Unless you travel frequently around the country or across the globe, you might not realize how much time, money and sanity you can save by taking a little extra time to rent a car instead of hiring an Uber or Lyft. Unless you’re traveling through Europe (which has arguably the best cross-country public transportation system in the world), you probably don’t even need to think about it – just rent a car. If you find that you don’t need the car, you can usually return it early without any penalty as long as you didn’t opt to prepay through a third party (and if you did, stop that already). At a minimum, have a car reserved before you go since it costs and risks nothing up front.
Why you should rent:
- Freedom – Not having to constantly think about how you’re going to get around and experience a place, and fret about at what cost.
- Cost – You will probably save money. Yes, you read that right… renting a car quite often SAVES you quite a bit of money if you’ll need to drive somewhere 3 or more times on any given trip. Weekends are often absurdly cheap, allowing you to rent a vehicle for less than $10 per day. Even at the usual loaded rental price of around $30 per day, you’ll still come out ahead as the average Uber/Lyft fare is around $15 for a one way trip. Now think about that math for a second and let the savings sink in…
- Time – Most locations take more traveling and more time than we realize, so unless there’s a fantastic rail service (Europe is pretty much alone here) a car will simply let you do more in less time.
- Flexibility – As a photographer, a vehicle is an incredible creative tool. Many of the best shots I take occur on the side of random roads I stop off at between locations. Having a place to stow and safely hide your gear decreases the risk of theft and increases your creative flexibility and enjoyment of the locations you visit.
Reasons NOT to rent a car:
- Some countries are notorious for their rental scams that will ruin your trip enjoyment and budget before it even begins. Avoid renting a car if at all possible in Mexico.
- Anxiety of driving in an unfamiliar country where you likely don’t speak the language. I find this to be really just the usual human fear of the unknown. So long as you take your time, don’t get into too much of a hurry, and stay out of major city centers, you’ll be fine. You can always purchase insurance and use reputable international dealers like SIXT to help ease the anxiety further, without compromising your travel freedom, or budget.
- You plan to stay in the city center near other modes of transit.
- You are only visiting for 1-2 days.
For quick travels in/around city centers, Uber and Lyft are certainly great options, but for traveling over the course of three or more days, it really makes sense to plan ahead enough to rent a car since and get significantly more bang-for-your buck on your trip.
Even last minute, sites like Kayak, Hotwire, Enterprise and Priceline frequently run great discounted weekend and weekly vehicle rates worth checking out. These deals regularly popup last minute when, presumably, car rental inventory is high (for rental car companies, the goal is to have as many cars on the road as possible at all times).