CAR HIRE ABROAD

Thinking of booking a package holiday? Or perhaps you've already booked one and the date is drawing near. Either way, you probably just want to get there, collapse on the nearest sun lounger and relax

Which is fine for the first few days. Maybe even for the first week. But if you're lucky enough to have a bit longer at your chosen destination, then your hotel's four walls will probably be getting a bit familiar by the time you reach the second week. Your tour operator will have anticipated this of course and will try to dilute the boredom by arranging a series of excursions. You'll be herded on and off a stuffy bus and taken to all the same commercialised tourist spots everyone else goes to. Then, just as you've finally found something that's worth seeing, you'll be herded back on the bus so everyone else can get back.

Doesn't sound too appealing when you put it like that does it? But this is the kind of holiday existence that thousands of British package tourists put up with around the world each year. One step up from a school trip. To inject a welcome element of freedom into your holiday, the obvious answer is to hire a car. But thousands of us don't due to prejudices that range from expectations of high expense to a fear of driving on unfamiliar roads. Years ago perhaps, those kinds of concerns might have been justified. Smaller islands and popular package destinations were ruled by groups of operators who kept hire prices high. Moreover the roads - and road users in some places - were primitive enough to scare the most adventurous of tourists.



It isn't like that anymore. Where previously, smaller destinations only offered a couple of rental companies you could use, now the choice can be bewildering and where previously, you had to use one of the huge multi-national operators when booking in advance, there's now increasing competition from a number of low-price organisations who'll provide exactly the same service for significantly less.



As for the dr...