Considering car rental

There's more to it than you think

U.S. citizens love their cars. It makes some sense in a nation so huge.

That's not necessarily the case when you travel internationally. Although I'm a car owner and driver at home, I avoid renting cars when we travel, unless it's critically needed.

The reasons why I avoid car rental are threefold.

First, car rental is costly. We spent $250 each day on a car we recently rented in France, even though we got an economy hybrid vehicle, stayed within the mileage allowance, got and returned the vehicle from the same location in the same country, etc.

Second, car rental is complicated. You usually need an international driver's license (about $20 per driver), plus you need to learn a whole new set of traffic laws, traffic sign symbols/vocabulary and so on.

Third, car rental is stressful. By not renting a car, I argue less with my spouse about where we're going, whether we're taking the right route and how much time we're losing on snack and bathroom breaks.

There are just a couple times that car rental makes sense.

• when your group has so many travelers that the daily car rental expense is considerably lower than the daily train or bus expense\

• when there's no public transportation to the places you're going (this was exactly the case when we went to Germany and France in 2022)

Even in these situations, you can expect far fewer fuel stations; your credit card may not work in the fuel stations that you happen to eventually find; and parking is a concern in most cities that are mid-size or larger.

My counsel is generally to use public transportation instead.