🚗✨ When deciding whether renting a car is genuinely worthwhile in a particular country, we evaluate five key criteria. Taken together, these scores help travellers understand how practical, how enjoyable, and how cost-effective hiring a car will actually be. Although every category matters in its own way, the overall score reflects the combined experience of driving in that destination.

🔑 1. Availability & Cost of Car Hire

To begin with, we look at how easy it is to rent a car and how much it generally costs. This includes several intertwined factors:

💰 Average rental prices, including taxes and insurance
🔍 Low-season deals, especially for compact cars
🏷️ Availability in resorts and city centres, not just airports
⚡ Electric vehicle options, where relevant
🧳 Seasonal shortages or inflated prices
🚗 Self-drive vs driver-only rental
- If tourists can only hire a car with a driver, the score is significantly lower

Because of these considerations, destinations where cars are plentiful and affordable — such as Spain or Portugal — will naturally score near the top. Conversely, places where rental cars are scarce or tightly controlled score lower.

⛽🛣️ 2. Fuel Costs & Road Tolls

Next, we assess running costs, which matter just as much as rental pricing itself. Here we consider:

⛽ Fuel price per litre
💸 Cost of road tolls, tunnels and bridges
📏 Typical distances driven by visitors
🏝️ The small-island effect (fuel might be expensive, but daily driving distances are minimal)
🚘 Motorway toll frequency and whether alternatives exist

In other words, a country where fuel is pricey might still score reasonably well if visitors only drive short distances. On the other hand, a large country with long motorway sections and expensive tolls will see its score fall. Caribbean islands such as Antigua, St. Lucia, or Barbados can hit visiting drivers with a treble whammy of expensive car rental, the requirement to purchase a local license, and high fuel costs relative to the USA or Canada, but they are all small enough to drive around in just one day, so the overall fuel costs of a typical car rental are minimal.

🛣️💡 3. Road Quality & Congestion

We also examine the overall condition of the roads and how traffic behaves in day-to-day travel.

This includes:

🧱 Road surface quality and maintenance
💡 Lighting and visibility
🏙️ Congestion levels, especially in major cities
🏖️ Whether traffic is significantly lighter in resort areas
🌦️ Impacts of weather (flooding, snow, landslides)
🛤️ Quality of signage and junction design

And of course, countries with famous scenic drives or classic road-trip routes — such as France for coastal highways, Austria and Switzerland for dramatic Alpine passes, Namibia for vast desert routes, and several regions of the USA for volcanic landscapes — also score more highly for the sheer enjoyment of driving. 🌄🚗✨

For example, Mexico City can be heavily congested, but roads around Cancun are much easier to navigate — and therefore score more favourably.

🚨 4. Road Safety

Safety plays a crucial role in assessing the value of renting a car. Here we consider:

📊 National accident statistics
🛑 Enforcement of traffic laws
🚗 Typical driver behaviour
👮‍♂️ Road policing and camera systems
🚫 Prevalence of speeding, drunk driving or phone use
🌙 After-dark road safety
🆘 Availability of roadside support

Countries with strong enforcement and disciplined driving score highly — for example the Netherlands, Spain, the UK, and the Nordic countries such as Norway, Sweden, and Finland — whereas those with chaotic or dangerous road environments, including much of Africa; India, and China, naturally score lower. 🚨🌍💛

🅿️🚗 5. Ease & Cost of Parking

Finally, we assess how easy it is to park, both in cities and in popular tourist regions. We look at:

🅿️ Availability of spaces
🏢 Access to parking garages
💸 Cost of parking
🚗 Street parking restrictions
🔄 Turnover in busy areas
🚶‍♂️ Walking distance from parking to key sights

Crucially, predictability matters more than price.
A city with plentiful paid garages scores far better than a place where parking is technically free but impossible to find.

🧭✨ How the Overall Score Comes Together

When all five factors are combined, we can determine:

Is renting a car in this country genuinely worth it for a typical visitor? 🚗🌍

High overall score → renting offers excellent value and convenience
Mid score → renting is useful in some regions, optional in others
Low score → renting is not recommended or offers poor value

Examples:

🇪🇸 Spain → excellent availability, great roads, low cost → 10/10
🇭🇰 Hong Kong → almost no rental cars → 0/10
🇨🇦 Canada → great for long-distance travel → 9/10
🇭🇷 Croatia → scenic, good value → 8/10

How We Score: “Is It Worth Hiring a Car?”