Invest The World -- International Travel and Investment

Uruguay trip prep, part 3

One month left, and our trip is coming together nicely. One of the most important decisions when traveling abroad is how, exactly, one intends to get around. How to get around once on the ground is a function of money (how much or little you want to spend), time (ditto) and comfort.

As with many other things in life, of time and money, your average traveler will have much more of one than the other. For example, for the average backpacker or younger traveler, the biggest expense is the flight to reach a destination, and everything thereafter has to be low budget. On the other hand, they often have lots of time, perhaps spending a month or monhts in their location. Therefore, one of the most common backpacker modes of travel, in Central and South America, is the cheap public bus transportation. Often just a few dollars, they're the mode of transportation not just for backpackers but for the locals. The tradeoff, of course, is the time it sometimes takes to use these buses. There are sometimes long waits at the bus station, late buses, and often many, many stops along the way. I recall a man I ran into in Ecuador had reached our mutual destination on a 24 hour bus ride that might have taken a quarter of that in a car. The cost, though, was just a few bucks.

For those of us with much less time, but with a little more of a budget, there may be better ways to travel than some of the buses. In the past, Don and I have used taxis, long-range private drivers and self-driven rental cars, all successfully.

In very small countries (such as St. Kitts), there really was no need to rent a car, given how easily and inexpensively taxis could be hired and could take us everywhere.

In one instance (Ecuador), we worked out a deal with a tour company to have a private driver and SUV for every leg of our trip.

On our last trip, we rented a car and drove all around the Yucatan by ourselves.

For anyone interested in traveling, the latter two modes of travel, though more expensive than the public transport option, both have many things to recommend them.

First, hiring a private driver. We really benefitted from having a private driver take us around Ecuador. First, Don and I both got to simply sit back and watch our surroundings, without having to worry about getting lost, or navigate our way around. We simply told our driver where we wanted to end up for the day, what time we wanted him to show up, and things were that simply. If we saw somewhere we wanted to stop along the way, he pulled over. This made for a relatively stress-free trip.

Also, having a local driver in a foreign country also helped bridge some gaps that we might not have had we driven alone. For example, Fernando, our guide, spoke excellent English, and so acted as our interpreter when needed. In addition, when we had car trouble in a tiny village, he quickly located an automotive repair place (a tiny shack, without signs, that Don and I could never have found nor even known how to ask), and was in other situations also able to explain what was happening around us.

Two of the most obvious downsides of such a mode of transport are the cost (more expensive than a rental often) and also the discomfort one may feel spending days riding around with someone they don't know. In both instances, we were very fortunate. First, our costs in Ecuador were extremely low, and we quite frankly would not have been comfortable enough to go where we went on our on. Second, our driver was a great guy, very intelligent, and fun to be around. Parenthetically, we've found in many emerging economies (Panama is another example) taxi drivers who have college degrees. Our driver always found a hostel to stay at once he reached our destination, so our evenings Don and I had to explore on our own.

Rental cars, though have many of their own obvious benefits. First, they offer more privacy, and second, they offer more flexibility. Although Don and I initially were a bit nervous driving out of Cancun down the Yucatan, the highways were just so good that driving went smoothly. Our car was well kept, gas stations were easy to navigate, and--other than getting a little lost in one or two small towns--we were very comfortable.

The biggest downside we found in the last trip was fatigue. In that trip, we didn't make reservations ahead of time, instead planning to find a hotel once arriving. The problem with that was, when we arrived too tired, I was tempted to take the first place available, which ended up being way more expensive than it should've been.

Don left the travel plans up to me, and I debated which way to go in Uruguay. I liked the idea of having a driver who could double as tour guide and interpreter. Surprisingly, a could find no private drivers listed (though it was clear that I could have, if I wanted, hired a taxi in each location). The general consensus on travel forums was that highways were good, well-maintained and safe, although rentals were not inexpensive.

In the end, we chose to rent a car. Cars went from the very cheap to the very expensive. However, given that we were coming in late spring (think the equivalent of May in the Carolinas), we chose air conditioning. Furthermore, though automatic transmission was more expensive (and not prevalent), I chose that as well. Though we both can drive a stick shift, I decided it was best, when in a foreign locale, to make our driving experience as smooth as possible. Once or twice before I'd rented a manual transmission when traveling abroad, and learned that, when lost in a foreign continent, I tend to pop the clutch more as I get frustrated.

Our car even has been hired with a GPS system, which should also help (even if there's not an English language option).

One thing I've not yet done (and don't care to do) is to navigate a rental car through a large foreign city. Given that our first day and night will be spent in Montevideo, our car rental starts on the second day, and will be picked up just out of town back at the airport.

Remaining to be decided is whether to book out the rest of our nights, or just see what happens when we get there. I've been poring over maps of the countryside, to see if there's anything interesting worth overnighting in the pampas.

Labels: rental cars, Uruguay

posted by Wesley Deaton @ 8:06 PM