Cheapest country for car hire

Leon Della Bosca

4 years ago

Last year I managed to tick a must-do off my wish list: driving on the wrong side of the road.

Sure, I’ve visited a few countries but I’ve always either used public transport, or caught cabs, trains or buses to get around once I hit the ground.

The cost of hiring a car was one consideration when deciding whether or not to drive overseas, as well as trepidation about driving on the opposite side of the road to the one we drive on here.

So, when organising a trip to Canada, and having the opportunity for free car hire, I set myself the challenge of doing a long(ish) drive on the ‘wrong’ side of the road.

Now I can firmly say that flying to a foreign place is only half the fun: hitting the road when you get there is a pleasure too few consider due to the often perceived high cost of car hire – and maybe a bit of fear about driving out of your comfort zone.

UK company ChooseMyCar has attempted to tackle one of those factors, with analysis that reveals the priciest and cheapest countries for car hire.

The results are a little surprising. Not just the countries with the cheapest car hire either, more that the study found car rental prices can increase up to 29 times from cheapest to most expensive.

Eastern Europe is where travellers can drive longest for least, with the cheapest country for car hire being Montenegro. There, you can rent a vehicle for seven days for just $61. You can hire a car in neighbouring Serbia for the same period for just $85, Croatia for $110, Bosnia and Herzegovina for $116 and Guatemala in Central America for just $176.

Greece, Brazil, Lithuania, Bulgaria and Denmark rounded out the 10 cheapest countries in which to hire cars.

The most expensive place to hire a car is in Cambodia, where a week-long rental will cost you $1778, followed by Ghana ($1777), Benin ($1675), Burkina Faso ($1646) and Angola ($1325).

Australia is the 74th most affordable country for car hire, costing an average of $734 for seven days.

Other popular destinations in the rankings were Thailand (16th), Ireland (23nd), Canada (33rd), UK (40th), USA (57th), Japan (67th) and New Zealand (91st).

Have you ever rented a car I any of these countries? Was it affordable? Was it worth it? How did you find driving on the wrong side of the road ?

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