What is the best way to travel? Is renting and driving your own car better than public transportation? Or is taking trains, buses and taxis more convenient?
Every destination will have to be considered individually when making the decision about the best way to travel.
We almost always choose to rent a car.
Pros of renting a car
Freedom
Go when and where you want. You don’t have to be on any timetable or schedule. We love being able to stay late or leave early. Stopping at anything that catches your eye makes your vacation that much more memorable. Some of our favorite memories have been at places we never read about prior to seeing it.
I’ve looked into expensive tours and while they might show 1 sight we want to see, I hate being locked into seeing the other on the agenda that I’m not interested in.
Being able to stay longer at sights that interest us and leave earlier on sights that don’t is critical to our enjoyment.
When we got to the Cliffs of Moher, we were so enamored that we wanted to hike 3 miles out to the end of the cliffs. It took us 2 1/2 hours. We never would’ve been able to to that if we took a tour.
On the other hand, we were able to fit in an amazing hike in
Flexibility
As the name of this blog implies we make up a lot of our plans as we go. We like to drive further if we have the energy or call it a night if we don’t. Having a car gives us the chance to change our plans at a moments notice.
Cost
In some
Having to book a tour to see sights can be expensive and then you are locked into the tour’s itinerary.
Privacy and Personal Space
Especially when we travel with kids, we know they need some ‘downtime’. Time in the car they don’t have to be quiet or still, like in museums or restaurants. When they can rest, listen to music or a book, be silly and loud or play on screens.
Our kids get to rejuvenate in a rental car and we still get to see the sights around us as we drive through the countryside or city.
Taking the Road Less Traveled
Using public transportation means you have to stick with in the central location and the stops they have in place. Driving a car allows for going on backroads, finding hidden gems and getting away from the crowd.
Beating the Masses
Our kids tend to be awake early. Having our own car, we leave early and are the first one at the most popular sights. We don’t have the problem of being with all of the crowds.
We also like to be the last ones at certain tourist sights. When most of the tour groups have already ended we get the place to ourselves and leave in our own car when we are done.
Save your Legs
Potentially, driving a car can be less walking. If you are able to park closer than the train or bus stops, you will save time and energy getting to your destinations.
In Rome, we stayed with friends in the suburb and dropped off our rental car the first day. Walking back from the train station at the end of our long day took 30 mins. It was exhausting. I sure wished we could’ve pulled into the driveway with our car!
Pros of Public Transportation
Cost
I know I listed this in the car pros, but based on the location and how far you plan on travelling, public transportation might save you tons of money.
When you drive a car you incur fees with parking, tolls, tickets, overnight parking fees and gas. We spent $500 in Italy just on tickets we incurred from driving in restricted zones.
Our family of 5 spent 5 days in Hong Kong, riding multiple subways and only spent $88.
Big City Ease
Most big cities have a fantastic network of trains, subways and buses to get you anywhere you want to go. If you plan on staying in the city, this is most likely your best option.
Our trip in Hong Kong was much easier to navigate with the simple train system rather than driving through the crazy, crowded city.
One-way trips
Riding public transportation might make it easier if you want to go one-way. One-way car rental fees can be pricey. Plus, if you park and go somewhere you always have to come back to the car instead of finding the closest train stop.
Taking in the Scenery
While navigating train stations and routes can be stressful, driving a car is too. Once on a train you can relax and look out the windows to fully enjoy the scenery and area.
To Ride or Drive? What is the best way to travel?
We always get a car while touring America. The public transportation here isn’t well developed. Most of what we want to see in America isn’t inside major cities. It’s usually easy and cheap to get a car. Our only exception to this was in downtown New York and once in Washington DC.
In Europe, we usually drive a car. Through Italy, Germany, France, England, and Ireland we drove a car. We did use public transportation inside Munich, Paris, London, and Rome.
We opted for
Read critical tips for driving in Italy and driving of the ‘wrong’ side of the road (like in Ireland).
What do you think is the best way to travel? What benefits do you love when driving a car? What is the best part about using public transportation?
Fly by the Seat of our Pants contains affiliate links. When you buy through the links it helps keep this website running, at no extra cost to you.
3 Comments
Other pros for public transit (even out of the big cities): reduced environmental impact, not having to drive (I really don’t like driving), chatting with locals, and being forced to move at a slower pace / you have time to see more out the window along the way.
How do you find your rental cars? We reserved one through Costco travel that ended up being a total mess—they gave us a smallish SUV because they were out of minivans. Virtually no cargo space when the 3rd row is up. We tried and tried, but they totally refused to give us anything bigger without charging a lot more money, saying this also seated 7 and it was late at night so we finally just made it work. Thankfully we pack light but 6 people for 8 days need some space! Then we found out the next day our credit card number was stolen and subsequently cancelled and we had another mess because they didn’t think we paid, but our statement showed we had! Avis has been on the bad list ever since, but I guess I should have known that since the Costco reservations don’t take any money and don’t require a cancellation it was not super reliable.
yikes! That sounds like a travel nightmare. We have gotten small cars before, but we always try to pack light. Sometime we use the kids under leg area for storage. It can be tricky, but my husband is a tetris professional.