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A new study has found that the cost of a week’s car hire can vary by hundreds of pounds

Drivers hiring a car abroad could be paying far more than they need to if they don’t do their due diligence before booking. A new study has found that the cost of a week’s car hire can vary by hundreds of pounds depending on which rental company customers choose.

The biggest difference was uncovered in Dubrovnik, where a medium compact car – such as a Volkswagen Golf or Ford Focus – cost as little as £261 with one provider but £871 with another. That is a £610 difference, meaning the most expensive deal was 234% more than the cheapest.

The research, by iCarhireinsurance.com, compared prices from Avis, Budget, Enterprise, Europcar, Hertz and Sixt for the period from July 25 to August 1, 2026. It looked at seven popular holiday destinations, including Dubrovnik in Croatia, Faro in Portugal, Milan, Nice, Crete, Barcelona and Dalaman in Turkey.

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Destination – Cheapest – Most expensive – Difference

Dubrovnik – £261 – £871 – £610

Faro – £390 – £796 – £406

Milan – £373 – £547 – £174

Dalaman – £337 – £487 – £150

Nice – £301 – £401 – £100

Crete – £344 – £423 – £79

Barcelona – £257 – £315 – £58

Faro had the second biggest gap, with prices ranging from £390 to £796 – a difference of £406. In Milan, the difference was £174, with prices ranging from £373 to £547, while in Dalaman there was a £150 gap between £337 and £487.

Even in Nice, where the difference was smaller, holidaymakers could save £100 by choosing the cheapest deal rather than the most expensive. Across all seven destinations, the average cheapest price was £323, compared with an average highest price of £549 – a difference of £226, or around 70%.

But the rental price is not the only cost holidaymakers need to watch. The study found that common extras could add another £391 to the bill if customers bought them all.

An additional driver cost £68 on average for a week, while a sat nav added an average of £76. A week’s super damage waiver excess protection cost an average of £196, while separate tyre and windscreen excess cover added another £51.

The excess is the amount a driver could be liable to pay if a hire car is damaged or stolen. In the study, the average excess was more than £1,600.

Holidaymakers are therefore being urged to look beyond the initial headline price when comparing car hire deals and check exactly what is included. Ben Wooltorton, of iCarhireinsurance.com, said: “It can be easy to assume that car hire prices will be broadly similar, but our research shows just how much they can vary between rental companies.

“Taking a few minutes to compare prices before booking could save a significant amount. It’s also important to look beyond the headline rental price. Extras can quickly add to the cost, and one easy saving is buying a standalone excess reimbursement policy in advance from a specialist provider.”

A standalone excess reimbursement policy from iCarhireinsurance.com costs from £33.15 for an eight-day European trip, according to the company, while an annual European policy starts from £41.99 for eligible customers.

The research was based on quotes for a medium compact car, such as a VW Golf or Ford Focus, from six major rental companies across the seven destinations.

UK motorists would rather take a scenic UK drive than the fastest option for a staycation road trip – with 52% saying beautiful scenery was important when planning a long drive.

Three quarters of motorists would prefer to take the scenic route rather than the quickest option for a staycation. A poll of 2,000 drivers revealed that beautiful scenery (52%) was a key consideration when planning a long drive – with the average motorist willing to add 41 minutes to their journey for a more impressive view.

Four in ten find a road trip ‘boring’ as it typically involves motorways and staring at the back of a lorry – with the M25 voted the most tedious road to drive on. However, 21% admitted they wouldn’t know how to find a more scenic route, while 57% rarely or only sometimes have enough time to plan one before heading off.

A further 49% confess they rely too heavily on their sat nav, meaning they seldom discover new or picturesque routes by chance.

The study, commissioned by temporary car insurance provider Tempcover, revealed that when taking a scenic route, 37% found it took a similar amount of time to a motorway journey, while 25% said it actually took less – thanks to avoiding traffic and congestion.

Adam Craddock, temporary car insurance expert for the brand, said: “With the UK staycation market seeing strong demand this summer, we wanted to give motorists the best of both worlds.

“Motorways are essential for efficient travel, but we also want to give holidaymakers an easier way to discover stunning scenic detours alongside their usual routes.

“The UK possesses world-class landscapes that genuinely rival top global destinations – from the spectacular vistas of the Scottish Highlands to the serene beauty of the Lake District – and our new interactive tool is designed to unlock them all.”

Discover an alternative scenic route by entering your start and end UK postcodes with this new online tool.

The research revealed scenic views are the source of many arguments in the car, with 13% accusing passengers of ‘hogging the best views’ – leaving 70% of drivers feeling that passengers are the only ones who get to enjoy it.

Despite 41% citing stop-offs as essential during a long car journey, 31% rarely or never do this – with the Angel of the North (33%) and Yorkshire Dales (22%) among places travellers have never stopped to visit.

However, the country’s beauty doesn’t go unnoticed as 34% believed the Scottish Highlands rivals the Norwegian Fjords, while 24% compared Cornwall to the Amalfi Coast.

Kaiser Chiefs frontman and musician, Ricky Wilson who regularly travels across the country for festivals and gigs, contributed his own top spots to the tool.

He said: “As a band we’ve driven thousands of miles this year alone, and after recently hitting the milestone of 1,500 live shows, you realise how much of the country you miss by sticking rigidly to the sat nav.

“Some of our best moments on tour – like all of us jumping out of the bus to check out Stonehenge – only happened because we took a scenic detour.

“Now with four-year-old twins, pit stops are non-negotiable, and swapping grey motorway service stations for incredible scenic spots is a game-changer.

“We’ve had some legendary detours over the years, and taking the scenic route turns a boring drive into pa rt of the holiday. “

The countryside (68%) and beach and coastal routes (63%) were amongst the most enjoyable scenery to take in while driving, according to those surveyed via OnePoll.com.

The typical driver is comfortable going 113 minutes before requiring a break – however, 41% would never split driving responsibilities as 47% prefer being behind the wheel. But 27% would refuse to hand over the keys because of insurance reasons, while 15% claimed adding an extra driver to their annual policy is too much hassle.

Adam Craddock at Tempcover added: “A great trip should start the moment you get into the car, not just when you reach the destination.

“It’s all about making the most of the journey together and sharing the adventure every mile of the way. The right cover gives drivers the flexibility to share the wheel and we are all about removing the hassle with temporary comprehensive cover in minutes – making it easy to share the drive and swap over so one person doesn’t hog all the views.”

A couple converted an £8k van during the pandemic, despite having no experience, and since then have swapped exotic trips abroad for staycations to some very unusual UK locations

A “battered” carpenter’s van that cost £8,000 changed the course of one couple’s lives after they turned it into a home on wheels.

Andy and Claire Stocks, also known as St Christopher of Atlantis to more than 45,000 followers on YouTube, have swapped foreign holidays for staycations in their van, sharing their adventures across the UK’s underrated spots with their fans.

The Barnsley couple fell into van life accidentally, taking on the task of turning a van into a motorhome after their Mercedes broke down during the pandemic and they were unable to get parts. “It started to get this intermittent fault on the dashboard and I didn’t really want to part with the car, but it got worse and worse, and it was coming up more and more,” Andy explained.

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“I was a little bit annoyed at it. So, I decided to buy a van instead. I just kind of threw the teddy out of the pram because the car that I liked, I couldn’t have.”

But that van ended up being life-changing for the couple. They swapped exotic jaunts to hotels and Airbnbs in the Far East and Central America for simpler staycations, and have now semi-retired to spend more time on the road and focus on their YouTube channel.

The couple has also turned their adventures into a book: It Started with a Van, due to be released in paperback on July 16. The story begins with them finding a van and deciding to give vanlife a go, with Andy noting he had no experience and “an unrealistic amount of confidence” when he took on the project.

Andy admitted that the start of the project had its hitches. “The first job that I had to do – there’s a bulkhead that separates the cab from the back to stop things flying into the cabin. So, I had to remove that. I thought that was going to be a really easy job. And I started taking the bolts out, and they were all good apart from one bolt, and that took me two weeks to actually get rid of. So it kind of set the tone for everything else that followed.”

While they learned some skills from YouTube and a book on conversions, the couple went into the project blind, doing jobs after work in the winter whenever they had enough light.

In addition to the initial cost of £8,000 for the van, the couple spent a “few thousand” on the renovations, although they haven’t worked out the true amount. Andy joked: “I might be in trouble with her if I did.”

Their first trip in the van was to Conwy in Wales, and it took place with the build half-done. The couple admitted it was less glamorous than many vanlife influencers would have you believe.

“I was trying to sell the lifestyle to Claire. What actually happened was we sat in a car park with a sandwich. On the bare floor,” laughed Andy.

As they worked on the van the couple had the idea to put updates on their progress on YouTube. They have since built a base of thousands of subscribers. But at first, the reception wasn’t quite what they expected.

Andy said: “When we put it out on YouTube, I think people thought it was a bit of a joke. Some of the initial comments were, ‘Oh, that was really funny. That was, you know, you made me laugh.’ And actually, that wasn’t your intention at all.

“No, I put my best foot forward thinking this would show people how to build a van, but they thought it was more of a funny sort of parody type thing really.”

However, they persevered and have now cut their work days to three a week to allow them to spend more time in the van and creating YouTube content.

In a typical day, the couple travel to a campsite and create a video tour of the facilities. “A lot of people book campsites off the back of us. We turn up, we set the pitch up, then we grab the cameras, and then we will go and tour the campsite and the surrounding area. And then when we’ve done that, we come back to the motor home and we’re working basically,” Andy said.

“The illusion is that we are out and just on campsites and enjoying ourselves., But we’re editing, we’re dealing with the social media side, the comments. And so it’s like our motor home now, it’s a bit like an office on wheels.”

Despite the success of their build, Andy conceded that if they had to do it all again, he’d “probably get somebody else to build it because I really found out what my limits were.”

After enjoying adventures that took them all the way to Italy through Switzerland, Germany, and Belgium, plus lots of staycations, the couple eventually traded in their carpenter’s van, opting to buy a motorhome instead.

As a couple on the road all the time, Andy and Claire noted that living in tight quarters can lead to annoyances. Their original van had no separate seating area, just a bed, and no built-in toilet, so they had to rely on campsite facilities and stay “mega organised” to cope.

The couple also dealt with breakdowns and an incident where they ended up trapped in a full-blown blizzard. Perhaps most memorable was when they ended up in completely the wrong place.

Andy said: “We did have an occasion where we put in the wrong location into the satnav. I went to the completely incorrect country. It said we should have been somewhere in France. We ended up in Belgium.”

Debunking a common myth, Andy and Claire say they like to support the local economies in places they visit, often highlighting local cafes, bars, and shops on their channel.

And their trip highlights? The Isle of Mull was a favourite of Claire’s as it has “the most wonderful sunset we’ve ever seen”. She recommended a campsite called Fidden Farm and said: “And the beaches truly are white beaches up there”, comparing it to the Maldives.

Andy’s favourite was a little more unusual: “This is a really random place that we would never expect it. We went to Hartlepool Marina and we saw dolphins. It was so beautiful, kind of an industrial location actually, but then you look up and you’re watching the dolphins.Goodness!

“The Northeast is a bit like that. You know, you can be on a beach and you look one way and there’s industry, but then you look the other way and you’ve got wildlife. Everywhere has got something going for it.”

So, will Andy and Claire ever hang up their motorhome keys? The couple said that they’d like to stay on the road for as long as possible. “We are quite young to be motorhomers. The demographic of our channel is a lot of people that are older than us. So, we’ve got all that to go and we’ll do it as long as we enjoy it,” Andy added.

And his advice to anyone thinking of taking on this kind of life? “Just do it now while you can. Just do whatever you want to do. Get out and do it. That’s my advice.”

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