Fewer than many people expect — but they do exist 🚗
Truly essential car-hire destinations tend to fall into a small number of categories: very rural areas, regions with limited or infrequent public transport, and places where key sights are widely spread out with no realistic alternatives.
Examples include remote national parks, sparsely populated countryside, islands with minimal bus services, and parts of the world where walking or cycling isn’t practical due to distance, climate, or road conditions 🌄🌞
However, most major cities — and an increasing number of holiday destinations — are now designed around public transport, walkability, or a mix of options. In these places, renting a car can be unnecessary, inconvenient, or simply poor value.
That’s why Car or No Car treats “car required (10./10)” as the exception rather than the rule. Our goal is to identify the relatively small number of destinations where a car is genuinely essential — and just as importantly, highlight the many places where it isn’t ❌🚗➡️✅🚶♂️
E.g: Phoenix
A standout example of this is Phoenix, which represents the far end of the spectrum. Despite being a very large city, Phoenix is so geographically sprawling that distances between neighbourhoods, attractions, and even basic amenities are often vast. Walking and cycling are rarely practical, and the urban form assumes car use as the default 🚘🌞
While Phoenix does have a light rail system, it covers only a limited corridor and reaches a small fraction of the city. For most visitors — and residents — those lines simply don’t connect the places they actually need to go. Combined with extreme summer heat and infrequent alternatives, even the presence of “some” public transport doesn’t change the outcome. In Phoenix, renting a car isn’t just convenient — it’s effectively essential ✅🔥