De Verdon — of all the many wonderful scenic areas you can explore from Nice, the absolute must visit is the truly spectacular Gorges De Verdon, which is France’s answer to the Grand Canyon. You really cannot get there by public transport.
  • Limited public transport — if you just want to visit the major resorts along the Cote d’Azur, then you should have no problem getting around by train, but your options are much more limited if you want to head inland. We think that no visit to Nice is complete without going inland, and although there is one superb railway line running to Digne-les-Bains, away from this route your mobility is seriously restricted if you don’t have a hire car.
  • Great driving roads — this part of the world doesn’t just offer stunning scenery; the roads themselves are great works of civil engineering, especially the main motorway which runs along the coast, and offers drivers and alternating mix of viaducts and tunnels.
  • Monaco — there are lots of great and glamorous ways of getting to Monaco, but if you really want to feel like Britain’s suavest secret agent, you will at least want to pick up a BMW 302i convertible at Nice airport. Monaco is easy to drive to and around, with its own famous network of winding roads and tunnels, although be prepared to pay heavily for the privilege of parking your car.
  • No airport rail link — this might not look like a big deal, but we believe in starting as you mean to go on. Despite Nice airport being the busiest in France outside Paris, and despite the main Marseille to Nice / Monaco / Genoa railway line running right outside the airport perimeter, there is no direct train from either of the Nice airport terminals. As a general rule, if it is easy to get from the airport to the city centre by train, it is usually easier still to travel around the area by train, but in Nice, this is clearly not the case.
    Those who do want to use the train from near Nice Airport should travel light,and allow around 15 minutes to walk to Nice St Augustin suburban train station for onward connections towards Nice or St Laurant Du Var for onward connections towards Marseilles. Once at Nice Ville station, you still have to change again to a different station (Nice CP) to use the line to Digne. Naturally, for train buffs, none of this presents much of a problem, but for anyone who is thinking about whether or not to get a hire car in Nice, this swings the pendulum a little bit more towards doing so.

Why not? Nice without a car:

  • Cote D’Azur — there are plenty of trains trundling along the Cote d’Azur, with a mixture of long-distance (usually TGV, but using conventional lines) trains stopping at the major towns and slower regional services which stop everywhere. Not only are services extremely frequent, but the train also hugs some sections of the coast which are much harder to get to in a car. Heading west from Nice you can easily visit Antibes, genteel Cannes (when the film festival has moved on), plush St Tropez (bus connection from Frejus) and Toulon. Heading east from Nice you can visit Monaco and the Italian border town of Ventimiglia.
  • Monaco — if you want to save your car hire money for a flutter in the famous Casino De Monte Carlo, then you can do a lot worse than arriving in Monaco by train, in what is surely one of the world’s nicest underground stations. Train geeks can revel in the novelty factor that Monaco is the only territory in the world with just one (underground) station!
  • Walk It — Nice is one of those few cities where the airport is right on the edge of town, or, quite literally, at the end of the main street.The walk into town from the airport heads past a few of the usual airport commercial units before the Promenade Des Anglais proper starts. To reach the city centre will take around an hour, as the 4 mile / 6 km walk is flat all the way. The city itself is a delight to walk around, with a number of pedestrianised areas, whilst many streets have wide pavements. Beyond the sea front, Nice gets quite hilly, but this landscape can also provide easy access to walking areas just beyond the city. Alternatively, you can use local buses to access nearby villages and go hiking from there.
  • Bike it — this part of the world really does have some of Europe’s finest cycling territory, and this is where Lance Armstrong trained before winning his epic seven Tours De France in a row! To get the best out of these roads you will need a racing bike – Cycle Cote D’Azur in Nice will fix you up with one of these or take you on one of their tours, or you could bring your own. For more relaxed cycling in Nice itself, a public bike hire scheme is available, operating under the appropriate “Velo Blue” name, and having hire stations operating in the centre, and also along the Promenade D’Anglais. There is even a bike hire location right outside the airport, but you will need to find a location that takes card payments first – bizarely, not all terminals do this!
  • Monaco by Helicopter — these days, there might be plenty of budget flights to Nice, but the short run from Nice airport to Monaco heliport is also one of the busiest helicopter routes in the world. You might think this is all expensively glamorous, but as with any service, book well ahead, and you can travel from €110 for a one way flight.  Naturally, you will enjoy some stunningly spectacular views as you will fly over the city of Nice and the wonderful Cap Ferrat before landing in Monaco’s dramatic harbour. Seven minutes of pure indulgence! You can hire a car anywhere, but few places offer such wide availability of scheduled helicopter flights. From Monaco, you can easily continue your travels using any of the various means listed above and below.
  • Ferries — Nice is a major ferry port, and an ideal starting point to continue onwards towards Corsica, or even Sardinia below it. This sort of onward journey is much better to do without a hire car, as you then have the flexibility to continue as you please, whereas you would usually have to return a hire car to the same territory from which you picked it up, i.e. mainland France, and not Corsica or Italy.
  • Local boats — another option if you just want to stay local to Nice is to take one of the various boat services which operate around the Cote d’Azur.
  • Marseille — in the rush to hit the beautiful beaches of the Cote d’Azur, many people overlook Marseille, France’s gritty but still fascinating third city. You can easily visit Marseille in a day trip from anywhere on the Cote d’Azur, and going by train is ideal to explore everything the city itself has to offer. Allow around two hours to travel between Nice and Marseille.
    Marseille is of particular interest to architecture pundits, being the home of the groundbreaking Unite D’Habitation development by Le Corbusier — a building which shows that in the right environment and with proper upkeep, brutal concrete structures can still be remarkably appealing! See our Marseille car hire advice page for more suggestions.
  • Digne — if you can work around changing between the different stations in Nice and the relatively infrequent scheduling, then the single track excursion to Digne is highly recommended. This will give you a good introduction to the stunning scenery that this area has to offer, and you may also be able to continue onwards by exploring various hiking trails, or on a bike. However, heading this way may also have you wishing you had picked up a hire car in Nice instead, so you have been warned!
  • Cost — if you are holidaying in Nice for the first time and are more used to hiring cars in places like Malaga, Alicante and Faro, then you will find that hiring a car in Nice will be quite a bit more expensive, so you may want to weigh up the costs against the costs of using other forms of transport. Relative to elsewhere in France, car hire in Nice is generally good value.
  • Slow and fast — there is more than enough mixture of slow-paced beach life all along the Cote d’Azur for which you really won’t need a hire car, or high adrenaline activities further inland, where you can usually expect transport to be provided.
  • Cinque Terre (near Pisa, Italy) — this might initially look like a bit of a long shot from Nice, but if you are planning on travelling around a bit, then we would highly recommend continuing along the coast railway through Genoa and then on as far as Pisa. This will take you through the fantastic Cinque Terre National Park, which features five spectacular clifftop villages, which are virtually inaccessible by road. This is somewhere that is ideal to explore by train, although any journey to these villages might mean travelling to La Spezia first, and then doubling back. The most northerly village is Monterosso, with Riomaggiore being the furthest south. Allow around 6 hours to reach any of these villages, although I would suggest a few hours in historic Geno as well.
  • Fly out of Pisa – You can easily combine an outward flight to Nice with return flight home from Pisa, or vice versa. This would allow you to see some of the best coastal landscapes and cities that France and Italy have to offer.

Conclusion: Can you get by without a hire car in Nice? Of course you can – and I did so quite happily on my first visit, but not when I went back with a friend and we wanted to visit more of the interior. However, the opportunities to explore this area by road are too good to be ignored, whereas public transport just isn’t that good, unless you only want ahead along the coast. I think that the scenic areas around Nice are already well enough documented, but the interior is much less celebrated. That is where you really should go to get the best out of this part of the world, and in these areas a car is almost essential. An even better option is to take advantage of the wonderful cycling opportunities Nice presents, but if that isn’t for you, then a hire car is an acceptable second best!

Verdict – yes

Pisa

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The compact city of Pisa might well be world famous for its dodgy engineering, but any visitor to the region is obviously going to want to see a lot more than this, and there is certainly plenty to see within Pisa itself and nearby, without having to travel particularly far. When it comes to transport, Pisa Galileo Galilei airport is actually the main airport serving not just Pisa, but also Florence, the Tuscany region and many other cities between Milan and Rome.

We’re basing this advice on the assumption that you are arriving on a flight into Pisa airport, and that you are considering hiring a car for your stay. In contrast, our Florence car hire guide assumes you are arriving there by train (as there are few flights to Florence Airport) and not considering getting a hire car, so these two guides are very much interchangeable.

Why rent a car in Pisa?

  • Tuscany — the famous rolling hills and vineyards of Tuscany are a natural opportunity for a driving tour, and Pisa is the main gateway for this. However, this kind of road trip is fairly obvious. If you were planning on doing this, there isn’t really much we could add!
  • Flexibility — as with anywhere, a hire car will let you see the places you want to visit at your own space.
  • North and East — don’t forget that there is a lot more to Pisa than just heading south into Tuscany. However, some of these places are much better to reach by train, as explained below.

Why not? – Visiting Pisa without a car:

  • Cinque Terre – the stunningly scenic Cinque Terre National Park area is often overlooked in the rush to get to the big guns in Pisa and Florence, but this really is a completely unique place to visit. I will have to confess that despite running travel websites now for over 10 years, I only found out about the Cinque Terre within the last 3-4 years, and I kicked myself for leaving it off my last Italian trip, which finished in Pisa. Maybe the Cinque Terre are not as famous as they should be because they have only recently been declared a national park, but either way, this collection of five villages which are all built into steep coastal terrain should be as much of a must see as anywhere else in this region.
    There are many famous villages in the world which are no-go areas for the private car due to their compact historic streets or inaccessible terrain, but there are very few which are so accessible by main-line train. In the case of the Cinque Terre, they are all linked as part of the train route between La Spezia and Genoa, making this one of the great rail journeys of Europe.
    You can also travel between the villages via a network of (chargeable) hiking trails or by boat. As villages go, it doesn’t get any less car dependent than this!
    For these reasons alone, I suggest you should include at least two days into your Pisa trip without a car – although by the time you have added a day in Pisa itself, a couple of days in Florence and a tour around Tuscany by bus or coach, and a day just relaxing, a week is easily up.
  • Pisa city — Pisa is home to a number of renaissance landmarks, particularly around the leaning tower itself, and even if the leaning Tower takes all the glory, you can easily include a day on foot within Pisa.
  • Coast and beaches — don’t forget that around Pisa are a number of beach resort areas, and this is where you will find most of the night-time activity. Plenty of buses supplement local train services around this region.
  • Florence — the natural tendency for people arriving on flights to Pisa is to head to Florence and to spend a few days there. Of course, we must advise you in the strongest possible terms to visit the Cinque Terre aswell, but it is easy to spend several days soaking up the art and architecture of Florence without seeing anywhere near all of it. Regular trains to Florence run from Pisa airport, also calling at Pisa Centrale station. See our Florence car hire guide for more on this.
  • Compact connections — when I visited Pisa in 2009, the first train I planned to catch from Florence was cancelled, so I was running a little short on time. I asked a taxi driver how much he would charge to take me to the airport, and he said €50. This was one of the most blatant taxi rip-offs I had ever heard, as I knew the airport was only about a mile from the Central Station, which in turn was only another mile from the Leaning Tower. As it happened, a bus turned up a few minutes later and the journey only took 10 minutes. You can also start your rail journey around north-west Italy at Pisa airport, which is only 2-3 minutes by train from Centrale station. From here, the airport train continues to Florence, whereas other connections are available to Genoa via La Spezia and the Cinque Terre, and to Bologna.

Conclusion: If your main intention is to drive around Tuscany and other scenic regions and you only want to make very brief visits into the city centres, then we would advise getting a hire car as you may well have originally planned to do, but for any other itinerary, it is clear that a hire car is not necessary.

Verdict — no

Marseille

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“Fifth gear in Provence?”

Marseille is one of those places that is a perfectly interesting destination in its own right, whilst also being a gateway to a number of popular rural areas, the most prominent being of course the region of Provence.

To advise on whether or not to get a hire car in Marseille we would naturally ask whether or not potential car hirers were visiting just the city and surrounding areas, or heading into deeper Provence. Unsurprisingly, the city areas and nearby coastal stretches lean more towards not needing a hire car, whereas one would naturally associate getting around the rolling hills of Provence with having the flexibility of a hire car.

 Why hire a car in Marseille?

  • Provence — fairly obviously, this beautiful but rural region needs a hire car to do it justice.
  • Coastal regions — you do not have to travel far from Marseille, whether east or west, to find superb coastlines and great beaches. Again, these areas are always easier to explore with a hire car.
  • Public transport limitations — as you will read below, you certainly can travel between the major cities in this region by train, but the system is not very well integrated. For example, there is no railway station at Marseille airport, despite it being one of the busiest in France outside Paris. Instead, you will have to take a shuttle bus and then a slow local train.
    Marseille might be the southern end of France’s trunk TGV route, but this is only really useful if you want to head back towards Paris.
    Even for relatively local journeys such as to Avignon or Aix, the TGV only stops infrequently and it will not take you into the city centres. There are even fewer options for heading inwards to Provence, as the main railway line that serves this region (the Digne line) leaves from Nice, not Marseille.
  • Pont Du Gard — I will admit that I visited the world-famous Roman aqueduct at Pont Du Gard in the summer of 2008, and I did so without a car. I had flown in to Marseille that morning, and was continuing through to Perpignan where I was meeting family. The first stretch of my journey involved a short coach ride and then a brief hop on the TGV between Aix-en-Provence and Avignon. From there, I had to catch a bus into town and then another bus out to Pont Du Gard — so far so good — a little bit of a complicated journey, but it all ran to plan. Having spent a couple of hours at Pont Du Gard, there was no sign of the bus to take me onwards to Nimes. After waiting around half an hour, I called the helpline, and was told it would be along shortly. Eventually, the bus turned up, but it would have been difficult to have known where you stood if you don’t speak workable French. The onward train from Nimes was also heavily delayed. This is all a great deal of hassle to go through, even if the bridge itself is well worth the effort!

Why not? – Marseille and Provence without a car:

  • City of Marseille — Marseille is often overlooked by tourists who are heading towards Provence and other areas inland, which conform to the more traditional picture postcard definition of scenic. Instead, Marseille offers a truly lively city with a huge range of different cuisines, as well as some spectacular modern architecture. All of this can easily be done using the excellent public transport that the city has to offer, including a small metro system. By far and away the most important modern building in the city is Le Corbusier’s “Unite D’habitation” — love it or hate it, this is what skyscraping accommodation blocks and streets in the sky were supposed to be like. Another modern classic is the “Big Blue” county hall building, designed by the British architect Will Alsop.
  • Calanques – this superb area of cliff trails is one of the few national parks in the world you can quite literally walk to from within the city limits. Note that this area is closed during the hottest summer months (July and August) due to the fire risk.
  • Multiple city tour — basing yourself in Marseille, you can easily visit the former papal headquarters of Avignon and the Roman city of Nimes by train.
  • Coastline — the railway line between Marseille and Ventimiglia in Italy has some absolutely superb coastal stretches, whilst also taking in world-famous resorts like St Tropez and Cannes before passing through Nice and then Monaco. See our Nice page for more about this.
  • Bike it — there is no doubt that, as mentioned above, the area around Marseille offers some superb opportunities for touring by car, but this is also top-notch cycling territory, and many world-famous cyclists and triathletes train in this area. As many of the roads around here are steep and unforgiving, you will need to either hire a decent road bike or bring your own.
  • Train from London — if you want to head somewhere on the Mediterranean but also would rather get there by train, then Marseille is naturally your first port of call. You can do this journey with a simple change in Lille, or you can travel via Paris and take in a few city sights on the way. Allow around six hours to reach Marseille from London, or just over three hours for the fastest TGV trains from Paris to Marseille. If you are already arriving by train, then you will be near the city centre and you may well want to continue onwards by train.
    However, if you do want to get a hire car, be prepared to pay significantly more in Marseille city centre. In fact, based on price alone, you may well find it cheaper to alight at Avignon or Aix-en-Provence station instead. Note that Eurostar do also offer weekly trains to Avignon during the summer — these arrive in the city centre, not the cathedral like TGV station.
  • Boat trips and ferries – several options are available for taking boat trips from Marseille, including for excellent views of the Calanques. Marseille is also a gateway port for destinations further afield, including Corsica.
  • Cost — car hire in France is relatively expensive when compared with other European countries, especially if you’re used to hiring cars in Spain, and hiring a car in Marseille is no cheaper than anywhere else – in fact, expect to pay around 30% more than for comparable car hire at Nice airport.

Conclusion: We started with the expectation that if you are flying into Marseille and then carrying on in to Provence, then there isn’t really much argument to say you could get by in this region without a hire car.

However, that should be reasonably obvious anyway, so it isn’t really worth basing our verdict on that kind of trip.

If on the other hand you want to fly into Marseille and actually base yourself in the city, then there should be more than enough places that you can easily get to without needing a hire car, including some great scenery which is close to the city itself.

For these reasons, our verdict for Marseille itself is a firm no.

Overall verdict – no

Note — despite launching with a big fanfare, the budget “mp2″ terminal at Marseille airport has only managed to sustain a limited number of low-cost routes from outside France, so you might also want to consider flights to Avignon or even to nearby Nimes or Montpellier. Alternatively, a much wider choice of flights to Nice is available from most UK regional airports. Nice also offers relatively easy access to the interior, as well as the Cote D’Azur region. See our Nice car hire advice page for more details.

Bergen

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It is a while since I actually visited Bergen, but oddly enough, the scenery hasn’t changed much, and nor has the infrastructure.

Back then, you could take your own car on the DFDS ferry between Newcastle and Bergen. This is no longer an option (DFDS canned the route in 2008), so assuming you arrive on flights to Bergen instead, what’s the best way to get around?

So, the obvious suggestion would be that a rental car is the best way to explore this very scenic, but sparsely populated part of the world. But the costs are astronomical – Bergen tops the list of cities I’ve looked at, with car hire prices starting at over £300 per week.

For this reason, I think it is worth thinking again:

Why get a hire car in Bergen?

  • Explore: For all the obvious reasons – this is a land of stunning scenery, and the only way to do it justice is in a hire car.
  • Hardanger Fjord – not only this this perhaps the most famous of Norway’s fjords, but it might have been one to reach by rail, had the Granvin line been kept open. Note: Google maps shows Granvin station as being open, when this is not the case.
  • Expensive trains too! – car hire in Bergen (or in Norway generally) might be expensive, but the trains are too. The price of car hire in Norway is more of a reflection of the generally high cost of living, rather than of motoring costs.

Reasons not to hire a car in Bergen:

  • Cost - whether due to the high costs in Norway or not, car hire in Bergen is still ridiculously expensive, and more so than any other city we have looked at for Car Or No Car. For this reason alone, it is very difficult to advise hiring a car here!
  • Stunning rail trips: The Bergen to Oslo railway is rare amongst inter-city lines in that it is rated as scenic for virtually its entire length.
  • Flåm Railway – this route is one of the most famous scenic routes in Europe, if not one of the great railway journeys of the world. The line branches off the Bergen to Oslo railway line, itself also incredibly scenic, but is much closer to Bergen than it is to Oslo.
  • Boats: Whether you take advantage of organised trips, or use the ferries (combined with buses), the fjords are at their most impressive when reflected in all their glory from the water. Taking your car onto the ferries is an additional expense on top of already exorbitant Bergen car hire prices!
  • Walk it: The other ‘classic’ view of the fjords is from the top, but the best spots are rarely accessible directly by car, so you will have to plan to do some walking. Whereas many other scenic parts of the world can be visited by a ‘road trip’, the car in this part of the world is only going to take you to and from the start of a walk.
  • Outdoor Activities – there are many excellent opportunities for guided outdoor activities, and these may well come with transport provided, in which case a hire car won’t be needed.

Conclusion – you would naturally expect that a hire car in Bergen will give you the most flexibility, but there clearly are other options. As car hire in Norway is more expensive than anywhere else I have seen, I have to suggest thinking twice before booking.

Verdict – no (based on cost)

What about car hire in Haugesund or Stavanger?

  • Bergen is more of a gateway to the fjords, although it may be tempting to look at Ryanair’s flights to Haugesund. However, Haugesund is nowhere near a station, so it is harder to get around without a car, and there are no scenic rail routes to enjoy. If it is a case of enjoying the area around Bergen without a car, or flying into Haugesund and renting, one, then those ‘cheap’ flights could end up being very expensive indeed!

Seville

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Many people heading for the Spanish Costas forget that Andalusia also has some fantastic cities in its interior, and these should never be overlooked. Some people just make day trips to cities like Seville and Granada from the Costa Del Sol, and this can easily be done in a hire car, but what if you are looking to fly into Seville and base yourself here for a few days at least?

 Why hire a car in Seville?

  • Limited options for public transport — Seville sits at the end of the fantastically fast AVE high-speed train line from Madrid, but like many places that are at the end of the line, opportunities to continue beyond the city by train are relatively limited, especially when compared with other major Spanish cities like Barcelona or Bilbao, which both have excellent networks of regional railway routes, including some very scenic day trips.
  • Granada– having lent its name to a popular Ford car from the 1970s, the city of Granada itself is a nuisance to get to if you don’t have a car. Although the train journey will take a similar amount of time to driving (from around 3 hours), there are just six train connections each day between these important Andalusian cities, and two of these will require a change.Coaches are available between all the major cities in Andalusia, but they have neither the comfort of a train nor the flexibility of a hire car. It would be very challenging to make a visit to Granada and back to Seville in the same day, allowing enough time to fully appreciate Alhambra.
  • Jaen – if you are touring around to the east of Seville, then it is also well worth trying to include the city of Jaen on your itinerary. In a car, you should be able to travel between Jaen and Granada in just over an hour, whereas to travel between these cities by train would take well over four hours. Like Granada, Jaen is also about a 3 hour drive from Seville.
  • Beaches — although most people stay on the Costa Del Sol and then travel inwards to the interior, if you do want to travel in the other direction and visit some of Andalusia’s beaches, this is always going to be far easier to do in a hire car. As you are already a long way west, you have the opportunity to visit some great secluded beaches around Huelva, and a car is certainly best for this.
  • Donana National Park – a hire car is essential to visit this scenic area to the south west of Seville.
  • Gibraltar — forget about trying to visit Gibraltar by train, as it will take half a day to get there as you zigzag around the various rural lines, which still only take you to the edge of the town of La Linea. There are still no bus services crossing between Gibraltar and anywhere on the Costa Del Sol (see our Gibraltar car hire advice page for more about this).
  • Ronda – Heading back from Gibraltar, you could also take in the absolutely stunning clifftop town of Ronda – although these are probably better as separate day trips. Take some good walking shoes to appreciate this area — and be glad you have a hire car to go back to, as Ronda is still a very slow train journey from Seville, even if a little bit less cumbersome one than getting to Gibraltar.
  • Medina Azahara (west of Cordoba) – this site is largely ruins, but some of the walls are still intact, and it is well worth a visit. This vast former palace-cum-fort can easily be included in an excursion to Cordoba. Although Cordoba itself is much easier to visit by train (see below), getting out to the Medina Azahara by bus can only be done once or twice per day, and advance booking is needed. Alternatively, you could take a local bus heading west on the A431, but you would still have to walk half a mile to reach the site. Much easier to do this one in a hire car!

Why not?

Seville Without A Car:

  • Metropol Parasol – Seville is a city with plenty of fascinating ancient and modern architecture, and the Metropol Parasol is one structure that I think truly stands out. I last visited Seville in 2006, so this one is right at the top of my Andalusian to-do list, rather than an experience I have done, as it only opened in 2011.The Parasol is the largest structure in the world made entirely out of wood, and it houses the central market, and shelters archeological sites below, yet the real ingenuity is that this very public building also has a roof terract on top to enable users to get fantastic views of the city. Naturally, this is a place to, well, quite literally walk all over. Hire car certainly NOT needed!
  • Old town – the historic core of Seville is a tightly woven mesh of Moorish delights, and this is strictly to be enjoyed on foot. The city has three UNESCO World Heritage sites in the centre.
  • Combine with Cordoba — the nearby city of Cordoba has what is surely the finest example of Moorish architecture anywhere in Spain — the beautiful Great Mosque, which also incorporates a cathedral within the centre of the complex — making it totally unique. The high speed AVE line connects Cordoba with Seville in just 45 minutes, making it much easier to visit Cordoba by train than in a hire car.
  • Traffic — even relative to other European cities of its size, traffic is still a big problem in Seville, so be prepared to spend time in queues anywhere near the city centre, not to mention parking costs. If you are going to get a hire car for your visit to Seville, you will be better off staying in a hotel on the edge of the city.
  • Cycle friendly city– in recent years, Seville has made amazing progress towards becoming one of the most cycle friendly cities in Spain, and arguably anywhere in southern Europe.In less than half a decade, the city has gone from having virtually zero cyclists to around 7% of journeys being made by bike (about twice as many as London), with bikes being particularly prominent in the city centre. To enjoy the city itself, you can pick up a bike from the automated community bike scheme (Sevici), or to get out of the city, you can rent a bike from several different locations.
  • Alamillo Bridge — for anyone with even the slightest appreciation of architecture, the (deliberately) leaning Alamillo bridge on the edge of the centre of Seville, crossing the Alfonso VIII canal is well worth a visit. There are various parks along the banks of the canal, so this is a good place to go on a bike or on foot.
  • Isla Magica – also to the west of Seville, Isla Magica is a theme park built on the site of Expo 92. This is easily accessible from the centre of the city without needing a car.
  • Cadiz — the historic city of Cadiz is easily reachable in around 80 minutes by train from Seville. A hire car will give you the flexibility to stop of in a few places along the way (such as Jerez), but as Cadiz itself is very compact, it is much easier to arrive there by train and not have to worry about parking.
  • Vias Verdes — between Cordoba and Seville you will find a disused railway line which has been converted into a walking and cycling track, and is part of the Vias Verdes (Greenways) network which covers many parts of Spain. This route is a personal favourite.
  • Two city trip — as flights to Seville (from UK airports at least) are relatively limited, you might find it easier to fly into Malaga or Madrid instead, and to travel on to Seville by train. This gives an opportunity to explore two or more cities during your stay.
  • Cost — a hire car in Seville is usually more expensive than the equivalent hire car in Malaga, and you will probably still have to pay for parking on top. You may well get much better value without having a car, especially as Andalusian cities are the type of places where you can easily end up spending more time than you initially expected.
  • Metro – Seville has the most modern metro in Spain, although only one line is currently open.
  • Seville Santa Justa stationis a great gateway to the city for anyone with an interest in architecture. Like the airport terminal, it was built in time for the Expo in 1992. If you want to see what London Euston station might look like if it was designed to allow light in, take a train from Seville.From Seville, you can reach Madrid here in as little as 2 hours 20 minutes, or Malaga in a touch under 2 hours. Bear in mind that long distance trains in Spain tend to be extremely popular, so trains can sell out of seats at busy periods, and unlike their British equivalents, standing is not allowed. Book well in advance for the cheapest option.

Conclusion — a hire car will provide flexibility, but it will only do so at a cost, not just in terms of the cost of the hire car itself and parking, but also because you may well get stuck in one of Seville’s infamous traffic jams.

If you are already thinking about staying in Seville, then the chances are that you’re the sort of person who appreciates the inherent richness of cities, and who is less interested in driving around rural areas or driving from one beach to the next.

There are plenty of reasons why a hire car in Seville might be useful, but Seville equally has enough to offer both within its boundaries and in nearby places which are reachable by train or bike.

When you weigh all this up, there is really no need for a hire car in Seville.

 Verdict — no

Note – flights to Seville are less widely available than they used to be, if you are starting your journey from the UK. You may be better off looking at flights to Malaga instead.

Switzerland

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Many people visiting Switzerland would not even consider getting a hire car, because the country is already so well known as having the most extensive and reliable train network in Europe.

However, if you are in a group of 3 or more, a rental car might actually start to become a great deal more appealing, as it could well work out as a much cheaper option when compared with taking the train.

Other people are looking for a hire car to enjoy scenic drivers in Switzerland, especially as a car can provide that extra flexibility to explore at your own pace, to stop when you want, and to explore off the beaten track – all things that the train cannot do.

For further advice on car hire in Switzerland, together with tips on visiting each part of Switzerland without a car, please see our individual city pages:

Berlin

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Since reunification, the German government, the state of Brandenberg and private investors have poured in billions of euros in investment, both to create a reunited city, and to move the majority of the German government buildings. There’s also be substantial investment in transport infrastructure, so is there any need to get a hire car for a visit to Berlin?

Why hire car in Berlin?

  • Neustrelitz – There are also numerous parks around Neustrelitz, to the north of Berlin, although again there are several train routes heading through this area as well.
  • North-east coast – Heading towards Poland is the highly scenic, but often overlooked north-east coast. There are several different national parks on and around the island of Rugen. However, even this can be done by train — several lines around Germany’s answer to the Norwegian coastal city of Bergen are particularly scenic.
  • Car City — car lovers will want to head towards Volkswagen’s Autostadt (car city) in Wolfsburg, which features the dramatic Phaeno cultural centre, designed by architect Zaha Hadid, as featured in the film The International. However, even this most auto-friendly facility is still actually much easier to get to by train, as it is on the only dedicated high-speed rail route out of Berlin.
  • Tropical islands paradise — for something completely different, head out to Brand, where a never-used blimp factory has been converted into Europe’s largest indoor leisure complex, complete with sandy beaches and palm trees. Forget about the Caribbean, you can have it all under one roof just outside Berlin for a fraction of the price, and with no cramped long haul flights needed! Although there is a shuttle bus linking Tropical Islands with a nearby railway station, it is easier to get here if you already have a hire car in the first place.

 Why visit Berlin without a hire car?

  • Light and dark — Berlin’s renaissance means that there are plenty of impressive new buildings to look at, even if they aren’t all occupied. Berlin also has an equally impressive collection of imposing historical buildings, but this is also a city with a dark past. You will undoubtedly find that there is much more to Berlin than the glossy postcard pictures, and it is easy to spend more time in the city than you might have otherwise had budgeted for. Whereas there are many places which offer a good mix of places to see within in the city, together with places worth visiting outside, but which are best to drive to, in my opinion, Berlin has much more to offer within.
  • Outstanding public transport – an extensive network of underground, local and regional trains operates both within Berlin and out to surrounding towns and cities. This is supplemented by a comprehensive bus network, together with a circular ring network that makes it just as easy to get around between different suburban locations as it is to get in and out of the city centre. In fact, I would rate Berlin has having the best public transport network of any European city of its size – only cities like London or Paris, which are both notably larger, have more extensive underground and suburban networks.
  • Superlative station — stations don’t get any better than Berlin’s stunning new Hauptbahnhof, or Grand Central Station. This isn’t just somewhere to change trains, it is firstly a stunning engineering feat with upper-level tracks flying over the lower level in true Metropolis style, and secondly it is also a major shopping and eating destination in its own right.
    As with any great architecture, it has its detractors — some locals hate it, saying the lifts are overcrowded and the platforms are windswept, but as a visitor you can just gawp at the roof, without having to worry about these impracticalities. Appreciating Berlin Hauptbahnhof isn’t just about the structure, the station used to be in no man’s land, and a new underground link has been built through to Potsdammer Platz, making the station a true representation of reunification core from east to west and north to south.
    Berlin Hauptbahnhof also right next to Germany’s impressive new government buildings, and the Reichstag building, with its stunning new dome, designed by British architect Norman Foster.
  • Trabant / U2 tour –U2′s iconic album Achtung Baby, which was the starting point for the Zoo TV tour, was recorded in Berlin, and it sums up much of the mood at the time of reunification. Starting with the title track Zoo Station (which has since lost its main station buzz to the new Hauptbahnhof), you are already on the rail network, although of course the best way of exploring the Berlin of this time must surely be to take a tour in one of East Berlin’s famous Trabant cars, although this isn’t the sort of thing you pick up at the car rental desk at Schoenfeld airport.
  • Elevation — between Berlin’s Zoo Station and Ostbahnhof, the railway line runs on an elevated viaduct, giving you extensive views of the city, new and old. As introductions go, this one is a must.
  • Dresden – Coventry’s twin city did exactly the opposite of her British counterpart, rebuilding the historic centre brick by brick, and it looks superb. However, one building that has been modernised is the city’s central station, which has been re-modelled by Norman Foster (see above). Whilst Dresden is well worth a visit in its own right, there are also a number of scenic routes available from the city, including the Labe Valley towards Prague and tourist routes to Dippoldiswalde and Radeburg.
  • Poland — Berlin is also the gateway to western Poland, and cities such as Poznan and Szczecin are both within easy reach of the German capital by train.

 Conclusion — Berlin is so much more of a city to stay in than it is a base to get out and explore other areas, and even if you do want to get out of the city, it might well be just as easy to get out and about by train, especially as the network of local, regional and long-distance train services from Berlin really is excellent, even when compared to other German cities. This leaves little reason to justify getting a hire car, unless you want to head towards the scenic coastal areas to the north-east.

 Verdict — strong no

Note — flights to Berlin currently operate into Tegel and Schoenfeld airports. These will be united on one single site, the new Berlin Brandt airport, which should finally open in March 2013. This brand-new facility, which is on a site adjacent to Schoenfeld airport, will open up more flights into Berlin, and will also offer local and regional rail connections from a station underneath the terminal building.

Basel

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Basel is perhaps served by the most multinational airport in the world — not only can you arrive in either Switzerland or France (Mulhouse); the airport also markets itself as serving the city of Freiburg in Germany. This makes it tricky to offer advice about whether or not to pick up a hire car, as you might be driving in any one of these three countries, or indeed in a combination of them. At least they all drive on the right!

Naturally for the city of Basel itself, it goes without saying that as with any other Swiss city, public transport is excellent, although unlike Geneva or Zürich, there is no direct rail link from Basel airport to the Central Station. The city of Freiburg has a long-standing reputation as being one of Germany’s greenest cities, and again the public transport is excellent. Public transport is also perfectly reasonable in the French city of Mulhouse, although it is less good for exploring the areas around it.

Once outside the cities, what are your best options?

Why rent a car at Basel airport?

  • Variable public transport — Basel is a very important hub on the Swiss rail network, and there are three routes going into south-west Germany. However, only one of the German routes is a mainline, and there is only one line going into France, although this is the line to Mulhouse, which is served by the French TGV, albeit at a slower pace than when it is on a dedicated high speed line.
  • Cost — unless booked in advance (but you can only do this up to 15 days before the date of travel), Swiss trains can be ridiculously expensive, so booking a seemingly cheap flight to Basel instead of Zürich, and then taking the train into eastern Switzerland might be a false economy. Although car hire in Switzerland isn’t that cheap either, for a group of three or four, picking up a rental car at Basel airport might well be far cheaper than taking the train.
  • Not that great — it is easy to justify the high cost of train travel in Switzerland when the views are so superb, but apart from the route to Neuchâtel mentioned below, the train routes around Basel are nothing like as special as they are heading south from Zürich or Bern. If it is cheaper to drive, then you might as well do so.
  • Vosges – go for a drive in the Ballons des Vosges Natural Park, just beyond Mulhouse.

Why visit Basel without a car?

  • Cost — even if you have a choice of arriving in two countries, neither France nor Switzerland, nor Basel in particular are good value for car hire.
  • Swiss rail passes — a number of different rail passes are available in Switzerland, usually giving unlimited travel on a set number of days. If you take advantage of this option, it doesn’t matter that Basel is further away from some alpine destinations than Zürich.
  • Swiss transfer ticket — another option for long-distance train travel within Switzerland is to take advantage of the Swiss transfer ticket, which gives halfprice travel to anywhere in Switzerland on the same day that your flight arrives (or departs on the way out). Basel is a good airport to use for the Bernese Oberland, or for continuing through the Lotchberg Base Tunnel and on to the world-famous resort of Zermatt, which sits under the iconic Matterhorn.
  • Swiss trains — Swiss trains are famous for good reason, and this needs no introduction — see our Zürich and Bern pages for more information.
  • Neuchâtel — the lake and city of Neuchâtel are one of the most underrated places to visit in the Swiss Lowlands — the view from the city across the lake with the Alps behind is superb. Take the train from Basel to Moutier, then to the bilingual city of Biel / Bienne via Sonceboz, and then towards Geneva via Neuchâtel, and you can enjoy outstanding scenery for virtually the whole journey.
  • Vitra — whether you are appreciative of good design or great architecture, the Vitra design Museum, designed by deconstructivist architect Zaha Hadid, is in nearby Weil-am-Rhein (Germany).

Conclusion– if you started with the natural assumption that there would be no point in hiring a car in Basel, then there are plenty of reasons to think again. Whereas it should be categorically clear that a hire car in either Zürich or Bern is a bad idea, it is much less clear-cut in Basel. Therefore, relative to Swiss expectations, a hire car is certainly worth looking at.

Verdict — yes

Note — Basel airport has one terminal building with separate arrivals areas for France on the left and Switzerland on the right. The airport is surrounded by French territory, except for the access road from the Swiss side which goes straight into the city of Basel. You can pick up a hire car or on either side, and should usually expect to pay around 15% more to pick up a Swiss hire car instead of a French one.