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Off on a road trip, well it’ll cost you because it’s getting car hire and higher out there.

And nowhere more so than my spiritual home Ireland where in some counties they’re a must.

My old mum would oft refer to her homestead of Donegal in north-west Ireland as the ‘forgotten county’.

And it didn’t help when they ripped up the rail tracks in 1959.

Donegal driving

So now if you want to get about you need to either have a car, rent a car…

Or your hotel or B&B can get Eileen to ask Aoife who knows Niamh is passing and can get you halfway.

Where Bladhana can get you to Sorcha, but make sure you’re ready or they’ll leave without you.

By the end of it all, of course, you’ll feel one of the family.

Of course, many of us prefer our independence, but alas that comes at an increasingly greater price.

With DiscoverCars.com revealing the average cost of hiring a car in 2022 rose by 267% on the previous year.

Their data highlights an average increase of 47% worldwide.

With the average cost of a one-day car hire rising from £43 to £67.

So to get on the road in Ireland you’ll shell out £155 (yes, we know they’re in the Euro), up from £42.

Now we would never let a small thing like expense put us off a destination… we’re just giving you the road manual.

On the road again

Obrigado: With the Scary One in Portugal Centro

The world’s second biggest country takes some getting around.

And that no doubt is the spiel for a spike of 264%.

Full reveal here on the third biggest mover here, Portugal-Azore Islands.

Because when we toured Hidden Portugal, Portugal Centro, we had the services of a driver/guide/historian and Coimbra’s most famous son.

Jose Madomis of Madomis Tours.

Now we’ve availed too of the services of our own fellow Britons, ninth with an 85% rise, but still cheaper than the trains.

With Katarina in Bohemian Switzerland in the Czech Republic

The Czech Republic, fifth at 131% but again with a history lesson thrown in… and Becherovka and salty age-defying water.

While Greece is tenth at 81% which may persuade you to do a Pheidippides and run the 26 miles or so from Athens to Marathon.

There’s no rhyme nor reason why the other countries on the list should have seen such hikes.

But Israel, Iceland and Albania are countries where you need wheels because donkeys correctly have rights now.

Slowly does it

Of course with everything on the rise sometimes the best we can hope for are small increases.

And the Canary Islands at just 2% leads the way here.

Though if you do hire a car (at only £25 the cheapest on the list) then why not walk some of the way.

With CanariaWays where you’ll experience the many Tenerife eco-systems before refuelling at the Franco-theme Bar in Afur.

Fly drive

Now for many of us getting behind the wheel of a car in a foreign country requires a deep breath.

And my only attempt, in a Fiat 500 in Cannes, and it’s dashboard gearstick, never got out of the car park.

Although I kept that quiet from the organisers of the Florida Keys road trip.

Alas, but fortunately for other road users, it got cancelled by Covid.

Cut-price cars

Rocky mountain high: Colorado Rockies baseball team

Unbowed, I’ll be back though to the Sunshine State and you will too particularly with a 23% decrease in the hire of a car.

Bookended in the top four is America’s Playground, Colorado.

That’s when you’re not roped into their abseiling, freestyle rock climbing, white water rafting or roadside skiing.

Who is squeezed in between the two, why Guadeloupe and Australia… let’s go Outback.

And let’s not be put off when we see the car hire and higher.

It’s a breath of Swiss air to see that things are still running like clockwork in Switzerland despite Covid.

And that our friends in Tobleroneland are working feverishly to get us back to the mountains and valleys again.

No such problems for Swiss cows, of course, who have been jangling their way through the last year, as ever they did.

With the summer promising to bring continental travel again we’ll all be taking to the Great Outdoors to free our spirit.

And where better than Switzerland where you can social distance to your heart’s content and choose who you mix with…

I say the cows.

The cows were my daily (and dairy) companions on my journey around Interlaken and its environs.

They were everywhere even on the balcony of our hotel.

And in pictures on the noticeboard where there were reminders of my own Scary One back home… no, I’m not making it up.

All of which mooanderings around the subject brings me back to what’s happening in Switzerland in advance of our return.

E-bike in the E-Alps

I’d be safer on these (probably) than the Trotti scooters favoured in woodland and the open road.

You can cross Switzerland in one week from north-east to south-west on la route verte, or the green tour.

And run into some Swiss cows on the mountain paths.

And literally too if you overdo it on your stop-offs to meet the various different winegrowers on the way.

You’ll meet friendly farmers too and some country folk only too happy to show you their strange musical instruments.

The tour is 470km long and starts in the German-speaking city of Schaffhausen, and passes through six Swiss Nature Parks, finally ending up in French Geneva.

A good walk

And a hike in the hills is nothing to the Swiss, young and septegenarian young alike, such as yodeller Brigitte who had us eating dust on the way up the peaks.

It wouldn’t surprise me if the Via Francigena was just a weekend stroll to a woman of Brigitte’s phenomenal energies.

As every Bandanino or Bandanette knows from reading these posts over the last couple of years in the year 990 Sigeric, the Archbishop of Rome began the Via Francigena tradition.

Sigeric had returned to England from Rome crossing Switzerland via the Jura and the Alps.

I nibbled into the route from Viterbo in Lazio into the Eternal City, but my 100km feel quite paltry comparative to Sigeric’s labours.

I say 100km, but wanderer that I am I went off-piste and swore I saw some snow-capped mountains in the distance.

I did get back on track eventually and lived (just) to tell my own Francigena tale.

Swissstainable

Let the train take the strain

Now you’re durable Swiss is used to staying in huts as they traverse the peaks but you’ll be wanting something a bit plusher, I suspect.

The way of it these days is to go eco so why not try out a Whitepod eco-luxury hotel in Valais?

Saving water, recycling waste and purchasing locally is all part of the strategy to keep their environmental impact as low as possible.

The quirky shape of the pods has not only been an aesthetic choice but also a resource and energy saving one.

Driving Miss Swissy

The only way is up: The Jungfraujoch

Swiss trains run like something that you would find on a time dial.

And I’m reminded of the Twentysomething whom I shared control of the train going up the Junfraujoch railway, the highest in Europe.

She did cope rather better with that task than riding the gondola, though let’s put that down to the Swiss beer Hell.

It’s actually heaven unless you drink too much of it watching the football.

Swiss Air

Hitting the heights: Swiss Air

There’s probably never a dull day when you’re a Swiss Air pilot flying over the Alps and the lakes and valleys.

And it’s livery is instantly recognisable with its simple, clean and brillaint whtie and white cross on a red background on the tail.

These too-good-to-be-true Swiss are only helping to save the planet too, with our help.

Swiss International Airl Lines is offering its customers the chance to to offset their flights’ C02 emissions.

By donating to climate protection projects and purchasing alternative fuels.

It wil help customers to take resposibility for their actions and contribute to a more sustainable aviation industry.

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Car hire and higher