AI now produces an ever-increasing part of the travel content people read online. Whenever you search something like “Do I need a car in Australia?” or “Should we rent a car in Canada?”, you often land on an article shaped by a generic template. As a result, many pages sound polished but predictable, ending with the same conclusion:
👉 “Yes, you should rent a car.”
Travel, of course, is not that uniform. Because of this, travellers need balanced information that reflects genuine differences between destinations. Below is an explanation of why online advice leans so heavily toward car hire — and how we approach it in a more honest, practical, and genuinely useful way.
Why Standard Travel Advice Favours Car Hire 🚙➡️
1. AI Learns From Car-Centric Travel Writing
Much of the internet’s historic travel content treats driving as the default. Consequently, AI absorbs those patterns and repeats them. This is why guides to places as varied as Florida, Provence, the Algarve, or Türkiye often end up sounding remarkably alike.
2. Many Bloggers Become Locals — And Start Thinking Like Locals 🌴
A lot of travel bloggers move to the places they fall in love with. Once they settle in, they usually buy a car, whether they live on the Croatian coast, in southern France, or in the Riviera Maya (Cancun). Naturally, their daily routines become car-dependent.
However, renting a car as a visitor is not the same as owning one as a resident. Visitors must deal with deposits, insurance conditions, unfamiliar rules, limited parking, and tight return schedules. These issues often fade from local memory, so they receive far less attention in blogs.
3. Travellers Bring Their Own Driving Bias ✈️🚘
Many tourists come from countries where driving is the default for everyday life. As a result, they assume a car will also be essential abroad. Yet destinations differ dramatically. Driving can be essential in large, spread-out regions of the USA, but it is unnecessary — and often stressful — in dense cities like New York, Istanbul, Lyon, or central Mexico City.
4. Commission Influences Recommendations 💰
Large travel platforms earn commission from car-hire bookings, but rarely from buses, trams, ferries, or metro systems. Although the content may appear neutral, the underlying economics can quietly influence the advice. This inevitably introduces a tilt toward driving.
5. AI Templates Misrepresent “Safety”
Many AI-generated guides frame car hire as the “safe” option. Yet this is based on an outdated assumption that public transport carries a higher social-safety risk. That perception is often overstated. Meanwhile, the very real risks of driving in unfamiliar environments — including different road laws, unexpected layouts, narrow historic streets, busy multi-lane highways, and fatigue from long holiday days — are frequently understated.
Because templates avoid nuance, they promote a version of “safety” that doesn’t match reality.
How We Use AI Differently 🧭✨
AI becomes powerful only when used intentionally. Rather than asking it to produce generic articles, we use it to research specifics such as:
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metro and tram coverage
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ferry links between islands
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cost comparisons for taxis vs car hire
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neighbourhood-to-neighbourhood travel times
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parking restrictions in city centres
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toll routes and one-way fees
Once the information is gathered, we add the crucial human element. Our advice reflects lived experience, realistic travel behaviour, and the real trade-offs that travellers face.
Balanced, Not Biased: When a Car Helps — And When It Doesn’t ⚖️
Some places benefit from having a car, especially rural areas with limited public transport.
However, many destinations are far easier without one. Travellers rarely need a car in Nice, Honolulu, Madeira’s main towns, Hong Kong, Zürich or Cartagena — a destination becoming increasingly popular among Spanish and American visitors.
Our aim is straightforward:
👉 We provide a genuinely neutral assessment and recommend not hiring a car whenever that reflects the actual experience.
If every location ends with the same answer, the advice loses value.
The Bottom Line: AI Should Help You Travel Smarter 🚉🌅
Choosing whether to hire a car depends on your itinerary, parking availability, confidence driving abroad, and the strength of local transport. Because no two destinations are identical, a one-size-fits-all answer simply doesn’t work.
By challenging AI-driven assumptions, correcting outdated safety narratives, and combining research with lived understanding, we offer the kind of travel advice the internet has been missing — fair, practical, and shaped around your trip, not just a predictable template.