One of the best ways to experience a new country is by car, allowing you to go wherever you want and at your own pace. But driving in a foreign country with different road rules can be challenging, and in some countries is more intimidating than in others. Driver’s Ed company Zutobi carried out a study to determine the best and worst countries to drive in as a tourist. The results of the research are published in the “Foreign drivers report,” released by the company at the end of January, 2022. To find out worst and best countries, Zutobi has analyzed a number of countries around the world on the following factors:
- The amount of congestion
- Safety
- Road quality
- Cost of car rentals
- Cost of fuel
- Parking
- Attractions
- “Instagrammability”
- Number of Google searches
As for the best countries, in first place there is the United States (overall score 7.17), followed by Italy (6.38) and Spain (6.34). The United States is the highest-scoring nation when it comes to interest in road trips. Additionally, the U.S. was also the country with the lowest average congestion. Italy scored highly for the quality and safety of its roads, a cheap average hire car cost and also thanks to the high number of attractions per person. Similarly, Spain has low congestion, safe roads, and cheap rental cars.
These three countries are followed by Portugal, Slovenia, the UK, Switzerland, and France. Other countries with high scores include Singapore, thanks to its high safety and road quality; Malaysia for its advantageous fuel price; Slovakia for its low car hire cost; and Lithuania for parking.
As for the worst countries, Israel was ranked the worst one (3.84) due to congestion, the average cost of fuel, and the low number of attractions. The second worst country is Colombia (3.86) because of congestion, expensive car rentals, and lack of instagrammability. The third worst country is Brazil, with a score of 4.14, followed by Peru, Romania, Argentina, Hungary, Mexico, Chile, and Russia.
